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Enemies Closer
Season 3, Episode 13
Enemies-closer
Air date February 11, 2010
Written by Jason Tracey
Directed by Kevin Bray
Episode Guide
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Noble Causes
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Partners in Crime

Enemies Closer is the thirteenth episode of the third season and the forty-first episode overall.

Notes[]

Synopsis[]

When Michael's old acquaintance Larry shows up unannounced, it is up to Michael to clean up his mess. Meanwhile, Michael's brother Nate shows up with his new wife Ruth.

Spy Facts[]

It's dangerous to say no to a spy. In a business where motives are questionable and loyalties are skin deep, declining the wrong request can earn you a trip to the morgue. So if you're asked to soak in a Jacuzzi by a black ops sociopath who's paranoid about listening devices, you pick out your favorite trunks and wade in.

Preserving a corpse is not a frequent job requirement for a spy. But if you must, stashing a body is a lot like storing high explosives. Air, water and heat are the enemy.

Sometimes the least secure parts of a security system are the security cameras themselves. If leaves obstruct the lens because the landscaping hasn't been maintained, you can approach from a blind spot. And if you get close enough, borrowing the video feed is as easy as stealing pay-per view.

The key to surviving a fall into shallow water is safely displacing your body's mass. A flat surface floating on top can help absorb and distribute your weight evenly. Miss the target, and you may as well be jumping right on the concrete.

Orchestrating a fake sighting isn't a job that calls for subtlety. It's not enough to dress an impostor in the right clothes. You need to make grand gestures and attract attention to colorful details. Do it right and eyewitnesses will be lining up to swear they saw a dead man buying drinks.

Every class of criminals have their own set of fears. Usually the bogeyman lives in the mirror. Thieves triple lock their door, embezzlers check their bank accounts obsessively, and cartel soldiers get the hell out of any car that won't start right away.

The key to fake surveillance is delivering real boredom. If someone suffers for the information you're feeding them, they're much more likely to believe it.

Large amounts of cash present a huge temptation to steal, to kill for, to counterfeit.

After a career spent doing bad things for good reasons, it's hard to say exactly where you draw the line. You might not know exactly, until someone asks.

Turning an asset is a multi-step process. You back them into a corner, you pile on stress, you create tension with the people they trust, and if you can cut them off from good influences so you're the only voice in their ear, they're much more likely to listen. It's a formula that works so well, it even works on spies who ought to know better.

Weighing operational risk is tricky when your life is on one side of the scale. Withholding flight plan data may put your life in danger, but you try to remember that if you jeopardize thousands of innocent lives to save your own, you wouldn't want to live with yourself anyway.

Full Recap[]

This week’s private meeting with Gilroy was in the hotel hot tub where he told Michael Westen that the records he had been after previously were destroyed and now he needed to get 6 weeks of private flight data in and out of Miami. M told him that he would have to have "double my fee," then asked Sam to obtain the records through his buddies at the coast guard.

Back at the loft he found a break-in and a dead body on the floor – as well as Larry, the un-dead spy. The dead guy had a Santa Muerta tattoo with six tears – a pro assassin with 6 kills. Larry explained that the sicario (hitman) had been sent by a man named Carlos, the guy who ran the cash processing for the cartel, and who wanted his money back. Larry admitted that he had used Michael’s name to steal $2 million and hadn't finished his usual “clean up” before Carlos had sent the hit man. Then Larry had the audacity to insult M as an “ol' softy” when M didn’t kill him for doing it. Larry's idea was for M and him to kill Carlos; then, Larry would give M a new ID -- which made Sam nearly want to tear Larry's head off. Larry had stolen a man named Larry Garber’s identity, a shoe salesman who had "fallen on a knife in Buffalo."  When M didn't respond, Larry gave M 24-hrs to decide to join him. They put the hit man’s body, whose ID said he was Justino Valverde, in Fiona’s neighbor’s bath tub which wasn’t being used.

M went to warn Madeline about Larry and was introduced to Nate’s wife Ruth, a Vegas blackjack dealer whom he had known less than a month. M gave Nate a gun and asked him to stay and guard Madeline.

Sam and Fiona found the apartment Justino had been staying in with other Sicario's and tapped their closed circuit camera system. Sam did get the flight data from a friend but had words with M about deceiving his friends. Carlos, Justino’s boss, called his phone to ask what was taking so long and told him to go finish the job at the hotel Victor, a surprise Larry hadn't told M about. M found Larry at the hotel waiting for Jack Yablonski/Fleetwood who was the person he had hired to drop Michaels name and now was Carlos' other target. Carlos sent some others over to help kill Fleetwood but M needed to rescue him because his name was attached to the whole thing. He, Larry and Yablonski jumped off the balcony into the pool in order to escape the hit men. M needed to convince Carlos that the robbery was an inside job done by Justino (already dead) so that "the body count wouldn't go higher."

M rousted Carlos in a parking lot and told him about a "Justino sighting" in a bar (set up by Fiona) and that he wasn’t the one who had stolen the money.  Back at Madeline's, M found Nate and Ruth trying to convince her to move to Vegas in order to "not be around spies and murderers" so much; then, the poor hapless Ruth tried to shame Madeline into not smoking in her own house. Larry came to where Yablonski was and distracted M and Sam while attempting to kill Jack. M caught him and Larry expected that M would not fire the gun he was pointing at him – he was wrong... and got his hand wounded. Additionally he didn’t want to give up the $2 million but didn't argue with M. While M was with Carlos tailing Jack, they let Carlos hear a call that they were faking from Justino (remember he is dead) setting up a meeting.

Larry showed up to help Fiona dress the corpse and messed with her mind such that Fiona refused to help M any more. Back at Madeline's, Ruth refused Madeline’s salad saying she was "allergic to cucumbers" and turned down cold-cuts as well claiming she was also avoiding “protein.” Sam figured out from the flight data that only one day was different from all the rest of the six weeks and told M that he could only have the one day. When M argued about it, Sam stormed out saying he wouldn't help any more until "you get your head out of your butt," and that if M needed help he should "call Fiona." So M did the meeting with Carlos alone without any backup and was nearly killed because Larry had switched the money he was returning for counterfeit. Both Fiona and Sam refused M's phone calls. M had no way to get the money back from Larry, so he couldn't kill him; so, he had to let Larry think that he was going to help him kill Carlos. Cleaning his gun in his loft and stewing about Fiona and Sam, Nate came over to tell him that he had been calling and that M wasn't responding. M then discovered that Larry had switched his sim card in order to isolate him from the others.

M told Larry that he had switched his plans and now was going to blow up Carlos’ hotel in order to leave no trace; then called Sam to apologize. Sam advised that he thought Larry would keep the money close and in a place which would make it look like M was guilty if he was caught. They found that Larry had put it in M's punching bag. M told Fiona that part of him was like Larry; but, only a small part and that it got smaller the longer he was with her – so she said she’d help him make a bomb. At the hotel M eventually revealed to Larry that he had found the hidden money and had already paid off Carlos that morning; then, when Larry pulled a gun on him and was going to leave him to blow up with the bomb they had planted in Carlos' trunk, that it too wasn’t real, just counterfeiting ink. He showed that the counterfeit bills were partially burned in Carlos' dumpster and finally said that "Larry Garber had already called the police" to snitch on Carlos'. Larry had to let M go because the police were coming and knew his name; but, said “there will be another day.” M told Yablonski that if he ever came back to Miami he would kill him himself. Nate and Ruth were saying goodbye to Madeline when M got there. M reminded Madeline that he had only said "IF you wanted to stay some place safer" NOT that HE had wanted her to go. She said that she had a life here with him and Sam and Fiona… and besides "I can't stand that woman." M gave Gilroy only the one flight plan, hoping that he wouldn't take umbrage: "Chili to Poland, tail number 4-whisky-x-ray-alpha 803 Registered to a faceless corporation in Santiago." M asked "what’s on the plane" and Gilroy claimed “a weaponized plague and the vaccine to match.”  M told Sam – "Gilroy's a damn good liar."

Cast[]

Main[]

Recurring[]

Guest[]

  • Dash Mihok as Jack Yablonski/Fleetwood
  • Carlos Gómez as Carlos
  • Kylee Cochran as Ruth Westen


Trivia[]

  • Seth Peterson (Nate Westen) and Kylee Cochran (Ruth Westen) were married in real life.
  • This is the second episode in a row in which a character falls and breaks his ankle.
  • Jack Yablonski/Fleetwood correcting Michael when he referred to the plan as a trick saying, "So it's an illusion!" and the fact that he is a terrible magician, is an homage to GOB from "Arrested Development."

Continuity Errors[]

  • When Fiona jumps the fence, she is wearing wedge heels. When she lands, she is wearing flat sandals.


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