This week on Prison Break, we're reminded right off the bat that several different kinds of shit are poised to hit the fan. For example, before he was Michael's best pal, Kellerman worked Dr. Sara over, and not in the good way, and only her stainless steel balls kept her from a watery, porcelain, claw-footed grave. T-Bag is teaching his family how to love him again. At gunpoint. Bellick and Mahone have struck up a partnership. Not to mention that Sara, who finally connected with and batted her eyelashes at Michael over the phone, is about to meet Michael's new friend, Not!Gay Not!Lance the Torture-Proficient Not!Addict. Also phone flirting? Kellerman. With President Bitchface! Dunnn!
2.16 "Chicago." Dr. Sara steps off of a train in Evansville Indiana. Life on the lam looks good on you, Doc! Michael's hovering around the station. As he sees her, his steely eyes soften and his eyebrows float up to an appropriate human distance north of his brow bone. He looks genuinely relieved to see her. He probably feels pretty bad about the whole wacky misunderstanding which resulted in her entire life crumbling to bits all around her in a matter of days. D'oh. Anyway, they hug like they mean it, and there are actual smiles and everything. Meanwhile, Kellerman gets another call from his girlfriend President Bitchface. "It's funny how you only call me when you need me," he snits, and all of a sudden I totally buy that he really did at one point luuurrrrve her. Again, this is almost certainly Paul Adelstein's fault. He's all scruffy, which is TV shorthand for "loose cannon!" so I don't know what to make of it, but it could very easily be a red herring. She's speaking in Chicago tonight, she says, just bring the oaf and the smartass down there and everything will be back the way it was. He just says he has to go and hangs up. He's twitchy and conflicted.
Sara shows Michael the key that fell out of her dad's pocket as they were taking him down from his not!suicide. She doesn't recognize the insignia and neither does Michael, but he glances at Kellerman and tells her they have someone working with them now. Awkward! The music goes "dunnn!!" for us in case we haven't done so in our heads, which of course I have. Sara just stares at him, mouth agape.
I am sorry to have to tell you that T-Bag is spooning in bed with Susan Hollander. He kisses her and asks her how she slept. Oh, she probably dreamed about lots of crying and throwing up, but that's just a guess. T-Bag: "Tell you what. I'll go unlock the kids and make us all breakfast." Ha! There's a family man for you.
She doesn't want him getting the kids, and he waves around the big knife he's kept next to the bed, mostly just to remind her who's boss, and make a big show of cutting her restraints. This can't work, she says - the Welcome Wagon lady is coming today and if no one answers she'll know something's wrong. Plus, she tries, what if Welcome Wagon Lady recognizes Teddy Bear? Susan wouldn't want him getting in to trouble. "No trouble at all!" he says, shoving her handgun in to his waistband and going off to wake the kiddies.
Sara, Linc and Michael approach Kellerman at the train station, and he says "Hello, Sara. What's done is done, we all want the same thing nnrrrghghhgrrrhhh" That last part is because Michael grabs him by the neck and pins him against the wall. Cool! Swoon! Angry Michael is dreamy.
Kellerman is sorry! He was just scaring her! You know, by killing her! Finally he convinces Michael that they need him and he knows it. Sara disagrees. They have the key, they can find out what it's for, but Kellerman can tell them right now: it's a private cigar bar in Chicago. Damn, writers! See, it's totally plausible cause that's where the whole thing started and it's where Sara's dad worked, but it would also fit perfectly with President Bitchface's plan! Oh Kellerman, your scruffy, smirky, gum-chewing Magnificent Bastarditude confuses and fascinates me.
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Comments (5)
loved that part where bellick practiced his G-man introduction in the rearview mirror of his shiny new truck. HI-larious.
getting bellick out of the joint was a smart move for the writers, as it simultaneously enables them to more easily integrate the search for the other escapees and reinforces the increasingly tenuous connection to the prison. damn hell yeah!
glad to see from the previews that stacy keach (the warden) is back on the scene next week, and that the plot may be returning to fox river. this show got unruly after the actual escape. for one thing, it's no longer a 'prison break'--it's 'the fugitive(s)'. and with all of the prisoners spread out, things got messy. now that there are fewer prisoners to catch, the story is regaining cohesiveness, but then again, the less distractions there are, the easier it is to spot the gaping plot holes (how on god's green earth could t-bag--by far the most dangerous of the escapees--not have been cornered yet? i know ted bundy busted out of jail in colorado and made it all the way to florida, but he had 2 hands and looked like a normal dude rather than a skeezy bottle-blonde truckstop hustler).
i also agree that the haywire/mahone standoff was one of the finer acting moments this show has seen. william fichtner is really on a different level than the rest of the cast, and while he's been saddled with some ham-fisted scenes (wouldn't mahone pop his precious pills BEFORE he started climbing the silo ladder?), when given the chance, he can actually make a cardboard character like mahone seem 3-dimensional and sympathetic.
glad to see sara get a little saucy on kellerman and then finally get to neck with michael, setting the hearts of millions of ladies and gay men aflutter. hell, i'm not even gay, and i'd probably make out with ol' wenty. he's soooo adorable.
1 of 5 | Posted by jack
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Posted on February 8, 2007 6:21 AM
I liked this episode a lot. So happy to see Sara and Michael together, and I wanted to jump up and down when they FINALLY made out! But of course the train had to stop before it got really good. :)
This show frustrates me somewhat b/c I want to see smart writing, plausible scenerios, good plot twists, etc and it doesnt always happen. I didn't see the "fake president" situation coming so that was pretty clever.
Thankfully Went is so fun to watch, even with that permanent mean face he has going.
2 of 5 | Posted by TVCheese
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Posted on February 8, 2007 7:55 AM
The plot holes bother me less and less as time goes on. It's kind of like a comic book, really. The actual storytelling, particularly the main "troubled genius stops at nothing to exonerate his lovable thug brother" plot, is usually interesting enough to outweigh the continuity/plausibility problems that would drive me bonkers on other shows. Maybe they're just good at distracting me.
Re: T-Bag, Robert Knepper does a really good job of reminding me that sociopaths, sort of by definition, are scary good at blending in and gaining trust from otherwise reasonable people. Ted Bundy even used a fake cast to get girls to trust him, so I think the fake hand kind of works to T-Bag's advantage. People don't want to be rude so they don't look too hard. So I buy it, but only because I watch way too much Court TV.
I didn't see the fake president thing coming either! That's another thing I like, is that this show surprises me pretty often, probably because I don't speculate about it obsessively.
And yeah, I'm really glad William Fichtner has something to do. Much like Adelstein with Kellerman, I love the Mahone character, but I definitely think that has a lot to do with the actor. He seems genuinely troubled and exhausted and desperate, not cartoonishly evil. I also think I've underestimated Wentworth Miller's talent, now that we're seeing more of the non-prison Michael. And Sara, actually. I barely noticed her last season, but she's knocked it out of the park lately.
I totally didn't see the Warden in the previews! That's fantastic. I've missed him.
3 of 5 | Posted by Loula
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Posted on February 8, 2007 9:11 AM
Loula - What a great recap! I LOL'd many a time. I actually think Kellerman is a genius character...and the actor who plays him is perfect. Just menacing enough to be believeable, just babyfaced enough to be extra terrifying.
4 of 5 | Posted by suedisco
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Posted on February 8, 2007 11:07 AM
I think I've only ever watched 3 complete episodes of this show. But I'm in the loop thanks to these great recaps!!
5 of 5 | Posted by fignuts
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Posted on February 8, 2007 11:58 AM