Burn Notice returns tonight with a crazy, action-packed two hour mid-season premiere. Michael and the gang have to find a way back into the country while dealing with Nate’s killer and Michael’s corrupt mentor. Jeffrey Donovan spoke with reporters about the rest of season 6 and what he sees for Michael and the gang in season 7.
Now that Michael knows who burned him and he’s tracked down his brother’s killer, what’s next for Michael now that he doesn’t have that driving force behind him to stay in the spy world?
I think that the fans are going to love this last part of Season 6 because it focuses on Nate’s death, finding that killer and bringing him to justice.
And I think that you’ll see a more of a hell bent Michael, more personal than you’ve seen him try to kind of navigate the waters towards getting back in with the CIA. And then at the end of the season, you know, it’s a bit of a cliffhanger.
There’s a huge event that happens between Michael and Fiona that will propel Season 7 which if all goes as planned, will be a very different kind of Burn Notice because of the trajectory but no less kind of dangerous for Michael.
But I think it’ll be more personal next year than it will be professional.
You mentioned that this season will be a little more personal because it’s about Nate, and the relationship is strained with this mother. Might Michael makes some mistakes because the stakes are different this time around?
Yeah. That’s a great, great observation. I think anything that’s personal and emotional will always cloud judgment. You know, one of the fun things I’ve kind of developed with Matt [Nix] is in real life, with a normal person, you are in every day life with your family and that’s easy.
And then you go to work and that’s hard. And you show the strain at work because the stakes are so high. What was hard to kind of convince a lot of directors who were coming in was they would always want me to have kind of an intense high stakes moment when I was being chased or shot at.
And I always thought that’s wrong, it doesn’t ring true. It’s the opposite. Michael’s judgment is so clear when he’s being shot at or he’s being chased or he’s trying to figure out a solution with a bottle of Clorox and a car battery. That’s all clear to him and it’s objective.
When he’s at home with his mom or he’s talking to his brother Nate or he’s in a fight with Fiona, those are the most subjective, emotional moments for him and he doesn’t know how to handle it.So what I always said was he’s out of his element when he’s with his family and friends and he’s in his element when he’s being shot at and that’s kind of counter-intuitive.
So this last season it’s all about his judgment being so clouded and so subjective because of how his feelings towards his brother are, what happens to him and what his mother accuses him of. I mean those kind of – those kinds of stakes Michael has never really dealt with.
How do you think that the fact that Michael and Fiona are giving into their relationship completely is going to affect them both personally and as co-workers?
Well, you know, listen Michael and Fi are as dysfunctional as they get. I don’t think them becoming closer or them growing apart is really going to affect what probably is an ultimate time bomb between those two.
There’s nothing written or any story that I’m kind of referring to but I think that down the road these two are going to combust. I mean they have to because I mean she’s nitro and he’s glycerin and they are going to blow up.
But how they blow up is going to probably be very unique to them. Blowing up to them might be them getting married. You know? And but blowing up may be also them, you know, killing each other.
You know, I don’t know but I know that the more conflict that those two have I think the best for the show. I think when they become romantic and, you know, cute towards each other I think that’s where the show kind of gets boring.
So I think that you’re probably going to see more of a combustible Michael and Fiona in Season 7.
Do you think that Michael could ever go back to being just a normal CIA agent?
I don’t know. Good question. I think that the end – the season finale which I think the audience is going to be shocked at, Michael makes a decision which affects not only his friends but mostly Fiona. I think there’s going to be a huge betrayal that you’re going to see.
And I think the audiences are going to kind of be excited about Season 7 to see where Michael will go once he made this kind of – probably one of the worst decisions he’s ever made.
Can you talk about how Michael and Madeline’s relationship is going to change this season? And I mean can they ever get back to where they were do you think?
You know, I think that you’ll see mending in the latter part of the season. And I think that Madeline’s love for Michael is unconditional in the best way.
But what I think is the hardest thing on Madeline is not seeing Michael go back into the CIA or do a job or maybe cross the line in accomplishing some kind of mission. It’s when he hurts his friends.
And I think at the end of this season you’ll see Michael make a choice that I don’t think that Madeline will be able to justify. But like her love has been for six seasons it’s unconditional and I think that she’ll try to find that compromise.
But Michael’s going to put his friends and his mom in a very difficult position at the end of the season.
Burn Notice returns tonight, Thursday, November 8 at 10 pm ET on USA for the last few episodes of season 6.
(Image courtesy of USA.)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Contributing Editor and Writer for Collider, BuddyTV, TV Fanatic, CliqueClack, and other publications. TV criticism, reviews, interviews with actors and producers, and other related content. Founder of TV Diehard.
