Burn Notice/Awesome: Difference between revisions

** The club scene with Carmello, the heroin dealer ("second biggest" in Miami). After planting explosives all over, threatening to blow up the place, and drinking Carmello's expensive champagne, Michael gets up to leave. Carmello asks, "Who ''are'' you?" Michael stops, glances back, and says very calmly: "I'm Michael Westen. I used to be a spy." Total HELL YEAH moment.

** Later, Michael's trying to get his mom and brother out of the city, and Shadowy Bad Guys are tracking them with a bugged cell phone. Michael stops the car in the middle of the street, blocking traffic, gets out with a gun, ''points it at his own head'' (while simultaneously having a crapload of thugs also pointing guns at him), and says into the bugged phone that he knows the Shadowy Bad Guys want him for a specific purpose, and if they don't talk to him ''right the hell now'' he's going to kill himself. A couple seconds later, the phone rings, and he answers it with a casual, flippant "Yello?"

** Sam's scenes under torture in the season one finale. Every time they hit him, he keeps giving them pointers on what they're doing wrong and mouthing off. His plan is to piss them off further, knowing that a quick death by shooting is better than a slow death by other methods. He even gets a [[Something They Would Never Say|coded message]] to Michael and Fiona in his proof-of-life picture . . . telling them NOT to rescue him.

*** Notable too, the whole reason he wants to get killed is ''not'' because he wants a quick death, but to prevent Michael and Fi from trying to rescue him (and getting killed in the process). He knows that his captors are very dangerous and willing to kill without hesitation, as well as being very well-prepared. The moment works on many levels since it was established previously that Sam had lost his squad in a similar situation and held a lot of guilt over it.

* "Bad Breaks" is pretty much a whirlpool of awesome for everyone. The woman Sam's courting seems largely unfazed by his side job, Bly's return, {{spoiler|Michael using the baddie's tools against them, Sam's bluff, Michael's quiet little speech, and Fi blowing up the truck and then sipping coffee.}}

* "Lesser Evil", the S2 finale. {{spoiler|Michael and Victor working together, Fi sniping Carla, Sam and Madeline blowing up Madeline's house ''by [[Mac Guyvering]] Christmas tree lights'' to make their escape, Madeline sending Sam back to save Michael, and Michael basically going "screw you" by jumping out of the chopper into the sea ''miles'' from Miami.}}

'''Michael''': ...I'll take my chances. {{[spoiler| He jumps out of the helicopter.}}] }}

* Sam and Michael's reverse-interrogation of a diamond smuggler who's kidnapped a little boy in 3x02, "Questions and Answers". {{spoiler|Sam plays a corrupt cop who enlists the kidnapper to "help him interrogate" a druggie who supposedly has information about a plan to double-cross the kidnapper. Michael is the druggie. The actual interrogation is one big masterful game of [[Xanatos Speed Chess]] between Michael and Sam pretty much making the entire thing up on the spot, culminating in Michael "escaping" to save the boy and Sam [[Mexican Standoff|tricking]] the kidnappers into shooting each other.}}

* And in "Devil You Know", the S3 finale, we have {{spoiler|Michael escaping from the city-wide manhunt; Fiona and Sam defusing a bomb together; Michael saving Management's ass; and Madeline ''bitchslapping an FBI agent.''}}

* In "Past and Future Tense", Team Westen is taking on a Russian wetwork team. Cue showdown:

** Michael was something of a legend pre-burning, so much so that foreign intel agencies figured he didn't exist, that he was either a code name used by a group, or something along the lines of the boogeyman. Whenever this is brought up (and subsequently shot down) is generally a CMOA.

* In "Where There's Smoke", Michael and Jesse are too busy arguing to leave the scene of a bank they just tried to break into. Cue [[Mama Bear|Madeline]], their diversion, strolling up beside their car and knocking on the window, then lighting a cigarette and demonstrating the fake tears she used to get past the bank guards.

* At the end of "Blind Spot", {{spoiler|Sam casually tells the mark, Charles, that he's been drugging him and stringing him along to get his money. Then he tells him that he's told the mark's money manager-who the mark recently pissed off and threatened to blackmail-where Charles is. Then he kicks Charles out of the limo they're in, leaving him stranded in the middle of Miami with no money, no one to turn to, and someone gunning for him.}}

* {{spoiler|Jesse's [[Eleventh-Hour Ranger]] moment}} in "Guilty as Charged", {{spoiler|shooting Michael through the shoulder to save his life}}.

** And in the following episode, "Eyes Open", {{spoiler|his [[Cutting the Knot]] moment when he blows up a [[Mad Bomber]] who was about to try and go out in a blaze of glory, to save the cops who he would've killed along with himself. Then he does an [[Unflinching Walk]].}}

* The B-story scene in "Brotherly Love" where Team Westen gets to show off their skills and teamwork. Sam as the Obfuscating Idiot, Fi making things go boom, Michael with the hand work, and Jesse with the planning and support. Finishes off with a slow walk of all four of them looking badass. Oh yeah.

** Let's not forget about Nate Westen in the A-plot either -- first hotwiring and driving off with a stolen [[Cool Car|'69 GTO]] [[Big Damn Heroes|just in time]] to keep both Michael and the [[Victim of the Week|Client of the Week]] from being executed, '''then''' {{spoiler|disassembling said car, and ''reassembling it, piece by piece, right in the [[Villain of the Week]]'s own backyard'' in order to [[Framing the Guilty Party|frame the guilty party]]}}. [[Badass]] takes on many different forms.

** For this troper, the most awesome part of the episode is when the hotel's phone rings. {{spoiler|There stands Michael, Jesse and Fi trapped with about three guns between them. Outside stands an army of special forces with millions of dollars of equipment backing them up. Jesse's slowly bleeding out, and Vaughn is calling to let them know exactly how screwed they are. Michael's answer? "Bay View Hotel, how may I direct your call?"}}

** Michael and Fi thought they had to blow themselves up to take out Vaughn.

* Maddie's entire bravura performance in "Bloodlines". Not only does she successfully convince the Yakuza hostage that she's a fellow victim and nurse, she {{spoiler|does so while being smacked around by Michael in full Frank-Westen impression and successfully stages an "escape" to get the Yakuza to lead Team Westen to his hideout}}. Maddie is starting to put everyone else to shame with her dedication to the job.

* In the second season episode "Do No Harm", Sam fights with Michael to keep him from going to Carla for money to save the little kid. By "fights", I mean that Sam blocks Michael's door and gets in a fist-fight with him to keep him from going to Carla.

* Michael and Maddie pulling a con on a bank robber in "Army of One" - while Michael does his double agent thing convincing Holcomb, the leader, that he's their tech guy and there's a rogue Special Forces guy on the loose trying to kill them, Maddie starts out as a hostage but works with Michael to get all of the hostages to safety. Plus, she saves Michael's ass by bashing a guy's skull in who's about to shoot Michael.

* Natalie the thief finally getting caught.

* Fiona ''finally, finally'' (apparently) killing Larry at the end of "Dead to Rights" only giving him enough time to [[Oh Crap|comprehend how screwed he was]]. And then, [[Magnificent Bastard|Anson]] making his grand debut by ''successfully blackmailing Michael''.

 

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[[Category:Awesome]]