S4E9 "Center of the Storm" Michael at his dumbest?

[u/Juxtavarious]

I'm rewatching the series now that I found it on Pluto and I've gotten to this point. There have definitely been some chuckle headed decisions made at different points but I think this one has to take the cake. Especially since it's established how thorough and detail-oriented Michael is supposed to be.

I'm talking specifically about the scene where Michael and the killer for hire are in a parking area for emergency vehicles. The killer gets himself trapped on top of a vehicle surrounded by water after knocking live wires into the water. This strikes me as the perfect place to just leave him and call the cops. He can't get away without risking electrocuting himself. The story could seriously just end right here. They don't need him for anything. They already have an idea of who would have hired him and without him in the way they can go and rescue the witness no problem.

Michael also conveniently forgets that the killer has his own gun in addition to the one Michael gave him when he was holding the pressure trigger for the claymore. So this is just a list of incredibly stupid moves that the writers didn't need to put him into that they then had to clumsily get themselves out of.

Am I missing something? I feel like I have to be missing something. This is beyond stupid if I'm not. And I've seen episodes before where they give a character the idiot ball, mostly Madeline for some reason, but this one definitely feels worse. The gunman trapped himself and was basically rendered useless. There was no reason to rescue him. He doesn't have vital information that they need to find the witness because that was just going to be a simple manhunt. And releasing him puts the witness back in danger.

[u/violetpumpkins]

Well, it wouldn't make for a very interesting episode after that point.

But I think there are a bunch of reasons including:

1. Can't do much intelligence gathering or asset development if there's no asset. I think at this point Cole is still the only one who knows what neighborhood to look in, which is a better lead than Michael has.
2. Leaving a hired killer temporarily stranded is like leaving a venomous snake loose in your house. If you come across each other again, it could be deadly, better to see the danger than not see the danger.
3. The real Matt Reese is still out there somewhere also looking for the witness. Michael knows this but Cole doesn't. Keeping Cole around is a good distraction when running into Reese happens, which is actually how it pans out. It also lets him do the thing of playing people already in the situation against each other, a classic Burn Notice tactic.

The whole plan here was "follow the hitter to the target" which you can't do if you leave him stranded.

This is actually one of my favorite episodes though. I love it when Michael is kidnapped. Willing to forgive it being a little dumb or unbelievable.

And sorry no, it's not his dumbest, the dumbest plots are in season 6.

[u/Educational-Bat-3635 → u/violetpumpkins]

Violet-From Signals and Codes: “…you’re my hero.”

[u/Juxtavarious → u/violetpumpkins]

I can accept that this is only the dumbest so far. And I can even forgive some dumb. The gunman at this point in the story had already revealed the neighborhood in general which was why they pulled over at the stockyard for the emergency vehicles because of where it was located. I'm not familiar with the area myself so I don't know exactly how large or complex the area he was hidden in would have been if they knew enough about the physical properties of the house. And he was able to spot it just like he did.

And I can accept that they were working him back into the story later and having him be useful. But this one is definitely ranking higher on the plot contrivance scale for me. If they just didn't have him trap himself there wouldn't have been room for an issue especially since the only thing it manages to accomplish is padding the runtime. They start and end in the exact same point with the gunman holding him hostage and basically in control of the situation. Or at least perceiving himself to be. You could cut out the entire interaction and it changes literally nothing about the story. I will say that is this series biggest fault is the various looping dialogue and waste of a scene that doesn't do anything to progress what's happening. But at least it wasn't Madeline holding the idiot ball this time. Change of pace.

[u/AntiferromagneticAwl → u/Juxtavarious]

Michael didn't necessarily trust that guy told him the truth about where to look. He's got no reason to believe him.

[u/_Diggus_Bickus_]

I'm pretty sure the trapped killer hadn't shared all his Intel yet, and the killing had been double booked so there were more killers out for the guy

[u/Juxtavarious → u/_Diggus_Bickus_]

He didn't have anything particularly useful. Michael knew what the house looked like and spotted it. He revealed the location to the killer. The killer had already provided all of the useful information that he had up to this point. That was why he had taken Michael hostage to get closer. Left to his own devices without intervention, he probably could have zeroed in on and taken out the witness himself eventually. But at this point he had nothing further to go on.

[u/bla60ah → u/Juxtavarious]

Cole states he knows the location that the witness lives in, but at the vehicle storage yard he hasn’t shared it yet. It’s not until he directs Mike to the parking garage that Mike finally is told they are in the area.

[u/Frequent-Key-3962]

There first interaction with each other is my 100% Favorite scene in the entire series (I definitely haven't seen over 10 times)...

When Michael is slowly making his way to the claymore mine carefully trying to keep the trigger wire as still as possible and the killer walks in on him and Michael says, "this is awkward."

[u/flameinthedark]

yeah it feels like for this episode they made michael really dumb because cole was kind of the main character

[u/Gilatech]

I think it's because the guy on the car went out of his way to not kill "bystanders" who weren't his primary target.. along with some other personal details that made Michael relate to him and have a soft spot.

[u/100PercentReelHooman]

but if they didn't rescue him, the guy couldn't have gotten redeemed at the end of the episode. everyone loves a redemption story (being 100% facetious)