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Last week’s episode of Prison Break ended with something of a cliffhanger. If you remember, Lincoln did not follow orders from Susan B. Anthony, so she sent him a special delivery to make sure he would fall in line from that point forward. The box had blood seeping out from the bottom, and if you’ve ever seen the movie Se7en, then you just knew there was a human head inside. I made a random guess as to whose head it was, because I figured the writers wouldn’t kill off a main character. But after seeing episode 3×04, called “Good Fences,” I realized I was wrong. And now I’m totally pissed….

Michael: Michael continues working on an escape plan for himself and Whistler. This mostly involves silently surveying the prison yard, sending Mahone on cryptic wild goose chases, borrowing fake gold jewelry, and causing electrical outages so he can be sent out into “No Man’s Land” to make repairs. In short, he didn’t do anything concrete except solve one more prison crisis to get into Lechero’s good graces — and into a brand new cell with the view he wanted.

I guess I should also mention that Michael wired up the heretofore dead electrical fence so that a current now runs through it. That proves to be a critical point later on.

Mahone: Mahone was wackier than ever in this episode, thanks to the severe withdrawals he’s going through because of not getting his prescription meds. Michael tells Mahone that he’s in on the escape plan, on the condition that Mahone pull himself together. Mahone says he’s fine, then spends the whole ep looking for a black felt-tip pen for Scofield. Oh, and he also sees Haywire’s ghost throughout the ep, with Haywire constantly telling him that Scofield’s going to double-cross him.

At the end, Mahone shoots up some heroin that T-Bag gave him. He then confronts Michael by driving a homemade shank into the wall right by Scofield’s face. He tells Michael that he’s only breathing because Mahone chose not to kill him, so he better not be screwing around with Mahone on this one.

T-Bag: Murderous!Teddy is back. He decided to kill off one of Lechero’s drug-dealing henchmen in the prison. He makes it look like an accidental overdose, and then he takes over the dead guy’s job.

Bellick: Bellick tries to rat out Michael by telling Lechero that Michael’s planning on escaping and that he hid something out in the yard by the electrical circuit box. This backfires, however, because Michael is far too smart to get caught this early on in the game. Bellick’s punishment is to have scalding hot coffee poured all over his back.

Linc/Sucre: After an extended opening sequence, we see that it was indeed Sara Tancredi’s head in the box. Sara is gone, folks! Linc decides not to say anything to Michael about that little mishap just yet. Instead, he focuses on running more errands for Michael to help put the escape plan into motion. This involves getting in with the prison gravedigger, the guy who comes in and drags out the bodies of dead inmates.

Linc tries bribing the gravedigger with $15,000, which Susan B. Anthony graciously agrees to pay. She goes with him to make the payoff, but then the gravedigger gets greedy and says the $15,000 is just a start. Susan will have nothing to do with that, so she shoots the man on the spot. Michael is incensed because he needs that gravedigger in his pocket to make his plan work. Linc assures him they’re working on an alternative.

Later on, there’s another death at the prison. Michael looks out his cell window to see how it’s dealt with, and can’t help but smile when he sees that Sucre is the new gravedigger. That smile widens as he notices Sucre spray a special chemical on the fence, which, as Michael explains to Whistler, corrodes metal when it’s heated to a certain temperature.

My Reaction: Gah, I am PISSED that Sara is off the show. I finally allowed myself to read up on Sarah Wayne Callies’ contract problems with PB, and learned that the character wasn’t going to survive the season anyway, but there were plans to have her first do the full season. When that didn’t work, the producers tried to negotiate for 13 eps, then four, and then just a friggin’ phone call, but I guess the actress wasn’t very accommodating with them. I really read only one side of the story, so I’m not sure how accurate that is, but either way, it totally sucks.

I was a Michael and Sara shipper right from the start. On a show that’s completely dominated by men, this lone female character was totally needed. I now feel ripped off that through two seasons of buildup, Michael and Sara only got, what, one kiss out of the whole deal? That’s b.s.!

Also, I read that one of the main reasons the producers decided to have Sara killed (after it was clear that SWC wasn’t going to come back to the show), was to give Michael “motivation” for this season. I’m sorry, but I’m not all that interested in seeing Revenge!Michael wreak havoc on The Company after this. Man, I’m so bummed about the show right now!!

I didn’t know about the real-life SWC contract situation until after I watched the ep, so as I was trying to sit through the 40 minutes after the Sara’s head reveal, I was simmering over the fact that a completely worthless, annoying character like Bellick is still on the show when Sara had to be killed off. Bellick once again didn’t do a damn thing, and simply needs to go.

Another thing I thought about during this episode is why Lechero would even care if one of the inmates busted out. I mean, he’s a freakin’ inmate himself, so what’s it to him if Michael and Whistler were to escape? But the way Bellick wanted to trade his information about Scofield for prison perks made it sound like Lechero personally had something to lose if Michael was able to bust out. I don’t get it.

Oh, well. I can’t even say that I’m invested much in this show anymore. I would like to see Michael’s reaction when Lincoln finally works up the courage to tell him about Sara, but after that, I’m not sure what’s going to keep me watching.

My 4-year-old son will be participating in Halloween for the very first time this year. He wasn’t really interested in dressing up or going trick-or-treating before this, so we just didn’t bother with it. This year, however, he’s in school and has been talking to his friends about what they’re going to be. As a result, he’s very excited about Halloween now and can’t wait to buy his costume.

We just spent some time looking through the huge selection of children’s halloween costumes at HalloweenExpress.com and came across the perfect one for my son. He’s a huge Power Rangers fan, and loves the red Power Ranger best of all. When he saw this particular costume on the Halloween Express site, his face immediately lit up like it was Christmas morning! I knew right then that we had a winner with that costume, so I’m going to order it as soon as I figure out my son’s size.

Halloween Express has hundreds of different adult and children’s costumes to choose from, as well as all the accessories, props, and makeup you need to make your outfit complete. They also offer free shipping on orders of $75 or more, so that’s a great incentive to stock up on costumes and supplies. But you better hurry, because Halloween is only 3 weeks away!

A couple weeks ago, I read that the How I Met Your Mother producers promised that we would get some forward progress with Ted’s love story this season. That was definitely welcome news after sitting through an entire season watching Ted with Robin while knowing full well that Ted’s future kids refer to her as “Aunt Robin.” Last week we got a glimpse of the yellow umbrella, so I was hoping that we’d get a few more hints this week, but that didn’t happen. Instead, episode 3×03, called “The Third Wheel,” was more of a filler than anything else. Here’s what went down.

Ted: Ted goes down to McLaren’s to grab a booth and some beers while he waits for Marshall and Barney to join him later. But those two take longer than expected, leaving Ted on his own. He soon runs into Trudy, a girl he slept with back in the ep called “The Pineapple Incident.” They start talking again, and then Trudy’s sorority sister Rachel shows up. The three of them get a table, and the next thing you know, Ted thinks he has a shot at “riding the tricycle” — the shows incredibly lame euphemism for having a three-way.

He brings the girls back to his apartment, where it’s revealed that he and Barney have a bet on who will have a three-way first. Whoever does it, will win a boxing-like championship belt to honor the occasion.

Ted wavers back and forth about whether or not he’ll be able to go through with it. At the end, we see him going into Marshall and Lily’s room (where the girls are waiting and giggling), but he doesn’t tell anyone if he actually did it or not.

Barney/Marshall/Lily: They didn’t do much of anything in this ep. Barney and Marshall started out by playing tennis on Nintendo Wii, which is why they couldn’t go down to the bar with Ted right from the beginning. They ended up playing through a full tournament (calling it Wimbledon and using ridiculous English phrases), and then ran and hid in Ted’s room when he sent a text message saying he was coming up. Oh, and Marshall plays Nintendo Wii in his boxers.

Robin: Robin was off on a date with a surgeon for this whole ep. She left the house without shaving her legs because she wanted some way to guarantee that she wouldn’t hop into bed with the guy on the first date. Of course, it turned out that she really liked him and couldn’t resist his invitation to go back to his place. Before going, however, she would have to do something about her legs.

She first called Lily to bring her a razor and some shaving cream, but Lily didn’t want to leave the apartment. Robin then paid the waitress at the restaurant $50 to go across the street and get a razor from the drug store there. The waitress did it, but came back without any shaving cream. There’s no soap in the bathroom either, so Robin ended up using butter from some other diners’ table. She then slips, falls, and winds up unconscious on the bathroom floor.

Meanwhile, the doctor sends the waitress into the bathroom to see if everything’s ok. The waitress comes back saying that no one was in there, but that the window was open. She then moves in on the doctor for herself — and he lets her.

My Reaction: Meh, I thought this episode was pretty weak. First of all, I don’t think I’ve ever liked an episode where Ted goes off to do things on his own. The only time his character is interesting is when he’s around his friends; the rest of the time he just seems really boring.

Second, I cannot imagine any parent telling their teenage children about a three-way the had (or almost had). Actually, this is a facet of the show that has bothered me since the beginning. I can understand parents telling their kids how they met, but I’m sure 99% of those parents would gloss over all the non-relevant sexual activity that occurred prior to their meeting. Good god, what kids would even want to hear about all the one-night stands and crap their parents did in their late twenties?? Yuck.

Third, the Robin storyline was pretty boring. Again, I don’t really care who she dates except insofar as it directly relates to the entire group. So the Gael thing was ok because she brought him to the group, and everyone had a chance to make fun of him. But when she just goes off on a date by herself? Nope, not interested.

Well, hopefully the writers will figure out the best dynamic for the cast now that Ted and Robin are no longer dating. Though this episode was definitely a misstep, I’m sure the show will get back on track soon!