TV Thoughts: Burn Notice – “Hard Time”

Garrett Dillahunt returned as Simon on the latest episode of Burn Notice and Michael went to prison.  Some thoughts about Michael enjoying prison food after the jump.

Just a few quick notes about this episode since I am posting this even later than my posts the past few weeks.  All of the overall story arc material was good this week, especially since Garrett Dillahunt was back in Miami and creepy as ever.  I’m not sure, based on the details learned in this episode, how evil Vaughn and company are or how they are connected to Management or really what Michael is planning on doing from here.  I know that he has a plan because he is Michael Westen and I know that the audience will find out soon enough in the next two episodes before the break, but I have a lot of questions right now.  I’m not sure how or why Jesse isn’t suspicious about why Michael, Sam, and Fi keep leaving him for special missions and Jesse felt particularly underused in this episode.  Some background with Vaughn had to be explained before the end of this arc, but Jesse was pretty much left out of all the fun in this episode and when he did get in on the fun he wasn’t very essential.

The case of the week took Michael to an interesting setting, prison, and went some interesting places, but it never really felt all that satisfying.  I’m not sure why breaking Cruz out of prison wasn’t Michael’s first inclination because it seems that breaking the client out would have been more trouble than it was worth.  In the end, I appreciated the setting, but I thought that the writers could have done more with it, similar to the biker gang story in the season premiere.  Cool moments:

-“So have I, but I wouldn’t exactly call my version dreaming”

-Voiceover about metal fatigue in handcuffs

-“Unless it’s a rare Beatles tape…”

-Voiceover about convincing a tail that you are someone they don’t need to kill

-“I’m just guessing, but I’m thinking this could be pretty bad”

-“I’m sure, you could fly”

-Voiceover about eye contact in prison

-“That is an example of leaving my side”

-“Because I believe your life is worth saving, its time you started believing yourself”

-Michael lets go of the ball when Cruz comes over to him

-Voiceover about storing things at a graveyard

-“Probably Michael, we don’t have to eat prison food”

-Voiceover about silence being the first sign of violence

-Voiceover about using thick book bindings as body armor

-“What do you have a gun?”

-“You guys are funny, I’m in prison”

-“And you’re thinking the fact that this guy is being blackmailed is something that we can use to blackmail him”

-Voiceover about using oil so that a moisture sensitive metal will not explode

-“Mr. Westen you’re a very clever man”

-Voiceover about using the items in an infirmary to make a bomb

-Voiceover about an escaped prisoner requiring everyone to find him, cops, FBI, etc

-“Sadly, the Devil’s not available…”