Unusual Approach
‘Let’s say that your getting here is a bonus.’

Wellingham and Peele are off to a conference. Gibbs uses the opportunity to force Burnside to take some time off. This, just as he’s quitting smoking.

Burnside is approached by a lovely lady. His instincts are that this is a honey pot. He pretends to play along, claiming to be a married man and public official, exactly the sort of person who would be perfect for KGB blackmail. This would be a real prize to bring home to Gibbs.

Willie is left to handle a request from Ross. An American officer is trapped in the Southwest USSR. Against his better judgment, Willie plans and mounts a rescue in his own style, one very different from Burnside's.

Comment
Easily the lightest of the 20 episodes. No one dies and there’s lots of comedy in the interplay among Peele, Wellingham and Burnside. Burnside’s quitting smoking and attempted seduction are major plot threads; the scene in which the Russians find Mike’s dirty pictures is more goofy than tense; and even C’s meeting with the DUS has a tint of irony.

With Burnside away, Willie is very credible as Acting D-Op's. (Might he have taken the job permanently had there been a fourth season?) It’s Jeff Ross, however, who acts most like Burnside, as he deviously manipulates SIS into doing his dirty work.