'Burn Notice' will have a two-hour season finale on Dec. 16, and in the first hour of the USA show's finale, as you can see in the exclusive clip below, Michael Westen will be encountering some old friends.

Well, not so much friends as... guys Michael hates. But hey, at least they've known each other for a long time!

One of the old frenemies is Tyler Brennen, who's played by Jay Karnes ('Sons of Anarchy,' 'The Shield').

"I think Brennen's not used to being around people who are smarter or as smart as he is," Karnes said in a recent interview. In previous encounters between Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) and Brennen, the burned spy has not followed the arms dealer's orders and "walked away clean." But this time when he and Michael encounter each other, "Brennen's ego is involved. He's trying to settle a score."

In the clip below, Brennen explains a new business arrangement that he is imposing on Michael and Sam Axe. (The clip below contains some plot information about the first hour of the 'Burn Notice' finale, as does the rest of this story. If you don't want to see it, stop reading now.)

Yes, this is the episode I've been looking forward to since Matt Nix mentioned it at Comic-Con: Brennen and another Westen nemesis, the amiable yet scary hit man Larry (Tim Matheson), in the same episode, each of them trying to get Michael to see his (very twisted) point of view.

"This is not the smartest play Brennen ever made," Karnes said. "He's like a poker player on tilt. To have Weston [participate in his scheme] and bring in Larry the hit man -- that's not a great play. But his thinking is, 'I'm going to toy with Westen a bit and show him who's boss, show him who's smarter.'"

So what was the thinking behind bringing Larry into the mix?

"Brennen always shows up with some muscle," Karnes said. "But I don't think Brennen fully understands what Larry is capable of. In Brennen's mind, it's just, 'I've got to get some people to help me, and this guy has a past with Michael, and that's kind of fun for me.'"

Brennen has been a great addition to 'Burn Notice's' roster of recurring characters. Not only is the very smart arms dealer a great foil for Westen (as Nix told me in July, Brennen has "never believed a single word Michael has ever said"), Karnes knows exactly how to work within the show's unique mixture of dry comedy and action-drama.

"The thing I love about 'Burn Notice' is that it's a very serious spy show with a Noel Coward patina across the top of it," Karnes noted. "If the stakes were not high, it wouldn't work as a kind of a light comedy, and if it didn't have that light quality," the heavy stuff would be too dark.

Karnes, who also recently shot a heist film called 'Setup' with 50 Cent, Ryan Phillippe and Bruce Willis, will also appear in a recurring role in the new season of ABC's 'V,' which returns Jan. 4.

The project reunites Karnes, who played Holland 'Dutch' Wagenbach on 'The Shield' for seven seasons, with 'V' executive producer and showrunner Scott Rosenbaum, who wrote for 'The Shield.'

Karnes cautioned that he doesn't have a huge role in the second season (his role might expand if the show gets a third season), but he said he'll appear in a number of episodes as the new partner of FBI agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell).

"We went to the academy together, we're old friends," Karnes said. "Obviously she's running the resistance [to the alien Visitors] and I'm unaware. She doesn't know how much to trust me."

Karnes didn't want to say too much about where Season 2 is headed -- the show's actors are strongly warned about giving out spoilers -- but he noted that he's unlikely to be a lizard underneath that G-man suit.

"At this point, they can't kill me off or make me a V," Karnes said (in season 1, two of Erica's other FBI co-workers turned out to be Vs).

"What I have read so far [of Season 2] is terrific," he said of the season as a whole. "I think if you're a fan, you're not going to be disappointed."

And there's no dirt to report from the 'V' set. "Everyone is freakishly nice," he reported.

"The first day I was there, the wardrobe lady said, 'Everybody is really nice,' Karnes said. "And in my mind, I go, 'Yeah, we'll see.' But they're all genuinely so warm and such good actors, it's a lovely place to be and it's a great experience."


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