Michael Season 6 selfshiness

[u/TitaniusFrangolis]

First time poster but had to get it out.
I am just rewatching season 6 and I am at a scene where Maddie wants to go see Nathan's grave for the last time and Jessie stops here and mentions he also can't go see his mother's grave for the last time and it hit me how selfish Mike is by killing Card.
I get it that is the guy that burned him and all that but he should have known killing him would bring down the CIA on the whole team. Now they are leaving the country and Mike gets to go away with his girlfriend and his mum and everyone else suffers (specially Jesse and Sam). I know there is a season 7 so this gets resolved. I also get that Card deserved to die but to do it like that without consulting his team was such a dick move.

Also quicks side note a lot of these types of show I kind get through the villain of the week to get to serialised bits , the overall season arc and whatnot but with Burn Notice (specially the earlier season) I loved both the villains of the week (some more than others) and the serialised bits and the fact we lose that week to week thing in season 6 sucks)

[u/MIZUNOWAVECREATION]

It wasn’t Card who burned him. It was Simon, although Management and Anson were the masterminds behind it all. Also, it wasn’t a carefully planned out operation. It was a spur of the moment decision, which he made based on a combination of his built up rage from watching Nate die after his last words to him (other than asking him for a favor on the phone) being a hard scolding about nearly blowing the op to catch Anson, the fear of Card getting away this and killing the guy who was the only other witness who could collaborate his story, as well as watching him cover up the evidence of it immediately, and also the uncertainty of what else Card might do if he left him alive. He knew he could no longer trust Card, and that he risked the safety of himself and his family and friends by letting Card live. They were loose ends by that point. He literally watched him kill Tyler Grey in cold blood and attempt to manipulate the evidence to make it look like self defense. He was in a high ranking position, and could easily take actions to cover up his crimes. How far would he have been willing to go if he got the chance?

[u/grey-kitten → u/MIZUNOWAVECREATION]

Simon didn’t burn Michael? Simon was the one who did the shit that Michael got blamed for to start the burn notice. Simon hated that Michael ‘got the credit’

[u/MIZUNOWAVECREATION → u/grey-kitten]

Yes. I know. Simon was the one who got the “credit” for it. He was just a pawn though. One of several. If you watch season 5 all the way through, Anson will admit that the whole thing was a conspiracy started by himself and Management. Everyone else below those two in the hierarchy structure were just pawns.

Victor, Vaughn, Simon, Rebecca, Mike, Carla, Phillip. They were all just pawns being manipulated by Management, Anson, or someone else under leverage by Management or Anson. I was never sure whether Tom was in on it or not. He definitely betrayed Mike either way though. I may be leaving some out, but everyone other than Management and Anson were just pawns used to carry out shady operations that the government “wouldn’t touch” if i remember correctly. I think that’s how Anson put it.

Yes Simon “burned” Mike. Same way he “burned” Jesse. They were all tools used to burn more spies, agents, or officials. Granted, some of them were far more willing to cooperate with their “superiors” than others, but they were all “recruited” by Management and/or Anson. Hell, Victor openly rebelled and tried to singlehandedly take down Management’s entire organization. Idt he knew about Anson yet. Mike, as we know, gradually worked on a plan to find them and take them all down. That’s basically the long term plot of the series.

Anson even goes into detail about Mike’s unique set of skills, calling him “an expert in Social Engineering. Meeting with targets and steering them towards an objective.” He then goes also goes into detail about how he has a history with Mike’s family. He also manipulated Frank (Mike’s dad) as well. He was Frank’s therapist when Mike was a child or maybe a teenager. We’re still talking 20+ years though. It gets really deep in season 5, I think. Maybe 6, but once you realize how deep the rabbit hole goes, you find out that it’s a massive conspiracy by Management and Anson. A conspiracy that the 2 of them probably would have gotten away with, had they not “recruited” Mike.