The third season of the American television spy drama Burn Notice premiered on June 4, 2009 on the cable television channelUSA Network. Season three consists of sixteen episodes, split between a nine-episode summer season and a seven-episode winter season.
Season overview
Season 3 picks up with Westen, having lost the protection of "Management," now under surveillance by Miami Detective Paxson, who has been tasked with monitoring his activities. Michael is able to secure the arrest of a major Miami criminal Paxson has long been targeting, and he threatens to reveal the true circumstances of the arrest if Paxson does not stop following him. Paxson agrees to the deal. Michael is soon contacted by a man named Tom Strickler, a "smooth-talking, gregarious freelance spy broker", who offers to unburn Michael in exchange for his help with a potentially lethal job. It is clear to Michael that Strickler has major, if shadowy, connections, but appears to be the first person he has met capable of getting him his old job back. At first it seems to work, and Michael is able to confirm, through interactions with undercover CIA agent Diego Garza, that movement is being made on his burn notice. In the midseason finale, however, Michael is forced to kill Strickler to save Fiona's life. The action has unforeseen consequences, including the murder of Agent Garza. Following Strickler's death, Westen is contacted by an associate named Mason Gilroy, who is responsible for the murder of Garza. Gilroy informs Michael that he wants Michael's help on an extremely lucrative operation. Believing Gilroy to be planning something dangerous, Michael plays along to uncover the plot with the aim of eventually foiling it. After performing several errands for Gilroy, Michael learns that the job involves a maximum security prisoner being rendered from Chile to Poland. Gilroy's job is to divert the plane to Miami, but he is double-crossed and blown up. Before dying, he informs Michael that the man behind the operation is named Simon, a man who committed the crimes used to burn Michael. In the Season 3 finale, Michael solicits help from Management to stop Simon. Michael successfully captures Simon but is arrested himself, while Management states that Michael has a "big future." Michael is taken to a mysterious room, where he sits as the season ends. Actor Michael Weston appeared in one episode as a schizophrenic MIT graduate who needs Michael to protect him from what he thinks are aliens selling the names of undercover spies. Also, Sharon Gless was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her work in this season. Gless was also reunited with her former Cagney & Lacey co-star, Tyne Daly, for the episode "A Dark Road".
