Season 1

Complete listed story — includes the ending

1. Pilot

Michael Westen, a covert-operations agent working for the U.S. Government, is on an assignment in Nigeria when he suddenly and unexpectedly gets " burned ". After barely escaping with his life on the first flight he can get out of the country, he wakes up in his hometown of Miami, Florida, under government surveillance. There, he also reconnects with significant people from his past: his gun-happy ex-girlfriend Fiona; his beer-loving, womanizing best friend, ex-Navy SEAL Sam Axe; even his very lonely, chain-smoking mother Madeline. In order to make ends meet and track down leads on who burned him and why, Michael uses his skills helping people in significant trouble, beginning with an estate caretaker ( David Zayas ) who has been framed by his boss ( Ray Wise ) for a high-priced art theft. Finally, Michael hears back from his old handler why he was burned and that he can't leave Miami without putting his life in danger, a reality proven when he returns home to find pictures of himself scattered about with a message: "Welcome to Miami," the show's tagline. The teleplay by Matt Nix won a 2008 Edgar Allan Poe Award, honoring the best in mystery, in the category Best Television Episode Teleplay.

2. Identity

Michael's mother asks him to help one of her friends, a retiree who was scammed out of her life savings by a group of con artists led by a man named Quentin ( Mark Pellegrino ). After working his way into the con artist group and causing dissension among the ranks, Michael is able to convince Quentin to give him the information to access the stolen accounts, allowing him to return all of the money. Afterward, with the government watching even his family and friends, Michael calls them only to receive instructions to continue in his new job.

3. Fight or Flight

Michael's landlord asks him to help his top waitress, who is being harassed by a drug cartel because she is a witness to a brutal beating committed by their top drug-runner. In order to get the cartel off her back, Michael manages to convince them that their man is working with the feds as a cooperating witness. Meanwhile, he calls in a favor with an Egyptian spy he once rescued and asks for the file on his burn notice.

4. Old Friends

Michael's brother Nate comes to him with a request to help a family friend track down and rescue his estranged daughter, who has been caught up in a prostitution ring disguised as a modeling agency. To do so, he kidnaps one of two brothers that run the operation and trades him for the safe return of the girl, who finally learns the truth about the ring and tearfully reunites with her father. Meanwhile, Michael barely avoids assassination by an old enemy of his, a Czech assassin who has learned of Michael's burning. While trying to get the FBI out of Sam's hair, Michael decides to get as much out of the assassin as he can about the burn notice, then turns him over to them only to learn that agents with high-level clearance took him away and then killed him.

5. Family Business

Michael helps an airport security guard whose family is being threatened by a family of arms dealers with connections to the Mossad, posing as an arms trafficker so he can learn the secret location of their storage house to gain leverage and force them to leave Miami. Meanwhile, while Michael and his brother try to find who inherits their dad's classic Charger, he also learns that the FBI is still harassing Sam.

6. Unpaid Debts

Sam asks Michael to help a SEAL teammate of his named Virgil, a repo man who is having trouble reclaiming a boat for his own clients from Jamaican gangsters. Complicating matters is that the clients are dirty cops, and the boat has $10 million hidden on board, so, with the money in Michael's hands, the Jamaicans kidnap Virgil for leverage. At the exchange, things go south, as Michael and his team barely escape with Virgil while the cops and Jamaicans are in a deadly shootout. At the same time, amidst his breakup with Fiona, Michael meets Jason Bly, a government agent who has been sent to keep an eye on him and stop him from looking into his burn notice.

7. Broken Rules

A merchant ( Esai Morales ) based in Little Havana hires Michael for $20,000 to purge a criminal gang that terrorizes local businesses. Posing as a crazed (loco) terrorist competing for their territory, Michael gains the attention of the gang's leader Concha and destroys the organization from the inside. Simultaneously, he works with his money launderer friend Barry to blackmail agent Bly for a copy of his classified burn notice. Michael and Fi have a violent physical fight to resolve their relationship issues.

8. Wanted Man

In her side job as a bail bonds-woman, Fiona enlists Michael's help in tracking down a man who jumped bail, then they take his side when they discover he's been framed for the theft of a valuable jewel. While they work to track down the real thief and flush the jewel into the open so he can be arrested, Michael continues his hunt for clues and finds out who burned him.

9. Hard Bargain

A young man who house sits for several wealthy people asks Michael to help rescue his fiancée, who has been kidnapped for a million dollar ransom because her captors think he's rich. Despite the guy being a nervous wreck, Michael and his team manage to capture one of her kidnappers and turn him into their own asset, allowing them to track down the woman's location and bring the kidnapper ( Steven Bauer ) to justice. Meanwhile, Michael barely escapes being assassinated by a man ( Arye Gross ) pretending to be a government bureaucrat sent to review his burn notice.

10. False Flag

Needing a fake ID to go to Washington, D.C. to find the man who burned him, Michael takes the case of a woman ( Lucy Lawless ) who claims her son has been kidnapped by her estranged husband. In spite of his better judgment, and Fiona's instincts, Michael becomes emotionally involved in the case, only to discover that the woman is really an assassin sent to kill the man. While Sam and Fiona take the man to safety, Michael finds the assassin nearby and captures her, but she decides to jump to her death rather than go to jail. In the end, all Michael's work is in vain, as Sam tells him that the man who burned him is coming to Miami.

11. Dead Drop (1)

Season Finale, Part I: Michael and his crew help a woman who is being blackmailed by heroin importers, even as Michael plays cat and mouse trying to set up a meeting with the man who burned him, only to have the man ( Richard Schiff ) assassinated by an unknown sniper before giving Michael any useful intel. Things go really bad, though, when the smugglers kidnap Sam and force Fiona to go on the run.

12. Loose Ends (2)

Season Finale, Part II: With Sam being held hostage by heroin smugglers with Special Forces training, Michael must use his underworld connections to rescue him while trying to avoid mysterious new agents hot on his tail, led by a woman ( Tricia Helfer ) who keeps threatening him. After bargaining for more time, Michael eventually rescues Sam and destroys the smuggling operation, then turns right around to drive to the middle of nowhere, hoping to get answers about his burn notice from this unknown group.