Burn Notice (season 5)

Burn Notice (season 5)
DVD cover art
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	18
Release
Original network	USA Network
Original release	June 23, 2011 – December 15, 2011

The fifth season of the American television spy drama Burn Notice premiered on June 23, 2011 on the cable television channel USA Network. The season concluded after its eighteenth episode on December 15, 2011.

Season overview

Six months after the arrest of Vaughn and the retrieval of the NOC list, Michael has been working with the CIA to capture, imprison, or execute all of the people that worked for the organization that burned him. With only one high-ranking operative remaining, Michael, his boss Raines (Dylan Baker), and partner Max (Grant Show) attempt to extract the final spy, but he commits suicide rather than face the CIA. Having to return to Miami before being reinstated, Michael struggles with civilian life, constantly checking and re-checking inconsistencies in the documents on Management.

In the fourth episode of the season "No Good Deed", Michael and Max work to steal a piece of stolen information and bring it back to the CIA. When Michael shows up to the de-brief, he discovers Max bleeding out on the floor, shot by what is likely the murder weapon beside him. Hearing gunfire, he picks up the weapon and attempts to chase down the murderer, who escapes unidentified. Michael covers his tracks, and the murderer's, before escaping. Michael's suspicions about being framed for the murder are confirmed when Sam discovers a newly opened box of ammunition that matches the murder weapon in the car Michael used to drive to the building. Destroying the weapon, Michael and his team run their own investigation parallel to Agent Dani Pearce (Lauren Stamile), the lead investigator for the CIA.

Tracking them through the imposter used to pose as Michael, they find that an extremely complex bomb was prepared to kill him; the intricacies of the bomb lead them to a Romanian war criminal who created the bomb for an old friend, Tavian Korzha (Andrew Howard). Tracking Korzha to his warehouse they catch a glimpse of him but he escapes. Using data from Korzha's computers they locate the source of his funds, which also allows for them to attempt an ambush, which he anticipates and kidnaps Sam, demanding a meet with Michael. While he insists on only that time and place, Jesse's NSA and FBI connections lock down the island for the meet, forcing him to stay. However, Michael, reentering his loft after a CIA extraction mission, encounters Agent Pearce, who has found proof of a Charger leaving the scene of Max's murder, enough proof to convince her that Michael was the killer, arresting him at gunpoint. Sam and Jesse intercept the CIA convoy, convincing Pearce to let Michael meet Korzha. While wearing a wire, Michael gets Korzha to confess to the frame and murder, but Korzha kills himself to avoid further interrogation. Michael is exonerated and debriefed.

Upon his return, Michael is kidnapped by Larry Sizemore (Tim Matheson), who has also kidnapped DIA psychiatrist Anson Fullerton (Jere Burns). Using Anson as leverage, Larry forces Michael to help him break into a British consulate and steal information. While Michael's team is able to foil Larry's plot and presumably kill him, the explosives used chain-react with a series of others, inadvertently making Fiona responsible for two other deaths. Her confession was recorded by Fullerton, who is revealed as the final member of the organization that burned Michael. He claims that the organization was started by him and Management and their intentions were initially simple: get burned spies to carry out questionable missions that would never get through the red tape at intelligence agencies. Fullerton uses the information on Fiona as leverage, forcing Michael to work under the organization once again.

The reason for Anson's intervention is to assign Michael the task of traveling to Puerto Rico to locate a hacker who had developed a software that will help Anson erase any known information the CIA may have on him and his organization. While Michael does delete the information after obtaining the necessary virus, he tries to find some leverage of his own. The team manage to track Anson to a military-encrypted radio. This leads the team to Benny, Madeline's boyfriend who is also Anson's spy. However Anson is one step ahead and blows up Benny before they can get any useful information. Anson then forces Jesse and Fiona to go to the Cayman Islands and retrieve his money. Through Agent Harris, Sam then manages to get a meeting with the FBI deputy director, planning to take down Anson. But the team needs to use Anson to help Beatriz, which provides Anson the opportunity to stop Sam. He gets the meeting called off and Sam investigated as a possible Russian agent by including him in the report that stopped the Russian spy from murdering Beatriz. This is shortly after Anson reveals to Michael that he had met, and acted as a psychiatrist to Michael's father, and due to his father's suspicions, caused the heart attack that killed Frank Westen.

Through files obtained through a Washington, D.C. law firm, Michael discovers a connection to his one time "handler" Vaughn Anderson, formerly with Anson's organization (and arrested in the Season 4 finale). Through Agent Pearce, Michael arranges a meet with Vaughn in a prison camp, where he discovers the truth behind Fullerton's actions. Michael had hoped that Anson might simply flee the country after wiping out his connections to the organization and retrieving his frozen money. But Vaughn assures Michael: using the infrastructures already in place, Anson is not retiring, but is re-building the organization from the ground up, along with help from the unwilling Michael Westen.

When the CIA allows Michael to run an operation with an authorized team, Anson takes the opportunity to force Michael to burn the team and Pearce to provide a front line of operatives for his new organization. While Fiona is not willing to accept her freedom over theirs, Michael is adamant that the situation can be redeemed without compromising Fiona. When Anson's mole on the team is uncovered by Michael, he quickly improvises a plan to extract their target and instructs Jesse to remove the framing evidence. When Michael returns home from the mission, however, he discovers Fiona has left to turn herself in and remove Anson's leverage over Michael. Michael arrives at the Federal Building just as Fiona is being arrested.

Cast

Main article: List of Burn Notice characters

See also: List of Burn Notice cast members

Main

• Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen
• Gabrielle Anwar as Fiona Glenanne
• Coby Bell as Jesse Porter
• Bruce Campbell as Sam Axe
• Sharon Gless as Madeline Westen

Recurring

• Lauren Stamile as Agent Dani Pearce
• Jere Burns as Anson Fullerton
• Grant Show as Max
• Andrew Howard as Tavian Korzah
• Arturo Rossi as Sugar
• Charlie Weber as Jacob Starky
• Steve Zurk as Benny
• Seth Peterson as Nate Westen
• Dylan Baker as Raines
• Todd Stashwick as Carmelo Dante
• Paul Tei as Barry Burkowski
• Brendan O'Mally as Gabriel Manaro
• David Fickas as Jack Dixon
• Tim Matheson as "Dead" Larry Sizemore
• Ben Watkins as Ricky Watkins
• Ilza Rosario as Beatriz
• Marc Macaulay as Agent Harris
• Robert Wisdom as Vaughn Anderson
• Kristanna Loken as Rebecca Lang

Grant Show appeared as Max, an operative with the CIA, for three episodes. Lauren Stamile appeared in multiple episodes as Dani Pearce, another CIA operative that Michael works with after the death of Max. Matt Lauria portrayed Ethan, a discharged soldier involved with the CIA, in one episode. While the role carried the possibility of recurring, he did not return. Dylan Baker returned as Raines, the previously unnamed man seen in the fourth season finale. Tim Matheson and Todd Stashwick returned as "Dead" Larry Sizemore and Carmelo, while Paul Tei returned as Barry Burkowski, Michael's money-launderer. Seth Peterson appeared as Michael's brother, Nate Westen. Jere Burns appeared in various episodes as Anson Fullerton, the man at the top of the organization that burned Michael. Robert Wisdom returned as Vaughn for one episode, while Ilza Rosario, who portrayed Beatriz in Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe, made one appearance in the series. Other guest stars included The Big Show, Dean Cain, Charisma Carpenter, David Dayan Fisher, James Frain, Kristanna Loken, J. C. MacKenzie, Eric Roberts, and Gavin Rossdale.

Episodes

See also: List of Burn Notice episodes

In the following table, "U.S. viewers in millions" refers to the number of Americans who viewed the episode on the day of original broadcast.

No. in series	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Production code	U.S. viewers (millions)
63	1	"Company Man"	Stephen Surjik	Matt Nix	June 23, 2011 (2011-06-23)	BN501	5.17
Six months after the arrest of Vaughn and the retrieval of the NOC list, Michael has been working with the CIA to capture, imprison, or execute all of the people that worked for the organization that burned him. With only one high-ranking operative remaining, Michael, his boss Raines (Dylan Baker), and partner Max (Grant Show) attempt to extract the final spy, but he commits suicide rather than face Michael and the CIA. Michael is visibly upset, but receives some encouraging words from his mother, and decides to reconstruct his car.
64	2	"Bloodlines"	Colin Bucksey	Alfredo Barrios, Jr.	June 30, 2011 (2011-06-30)	BN502	4.67
Michael works to free a woman being trafficked into the United States by the Yakuza. Michael also does a job assigned to him by Max and uses Fiona's help to complete the task.
65	3	"Mind Games"	Scott Peters	Michael Horowitz	July 7, 2011 (2011-07-07)	BN503	4.88
Michael's brother (Seth Peterson) seeks help in taking down a loan shark (Wade Williams). Carla and Management are mentioned in this episode by Fiona as "Michael's past." She tries to have Michael let go of his "past," but Michael is reluctant to let go of it, having found too many inconsistencies in the files regarding his burn notice.
66	4	"No Good Deed"	Jeremiah S. Chechik	Rashad Raisani & Ben Watkins	July 14, 2011 (2011-07-14)	BN504	5.39
The team searches for a vicious hacker named Eve (Aviva Farber) and her super-computer to clear Barry's brother Paul (John Ross Bowie) of a server heist. Paul and Barry have a tense relationship because Paul plays by the rules and is uncomfortable with the things that Barry does in his business life. The server contains details of the savings of 6000 teachers, and if it is not recovered before the hacker cracks the encryption, they will lose everything. Fiona and Jesse take the lead, while Michael and Max (Grant Show) try (successfully) to break into a shell company linked to the French government to copy files from a stolen tablet. Michael plays the role of a low-level thief to locate the stolen server before the encryption can be broken. Eve, however, is smart and evades an attempt by Fiona and Madeleine to follow her back to the servers, and ends up capturing Michael. To save himself, Michael implicates the mobster for whom Eve is working on decrypting the stolen server in a double-cross. He manages to convince Eve to enlist Sam, Fiona and Jesse in a plot to trap the mobster in exchange for Michael's life. This ultimately results in Eve leading everyone to the server, zip-tying the mobster, and double-crossing Michael by welshing on the deal to let him live. Fiona manages to detonate a bomb designed to destroy the server, saving Michael and allowing him to turn the tables on Eve. With the job well done, Michael goes to meet Max on a Sunday for a debriefing only to find Max dying in the office with a gun lying near him on the floor. Max's dying words were to ask Michael to tell his wife that he loves her. Michael hears someone else in the building and grabs the only weapon at hand—the gun on the floor. The other person fires shots at Michael who returns fire. The killer gets away as the police arrive. Michael quickly covers his own tracks and is forced to flee via the roof with Fiona's help. He then realizes that he has also covered up the real killer's tracks, and additional evidence that he is being framed comes in the form of an ammunition box missing some bullets that Sam recovered from the car that Michael used to drive to the building. The episode ends with the gang contemplating how they are going to find the killer before the CIA finds Michael.
67	5	"Square One"	Marc Roskin	Ryan Johnson & Peter Lalayanis	July 21, 2011 (2011-07-21)	BN505	5.39
Michael and the team must help a discharged sniper (Matt Lauria) whose sister was put in the hospital. Meanwhile, the team tries to find Max's killer while simultaneously fending off a CIA bloodhound (Lauren Stamile). At the end of the episode the team finds out that the killer managed to hire someone who looks identical to Michael to frame Michael for Max's death.
68	6	"Enemy of My Enemy"	Jonathan Frakes	Jason Tracey	July 28, 2011 (2011-07-28)	BN506	5.00
While Pearce is keen to find Max's killer, she is put under pressure by her bosses at the CIA to recover a stolen Predator drone about to be sold to group of ex-military Serbians. Michael has to scale a building at short notice to grab the thief in his hotel room, but he finds that he has already handed it over. Michael then offers the team's service for recovering the drone in an off-the-books operation that cannot be linked to the CIA. To do this, he, Fiona and Sam steal one of Carmelo's (Todd Stashwick) heroin shipments in an attempt to pin the theft on the Serbians, in the hope that Carmelo, the second-most important heroin dealer in Miami, will lead them to the drone. Part of the plan involves Sam being left behind to point Carmelo at the Serbians. However, the plan goes wrong, and Sam's life is endangered. Carmelo finds the drone after a shoot-out with the Serbians and realizes that Sam misled him and is about to kill him when Michael shows up offering a deal: Carmelo surrenders to the police and gets the credit for stopping the Serbians in exchange for Sam and Michael's lives. Along the way, Fiona and Madelaine convince a government worker to allow them access to the Florida drivers' licence database in an attempt to find the double who bought the burner phone used to implicate Michael in Max's shooting. The imposter is identified as Jacob Starky (Charlie Weber), who is seen receiving a pistol at the end of the episode.
69	7	"Besieged"	Stephen Surjik	Craig O'Neill	August 4, 2011 (2011-08-04)	BN507	5.21
Michael and Sam try to rescue an ailing boy from his father (Jay R. Ferguson), who took the boy to a heavily armed compound. Elsewhere, Fiona and Jesse keep an eye on a day laborer Jacob Stark, who could be tied to Max's fate. After finding out Stark is innocent, the team also finds out that a bomb was placed in Stark's yacht, and Michael resolves to finding the bomb maker.
70	8	"Hard Out"	Craig Siebels	Rashad Raisani	August 11, 2011 (2011-08-11)	BN508	4.75
Michael, Pearce and Jesse go to a Caribbean island for an extraction mission, but end up trapped there by a group of mercenaries led by a man named Vanderwal (David Dayan Fisher). Meanwhile, Fiona helps Michael get information from one of her ex-boyfriends (Gavin Rossdale) by doing a favor for him. In the end Madeline has a new boyfriend and Michael finds the name of the bomb-maker that made the bomb used in the attempt to kill Stark.
71	9	"Eye for an Eye"	Jeremiah S. Chechik	Michael Horowitz	August 18, 2011 (2011-08-18)	BN509	5.32
Fiona and Jesse work together for a pharmaceuticals magnate (James Frain), but soon realize that he is hiding something. Meanwhile, Michael and Sam take on a bomb-maker named Lucien (Patrick Bauchau) involved in Max's death. At the end of the episode, after giving Michael no important information, Max's killer sends people to kill Michael, Sam, and Lucien. Lucien is mortally wounded and tells Michael the name of Max's killer before dying.
72	10	"Army of One"	Tawnia McKiernan	Alfredo Barrios, Jr.	August 25, 2011 (2011-08-25)	BN510	4.58
Michael finds Tavian (Andrew Howard), Max's killer, but before Michael can talk to him, Tavian escapes in his car while firing a gun at Michael and grazing his arm. Michael then infiltrates a group of white collar criminals, led by Holcomb (Michael T. Weiss), in order to help Jesse with a seemingly safe security job, but the mission goes awry when the group takes hostages at an airport, with Madeline among them. Madeline tries to lead the hostages to safety. Meanwhile, Fiona, Sam and an old "friend" of Sam's track down Tavian after he escaped and shot Michael. Agent Pearce confiscates the evidence that was found, along with the evidence that framed Michael.
73	11	"Better Halves"	Michael Smith	Lisa Joy	September 1, 2011 (2011-09-01)	BN511	4.07
In order to extract a bioweapons specialist and his wife, Michael and Fiona go undercover at a South American resort near Caracas. The target couple turn out to be accompanied by a couple of Russian bodyguards (one male and one female). Posing as a married couple, Michael and Fiona have to convince them to ditch their bodyguards, who have orders to shoot them if they try to escape, and get them to a CIA helicopter that will take the couple to Langley, Virginia. After almost getting caught planting a bug in the couple's hotel room (and escaping by tearing Fiona's beautiful new dress into stripes), they learn that the wife is not happy with the deal that her husband made with the Russians. Fiona befriends the wife and convinces her to go on a helicopter tour of the rainforest. The husband, however, cancels the tour, fearing the reaction of the Russians, so Michael then changes tack and says that he is offering the bioweapons specialist a better deal than the Russians. The bioweapons specialist agrees, and Michael overpowers the male bodyguard in the sauna, while Fiona unsuccessfully attempts to ditch the female bodyguard at a restaurant. Taking fire, Fiona and the wife dive into the bay, swim to a jetty and escape on a motorcycle, with the female bodyguard and several Russian reinforcements in hot pursuit. The Russians have set up a roadblock, so Fiona goes offroad and takes refuge in a bar. Michael realises that Fiona is in trouble and goes back to help her, against the wishes of the bioweapons specialist who regards the loss of his wife and Fiona as acceptable. Michael arrives at the critical moment in the shootout, and all escape to the rendezvous point with the helicopter. The wife says she will give evidence against her husband. In the meantime, Sam and Jesse track down Max's killer, Tavian (Andrew Howard). To do this, they find Tavian's money lender and convince him that Tavian had used the borrowed money to kill a CIA agent and the money lender's friend (and bombmaker) Lucian. Sam and Jesse set a trap to capture him. Unfortunately, Tavian found out about it, and kills his money lender before capturing Sam. He takes Sam to an isolated location, where he tells him to set up a meeting with Michael. However, before Michael can meet with the murderer, Agent Pearce arrests Michael at gunpoint, having found footage showing his Charger, reflected in an office building window, leaving the murder scene.
74	12	"Dead to Rights"	Matt Nix	Jason Tracey	September 8, 2011 (2011-09-08)	BN512	4.39
With convincing from Sam and Jesse, Pearce lets Michael talk to Tavian (Andrew Howard) with a surveillance wire. Michael gets Tavian to admit to Max's murder, which satisfies Pearce, though Tavian commits suicide to avoid further interrogation. "Dead" Larry (Tim Matheson) returns, having kidnapped a Defense Intelligence Agency psychiatrist named Anson (Jere Burns), forcing Michael to help him infiltrate the British consulate. While Michael is in a vault transferring files, Larry watches the security cameras in the room above, where Fiona kills him with a block of T4. Her detonation causes more bombs to go off as a result, and two guards on the first floor are killed while Michael barely survives. Anson reveals that he has evidence of Fiona's bombing of the consulate, and also that he and Management are the founders of the organization that burned Michael. Anson then reveals that to get so much information on him, he replaced Michael's parents' psychiatrists in the past. Anson tells Michael that he has a long list of plans for him.
75	13	"Damned If You Do"	Stephen Surjik	Matt Nix	November 3, 2011 (2011-11-03)	BN513	2.86
Michael and Fiona travel to Puerto Rico where, on assignment from Anson (Jere Burns), they abduct a hacker who has created a virus that Anson needs to access CIA files. Madeline retrieves information from the police with help from Sam and Jesse. Meanwhile, Agent Pearce informs Michael that he has been granted CIA security clearance, much to Anson's delight.
76	14	"Breaking Point"	Renny Harlin	Ben Watkins & Rashad Raisani	November 10, 2011 (2011-11-10)	BN514	2.66
When one of Michael's oldest friends is murdered by a gang, he and the victim's brother work together to take down the gang responsible. On orders of Anson, Michael uses the computer virus he obtained in the previous episode, to delete information in the CIA files about Anson, eliminating the evidence of his crimes.
77	15	"Necessary Evil"	Alfredo Barrios, Jr.	Craig O'Neill	November 17, 2011 (2011-11-17)	BN515	2.36
After a scientist is kidnapped by an African warlord, Michael leads a CIA team that includes Sam and Jesse to rescue him. After the scientist is successfully rescued, Michael is praised for his efforts but the CIA is angry at Sam and Jesse for destroying an important weapon during the process of the rescue. Michael and Madeline discover that Madeline's boyfriend, Benny, is working for Anson. At the end of the episode Michael, with Madeline listening, taps into a phone call between Anson and Benny, which reveals that Benny is working for Anson and that Anson knows Michael bugged the call. Anson delivers a bomb to Benny, killing him while a horrified Madeline and Michael hear it and watch it all.
78	16	"Depth Perception"	Craig Siebels	Peter Lalayanis & Ryan Johnson	December 1, 2011 (2011-12-01)	BN516	3.12
Sam reunites with Beatriz (Ilza Rosario), whom he had met in his last operation as a Navy Seal, after an attempt is made on her life by a Russian spy. Jesse and Fiona are forced to go to the Cayman Islands and retrieve a large sum of money from one of Anson's frozen accounts. Through Agent Harris, Sam then manages to get a meeting with the FBI deputy director, planning to take down Anson. But in a turn of events, Michael needs Anson to help Beatriz, which provides Anson the opportunity to stop Sam. He gets the meeting called off and gets Sam investigated as a possible Russian agent by including him in the report that stopped the Russian spy from murdering Beatriz. This is shortly after Anson reveals to Michael that he had acted as a psychiatrist to Michael's father, and due to his father's suspicions, Anson arranged the heart attack that killed Frank Westen. Fiona tells Michael that she should leave Miami, but Michael tells her to stay.
79	17	"Acceptable Loss"	Jonathan Frakes	Ben Watkins	December 8, 2011 (2011-12-08)	BN517	2.79
Michael and Madeline visit Frank Westen's grave, and Madeline tells Michael that he must "do whatever it takes" to stop Anson. Jesse's old friend Ian (Gregg Henry) asks the team to help take out his boss, who has been smuggling blood diamonds into the country with the help of diplomatic immunity. Meanwhile, Michael discovers a connection to his one time "handler" Vaughn Anderson (Robert Wisdom), formerly with the organization and now in prison. Michael arranges a meet with Vaughn through Agent Pearce, where he discovers the truth behind Anson's actions: using the infrastructures already in place, he is re-building the organization from the ground up, along with help from the unwilling Michael Westen.
80	18	"Fail Safe"	Renny Harlin	Matt Nix	December 15, 2011 (2011-12-15)	BN518	2.89
Michael, Fiona, and Sam corner Anson. Fiona attempts to shoot and kill Anson but Michael prevents his death at the last second. Fiona and Sam proceed to track down one of Anson's co workers, but he is killed by an explosion via a bomb presumably set off by Anson. Michael catches up with Fiona at the loft and finds that she's ready to turn herself in to the FBI rather than let Michael remain under Anson's control. Michael tells Fiona that he will do anything for her and he handcuffs her in place to return to the CIA operation over her screaming objections. Michael is trusted with an official CIA team (Kristanna Loken and Dean Cain) to take down a spy recruiter (Eric Roberts). Meanwhile, Anson takes the opportunity to force Michael to burn the team and Pearce to provide recruits for his new organization. Michael discovers that one of the spies, Rebecca, is really a mole working for Anson. At the last moment, Michael helps Jesse escape from danger, capture the spy recruiter, and prevent Pearce and the other spies from being burned. Michael gets on the phone with Anson and tells him that it is over for good. But when Michael arrives back at the loft, he finds that Fiona has freed herself and chained Sam in her place. Michael races to the FBI building to keep her from surrendering, while Anson makes a few calls and meets up with Rebecca. Michael arrives at the FBI just in time to get Fiona's attention before she enters the building. Unfortunately, the FBI was warned by Anson that she was coming and they swarm upon Fiona and arrest her as Michael looks on helplessly. Moments after Fiona is arrested, Michael stares at the FBI building, pondering his next move as cars and buses pass by him.