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July 27, 2013

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

*I was out of town the past few days, apologies for the late review*

While the title of this past Thursday's episode, "Psychological Warfare," might have felt a bit flat and clinical, the episode was anything but. This was the most vivid and revealing episode of Burn Notice in a long while - perhaps even since the show's inception - and felt, despite the occasional involvement of Fi and Sam, like a totally solo Michael episode. But unlike his dangerous exodus from Cuba, or his perilous infiltration of the militarized hacker group, this chapter was all about Michael taking a rough-road journey into his own mind. And despite the very opening scene, the episode was incredible.

I'll address that first scene now, so as to get it out of the way. Michael called Fi out, and away from a job, to tell her outright that he slept with Sonya. Yes, we know Michael is laced with nothing but the best intentions, but there was a perverse cruelness to it. One that Fi, thankfully, addressed. And more of an indication of just how much Michael messes up people's lives even when (especially when?) he's trying to take the high road. Michael claimed that he told Fi because she was part of a big operation and she shouldn't be in the dark about any aspect of it, but there was just a weird coldness too it. Especially considering the fact that it was the very next morning and Fi had just rejected Michael for the upteenth time.

The one thing we did find out right way though was that Michael was indeed playing Sonya when he took her to bed. And that it was all an attempt to get close to the big boss - finally revealed to us as Alpha's John Pyper-Ferguson, playing a similar communal-leader role to Stanton Parish, but with much more of an interest in pharma-psychology.

Not only did this episode build up the mystery, and overall importance of Pyper-Ferguson's character, James, by having Michael endure days of extreme sensory abuse, but James' desire to crack open Michael skull and dig around allowed us the viewer to gain some valuable backstory intel. Suddenly, pieces started coming together like never before, and Sonya's mentioning of Michael being both "monster" and someone who had a low casualty rate managed snap together on an actual timeline. And, as an extra treat, Tim Matheson reprised his role as Larry during an extended hallucination revolving around Michael, intentionally, blowing up a building of innocent people. When I saw the promo pics for this episode, and saw Matheson in there as Larry, I didn't realize that it was part of a mind-trip. I thought Larry had, once again, somehow cheated death. But this appearance was much more satisfying than a straight-up return, because it allowed us to access Michael secret past while also stating, for the absolute record, that Larry died back in 2011's "Dead to Right." I know that Anson confirmed the death at one point, but you can never really be sure with these nutso spies.

The best part of this episode though was watching Michael regress back to childhood and stand up to his abusive father. Because as soon as he started heading back that far in his mind, I assumed that it was something he'd wind up sharing with James. But he didn't. Those flashbacks were brilliantly used to strengthen Michael's resolve, as if to basically say that nothing Michael has ever done since, CIA op or otherwise, has been as courageous as protecting his brother by taking a beating from his dad. All while never ever spilling any secrets. It put all of James' torture into perspective, making it seem wonderfully small by comparison. And the whole fake escape twist with Sonya at the end was also well done. Plus, it let us know that Sonya, despite her extreme measures, was still sweet on Michael.

Jeffrey Donovan gave a hard-wrestled, top-notch performance in "Psychological Warfare," opening us up Michael's trauma while also bringing everything full circle in the end and rebuilding his courage and will. I still don't know anything about James or what his devilish plans might be, but now, after this installment, I feel as though it might be a little more complex than just an evil terrorist plotting to cause mayhem. James, and Sonya for that matter, are a part of something that fuses partners and operatives together into some sort of mega-devoted "family," which always makes for a more terrifying scenario.

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler, IGN at mattfowler, and Facebook at Facebook.com/Showrenity.