“It would have been a hell of a weekend in Connecticut.”
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
I can’t be the only one to notice that half of the revival cast was missing this week. T-Bag was MIA, Sucre hasn’t been seen since the first episode, Sara and her probably evil husband were off-camera, while C-Note was conveniently out of the room for an important phone call. The producers of Prison Break had to juggle some conflicting schedules to make this miniseries work, and it finally caught up with them in this episode.
There were some positive things to come out of that. Ja and Whip had some much needed development, and the show tried to flesh out A&W and Van Gogh. Although “tried” is the operative word for the two enemy agents. But let’s focus on the positive first. It was telling that Michael had to specifically ask Ja not to check out by getting high, especially since Ja eventually came up with the solution that got them out of the desert. Ja was also more at peace than we’ve ever seen him, especially when interacting with the children of the village.
As for Whip, it’s almost as if the show is setting him up to turn on Michael. Although Omar defined Michael’s dynamic with Whip as a surrogate father and son relationship, it plays out more like a brotherly bond on screen. Whip seems to feel displaced by Lincoln, and Michael has been barking out orders without fully realizing how angry that makes Whip. Even Michael notices that Whip feels that he’s been betrayed, but he hasn’t made any effort to bridge that gap between them. That could come back to haunt Michael, assuming that he survives.
Michael’s gambit to stay behind almost seemed as if it was directly targeted at Whip. His willingness to sacrifice himself may have been Michael’s way of making a point. Maybe it worked. Whip definitely seemed to care about Michael’s fate and even Ja showed some concern. Lincoln was Lincoln, so he’s always going to put Michael first. Any time that Dominic Purcell gets to emote tends to play really well. The show has kind of glossed over the fact that Lincoln traded away his passport in the first episode. In the end, it might be Lincoln who ends up trapped in Yemen...just to give Michael someone to save.
Of course Michael is going to live. The episode did a good job of making Michael's injuries seem like a big deal, and that helped give his scenes in the desert a sense of urgency. That said, this show has a serious villain problem. So far, all of the antagonists have been ridiculous caricatures. This week, Cyclops was the last terrorist standing as he chased Michael’s team across the barren landscape. But it’s impossible to take Cyclops seriously after watching him bungle through the early episodes of the season. Even killing Sid in last week’s episode didn’t turn Cyclops into a genuine threat. He just seems like a lucky fool...whose his luck has finally run out. It was a nice touch to see Cyclops lose his one good eye, but this was a character who should have been left on the shelf entirely.
Which brings us to A&W and Van Gogh, the hand picked agents of Poseidon. This was the first time that the series has even tried to define who they are when they aren’t chasing Sara and T-Bag or pretending that they don’t work for Jacob. However, the results were mixed at best. The only time A&W showed any real humanity was when she warned Van Gogh not to kill her ex. That’s surprising because she had so little chemistry with the woman who played her ex.
The side trip to an Elvis shrine is also bizarre. Michael clearly has someone in the U.S. who is helping him, but that hasn’t been properly built up. The only other time it’s been directly referenced was when Michael sent someone to meet Michael Jr. with a message for Sara. Sucre seems like the best candidate for that role, but it could be someone else. I just wish that mystery was more interesting.
The Verdict
Cutting out key members of the cast from this episode partially derailed the momentum of this mini-season. Sara and the rest were missed, but Michael and Lincoln are always engaging together. The episode did a good job of placing Michael in more jeopardy than usual, but there’s not a lot of suspense at this point. The final three episodes have a lot of ground to cover to bring this story to a satisfying conclusion.
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