Honestly, I don’t know how anybody could argue that Prison Break has lost its luster, because I was absolutely exhilarated the entire episode, sitting at the edge of my seat on more than one occasion. The season as a whole has been great in my opinion, as the series does a wonderful job of staying true to the central premise and theme, while reinventing itself at the same time. I thought last season was fantastic, and perhaps even in some ways superior to the first season, and while I was initial skeptical about year three, I’ve been very pleasantly surprised.
So far, I’ve been completely satisfied and enthralled by the attempt to break out, making sense of a seemingly impossible situation. Like I said, I was sitting at the edge of my seat during the escape, from fighting the clock against the raucous crowd waiting for a fight, to Sammy’s interruption, to the arrival of the clouds, preventing their sun shield. When everything fell apart, my heart genuinely sank, and I’m very excited in seeing how they get around this latest predicament.
One thing about this season that I’ve really enjoyed is the inclusion of Mahone. However, something about last season that disappointed me was the fact that they made Mahone an explicit villain, with him executing the escapees. In the beginning of the season, he was a no-nonsense federal agent who could match wits with the ultra intelligent Michael, and it created a very interesting dynamic, as they were clearly on opposite sides, yet neither side was considered “good” or “bad.” In fact, if anything, Mahone was the good guy, as even though Lincoln was essentially innocent of the crime he was accused of, and Michael was merely trying to help his brother, they helped make murderers and rapists free men. It really did allow the audience to sit back and think, “Am I rooting for the right team here?” In that sense, to an extent, I think it was a mistake to make Mahone crooked.
This season, however, Mahone has been a real highlight. I loved when he gave Michael pointers on how to win his prison fight when he was challenged, and then did the deed by killing the guy so Michael wouldn’t have to. His hands are already dirty, and he knows that Michael is incapable of doing the really drastic stuff, so that’s how he’s made himself a valuable asset to the one person who can get him out of this hellish prison. I’m very interested in seeing what happens with his apparent release, now that he’s completely lost it mentally.
Even though he was revealed as being a tad on the corrupt side last year, he was still shed in a sympathetic light, so it’s not as difficult to accept him as one of Michael’s reluctant allies (like it is with Bellick).
Speaking of Bellick, I appreciated his genuine reaction when he found out about Sara’s demise. I was a casual watcher during the first season, and it feels like forever ago, but if I remember correctly, he did have a casual and friendly relationship with her. And although he doesn’t consider himself as lowly as people like T-Bag or Michael, I think he also recognizes that somebody like Sara truly was a good person (better than him), and that she didn’t deserve such a grotesque fate.
Oh, and thank GOD he’s out of his underwear. Wait, that came out wrong…
While on the subject of Sara, I do think that her death was unnecessary. I understand that the actress was pregnant and opted not to renew her contract, but a lot can change in a season. Just keep her character off-screen for the season (like they did for the first few episodes) and see what happens. If it’s obvious she’s never going to resign, THEN you can kill her off. As it stands now, it just left a lot of viewers unfulfilled, perhaps needlessly. That said, they did try to make lemonade out of lemons, and by killing her off they did manage to raise the stakes significantly, and it was a clever way to create some tension between Lincoln and Michael.
It’s also interesting that shows like Lost and Heroes have had an unbelievably difficult time integrating new characters, whereas Prison Break has managed to do it rather seamlessly. I think it also helps that the show is willing to dispose of characters (whether it be by killing them or simply writing them off the show) that don’t contribute to the overall plot. I’ve really enjoyed Lechero’s role, and his new involvement with the attempt to escape adds a lot of interest, especially when you consider that he no longer has the power and connections that he used to (after being outted by the guards for being granted so many privileges while denying the other inmates of basic liberties). I’m interested in seeing whether or not T-Bag attempts to become the new king of Sona now that Lechero has been dethroned.
Whistler’s apparent heel turn is an interesting twist, which made sense of the overall activities during the day. Whistler “framed” Mahone for murder so that he would be unable to partake in the escape. That way, Whistler would be able to dispose of Michael without any complications (and despite the differences between Michael and Mahone, I do believe Mahone would protect him and Whistler knows that). It’ll be interesting to see what kind of problems Lechero’s involvement will cause.
The whole “inmates running the asylum” mentality of Sona has been handled extremely well, in my opinion. What I’m especially satisfied with is the fact that the writers made sense of a rather ludicrous scenario: The guards are there, but only at the perimeter. They come by to pick up dead bodies and to drop off food and water, but distribution is essentially left to those inside. They’ve also established an interesting hierarchy system that functions under legitimate “laws” that everybody must follow.
Anyway, that’s basically it for this week’s episode. I’ll be back next week, and hopefully this show won’t be too impacted by the writers strike. Give the writers what they deserve and resolve this thing already!
