They added the cocaine angle. Too much time on the relationship would have taken away from the rest of the plot. Besides, the Bad Guy didn’t seem too bright. 
I think of it as a TV shorthand, you only have so much time per episode.
I guess it’s the opposite in soap operas (not that I’ve seen one in years, but I used to watch Y&R) where characters will visit each other to have what are basically brief conversations that could have been done by telephone. That and the famous “turn your back to the person who’s talking to you so both of your faces can be seen by the camera.”
Oh, absolutely, they do it almost every episode, and I have no problem with it. But normally they are much better at making it plausible - usually with time pressure or some kind of information/documents/introduction from another criminal that makes it plausible. In this case, Sam literally just pulls him over and flashes a fake badge and some cockamamie story. I didn’t buy it for a second.
Nope, sorry, they went to pains to show that the Bad Guy was, in fact, pretty bright. I believe Michael actually called him “smart” at one point, after they tried to follow him back to the safe house and he just went to a bar. Someone that paranoid would never have fallen for the cop routine as shown. Just because Sam did coke? I don’t think so.
Sorry, the “hand” was too “short” this time. And they could have cut out some of the “reconciling couple” bullshit to make time for more elaboration 
Yeah, I thought this one was a lot weaker. The bad guy was just TOO stupid.
It’s OK. I’m not going to stop watching or anything, but they could have been more clever with the script writing.
He’s drunk a lot. Yes, he gets his job done. I’m just talking about his heavy drinking as part of who he is. Michael drinks sparingly on the other hand. They have made that very clear.
I’ll agree with you on that. Cool that the goofy looking guy was tough enough to take a beating for his kid, though.
Yes, indeed.
I disagree. The Bad Guy is ruthless and knows some tricks, but he doesn’t really think things through. For example, he beats up the father to prove that there aren’t cops watching, but if there were, they’d have him dead to rights on assault and battery charges. Then when they searched him, they’d find a picture of the kidnapped kid. That’s the problem with Bad Guys. They work so hard to be cruel, they forget to think. He probably studied with Keyser Soze. 
That’s a good point, and I agree he wasn’t Einstein. But you’d have to be a complete rube to fall for Sam’s lame con, and he was not a complete rube.
He was paranoid. Which is is why he never went back to where they were holding the kid. Sam’s plan works perfectly on paranoid people.
Eh, YMMV. Didn’t work for me.
Donovan’s performance as the drug addict was awesome, I love when he puts on a ruse and gets into character to fool the bad guys, he’s so good at it.
There’s a preview clip for Thursday’s episode up on the usa site. The return of an arch-enemy for Westen…
Okay, a couple of things:
How did Michael get his cell phone back? I thought Brennan made him toss it in the trunk.
Doesn’t the hospital have to report gunshot wounds? I would have thought Paxson would have been all over Michael after Nate got shot.
I do love Sharon Gless. “Michael, please don’t lie RIGHT to my face.” Michael manage to do some fancy footwork to get Brennan to back off, but I fear he will return. I thought maybe Brennan was being blackmailed into getting that doo-dad.
I think he stole the phone of the guard he stuffed into the trunk.
I imagine they told the hospital he was mugged.
I thought that tonight’s episode was one of the better ones, personally. I loved the bluff- “You’re not that good, Weston. *Nobody *is that good.”
I don’t know…there’s at least five people that could identify him. The two security guards at the office where he stole the key (he acted drunk and certainly made an impression), the guy with the gun collection he was getting the voice access code from (getting choked with a tire iron will stick in your mind) and the two guards he locked up (in the trunk and the electrical closet) at the last location. Not to mention gunshots were fired outside that building. Michael didn’t seem as neat and tidy as he normally is.
Yeah, I love Jay Karnes. He was awesome in The Shield, Sons of Anarchy and now Burn Notice. He makes a great creepy villain. Brennen is a great character. Glad Michael’s bluff worked. I also like that we’ll see Brennen again. It presents us with a recurring supervillain for Michael.
I’d like for him to have a Fi Accident.
I don’t think the guards in the parking lot saw him. It was dark and he got them from behind. The gun dealer has far to much illegal stuff on his hands to talk to the police. The guards violated the rules in not calling the cops, so they may also be disinclined to talk.
Nah the guards at the office where he got the key will be perfectly inclined to talk because they’ll be questioned about the loss of classified material. Michael will also be all over the tape at that office. I’m sure they’ll gloss over that, but it will probably be the info that Detective Bloodgood needs to get him. 