So Prison Break returned this past Friday after a rather long hiatus. Now airing on a new night, and with the network already confirming that the next few episodes will be the last, the show was burdened with the need to remind the audience what happened, while remaining extremely focused on the concluding story arc at a quick pace. Not necessarily an easy task.
Overall, though, I thought this was a strong episode. I tend to enjoy when shows devote an episode to the surrounding characters while putting the star at the back burning, and that’s what happened this past week. For Michael, not much happened other than getting him from A to B, and providing a glimpse into the softer side of his mother (which the Lincoln arc provided the cutthroat, manipulative version). The real action happened with Lincoln, Mahone, Self, T-Bag, and the Company. And while I’ve been critical of that particular storyline, I actually dug it this week.
The fact is that Lincoln has ALWAYS been more out for himself than the well being of others. And that’s why I think this division with Michael is important. I’ve long stated that T-Bag should have been written out of the show long ago because it becomes hard to root for the heroes when they continuously work alongside somebody so vile. Having these same heroes then working for the very organization that had been vilified all series long places them in even deeper, more dangerous waters. But when you have Michael, the character that is supposed to be THE protagonist (more so than anybody else), oppose this new alliance, it becomes a bit easier to swallow.
And I even enjoyed the conflicting emotions within that new alliance. Lincoln and Mahone are doing what they have to do in order to gain their freedom, but they want to do it with as few casualties as possible. Whereas Self and T-Bag are completely in it for their own self interests, with no concern whatsoever over who they hurt or what they have to do. As a related side note, I loved the conversation between Mahone, T-Bag, and Self regarding Lincoln’s mother, where Mahone states matter-of-factly: “Do I hope we can get Scylla without killing Lincoln’s mother? Yes, that would be preferable.”
And speaking of Mama Scoffield (or is it Burrows?), she’s right up there against Angela Petrelli as Mother of the Year. And much like her Heroes counterpart, it’s tough to determine what her motives actually are. Is she good? Is she bad? Is she worse than the General, or the lesser of two evils? Has she been doing everything to protect her sons in the grand scheme of things, or is she willing to sacrifice them for the greater good? Too soon to tell, but she’s pretty ruthless, isn’t she? She actually reminds me of an early version of Juliet from Lost: She’s cutthroat, but everything she says is with this soothing voice, and she’s got an angelic face. I’m definitely into this character so far.
Oh, and by the way, it was fun watching Lincoln exhibit some signs of intelligence. I’m hopeful that Mahone will find his way over to the GOOD good guys, but his pairing with Lincoln has been entertaining thus far.
Matt Basilo has been writing for Inside Pulse since April 2005, providing his insight into popular television shows such as Lost, Heroes, Prison Break, and Smallville. You can visit his blog at A Case of the Blog.
