TV-Reviewed

Bad Breaks was just a fun episode. The infamous Agent Bly was wily enough the first time around, but he was even more so the second. His use of reverse blackmail on Michael, I thought, made for an interesting twist. It makes perfect sense, I suppose, that Michael having had Barry digging through suspicious bank accounts might draw some unwanted attention–and might, in the end, be bad for both him and Michael. But, I wasn’t expecting Bly to be the one to hold it over him. That was something that worked quite well, though; and it’s good to see such a fleshed out (and entertaining) character as Bly back on the show.

And, of course, who better to trap Michael Weston in a bank with? Perhaps, Virgil would be the answer to that one. But, seriously, Jason Bly and Michael Weston trapped inside a bank during an armed robbery? Yeah. I knew it was going to get interesting, and fast. I wasn’t disappointed, either, when ol’ Bly almost got himself killed. It was only sporting on Michael’s part to help him out, of course. One thing, too, that made this episode so different and somewhat unique from others in the past was the side-job and burn notice plotlines being tied together. I don’t think we’ve seen that before.

Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen

Another thing introduced into this episode was the idea of full on competition between Sam and Fiona on who Michael’s best backup is. Sure, we’ve seen some minor competition between the two of them in past, but nothing like in Bad Breaks. Fiona and Sam don’t concede any sort of truce–not even at the end. And their constant bantering back and forth adds some comic relief to a few iffy dramatic moments–ones where you’re wondering how Michael’s going to get himself out of this one.

The scenes inside the bank…Well, I’ve always enjoyed a good bad-guys-having-to-deal-with-gremlins/back-luck plot. That part I didn’t fault the show’s writers with. Because, as we all know, Michael Weston has some MacGuyver in him, so it wasn’t too much of stretch for him to come up with some nasty things to do to Prescott and his men. In fact, Prescott’s tampered-with gun was the icing on the cake. It allowed Michael to save Bly thereby creating an unexpected ally in him. The gesture, in fact, created a mutual respect, which was enough to bring Bly to Michael’s side. I could deal with that. It worked for me. However, I take issue with Paula’s apparent ignorance. How could she not connect the dots? She’s the assistant manager of a highly secure bank, surely she’d have been told to look out for such things? I guess the only defense to this possible flaw is that she let the search for love–her emotions–get in the way of her job.

At least, Fi and Sam didn’t let their emotions get the best of them. Sam was able to let his beer-goddess, Angela, go, and Fi was able to commit without question to the job of breaking Michael out. It was a wee bit exciting when she blew up Prescott’s getaway vehicle, too, which was, of course, a better use of her expertise than blowing a whole in the wall–heh, only Fi can blow something up while casually sipping on a latte. The explosion was enough to further convince Prescott’s team that Michael’s story was real.

Michael’s favor from Bly only returned more questions than answers. The bank account yielded very little beyond the number. Like Bly said, they have ways of investigating that many people are unaware of. I felt there were many questions here besides who’s the owner of the account? How have they hidden their identy so well? Why hide their identity? Then, there’s the matter of the account being monitored. “Like an electronic trip wire,” Bly had told Michael. So, who was monitoring the account? Do they suspect Michael Weston as the culprit prying into their affairs? And, if so, what are they going to do to him? One thing is for certain: Michael’s just opened up another fresh can of dangerous worms–probably ones that carry a lot of guns and who are bent on world domination.

Over all, Bad Breaks was a fresh break from previous episodes of this season. I thought it had the right mixture of action, drama and comedy.

Rating: 9.0