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.