(Season 2, Episodes 13-14)
This Virgin Diary is a little shorter than normal, since I’m down to the final four episodes of the season. I’m covering two here, and the final two next week. It’s amazing that when you look back on the first 14 episodes of the season, we really haven’t gotten very far in the whole, “who burned Michael” mystery. It’s definitely been a slow burn, so I’m hoping for a super-exciting season finale. Don’t let me down.
We don’t get a whole lot of Fiona/Michael action in these two episodes either, but it works well. They both have other things going on, so it’s nice that the writers aren’t trying to shoe-horn the relationship into every single episode anymore. It frees up more screen time for Madeline, who is my new hero.
(Season 2, Episode 13 “Bad Breaks”)
Our old friend Agent Bly is back, despite the fact that Michael worked up a blackmail file on him and told him never to return to Miami. It turns out Barry grabbed Bly’s attention when he was investigating the account that the guy who paid to have Michael blown up wired money from. He starts in on Michael, destroying his loft to get rid of some fake toxic mold, but soon his mission and Michael’s mission of the week intersect.
A woman Michael’s mother knows thinks a guy she met through a dating site is stalking her, so Michael offers to talk to him. Turns out, he was just trying to get information about her job as an assistant bank manager so he could rob it. Michael and Bly get caught in the robbery, and Bly immediately gets his dumb ass shot.
This episode was kind of different because the whole gang wasn’t together. Michael was inside the bank, being supported by Fiona and Sam on the outside. It’s always fun seeing them together when they really let their distaste for each other show through. Michael obviously saves the day inside the bank, but I’m not sure how I feel about it.
The robbers had obviously been planning this for a while, paying attention to details (including bringing cell phone jammers). For a group who put so much thought into controlling the process, they sure let Michael wander around unattended a lot. I understand that they probably didn’t think that he could do anything, but still. It would make a lot more sense just to have one guy accompany him at all times. Who lets hostages roam around free? That’s just crazy.
In the end, since Michael saved Bly’s life at least twice, he calls off the dogs. However, it turns out that when Barry was looking into that account, either he or Bly tripped some sort of notification mechanism, so whoever owns that account knows Michael is coming.
(Season 2, Episode 14 “Truth and Reconciliation”)
I loved this episode. Sure, the pace we made in the “who burned Michael” mystery was glacial at best, and the job of the week was just okay, but then there was Madeline. Oh, Michael’s mom: you just get more awesome every single episode you’re in. In this episode, her car gets broken into by some annoying teenagers, so she totally gets all super-spy on their ass.
She asks Michael to help her out, and when he’s too busy, she takes matters into her own hands. She does surveillance and studies their patterns. By the end of the episode, not only has she caught the thugs, but she fixed her car by herself. Michael is duly impressed, and I can only hope that this means that Madeline will be playing an even bigger role in Michael’s missions in coming episodes.
Back to who burned Michael: He sets up a meeting with the guy who tried to kill him, basically using himself as bait. Fiona obviously thinks this is a bad idea, but Michael has come to the conclusion that this is the only way he can find anything out. While the pair successfully prevents the guy from killing Michael, they are unsuccessful at getting him to talk, since he gets away. The guy has a familiar face though– his name is Victor, and this isn’t the first time Michael has had a run-in with him. It also doesn’t look as though it will be the last.
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Aug 01, 2009 @ 12:15 EST5EDT
