*Cough* "Dude, you wanna hit this?"
Oh man. This episode gave me a stomachache. Things look bad for pretty much everybody by the end of the hour. They pull off the super cool snorkel escape but encounter a number of obstacles, up to and including the fact that Whistler totally fucks them over. That boombox gunfire comes in handy though. Plus, Papa McGrady saves the day!
3.12 Hell or High Water. Okay, first things first: in the Previouslies, they remind us that a few episodes ago Linc and Sucre rented a shack in the middle of the jungle, then recorded gunfire on a boombox Sucre apparently swiped from a 1984 Run DMC video. And never mentioned it again. It's been bugging me ever since, so I'm glad to see it will be revisited. Anyway, we pick up where we left off, with the power shutting down at Sona, and our merry band of thieves all lined up in their tunnel with 30 seconds until the backup generator makes them all sitting ducks. T-Mac is last in line and I fear for his wellbeing. Lechero pops his giant bald head out first, followed by T-Bag and Bellick. But Michael holds back. T-Mac is antsy, but Michael's all "trust me, stay where you are." And vroom! The generator kicks in, the lights come back on, and Lechero, Bellick, and T-Bag are stuck in the middle of no man's land with all the lights on and every gun in the place pointed at them. The guards yell for them to stop, but Lechero doesn't listen and gets plugged in the chest. Bellick and T-Bag are pissing their proverbial pants, and possibly their literal ones as well. They surrender.
Meanwhile, Sucre is still in one of the little interview rooms at the entrance to the prison, being told he's got a warrant out for his arrest. When the alarms start going off, the guard has to handcuff him to a file cabinet so he can go check out yet another breakout attempt. The whole prison is freaking out, and guards are converging on Bellick and T-Bag left and right. Gretchen, in one of those big white unmarked vans used exclusively by janitorial companies and kidnappers, hears everything on a police scanner. Sofia and LJ are tied up in the back. Retchin says this better work, for everyone's sake. What she doesn't know is that Whistler is in fact still in Sona- specifically, he's huddled just underground with Michael, Mahone, and T-Mac. As Bellick and T-Bag are prodded along by machine guns, Bellick wonders aloud where Michael is. T-Bag shushes him, saying if Michael doesn't get caught they might still have a chance. Lechero, on account of the giant hole in his sternum, is not part of this conversation. He's still conscious, though, and gets dragged off after them.
Whistler freaks out, saying the guards know about the escape now, and dude, what the hell? What's your plan now? But Michael's all "This IS the plan!" Crouching in the dirt in close quarters with three other men who haven't showered in weeks? That's a crappy plan. But no, Michael really does know what he's doing, apparently. Mahone figures out that Michael lied to Lechero about how long they had to get across.
Linc is running through the jungle and stops to call Sucre, but the guard has returned and won't let him answer. Linc leaves a frantic voicemail saying they're counting on him - if he's not there, they're dead. Sucre stares helplessly as his phone buzzes on the guard's desk. He hands it to another guard to put with Sucre's "personal effects," which is never a good euphemism for "the stuff in your pockets." Regular people just have "stuff." Only prisoners, patients and corpses have Personal Effects. Anyway, they take everything away, and the guy tells Sucre there was an attempted escape, but they got caught, and one of them got shot. He does not get specific and Sucre frets.
Linc gets a call from T-Mac's papa. Aww. Linc tells him where to find a getaway vehicle he's hidden away, then confirms that he'll be on the 312.
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Comments (3)
so, seriously, how long does it take to produce an episode?
because i understand that the writers strike is juuuuust finishing up, and then we have next weeks episode, so if it only takes 2 or 3 weeks to write, film, produce, and edit an episode (which, now that i think about it, sounds foolishly optimistic), we could get back on track without too much of a hitch.
you know, i used to pride myself on not getting addicted to shows, the way some jokers get hooked on Lost, 24, Friends, Cpt. Kangaroo, etc. but who am i kidding? when PB went on hiatus i was shaking more than mahone without his crazy pills.
1 of 3 | Posted by josef | Posted on February 14, 2008 9:51 AM
This was a great episode. It had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I had a feeling that Whistler was faking his ankle injury when he kept telling them to just leave him behind.
Oh man when Linc was driving along in that big ass Suburban and those little cars are trying to run them off the road I was like oh come on Linc you are in that big bad rig you can sooo run them off the road. Just do it already!!!!
Here I was finding myself drawn to Mahone this season when last season I hated that man. When Linc was going to shoot him I thought on no! But I had forgotten all about Mahone killing Michael & Linc's dad the way he did. Oh how I'm torn.....but I must remember it was all The Company's fault he turned bad. : )
Great recap!!
2 of 3 | Posted by akgirl7 | Posted on February 14, 2008 9:57 AM
From what I hear, 22-minute sitcoms will only take a few weeks (phew, 30 Rock! Thank Jeebus!) but hourlong dramas will take a bit longer. I think 6-8 weeks is a reasonable ballpark figure. (Some shows do have scripts written, they just couldn't shoot them cause the showrunners were striking too.) I am a junkie for more shows than I care to admit.
Re: Mahone, this show is really good at that. I remember how much we all hated Kellerman when we first met him, and by the end of the season I wanted to have his evil, smirky babies. Same with Mahone, although Mahone does have a pretty good redemption thing going - he even pretty much told Linc he knew he deserved it but he did it for his family, which is what the brothers have been doing for three seasons.
Also, I have a guest spot this week recapping Tuesday's American Idol, which is the very first episode I've ever seen, so I should have an interesting perspective!
3 of 3 | Posted by loula | Posted on February 14, 2008 1:36 PM