'Burn Notice' Just Got Really, Really Dark

Double/triple/sextuple agent Mike's increasingly complex ties to James and Sonya's organization are about to be tested, once and for all.

Lifting information from Sonya's phone, Andrew Strong has big plans for Westen's upcoming rendezvous with James in Veracruz. It's finally time to nail Kendrick, and he's enlisted a "freelance"—that clearly doesn't bode well—extraction team.

They strike the convoy in broad daylight. James and Sonya put up a good fight and evade immediate capture. Mike attempts to appear equally invested in their escape, while meticulously leaving a trail for the CIA to follow.

According to Mike, Mexico has one of the least regulated airspaces in Latin America. I have no idea if this is actually true, but I plan to bring it up at dinner parties like I read it in the New York Times. Sam, Jesse and Strong track down Westen and company via helicopter—but once they have the getaway car in their sights, it's not long before James has them in his. He splits off from Michael, which is inconvenient for pretty much everyone. Strong dispatches his so-called Alpha Team, which promptly takes out a platoon of James' dudes.

But Alpha Team isn't exactly a team (at least not after all that gunfire). It's more of an Alpha Guy. A guy named... Simon Escher?! Escher is, of course, the very d-bag who burned Michael in the first place. He is also the actor Garret Dillahunt, who is also Raising Hope's Burt Chance, who is also my future baby daddy. What up, boo?

Mike is furious at the sight of him, but Simon insists he has no choice but to cooperate. Escher's worked for the CIA since they got him out of prison two years ago. "Guys like us," he tells Mike, "We're useful." In Simon, Westen must see an unflattering reflection of himself and all the morally ambiguous decisions he's made.

Everything Mike believes in is in direct conflict with Simon's underhanded, sketchball plans for capturing Sonya and James—and his horrific mistreatment of James' cronies. Though they're technically on the same side, the two men find themselves embroiled in a fistfight that takes a seriously dark turn when Mike tries to—I am not making this up—eyeball-murder Escher a la 28 Days Later. But instead, he stabs him in the chest. Yikes. This scene is almost as unnerving as when Westen hid a listening device inside an arm wound earlier this season.

Mike is visibly moved when James and Sonya selflessly return to save him and tend to his injuries. What are these... feelings? He gives into his emotions, spilling that he overheard which direction an "enemy" support team is coming from, thereby saving them from Strong. Feelings?!

James mistakenly assumes that Sonya gave up their location. After all, as far as they know, Mike had no advance knowledge of where they'd be meeting. He's ready to kill her for her apparent betrayal when Mike—feelings?!?!?!—comes clean. He's the snitch, he confesses, and a CIA operative to boot.

James is angry with a capital A (and N, and G, and R, and Y), but he picks up on Mike's painfully conflicting loyalties. "No man is that good a liar," James insists, "You're a believer."

When we fade to black, Sonya's gun is still pointed at Mike's head.

Image via USA