"Look, Bubblegum Man is sending us something again!"
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
It just wouldn't be Prison Break if the escape attempt was successful this early in the season. We’ve been down this road before in Fox River and Sona, so the turn of events in this episode wasn’t too surprising.
The key difference between “The Liar” and the two previous episodes is that there was an attempt to flesh out some of Michael’s current cellmates. It wasn’t entirely successful, but at least they tried. One of the reasons that the new crew seems so remote is that it’s an open question as to whether Michael really cares about them. Sure, Michael saved Sid from the extremists, but it didn’t exactly seem to be an act of compassion. And when one of his team would have been left behind, Michael didn’t seem to be all that concerned.
What is apparent is that Whip bought into the idea of being Michael’s partner and surrogate brother, which is why he felt so threatened by the most recent turn of events. Their fight felt forced, but the fear and confusion from Whip have been the most genuine aspects of his character. It’s not enough to make him the next Sucre, but it’s a start.
Right now, Prison Break has a bit of a villain problem. It’s really hard to take any of the antagonists seriously, from the cartoonish Abu Ramal to the inept agents chasing Sara around back in America. This episode also suggests that Paul Kellerman may be one of the key players in the new conspiracy, even though that flies in the face of his previous characterization on the show. Remember, Kellerman once turned himself in and confessed as a way to make up for what he did to Sara and the brothers. And Kellerman helped them all get pardons at the end of the original series. It’s hard to reconcile that version of the character with the brief glimpse of Kellerman that we’ve seen in this miniseries.
One of the few characters to emerge largely unchanged from the original show has been Sara, and she once again demonstrated her survival skills by fooling the agents into exposing themselves. Sara is also the only one to correctly react to T-Bag and his robot hand, but it was a head scratching moment when she reached out to him for help at the end. Among many other things, T-Bag did try to rape her in the fourth season. This show acts like the characters can’t remember the things that happened to them.
Keeping with that point, why hasn’t there been any mention of Lincoln’s son or C-Note’s daughter and wife? They’ve thrown themselves into the mission to save Michael, but that only makes sense for Linc. Although Lincoln’s subplot wasn’t very exciting, it was fun to see him slip into hero mode and help Sheba escape. It’s a familiar role for Lincoln, but it’s one that Dominic Purcell excels at.
However, it’s Wentworth Miller who gets the signature moment here, as we witness a rare total failure of Michael’s plans. Michael’s attempt to reclaim his former self in a video message for Sara was truly affecting, even more so when it turned out to be in vain. The episode doesn’t leave Michael with many options and that makes his plight more compelling. For this story to work, we need to understand how and why Michael found himself in this situation. But first, we have to sympathize with him again, and this was a solid step in that direction.
The Verdict
Now that the first failure is out of the way, Prison Break can start building towards the real escape. The larger focus on Michael and Lincoln has helped the series, but the underdeveloped supporting cast and the laughable villains aren’t doing it any favors. If the conspiracy is being run by idiots, it’s not going to be as satisfying when the brothers inevitably take it down. We really want to enjoy this revival, but Prison Break has yet to fully recapture the thrill of the first two seasons.
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