‘Burn Notice’ season 5, episode 12 preview: Preparing for tragedy, hope in series finale

Tonight marks the beginning of the end of the “Burn Notice” journey, as in the matter of just a week, we will be saying goodbye to one of USA’s most-popular shows. It, like “Monk” and “Psych,” helped to establish the network as a major player in the summer months, and with these final episodes, we expect to see a resolution of sorts to Michael Westen’s quest to escape being burned, and to be able to go about his life as a reasonably-free man yet again.

The only thing that has been confirmed about next week’s finale is that someone will die during it. We’ve ruled out a couple of characters due to potential spin-off talk, but everyone else is still be at play. Regardless of who dies, though, executive producer Matt Nix said recently that one of the goals for the end of the series is to give a sense of validation and respect to the viewers for sticking around as long as they have:

“’Why have the last seven years mattered? Are those things that we’ve addressed over the years real?’ I think the answer to that has to be yes … The final two episodes are about choices and sacrifices and not just about being sad or killing off the character. It’s also about taking seriously the things that we’ve talked about.”

The death of Michael’s brother is probably one of the strongest examples that the series has given to this point that there are a set of consequences that come with taking on this life, and having so many dangerous people know who you are. This may be at times a fun show that feels like a summer movie every week, but the depth of the characters and the mythology make it more than that.

If you missed the news yesterday, click here to see further what Nix and the network’s bosses had to say about “Burn Notice” coming to a close after all this time.

Photo: USA