There was a theme running throughout "Good Intentions" about trusting your
friends to do the right thing when they go it alone. I'm not sure how applicable
this particular theorem is in the real world, but it seems pretty relevant when
your friends are actually getting in over their heads doing dangerous spy work.
Sam (Bruce Campbell) was particularly frustrated in this episode, having to deal
with the burden of being the trusty number two who always gets left in the
lurch. It wasn't so funny for Michael later when he himself found himself in the
"Sam Spot" and had to stay away from Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) while her life was
being threatened by 24's Carlos Bernard. "The hardest thing to do when an
operation goes bad is nothing at all," Michael said in a voice over. There were
some generally tense moments in this episode, even though the actual gravity of
a lot of Burn Notice action gets undercut by the action-y background music that
sort of lets you know that the good guys are going to make it through the car
chase.
Bernard's Gabriel was an interesting villain considering he had an actual,
genuine reason for resorting to his kidnapping schemes. As sympathetic as his
back story was though, he was made out to be the kind of guy who would murder
anyone he felt that he couldn't trust. It was almost a fluke that he trusted
Fiona and let her live and it was a great way to get a little bit of insight
into Fiona's past. I know I've griped a bit in the past about Fiona's character
being melted down from the "ex with an itchy trigger finger" to the
"temperamental eye roller" so it was great to have the show re-visit Fiona's
darker "freedom fighter" nature.
We've seen Chuck Finlay, underworld thug. We've seen him as a personal banker.
But never as a lawn cop from the Shady Glen Homeowners Association. I always
love seeing Bruce Campbell deliver the goods when it comes to ridiculous
distractions. All in all though, I felt like everything in "Good Intentions" got
wrapped up a bit too neatly in the end. A fiery suicide death would have been a
fitting end for Gabriel, but instead he got to get arrested and have the evil
chemical-dumping corporation that poisoned his village get "investigated." I
guess we should all be thankful that Burn didn't jump ahead a few months and
show us the investigation getting dropped and forgotten about in the name of
corporate greed and government payoffs.
