The seventh and final season of the American television spy drama Burn Notice aired from June 6, 2013 to September 12, 2013, on the cable television channel USA Network. The 13-episode season was ordered by USA Network on November 7, 2012. In May 2013, the network announced that this season will be the show's last. Production on the series wrapped on July 31, 2013.
Season overview
After making the deal to get his friend and his mother released from prison, Michael is once again working for the CIA, this time under his new handler, Andrew Strong (Jack Coleman). Operating deep undercover in the Dominican Republic, a bearded Michael spends nine months posing as an alcoholic ex-spy, committing the occasional crime to pay the rent in order to attract his target and old friend, Randall Burke (Adrian Pasdar), who is suspected to be the leader of a terrorist network. After Burke watches him for six months, he finally approaches Michael with a potential job opportunity. To sell his cover, Michael acts desperate for a job, but Burke is hesitant and tells Michael to take care of himself. After meeting with Strong at a baseball game to update him about his meeting with Burke, Strong reminds Michael of their deal; in return for Strong saving his friends and mother from life in prison, Michael has to take Burke down. Later that night, Burke and his associate, Pablo visit Michael and agrees to give him a job under one condition; Michael quits drinking or else he gets a bullet in the back of his head. He also tells Michael that he's not just offering him a new job, he's offering him a new life and in this life, there are no second chances.
Meanwhile, Sam, Jesse, Fiona, and Madeline are back in Miami, living their lives without Michael. Sam is back with Elsa (Jennifer Taylor), Jesse is back at his private security firm, Fiona is bounty hunting with her new boyfriend, Carlos Cruz (Stephen Martines), and Madeline has quit smoking to try to get custody of Nate's son, Charlie since Ruth is in rehab. They come together again when a mysterious man using different cover IDs (Nick E. Tarabay) begins asking around about Michael. He finally succeeds when he pretends to be a child custody specialist to trick Madeline into revealing that Michael is working on a government assignment after making a deal with the CIA to get them all released from prison. When Fiona asks what Madeline told him about Michael, Madeline is horrified that she accidentally put Michael in danger.
Meanwhile, after Michael and Pablo complete a job for Burke which was to blow up a bunch of satellite equipment in a security firm, Pablo gets a call from the mystery man in Miami and learns that Michael is still working for the CIA. To preserve his cover, Michael floors it through the police checkpoint, leading to the cops shooting them and the car flips over, killing Pablo. That night, Michael lies to Burke about the reason Pablo was killed, claiming that Pablo panicked and Michael was trying to get them out of there. Burke says they lost a hero and their mission continues because of what he did. Burke decides to lie low for a few days and tells Michael to stay strong and be ready. The next day, Michael meets with Strong and asks about his cover. Strong informs him that someone's been asking about him in Miami. Michael reveals that the Miami contact was Pablo's, not Burke's and he won't sit on this secret forever.
Michael returns to Miami with Strong and the CIA but is forbidden from contacting his friends, although the CIA arranges for Michael to have a private meeting with his mother, Madeline to get her to stop asking about him. Afterwards, Michael meets with Strong and begins spying on his friends, who are tracking the mystery man, identified as Dexter Gamble. As Michael spies on them, he remembers his time in Ireland with Fiona back when they first met. As Strong, Michael, and the CIA monitor their investigation, Gamble kidnaps Fiona. Michael is angry with Strong and blames him, but Strong insists the only way to save Fiona is to finish the job. Strong gets in contact with a Special Response Team and wants Michael to give them more information about Gamble, but gets angry when he notices that Michael took off. Michael chases after Sam, Jesse, and Carlos to stop them from meeting with Gamble since their plan was too risky. Strong then finds Michael and yells at him for going off the reservation, but Michael has a way to salvage their operation, save Fiona, and kill Gamble.
Michael then gets in contact with Gamble as the CIA and SRT operatives are in place. Gamble demands $1,000,000 divided into five different currencies, a fueled-up jet, a Canadian passport, and a clear path out of Miami. Michael agrees to the deal but wants to talk to Fiona. Gamble refuses, so Michael refuses his deal and begins to walk away. Gamble stops him and lets him talk to Fiona for ten seconds, giving Michael time to say "It's time to be brave, little angel", which gives Fiona the signal to get down and gives the CIA and the SRT the signal to kill Gamble. After Fiona is rescued, Strong praises Michael for his plan working and tells him they should get back to the Dominican Republic to finish their mission. Michael then talks to Sam and Jesse, apologizing to them for spying on them and for not contacting them. Sam says they're just glad he's okay and offers their help whenever he needs it. Michael then talks to Fiona, who's touched he remembered their story but then kisses his cheek and says "Take care", letting him know it's over.
Michael returns to the Dominican Republic and upon seeing a sketch of his face on the news, he shaves off his beard and meets with Burke, who tells him that they're about to meet a guy who's going to help them steal a truck. Michael offers to bring in his people from Miami, but Burke turns him down. However, after Burke's guy demands $12.5 million instead of $5,000, Burke kills him and has Michael tell him about his guys in Miami. Michael then meets with Strong to request bringing in Sam and Jesse. Strong initially refuses and wants to use his operatives, but then agrees after Michael points out that Strong's people will wash up on the beach next to his dead body. Strong warns Michael there can be no mistakes and Michael promises that Sam and Jesse will be fine.
As Fiona helps Madeline deal with one of Nate's old bookies in Miami, Sam and Jesse fly down to the Dominican Republic on a dark plane, but after getting off the plane, Michael sets it on fire to prevent the cops from chasing them because the Dominican authorities believed it was a drug plane. After Jesse comes up with a plan to steal the truck and make a smaller mess, Burke wants them to use a sniper rifle to kill the guards if anything goes wrong. In private, Sam and Jesse tell Michael that they don't want to kill any random guards, so Michael finally reveals that the deal he made with Strong wasn't just to work for the CIA, it was to get close to Burke and take him down; if he fails, then they all go back to the CIA detention center for good. Michael, Sam, Jesse, and Burke make a play to steal the truck, but Sam is forced to shoot a guard to protect Michael, leaving him feeling guilty. As Michael and Burke prepare to make a deal with Rafael Serrano, Strong orders Sam and Jesse to go back to Miami. They refuse, so Strong agrees to let them stay and watch them take Burke and Serrano down.
As Michael and Burke meet with Serrano, Strong and the CIA operatives are in place. Serrano is excited about their deal, but Burke kills Serrano's guards, revealing that he just wants Serrano because he has valuable information for the people he works for, shocking Sam, Jesse, and Strong since the CIA believed Burke was the leader. When Burke's helicopter pilot spots the CIA operatives and informs him, Burke initially suspects Serrano until Serrano explains that he was just there to make a deal and didn't get the location until 40 minutes ago. Burke then suspects that Michael betrayed him and turns his gun on him. Michael continuously denies it and claims that Serrano is lying. Sam shoots at Michael to help him preserve his cover, so Michael orders Serrano to call them off or he'll snap his neck right there. Burke orders Serrano to do it, so Serrano calls for the team to fall back. Reluctantly, Strong tells his operatives to stand down as Burke torches the truck and has Michael bring Serrano to the helicopter. After they escape, Burke apologizes to Michael, but Michael confronts him about having a boss and demands answers. Burke says he can't give Michael the answers he deserves but Michael's on a path and all will be revealed in time.
Some time later, Burke orders Michael to find Serrano's daughter and acknowledges that he knows Michael doesn't like this job, but Serrano hasn't given him much of a choice. Michael finds Serrano's daughter asleep and aims a gun at her, while Burke tries to get Serrano to talk. Serrano finally spills what he knows; the woman he's looking for is in Cuba. Burke assures Serrano that they're not going to kill his daughter, to Michael's relief. Michael talks to Strong about the mission getting out of control and is upset that Burke almost had him kill a child, but Strong reminds Michael that he's not the only one on the line if the mission goes south. Burke has Michael bring Sam and Jesse to Cuba to help find a woman named Sonya Lebedenko (Alona Tal) and rescue her from the Russians. Michael calls Fiona for help and after he apologizes for making a promise to her and then breaking his promise, she agrees to help him frame a GRU agent for spying for the Americans. As she and Madeline kidnap the GRU agent, Michael goes into a Russian black site with a bug to warn them that the CIA is about to raid them. The Russians torture Michael with water but Michael claims that they have a traitor among them as Burke, Jesse, and Sam stage a CIA room with destroyed equipment and computers. The plan almost works to move Sonya, but the boss learns that their security is doubled, so he calls Michael a new friend of Moscow. Burke decides to go in and pose as Michael's CIA contact, claiming that he has computer codes they want. After talking to Michael alone for a few minutes, Burke tells him that Sonya is the key to everything and it's been an honor working with him.
Burke then sacrifices himself and reveals a bomb, killing himself and the Russian boss. Michael grabs Sonya and they escape with Sam and Jesse. Once they get to the forest, they look for a way out, but Sonya knocks Jesse out and disappears, so they scout the perimeter to find her. Sonya jumps down behind Michael and orders him to drop his gun. Michael tells Sonya he's on her side, but she says she knows who he is. Michael claims that he no longer works for the CIA; he was working with Burke. After gaining her trust, they, along with Sam and Jesse work to find a way out of Cuba, but Michael and Sonya become targets of a Russian manhunt, so Sam and Jesse pose as bounty hunters to throw them off the trail, and they all manage to hijack a plane and head back to Miami, where Sonya gets a call and learns that a hacker syndicate group exposed her identity, so they're going to destroy them. Meanwhile, Strong blackmails Fiona into helping Michael with his mission to take down the terrorist network, even going so far as to have her arrested. Although Fiona believes that Michael's deal with Strong was to get his job back, Strong reveals to Fiona that his deal with Michael is mission specific and they will all go back to prison if he fails to take down the terrorist network, shocking Fiona, so she reluctantly agrees to help but makes it clear that when the mission is done, she wants out. Strong then has Fiona released from jail.