Burn Notice S2.E4 Comrades (July 31st, 2008)

Ivan the Russian Smuggler

Michael notices that he is being followed he confronts his follower and it turns out to be Nate (his brother). Nate is mad at Michael since he hasn’t called him since he was forced to leave town. Nate tells Michael that he has turned his life around and that he now works for a limo company. He asks Michael for his help though. One of his coworkers (Katya) is in trouble and needs his help. It turns out that Alena (Katya’s sister) paid the Russian mob to sneak her into the country. The Russian mobsters are know holding her hostage though and are demanding a lot of money for her release. Michael decides to help Katya since he fears she will try to do something herself otherwise.

Fiona does some surveillance and they get to know Ivan (played by Andrew Divoff who is better known as “Patchy” from Lost). Ivan is the man asking for the money from Katya. Michael finds out that Ivan is only responsible for watching the women and collecting the money. Michael determines that the best way to get the women’s location is to kidnap Ivan and interrogate. Sam is excited about the possibility since he loves interrogating people. Fiona kidnaps him by stunning him with a stun gun (she also stuns herself in the process). Sam and Michael create a makeshift prison and lock Ivan in it.

Sam pretends to work with the government and offers Ivan a deal that if he flips on his partners he will be let go. Ivan isn’t willing to talk. Sam tells Michael that they are going to need some help. They decide to make Michael another prisoner since they think Ivan would talk to a fellow prisoner. Nate is then forced to help by being one of the prison guards. Before Michael pretends to be a prisoner he has Fiona beat him up a little so it looks like he was tortured to get info out of him. Michael is thrown in the cell with Ivan and he starts claiming that he (Ivan) is a traitor since he must have flipped since the government has a bunch of information on their organization (Michael pretends to be part of the Russian mob).

Michael gets some info out of Ivan about some Russian restaurant. Fiona and Sam check it out. Sam creates a distraction and allows Fiona to sneak past security. She doesn’t find much except for an illegal pirating business. Sam is getting beat up by Takarov’s men (the Russian mob leader) but Fiona gets them to stop by pretending that Sam is her father who is suffering from dementia.

Sam interrogates Ivan again and tells him that his whole organization is coming down. he gives Ivan one last opportunity to flip but Ivan refuses to. Ivan returns to the cell and tells Michael that the government is coming down on their organization but there isn’t anything they can do since the girls will be dead by then since Ivan instructed his men to kill the women if he doesn’t show up in a couple days.

Michael decides that the only way to save the women is to pretend to break Ivan out of prison. Michael tells Ivan of the plan and he agrees to it. Nate handcuffs Michael but Michael picks the lock and attacks Nate. He pretends to kill Nate and several other people and then escapes with Ivan. Ivan takes Michael to the house where the women are being held since they both think they need to be moved. Michael tells Ivan that he has a safehouse. Ivan has all the women get into a fan for Michael to take them to the new hideout. Ivan then heads to his boss to tell him that the government is on to them. When Ivan is gone; Michael, Fiona and Sam disarm Ivan’s henchmen and free the women. When Ivan shows up at his boss’ saying that the government is on to them, the boss thinks he ratted them out to the government and they kill him. Katya is reunited with her sister. Nate tries to give Michael all the credit by Michael tells Katya that Nate was crucial to saving her sister. Katya gives Nate a kiss for his help.

Quest to Find the People Who Burned Michael

Michael looks throught the documents that he got in the previous episode. Most of the good information is missing but Michael does find that Carla’s cover in the Middle east was that of an agriculture consultant. Michael thinks that Carla could still be using the same cover in Florida. Sam agrees to check it out. Sam talks with Harvey (one of the top agriculture experts in the country). Sam wines and dines him in order to hopefully get a list of agriculture consultants in the area. The expensive diner doesn’t work though since Sam barely gets any info out of him. Sam takes Harvey out to diner and he quickly tells that Harvey is trying to play him for free diners. Sam is sick of being played so he pretends to be from the DEA and threatens to take away all of Harvey’s titles unless he helps him. The threat work since he gets a list of all the agriculture experts in the area and a business card for Carla. Michael and Fiona watch the address on the business card hoping that someone will show up that they can get info out of.