SEPTEMBER 20, 2007
LOOSE ENDS

Doing the last episode of a season of television is a little bit like doing the last mile of a marathon. At least, I think it is – I never ran an actual marathon, but I ran cross country in high school, so I've been in some reasonably long races. Anyway, the point is, by that last mile, the end is in sight, and you're both exhausted and thrilled. Your feet are bloody, and you're delirious, but you're almost there. It feels great, except for the squishy feeling of your bloody feet, and the aching of your muscles, and the nausea.

We really wanted to make the last episode of Burn Notice something special, something really big. Beyond that, we didn't know much. We were still working on it up until the very end. Only a couple of weeks before, Alfredo and I were saying to each other "Jeez, we've really got to get cracking on the finale." And, finally, we did. We figured out how we were going to end the Burn Notice seasonal arc. We got some fantastic spy and combat tradecraft from our consulting producer, Michael Wilson. We figured out what we wanted to do with the family relationships, and we squished it all together into the script.

It's not that we're procrastinators, really. It's just that so many things change as the season goes on. It wasn't entirely clear whether the finale would be the two-part episode it turned out to be until relatively late in the season. Plus, stuff evolves. At the beginning of the season, we were still figuring out what an episode WAS. How much can we shoot in seven days? How far does our money go? What things work, and what things don't? By the end, we were only just getting into applying some of the answers to those questions. So much had changed. Michael and Fiona's relationship had evolved and deepened, Sam had become questions. All very exciting, but scary when you've got a few days to go and no script yet.

We got the script out, though, and Alfredo did a great job of prepping what was our biggest episode by a LOT. It was touch and go, as producers and directors and assistant directors debated whether the last episode was in fact shootable. Opinions varied, but most people seemed to think that it wasn't. The director, Steve Surjyk, has ice in his veins, and despite a terrifying schedule managed to keep his cool as we tried to cram this mega-episode into the time allotted. With Alfredo's help, and with the hard work of the production team, we figured out how to do it. More or less.

I arrived as we were shooting the teaser. It was exciting, and I realized as I sat there on the set with the director and realized that we had about as much action in the first four minutes of the last episode than we had in the ENTIRE first episode. It was just one of many things that had changed. Sitting there on the set – the first time in months I didn't have a script to work on – I had the opportunity to reflect on all of the things that had changed over the course of the season.

First and foremost, the characters. Watching the actors settle into the characters and grow was one of the most thrilling parts of the season. Jeff Donovan, of course, made Michael his own, bringing more humor, humanity, and depth to the role with each passing episode. Even after an entire season, I sit at the monitor watching him act and find myself grinning like my five-year-old son. Gabrielle Anwar really ran with Fiona, as well, and I think the evolution of her character shows up hugely in the finale. She's dangerous and attractive, of course – she always was. But with each passing episode, she got deeper and more interesting and more dimensional. Bruce Campbell is the soul of the show. I don't even know what Burn Notice is without him. All the writers have the same experience: when you're writing for Sam, you just hear Bruce's voice in your head and copy down what it says. And Sharon Gless? In some ways, she was the biggest discovery. Madeline's character is so much richer and more interesting now, and a lot of that is just watching what Sharon does and running with it. She's a joy to write for and just a fantastic actress. And finally, Seth Peterson as Nate, who I think really comes into his own in this episode as Michael's flawed but ultimately heroic shadow.

On the production side, too, so much was different. The first episodes we had to write without even seeing Miami. By the last episode, we all felt like we'd been in Miami for decades, and were able to write for that. Knowing what we could do with effects, with stunts, with the art department...all of that knowledge paid off in this final episode.

Production was exciting and scary – we were always just at the edge of being able to shoot the show. A few highlights:

• When Nate's truck crashed through the wall of the warehouse, it was secured by a special kind of security rope that keeps stunt cars from veering out of control and crushing something. It can't break, except that, uh...it broke. That shot where the truck blasts through the wall? Well, it keeps going until the truck smashes into the (fortunately un-manned) camera.
• The fight between Harrick and Michael took six hours to shoot. Perfect example of something we couldn't have done on episode one. We had to choreograph the fight, break it down into seven segments, shoot each segment in three sizes, and then cut the whole thing together in the editing room. It was exhausting for the actors, who had to do the same fight dozens of times, really hitting each other from time to time...they soaked through three changes of clothes, by my count.
• The explosion at the boat was gigantic, big enough to set your ears ringing a hundred yards away. Our stunt guys were absolute studs; when you see them dive away from the fireball, there's no trick photography involved. That's three stunt guys diving away from a giant fireball five or ten feet away from them.
• Bruce Campbell was the biggest team player ever in this episode. When he's getting choked and smacked around in the bowels of the boat, well...let's just say those weren't all stunt hits. The guy's amazing. Totally focused, great every time. We could cut together a whole different season of Burn Notice with Bruce's second takes and thrown away lines. I think next year we're going to set him on fire and have him do a scene, because he's just that good.
• Michael's scuba scenes were shot in the Miami river and in a pool onstage. Between Jeff Donovan, who is an accomplished diver, and his stunt double, who also dives, we were able to get some great stuff, but...MAN, is that stuff time-consuming. Next season, we'll try to do an episode that's all underwater. It'll be great, but it'll be five minutes long and cost ten million dollars.

At about 11:30 at night on the last day of shooting, we finally wrapped for the season. The next day, everyone packed up the Coconut Grove convention center, and went home. All the writers returned home, too, to finish post-production on the episodes and get ready for the next season. We start writers' prep for the next season about a week after the last episode airs, which means we're staffing up and getting the offices ready now.

Time for another marathon.