Burn Notice s7 finale

[arduinna]

I started writing this up last night after I watched the finale, but was too tired to finish it, so now I'm writing it up fast in the brief lull between Korra and Haven. (It is a good night for tv!).



They basically count as a two-parter anyway. *g* And most of my memory of last week's is "oh SAM", with the fighting Mike to keep him safe, and yay SEAL skills, and everything.

So I'm going to dive straight into the finale, I think. Not necessarily in any kind of chronological order...

Aigh, stressful! And I was totally right -- and also totally wrong. So, well-played, Burn Notice!

I really wish I hadn't been wrong when I said I didn't think they'd kill anyone off. :( Dammit, I love Maddie. I still keep having little twitchy moments of "but that can't be real, right? no body, no death! She's off making everyone a nice cup of tea!!!"

OTOH, I absolutely buy a mother giving her life to avenge one son, protect her other son, and protect her grandbaby. Especially that mother. ♥ And I love that she got some time with her newest son in all of this, and that they had a genuine moment together. And that sweet little, "You do have a family. ... I'm sorry." was adorable. And if she had to go, sitting there with a cigarette back in her mouth and a smartass look on her face was perfect.

But really nooooo Maddie :( :( :( :(

I was right about the point of all this being to break Michael to the point that he finally broke free of his past -- really basically undoing decades of training of being purely mission-oriented and dedicated to a cause. I liked that it wasn't easy for him - he really was *breaking*, shattering all over, hanging on by his fingertips and watching his control and his world crumble around him. And I liked that once again, Sam and Fi called him on his bullshit when he was trying to pretend he hadn't basically gone suicidal.

Relatedly, back to the beginning of this ep, overlapping with the end of the previous ep: I hadn't quite twigged to it last year, Michael's panic attack on the roof; I mean, I had, because it was very clear, but this week it was suddenly a very clear echo of Michael's panic attack in the car at the end of last season, when Sam was dying in his arms and he was just losing it. Nicely done; he can't cope with the thought of either of them dying on him, and him being unable to control or fix it.

Still bouncing around -- I'll give 'em this, I actually thought for a minute that Michael and Fi had died in the blast, and was just gobsmacked. But then I was "... nah", and then they showed Sam and Jesse and I knew they were okay, just off in hiding. Because yeah, Michael's only real way out at this point was to be dead. I was wondering during that whole scene with CIA guy there "why isn't anyone talking about Charlie, where is he?" -- but of course the CIA must think he died with Maddie, and Jesse's not about to say any different.

I'm a little meh on the show ending with Michael and Fi in a cottage together raising a baby toddler, because to me this show has always been about the chosen family that is all of them, not just the romance, but. *shrug* I'm not surprised that's how they chose to end it, either, and it's a really nice ending for the shippers.

I do love that Michael is a bit flaily with Charlie, hee. Time to learn some new skills...

I also love that Sam and Jesse are still hanging out, and still working together. <3 But man, it should be all four of them.

All the little callbacks to the pilot (and credits) were fun, and I'm sort of poking around the thought of the entire series being basically a bedtime story Michael is telling his nephew. (Which actually makes the light-hearted tone of the credits make a lot more sense than it actually does.)


Okay, wow, that was way more random than I'd planned, but I'm still sort of awash in reaction, and Haven is starting up any second.

Comments

[klia]

Yeah, I'm still really bummed about Maddie. I loved her so much. And something about her goodbye to Michael hit me kind of wrong: she was sacrificing herself to save everyone because she had to atone for not having the the strength to save her kids or herself from their abuser. I mean, I get that maybe she felt that way, but I thought they'd come to terms with all of that a while back, so it felt a bit victim-blamey to me, and I found that kind of upsetting.

Could anyone who actually watched the entire series really imagine Michael and Fi living happily ever after in bucolic bliss in that wee fairy tale-esque cottage? It wouldn't be long before they were bored out of their gourds and going stir crazy. I mean... WHAT.

I'm glad Sam and Jesse were going to keep working together, but splitting up the band? Nooooooo! ;__;

[arduinna]

I can totally see reacting to Maddie's reasons that way, but they rang true to me for the entirely irrational reason that I see a lot of my mom in Maddie when it comes to her family, and it never mattered how much my mom had accepted and moved on from things that had happened; she never lost the guilt about them, and never lost the desire to make up for it somehow, even if it was never possible (or necessary to anyone but her). And her only other option was letting her son die for her, which would have killed her anyway, I think, after Nate.

And heh, no, they're not going to last there long at all -- but I guess it's not a bad place for Michael to ride out some recovery time while he learns how to not be a spy.

But pretty much my headcanon now that I've had a little more time is that sometime in the not-too-distant future, they give Sam and Jesse a shout, and the four of them set up somewhere as People Who Can Help, and they just rotate around who stays with Charlie that night while they're skulking around doing whatever.

Because really, they're all adrenaline junkies, and that's not going to change. Tone down a bit, maybe, but it's not going to vanish *poof*.

[klia]

the four of them set up somewhere as People Who Can Help, and they just rotate around who stays with Charlie that night while they're skulking around doing whatever.

Yes! Except... alas, Charlie is the rub for me in that scenario, because how could they keep doing the kinds of things they were doing and take care of a kid? And what happens as he gets older? They set up a base of operations in a place no one knows them, so he can go to school?

See, in my headcanon, everyone loves Charlie, blah blah, but eventually his mother cleans up her act, gets a job, and becomes responsible, and they send him to live with her. Heh.

[justhuman]

I really loved the finale. I would have been sad, but not disappointed if Fi and Michael hadn't made it out - the narration about being spy until your dead really worked with the rest of the series. Of course, so did the never giving up.

I have to disagree on the show being about "the family you choose" because a constant theme in the show has been relationships within Michael's biological family that extended out to be a larger family. Michael and Maddie's relationship has been one of the primary focuses since episode one.

Ahhh Maddie. There was the weight of the past there, but Maddie was definitely cut from the Mama Lion mold and would have done anything to protect her family no matter what had happened in the past. Volunteering to save Jesse and Charlie was completely natural to her character. I also adore the mother-son moment that she got with Jesse.

I see the cottage as a stepping stone. I see it as the lie that Fiona and Michael told each other when Michael was spying on her when they first met. Yeah, they could go back to the spy life, but then again, maybe they're ready to follow Sam's life. He was an action hero during his SEAL days and found a way to take it down a notch on his quest for the perfect Mojito and the right sugar mama - to dabble. ...Although, Micheal is more an all or nothing kind of guy.

In the last two seasons, I felt like I was losing touch with the show, but the finale really brought it all home for me.