Prison Break 11/27

We resume precisely where we left off.  Mahone has his gun trained on Michael and Lincoln.  He tells them to turn around, but Michael says Alex will have to murder them face to face.  Michael and Lincoln’s salvation appears in the form of the border patrol, who won’t believe that Mahone is FBI until they verify.  Mahone is forced to drop his weapon.  “Back in police custody” is likely not where Michael and Lincoln saw this night ending up, but hey, it’s better than dead.

Sucre is in the escape plane on his way to Panama, but border patrol is following them in a jet.  The pilot gives Sucre a parachute and jumps out of the plane himself.  They’re over Mexico.  Sucre jumps.

On the news, they report that the brothers have been apprehended a few miles north of the Mexican border.  They report that Mahone was the one who apprehended them.  Asian “behind the scenes” agent is watching the coverage, and he doesn’t look happy.  T-Bag is also watching the coverage in a bar where he hears he’s one of the four remaining escaped cons.  I have a problem with the fact that T-Bag is up walking around in a bar mere hours after he chewed off his own hand.  It just doesn’t seem realistic.  Shouldn’t he be bleeding or something? It’s like the thing just detached.  Anyway, fortunately for T-Bag, there’s another man with a prosthetic hand in the bar.  T-Bag approaches him, does the old “I’m a solder recently returned from battle” routine and inquires about where he can get himself a nice prosthetic hand like his.  The man insults T-Bags manhood, and T-Bag eyes his hand enviously.  I’m no expert, but T-Bag’s deadly stare combined with the ominous music make me think that this man’s about to lose his nice prosthetic hand.

Back at Fox River, the new warden assures no lenience under the “new regime.”  He promises Lincoln a speedy execution upon his return and predicts that Michael will spend the rest of his life behind bars with all the charges he has racked up over the past few days. 

In the Chicago, IL, FBI Field Office, the Illinois DOC is coming to collect the brothers and take them back to Fox River.  Mahone is silently infuriated and obviously misunderstood.  The guy on the phone doesn’t understand Mahone’s frustration.  He says Mahone should feel good about being the one to bring these guys in.  He obviously does not.

The brothers sit in a jail cell together.  Michael says this isn’t over.  Of course this isn’t over.  Silly Michael, there are several more episodes in the season.  Michael is adamant that he gets a phone call—they’ll call Sarah and get her to prove Lincoln’s innocence—but apparently they’re not entitled to their call until they’re “in custody” when they’re in Fox River.  Here’s a question: what happens to Michael after they “prove Lincoln’s innocence?”  The crimes he was imprisoned for he actually committed.  So he’ll spend the rest of his life in jail?  Sounds like a pretty raw deal to me.  Lincoln says there’s a lot of ground to cover between here and Fox River, and he doubts they’ll make it to the prison alive.  Creepy Asian behind the scenes man (does he have a name?) is on the phone with Mahone.  He’s upset that the brothers are alive and tells Alex to put a bullet in their heads.  A bullet?  That makes no sense, creepy Asian dude.  There are two of them.  Behind the scenes man insinuates that he’ll get to Alex’s family if he doesn’t follow through and kill the brothers.

T-Bag lurks outside a post office, watches a woman walk down the street and follows her in to a diner.  They make small talk about exciting things like food stuck in your teeth, and this woman knows stuff about teeth.  She starts talking about a gap between the 9 and 9 attracting food like a magnet, and then transitions to her ex.  Sexy.  OK, T-Bag is like the sketchiest character I’ve ever seen.  How he gets women in diners to open up to him about teeth and ex-husbands is beyond me.  If I saw him walking down the street I’d cross to the other side.  T-Bag asks if she’s ever been to Italy.  He pronounces it It-a-ly, emphasis on the it.  He spits out some line about how they enjoy wine every day with lunch in Italy, and invites Denise to “enjoy the rest of her lunch” with him, aka get snockered and get herself killed.

Bellick is in court, apparently at a bail hearing.  The judge denies bail due to the fact that he both displayed great resourcefulness in traveling across the country and left an angry phone message promising death to a man that is now dead.  Bellick’s headed to the big house.  What goes around comes around, big shot.

Alex takes out his gun in the privacy of the bathroom.  He points it vaguely at his own head, and it looks for a brief moment like he’s considering suicide, but he puts it away and exits the bathroom.  In a plastic evidence bag, Michael’s phone is buzzing and lighting up.  Of course, it’s Sarah.  Michael stares through the bars forlornly.  He could burn a hole out of those things with his steely stare.  HOTT.  Sarah’s says she’s not OK, she needs him to be OK, she just plain needs him, blah, blah, blah.

Cars arrive to transport the brothers.  Mahone produces his badge and says he’ll be personally escorting them.  When he’s told he can follow, Mahone gets upset, but the officer is intent on following standard procedure.  Michael continues staring like it’s his job.  Mahone is panicking.  He can’t seem to get in their cars.  Meanwhile, Kellerman calls creepy Asian behind the scenes man.  He seems confident that he can do something about “the problem” during transport.  Creepy Asian dude doesn’t seem impressed, but Kellerman seems confident that he pulls weight on the president, and says he says he can prove he’s an asset to the administration and finish the job he started.  Kellerman promises that if he gets the go ahead, when those brothers get in the van it will be the last thing they’ll ever do.  Speaking of Kellerman, he’s looking fairly chipper for someone recently seared in the chest with an iron, but who am I to judge?

T-Bag has a new hand.  Denise lies on the floor looking suspiciously unconscious, but it’s just a trick.  She gets up and asks “Sam” if he’s married because she’s worried about ending up with another loser.  T-Bag says the only “side” he’s interested in is the inside.  How sweet.  T bag says he’ll pick Denise up after work and they can have dinner.

Lincoln and Michael ride to jail.  Creepy Asian guy calls Mahone and says he’s off the hook; he’s put Kellerman’s plan into action.  Apparently Alex’s new job is to make sure that Kellerman “catches a bullet.”  Alex is loathe to shoot Kellerman, or be their “Oswald” as he calls it, but Asian guy says he needs to fulfill their deal.  Asian dude promises someone in the room this will all be over soon and things will be back to business as usual.  Who is this guy with creepy Asian dude?  Another behind the scenes man?  Should I know who this is?

In the car, the brother are busy philosophize.  That’s definitely what I’d do if I were on my way back to prison: think about life.  Michael says he’d do it again, that he doesn’t regret what he did, just how it turned out.

Bellick’s in an orange jumpsuit.  His lawyer offers him a deal: 25 to life.  The lawyer says it’s a good deal, but Bellick doesn’t want it.  The lawyer says when the system wants him, it’ll get him, and apparently the system wants Bellick for dead.  Bellick accepts, but says part of the deal has to be that he’ll do his time in IL, near his mom.  Bellick seems to be pushing for occupation in Fox River, and frankly, I don’t get it.  I can’t imagine many worse situations than being locked up with people you’ve screwed over numerous times.

In the car, Michael stares at the ludicrously inefficient lock they’ve used to chain Lincoln’s feet together.  Seriously, it looks like one of those locks you get for free with cheap luggage.  Kellerman calls Mahone and they confer about the plan.  Meanwhile, Sarah sees on the TV that Lincoln and Michael were captured and are being transferred back to Fox River today.

In Albuquerque, the caravan goes through a tunnel, but there’s a road block.  There’s a semi blocking the road.  All the policemen get out, leaving the brothers virtually alone.  Hm, something’s not right here.  There’s a semi blocking the road.  They pull the one guard actually sitting with the brothers out to help get the semi off the road, and he conveniently leaves his keys behind on the seat.  OK, now it’s just ridiculous.  Two criminals left alone in a transport van with the literal keys to their freedom?  That just screams TRAP!  Mahone is staring at the car pleading with them to “take it.” Looks like he still hopes to take them down, and this potential escape gives him just the chance he needs. 

Michael and Lincoln, being the smart guys they are, think about the improbability of being left in an unlocked, unguarded vehicle with the keys.  Lincoln thinks it’s their only shot, but Michael says it’s Mahone’s only shot to kill them.

T-Bag goes to the post office to pick up Denise.  He says he’ll take her wherever her heart desires.  He asks her to look up a forwarding address for him—I’m supposing the address of his ex-lover, aka “cousin.”  She asks “Sam” what happened to his hand because she says she wants to know him and know everything about him.  Man, how dumb is this woman?  A creepy guy picks her up in a bar, sleeps with her, promises her anything she wants and uses him to look up his “cousin’s” forwarding address so he can inform said cousin that she’s due some inheritance money and she thinks she’s hit the dating jackpot?  Idiot.  All of a sudden, Denise’s dreams of living out her life with a sketchy man in trailer park paradise are come shattering down around her sensible post-office shoes when she matches T-Bag up with the “wanted” picture on the wall.  Frankly, I’m surprised no one has recognized him yet.  So he dyed his hair.  Big deal.  He’s still the same super-sketchy, super grimy T-Bag. 

Bellick, in his infinite wisdom, is expecting special treatment at Fox River, but apparently the new warden is anti-special treatment and wants to make an example of Bellick.  He’s being put in the general population, and his room mate is the big creepy dude he stuck Tweener with when Tweener wouldn’t do his dirty work.  He greets him with an especially creepy “Welcome home, boss.”  Oh, Bellick.  I almost feel bad for him.  I mean, he’s an awful guy and an idiot, but no one deserves this.

Sarah is in a bathroom with a straight razor and some freaky camera action is going on.  She scratches the razor on the mirror.  Why?  She keeps wetting the razor and scratching the mirror.  I don’t get it.

The pilot from Sucre’s plane is lying on the ground dead.  Apparently his parachute didn’t open.  Sucre was more fortunate—he’s standing above the pilate, alive.  He puts on his quasi-beret and walks away.

The transport cars get ready to move.  Michael muses that if they run now they’re giving Mahone permission to shoot them.  Lincoln counters that if they go back to prison Michael’s in for life and he’s dead in a week.  Excuse me, rock?  Hard place?  Meet Michael and Lincoln.  Lincoln gets the keys and unlocks them just as they start to move.  They look at the door.  They realize they have no idea what’s behind it.  They go.

We return from commercial.  Michael and Lincoln are running in slow motion.  The police draw their guns and shoot, but they’re not quick enough.  Chaos ensues, and Mahone slips away.  He follows, although I’m not sure how since they locked the door behind them.  Mahone keeps whipping around corners and drawing his gun all secret agent like, but the brothers are never there.  Mahone calls Kellerman; he says they’re on the move.  It looks like they’re running toward Kellerman, and this was the plan all along: to get them to escape and run right into the waiting crosshairs of Kellerman’s sniper rifle.

T-Bag rings the doorbell at his ex-girlfriend’s house.  She thinks it’s a delivery man, but looks up to discover her worst nightmare.  T-Bag walks in and says “Teddy’s home.”  This episode is certainly heavy on the creepy reunions.  First Bellick and now T-Bag.  If there’s one thing I can be guaranteed of on Monday night, it’s that the creepiness never ends on Prison Break.

Lincoln and Michael exit the tunnels and head for the surface.  Alex calls Mahone to say they’re “improvising;” apparently the surface is not what Kellerman and Mahone had in mind.  Sarah walks down the street with shorter hair.  Apparently that’s what she did with the razor.  It’s not a big change, I’m not sure what exactly she hoped to accomplish.  She tosses a lot of stuff in the trash—a cell phone, her old ID, some cash.  I suppose she’s trying to start over, but I’m not sure how tossing her cash helps her do that.  It seems to me that cash is an essential element of starting a new life, but what do I know?

Michael and Lincoln are sandwiched between Kellerman and Mahone.  Kellerman aims . . . AND SHOOTS MAHONE!  HOLY CRAP!  I did not expect that.  Kellerman says president Reynolds ruined their lives, and she ruined his too.  If they want to take her down, they just found their inside man, but it’s got to be now.  I’ve got to say that as far as unexpected twists go, this was a good one.  Well done, writers!  I commend you on doing something I did not expect.