Last night’s episode of Prison Break actually seemed like two back-t0-back regular eps, but the official FOX site called it a single episode, so I will too. Of course, there are two titles to the different segments, but what do I know? The first hour was called “Photo Finish”; the second was called “Vamonos”. I’m going to recap both segments as one ep, so here we go.
Michael/Whistler: Michael finally learns that Sara has been killed. He grieves for about 20 seconds, and then storms off to find Whistler. He blames Whistler for Sara’s murder, and throws down the chicken foot, which, if you’ll recall from previous eps, means a fight to the death.
Of course, Michael’s no murderer, so you know that whole thing was just a ruse. He and Whistler will actually be trying to escape while the rest of the prison population is waiting around for the fight to begin.
Unfortunately, things don’t go as planned. A cloud floats by and obscures the sun (seriously), thus giving the guard a clear line of sight to the window that Scofield and Whistler are supposed to climb out of. So they scrap the escape for the time being, go back in, and are forced to fight.
Their fight is interrupted by the prison alarm. One of the guards spotted their makeshift ladder, so there will be a head count. During the head count, the warden berates Lechero in front of all the men, and kills the guy who was living in the cell with the ladder in it.
Once the warden leaves, Lechero realizes that only Scofield would be stupid enough to try breaking out of the prison. Trouble is, all the men have lost respect for Lechero now, so the only way for him to survive is to break out with Michael — which he communicates in a not-very-subtle way to Scofield.
Mahone: Mahone gets a surprise visit from former FBI partner Felicia Lang. She tells him that Agent Sullins (the FBI Internal Affairs guy who was investigating Mahone’s conduct last season) has worked out a deal whereby Mahone will be transferred to the U.S. to serve out an 8-year sentence in St. Louis instead of serving a full 10 years at SONA. At first Mahone doesn’t like this plan (he doesn’t want to serve any time at all), but then he comes around. Sullins and Lang take him out of the prison and transfer him to a hotel.
That’s where Mahone gets some bad news. The special hearing has been delayed because some of the Panamanian officials don’t think this will be a good idea. Mahone is left to stew in his hotel room for several hours, but then Sullins comes back and tells them maybe things will work out after all. They’ll have to wait until the next day, however, and until then Mahone is to be cuffed and kept in the hotel room. He complies.
Linc/Sucre/Susan/Sofia: These guys scramble around trying to make sure everything is ready for the impending escape. Thanks to a slip-up by Lincoln, Susan realizes that the breakout is planned for the daytime, not the middle of the night as she expected. She’s pissed that Linc lied to her, and threatens to kill LJ if there are any more screw-ups.
Later, when everyone realizes that Michael and Whistler didn’t make it out that day, Susan tells her assistants to pack up the van to take LJ back to wherever they were holding him. What she doesn’t know is that Sucre is watching their every move. He drives his car in front of Susan’s van, causing a crash that temporarily knocks everyone out.
Linc arrives on the scene, kills one of Susan’s guys, and takes Susan hostage. Too bad the other guy grabs LJ and points a gun to his head, so now there’s a standoff. Susan agrees to give Michael and Linc another chance to get Whistler out. She takes LJ again.
End of ep Twist: We see Susan talking to Whistler at the Sona gate. From what they say, we learn that Whistler is actually the one pulling the strings, that Susan’s real name is Gretchen, and that whatever plan Whistler originally had can still be pulled off if he escapes in the next four days. Oh, and Michael witnesses all of this with his typical steely gaze.
My Reaction: After hating most of the episodes so far this season, I found that I kinda sorta liked this one. Well, I liked parts of it at least, and that’s actually saying a lot! I didn’t see the whole Whistler working with Gretchen twist coming, so I’m very interested in finding out what that’s all about. I also like the fact that Mahone is now out of Sona. Again, I’m not sure what’s going to happen with the character, but it’s just nice to see some different locations for a change.
Speaking of Mahone, I do have a little nitpick. If he’s so concerned about doing time back in St. Louis, why didn’t he make a break for it while at the hotel? As far as I could see, there were only the two agents, Sullins and Lang, working his case. While Sullins was away talking to the Panamanians, how hard would it have been for Mahone to overpower Lang and just take off? That’s what he was going to do with Scofield anyway, right? It didn’t make sense to me that he would just sit there and not try to make a break for it.
Bellick and T-Bag continue to serve no purpose whatsoever. But I do have to admit that this was the first time in three seasons that I even remotely sympathized with Bellick. First I felt bad for him when he wanted to play dice with the newcomer but got shot down in front of the whole food line. Then I felt bad for him when he learned of Sara’s death. It seems like he really cared about her (remember when he asked her out on a date?) and he actually gave more of a reaction than Scofield, IMO. But the way he was walking around aimlessly towards the end of the ep made it seem like something drastic is going to happen to the character soon. Suicide? Maybe.
So I can’t believe I’m actually writing this, but I’m looking forward to next week’s episode of Prison Break. Wow!!
An all-new episode of How I Met Your Mother aired last night. It was called “Dowisetrepla” and focused mainly on Marshall and Lily looking for a place of their own as they both become increasingly annoyed by having Ted as a roommate. The episode had a few funny moments, but wasn’t as good as earlier eps from this season. Anyway, here’s a more detailed look at what happened in 3×07.