Tonight, avid "Burn Notice" fans will watch the long-running spy drama's credits roll for the last time.
Viewers will be forced to say a reluctant farewell to CIA-spy turned covert operative Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan), Michael's ex-girlfriend and former IRA operative Fiona Glennane(Gabrielle Anwar), Michael's needy but caring mother Madeline (Sharon Ness) and Michael's spy colleagues.
The USA network series will come to a close after an impressive seven season run, making it one of the three USA shows-- along with "Monk" and "Psych" -- to make it past 100 episodes.
The successful spy drama began with Michael being "burned," or abruptly dropped by the CIA and left with nothing but support from his friends and family. As the series comes to an action-packed ending, Michael must choose between his allegiance to James' (John Pyper-Ferguson) terrorist organization and its plan against the CIA and his love for Fiona.
Creator Matt Nix spoke to TVGuide about Michael's ultimate dilemma.
"I had always had the idea that from very early in the show that, at some point, Michael would be confronting, essentially, the opportunity to become a version of the people that destroyed him, that burned him," Nix said.
For most of season seven, Michael has seemingly spurned the CIA, as well as his loved ones. Yet, Nix explains that Michael's moral quandary is far from black and white.
"In the last season, I didn't want it to be about: Now Michael is going up against a really, really, really bad guy who is really, really, really clever. Will he defeat him? Uh, yeah, he probably will." Nix said. "His adversary is someone he likes and believes. His allies are people he doesn't like and doesn't believe in so there isn't really a clear adversary. So what Michael is dealing with are his own demons and how does he battle his own ambitions."
"How does he reconcile family and career and what he wants to do in the world and the people that he cares about?" Nix continued.
The show, which for a number of seasons had a procedural focus and a case-of-the week format, has deviated from the original format in its final season. In recent seasons, the series moved away from Michael's job as a private investigator and instead focused on his battles with rivals like Anson (Jere Burns), James and Card (John C. McGinley).
"Part of the additional serialization was just finding a way to challenge myself and do something new. Change it up and really make the show hard to write again. Suddenly, we've thrown out all the rules about how you write a 'Burn Notice,'" Nix said. "For me and the actors and everybody, it's been about finding new things to be excited about."
"Matt and I wanted the layers of Michael Westen to be pulled away and to get to the core of who he is," Jeffrey Donovan told USA Today. "That journey is emotional. It's not tactical, it's not intellectual, it's all heart. Even the voiceovers changed this year to (become) more emotional."
The seventh and final season let the viewers have an in-depth look at Michael's character and his ultimate predicament: sever family ties and pursue a life as a spy, or retain the meaningful connections that limit his freedom to live as a covert operative.
"He came into the series as someone who was very disconnected from his friends and family," Nix explained. "At that time, Michael is breezily competent and pretty unconflicted about things. He's very interested in finding out who burned him in that first season and why," said the show's creator. "As Michael resolves a lot of those questions - he now understands who burned him and why - his relationships with the people in his life are really deepening."
For the most of the seventh season, Michael has become increasingly detached from relationships, giving the impression that he will, in fact, go it alone. However, his character is starting to see that such deep ties cannot be cut off so easily.
One such relationship is the complicated bond he shares with his mother. Sharon Ness told USA Today that their relationship has evolved over the course of the show.
"We had seven years to find our way back to each other. It's not that they didn't love each other," Ness explained. " She adored him, but she was mad at him and he was just cut off." But, she adds, "She grew and she actually became an asset" to Michael and his operative cohorts. "She's more than just a chain-smoking hypochondriac."
Nix decided to pull the plug on the show, despite its popularity, due partly to financial concerns, but mostly to ensure that the show goes out on top.
Nix said that the show's seven-season span seemed like "a healthy run for a TV series that would keep us from getting into the go-forever-and-go-stale territory."
"I have to say I'm really proud of the season," Nix added. "I feel like we did something unusual and exciting in experimenting with the show and doing new things up until the end."
Viewers are in for quite a series finale tonight. The final ending will include more edge-of-your-seat action, a major character death and the resolution of the Fi/Michael relationship.
Will Michael choose independence and rupture ties with his loved ones?
Find out on the series finale of "Burn Notice," which airs Thursday, Sept. 12 at 9/8c on USA.
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