Gimme a Break

Remain seated until the ride comes to a complete stop. For the TV show Prison Break, though, it's hard to tell just when that was. There was the series finale that aired just a few months ago. Or you could reckon by when the show seriously dipped in quality (your opinion may vary, but I'd say it was after season two).

But for the creative team responsible for the show, there was one last chapter to be told, the direct-to-DVD release, The Final Break. Shot as two more episodes and presented as a whole "movie," this is 90 more minutes in the lives of Michael Scofield, Lincoln Burrows, and company. I wasn't really sure I wanted to watch this, given how bad the quality of the show slid in those last half dozen episodes or so. But neither could I commit to avoiding it. Having come this far, I just had to know, you know?

Well, The Final Break is neither fantastic, nor terrible. It does require more acceptance and suspension of disbelief than just about any tale the Prison Break writers have told -- and any fan of the show will know that's saying a lot. Skip over the next two paragraphs if you don't want any SPOILERS about the plot of this story.

It's a few weeks after the exoneration of our heroes. (And long before the "epilogue" presented in the series finale.) Sara Tancredi is arrested in Miami for the murder of Christina, Michael's mom, in the season finale. "Buy #1": It seems there was a security camera in the abandoned building where it happened, and Sara was caught on tape pulling the trigger. So poor Sara is thrown into prison. Yes, prison and not jail. "Buy #2": Due to overcrowding in Florida jails, the prison is taking the overflow from jail, so while Sara is awaiting trial, she's just tossed into the general population with convicted murderers, in a female version of Fox River.

"Buy #3": This women-only prison is just on the other side of a complex where a mens' prison is, and it happens this is the prison where General Kranz and T-Bag are being held following their arrest in the finale. Kranz gets word that Sara's in prsion, and decides that he'll feel better accepting his own fate as long as he can just get some revenge and have Sara killed in prison. Fortunately, he has someone to reach out to... "Buy #4": Gretchen, after her capture near the end of season four, is incarcerated in the prison with Sara. So Michael must figure out a way to break Sara out before she's killed.

If you can somehow swallow all that set-up, this double-length episode does manage to be entertaining at times. There are moments where it touches back on some of the things that made season one so great -- trying to craft an elaborate plan, struggling to keep it a secret from prying eyes, trying to deal with unexpected wrinkles, fighting to survive in an impossible situation, and so on.

Well, it touches on them, at least. The trouble is, we're used to material like this having most or all of a season to breathe on this show, so the compression here into what would amount to just two episodes doesn't always work. Due to the constaints of time, the plans can't get that elaborate, the prying eyes can't pry too closely, there can't be that many wrinkles, and the situations can't become too impossible. I mean, not that I'm really asking for another season of Prison Break... no, no, no, not at this point. I'm only saying that the writers are used to another medium besides the "film-like" format they're using here, and it shows.

But there are some elements of The Final Break that give better closure to the actual finale. A few gaps are painted in and a few characters given better resolution. But at the same time, this is by no means a "can't miss" experience. If you washed your hands of Prison Break after that final season (or even before it), I can't really tell you that there's enough here to bring you back.

Yet if you, like me, "just gotta know?" Well, this isn't terrible. Just make sure your "just go with us on this one" meter is set to "high." (Or "off?" I'm not sure which way that meter works.)

Rate of Exchange / Killing Your Number

The ride has come to a complete stop; Prison Break's final episode has aired. (Well, there's that strange two-hour straight-to-DVD thing arriving in July, but let's not count that.) I wouldn't say that it punched out strong, but that's largely because they'd dug such a hole for themselves in the back half of this season that there was probably no clawing all the way out of it. At least they improved for their finish.

It was nice to bring some old faces back for the final curtain, particularly Sucre and C-Note. Somewhat so Kellerman, who was at least last shown not as definitively dead as head-in-a-box Sara, so hey, why not say he was still alive? Linc's squeeze Sophia was a bit of a whatever; I'd have much preferred to see LJ rather than just have him talked about, but I guess you can't have it all.

There were still some hokey moments, like people running all over Miami bleeding, tearing parts off the Scylla circuitboard for the 47th time, and villainous threats by the shovelful. But there were also some good scenes, like the full-on slimy T-Bag taunting Sara, Sara ultimately being the one to take out evil Mom Christina, and Mahone actually getting one more chance to show his cunning and kick some ass.

I'll forgive the sudden convenience of a miracle stack of immunity agreements to get all the characters off the hook. (Even that plot point we've visited before, at the end of season two.) You can't very well end the show with everyone on the run forever.

How they did choose to end it was with a flash-forward. (Or flash-to-present, if you will, since four seasons' worth of Prison Break actually took place in the span of only a few months of story time.) Most of the "where they are now"s were not particularly surprising, yet each was appropriate enough.

I did like the return of Mahone's partner Felicia as his new love. Really, she stood by him through all sorts of crap throughout the series, so that just makes sense, when you get down to it.

T-Bag wound up back in prison, of course. But it's interesting to think that it may not really be all that much of a punishment for him. He always thrived in the prison environment (in both seasons one and three), and his little coda scene illustrated this well.

So then, Michael's end. On the one hand, it's basically crap that the same surgery that cured Mom and kept her alive another 25 years to do evil didn't work for Michael. On the other hand, I think it's actually the right ending for Michael. It really just made me wish they'd never "cured" him in the first place, so his death would make more sense. From a story crafting perspective, it does make sense. From day one, his character was all about making sacrifices for others, getting thrown in prison to help his brother. So it's perfectly fitting that he should end up dead while all the others live happily ever after. He didn't quite actually sacrifice himself for them, but I think let's call it close enough.

Ultimately, I think Prison Break can now go down in the book with shows like Alias, blazing meteors that streaked brilliantly across the sky at first only to flame out. One outstanding season, one fairly good season...

And two other seasons.

Cowboys & Indians

There was, after three long weeks of mind-numbing nonsense, at least one good moment in tonight's Prison Break episode. That was the cliffhanger dilemma in which the General has Sara, while Christina has Lincoln -- each threatening Michael with their leverage. Not that Prison Break is even a shadow of what it once was, but this sort of puzzle, requiring Michael to figure out how to achieve both goals, is as close to some of the classic problems of season one as we've seen in a long, long time.

But really, that was the only good thing going tonight. The rest was just noisy boredom. Blah, blah, blah, extended chase sequence, blah, blah, evil mustache twirling, blah, blah, more evil mustache twirling, blah, blah, uninteresting action sequence, blah, blah, blah.

I figure at this point I might actually understand how fans of the TV series Heroes must feel, to see a show they liked so much in its first year become so bad you could scarcely find ways to make it worse. The show is an obligation now, and I'm afraid if next week's finale can't deliver more than the "one good idea" of this week's, it will have slipped so far as to tarnish the thought of the show ever having been good. Even when Alias dipped after season two, and flatlined in season four, I never remember feeling as down on the show as I feel now about Prison Break.

Since its return three weeks ago, it has saddled the struggling Dollhouse with a worse lead-in than even Terminator was providing, resulting in the worst ratings yet. This after Dollhouse finally managed to transform from the show that you hoped would get better to the show you'd actually miss if it were gone. The final insult in the blighting of Prison Break is that it may have driven the last nail in the coffin and taken another Joss Whedon show with it.

One last obligation to fulfill next week, and then I can wash my hands of it.

S.O.B.

Tonight's Prison Break installment showed marginal improvement over the past few weeks, but that's damning it with faint praise to say the least. It had a few interesting scenes of verbal jousting between the characters, but remained almost stubbornly undramatic.

Christina's revelation that Lincoln and Michael aren't really brothers was essentially pointless. I suppose there's room for debate on this point, but I say family is who you're raised with. The fact that there's not any blood relation between the two gets a big "so what?" from me. As Michael said, Lincoln was like a brother to him in the ways that really matter.

And frankly, if the writers are actually asking us to have any other reaction to this reveal other than "so what," then I'm actually a little upset with them. If we're supposed to say take it that Linc is less worthy because he's not related by blood to Michael, then that's perilously close to saying that Michael should never have gone the extra mile for him. That is, the whole show should never have happened. And while I might feel that about the last two seasons or so, them's fightin' words about that exhilirating first year (and pretty good second year, overall).

It was not the only bit of stupidity to spew from the writers tonight, though. The T-Bag plot, as it pertained to the General, was just stupid. Specifically, it was making one or the other of them stupid.

Option one, the General is leading T-Bag on for his own jollies. He's never been that way before, and T-Bag has rarely been so stupid as to not see when he's being played. If this is true, it cheapens both characters here, as we arrive at the end.

Option two, the General really is trying to test and groom T-Bag to work for him. In that case, the General is a complete idiot for thinking that the things he has asked T-Bag to do are in any way difficult for him. "I want you to kill Lincoln when the time comes." "Take this gun and you shoot that guy." Has the General even been paying attention? T-Bag is a killer, and will do anything out of self-interest. I mean, at least the writers correctly had T-Bag take the gun without question and commit murder, but still, the already seriously de-fanged General is looking even more like the idiot in this scenario.

This final arc, with its major driving element to sell technological secrets to a foreign country/organization, is so far removed from the "assassination conspiracy" that began the series that things are unrecognizable at this point.

I have to say again, though I'm still sorry to be saying it, that I'm rather eagerly awaiting the end of the show now. And not in the good way.

VS

I think maybe the luster Prison Break once had is now long gone. Sure, for a time, I was enjoying season four; it wasn't a return to those glory days of the first season, but it ably washed away the bad taste of that drab third season. But now I think I'm just ready for the show to end.

I'm not sure I can even explain it. Tonight's episode did have many of the elements that have made for great Prison Break episodes of the past -- scenes of actions, mysteries to be solved, moments of tension between characters (Sara's pregnancy secret, Michael and Linc at odds with one another, and so forth). Yet it somehow just seemed so boring.

I mean, I love T-Bag getting a showcase moment, but distracting the guards as an "elephant rights activist?" And the General and the brothers' Mom in a sort of villainous Cliché Off as we watched them both order lackeys around?

Did this new "V.S." character know that his cell phone had been taken? How else could he have expected to get away with lying to "Lincoln's Four" about knowing Mom when all manner of incriminating information was right there on the phone?

Why is Mom so stupid as to leave that note behind?

Does Self bring anything of value to this team?

Will this series get good again before it's all over?

The Mother Lode

Tonight brought the first new Prison Break episode in nearly four months, and the beginning of the end for the seires. Unforunately, it felt to me like the show had lost a lot of momentum since its last installment. This really wasn't the best place to have paused the story for such a long time.

For starters, it now seems to me like the cleaner break, from a narrative perspective, would have been to stop the season just as Linc and his gang were going to work for General Kranz. A new, final chapter could then have begun tonight, "working for the bad guys." But instead, we got one episode into that model, then had four months to forget all the particulars of it.

What's more, we didn't really come back to anything particularly interesting. Much of the episode was spent catching characters up on knowledge the audience already had, making sure everyone in the gang knows that Mama Burrows/Scofield is alive and well.

Another too-large part of the episode was spent on stereotypical villain patter. You know, conversations where bad guy and some forgettable henchman exchange phrases from the Villain Manual like "we have to keep on schedule," "I think his usefulness has come to an end," and so forth. It's unfortunately not any more interesting that the bad "guy" in this case happens to be female, and for my money, even less interesting that it's Mom (who we've known little about, so are not invested in). Right now, I think the contrivance is outweighing the drama. Hopefully, the few episodes left are enough to get over the "oh, come on" factor of the not dead Mom to tell an interesting story.

The attempt to kill General Kranz did provide one of the few surprises of the hour, but even that felt weirdly sudden and abrupt. After one previous appearance in an earlier "get his keycard" episode, some unimportant character turns out to have some vendetta against Kranz, enough to want to go along with killing him? Hell, we don't ever even get to hear what issue he had the made him go along with "Mama's Gang."

But I suppose this last brick of episodes won't likely have lots of merits as single hours of television -- they're really just setting up for the grand finale of the series. If it's a good one, once we get there, then perhaps a fairly drab episode like this will be worth it in retrospect.

The Sunshine State

Tonight brought us the last new Prison Break until we-don't-know-when. (Well, until whenever FOX cancels something and brings back Prison Break off the bench to fill the space. Please don't let that something be Dollhouse.) It wasn't exactly a great note to end on, but it was a decent episode with some good moments.

We'll start with what we all saw coming, the revelation that Linc and Michael's Mom is alive and well and the mastermind behind the taking of Scylla from The Company. No surprise there, except perhaps in the casting of a recognizable working actor, Kathleen Quinlan, in the role. I hope she get to do something interesting in the episodes ahead.

Michael's plot was pretty boring this week. It did sort of retroactively beg the question that if he knew about this particular chemical reaction so well (that he used to cause the explosion to make his escape), why did he ever have to have it tattooed on his body in the first place during the original Fox River escape? But whatever. The only really good moment in the Michael plot this week was actually some unintentional humor. I laughed out loud at the bad guys jumping into a dune buggy/golf cart kind of contraption to chase Michael down. I couldn't understand why the villains would use such a laughable mode of transportation for a chase, until it became clear this was simply setup so that Sara could come to the rescue by slamming her car into it.

The story of "Lincoln's Five" was more compelling, though. It did give all the characters involved moments to do what they're best at. Linc pounded some faces, Gretchen oozed, T-Bag double-crossed and simpered, Mahone used some of the same wits that made him so formidable in his first season, and Self was... well, weaselly.

We'll just have to sit and wait now, and see what happens next. And when it will happen, of course.

Going Under

Tonight's episode of Prison Break struck me as neither great nor poor. It really just seemed to be about pushing pieces further toward some mid-season finale cliffhanger in store for us next week. But it was loaded with lots of "moments," both good and not-so-good.

I didn't think much of the "surgery daydream" conceit for bringing back Charles Westmoreland "from the dead" for one more episode. When halluceno-zombie Haywire appeared to drug-hazed Mahone last season, it at least seemed to make some sense for the character. Mahone had led Haywire to his death, and it made sense that in a dark hour, that act would haunt him. Michael hasn't had reason to think of Westmoreland in ages, and I can't really think of a reason why he would now. It just seemed like that was the actor who was available to the writers, so that's who they used.

I'm not sure I'm on board with the constant shifting of who's working for/with whom anymore. First we had Gretchen working with Our Heroes against the Company. Then we had Self betray Our Heroes and force Gretchen to work with him. Now Linc's with the Company. And next, it seems Linc will be working with Self and Gretchen again. It seems a like musical chairs, and I'm almost wondering if we'll actually see that "dog in a birthday hat" the General mentioned before the season is over.

But it was nice to finally see a predicament from which T-Bag could not escape. Not that I'm always thrilled to watch torture on television, but it's hard to not think T-Bag deserves some misery. And who better than Linc to dish it out (save maybe Michael)?

And it was also good seeing someone get the drop on smug, overconfident Self, even if it was a new player we have yet to have any real connection to. (But more on that in just a moment.)

As for the Mahone storyline, I found it mixed. On the one hand, this episode was all turf covered last season, in the brief storyline where Mahone's pardon from Sona didn't come through. Seeing his former partner help him, then betray him, then help him again -- this is a story we've seen before. And yet, as always, William Fichtner hits whatever material he's given out of the park, and so I found the story enjoyable despite its lack of originality.

So... about that new player. I have to think it's significant that we found out the Brothers' mother worked for the Company just minutes after hearing the new thug in town have a phone conversation with an unidentified female voice. So much of this season's early setup seemed patterned in the style of Alias, so why not also lift the "Mom you thought was dead is actually alive and well and a killer spy" thread too? At least, that's what I'm guessing.

We'll probably find out next week as part of the cliffhanger we can all look forward to.

Just Business

I don't think I liked tonight's Prison Break episode all that much. But I have to say, it was pretty hard for me to tell.

Here's another fresh reason I hate DirecTV (piled on top of all the other reasons I'm mentioned in the past): it's a satellite service. A pigeon can take a crap on your dish and mess up your signal. Half a foot of snow and it may be all but out for the count. Which is basically what happened tonight... we got about six inches of snow this evening in the south suburbs of Denver, which has apparently pooled up in my rooftop dish in such a way as to mess with some of my channels while leaving others intact. FOX was affected.

I was able to watch tonight's episode, but with extreme and persistent video artifacting that brought to mind memories of trying to watch unpurchased HBO or Showtime back in the 1980s on a day when, for whatever reason, the scrambling wasn't quite so bad. They'll have the episode up on the FOX web site tomorrow, I believe, but for now, this was all I had.

It was clear enough that more of the out of character behavior I disliked from last week dominated the plot this week.

Why did Gretchen not kill Self the moment he had the chance? She can't have thought she wouldn't be able to barge into her sister's house and kill T-Bag before he could harm her family.

What possible job could the General have for Linc that would trump killing him and Michael and being done with everything? The Company was already well on their way to tracking Self and Gretchen on their own -- both by image scans and by the Bible-selling Mole.

But I do suppose I can believe T-Bag wanting to turn over a new leaf. He had a few moments of that while on the run back in season two. Maybe it's just that I don't mind seeing someone get the drop on him for a change, so I forgive any strain of credibility there.

I believe we have two more episodes before a break of unspecified length. Hopefully things will pick up in that time.

Deal or No Deal

I found tonight's Prison Break episode fairly entertaining overall. Lots of characters were squirming this week, and that was pretty fun to watch on all fronts. But I did have a couple of quibbles with the way the plot unfolded.

One was with T-Bag's role in the story. He's all about self-preservation. And he's not a stupid man; he's only really been duped in situations where he thought he had the upper hand all along. (Pun not intended.) In short, he can't be so stupid as to believe that Self would give him any share of the profit for selling Scylla -- or to give him anything at all for that matter. Just last week, when things got dicey at GATE, he was ready to give up on his money to cut and run and save his own hide.

So the minute Self left him alone at the house of Gretchen's sister, why did he not hightail it for Mexico? What gain could he possibly see in staying there to hold the sister and daughter hostage? I think he'd either kill them or tie them up, and then run as far away as possible. I can't conceive of any character motivation that would keep him there helping Self. It's purely a contrivance to keep the character on the show and in the plot, and isn't doing justice to the character.

My second complaint was with the reveal at the end of the episode, that Michael had broken off a piece of the Scylla component and kept it hidden. Now don't get me wrong -- I do believe he would have done that. He is "Mr. Plan Ahead" and always has been. No matter how much he trusted Self before the betrayal, I believe he would have taken some kind of steps to ensure the deal for his group's exonerations would go through.

But all that said, then why did he act so surprised for the entire episode that something had gone wrong? He clearly didn't trust Self to at least some extent, so why the shock? And why hide from everyone else the fact that he had some kind of plan in place for this contingency? Once again, this seems like completely out of character behavior, and once again, it was done simply to service plot.

The quality of the characters of Prison Break is what has kept me watching through some pretty outrageous plot twists over the years, and so it stinks to see that thrown away in moments like these. I hope these lapses are only momentary and things get back on track soon.

Speaking of characters, this isn't really a complaint, but an observation. Two minor but recurring characters were killed in the course of the story tonight, in ways that imply to me that the writers really are planning toward this being the last season. The two actors playing them, Michael O'Neill and Jude Ciccolella, certainly aren't household names. They're possibly not even recognizable names to any but the most incredible TV geeks. But they are recognizable faces to anyone who watches even a moderate amount of TV. These guys make the rounds as character actors, appearing on tons of shows, and they're very good at what they do. I can't see the writers just throwing them away if there was even a chance they might be useful later in the story.

Then again, these are the same writers that I think were untrue to the characters this week, so maybe I give them too much credit.

Still, it was a decent episode, despite my dwelling on some of the bad parts. We'll see how the saga continues next week.

Selfless

Tonight was another solid episode of Prison Break. Many elements of it were fairly predictable, but a few were not -- and in that respect it reminded me a bit of the first season and what made me start liking this show in the first place. The show was always at its best during the "what's Michael's plan for this?" days, and tonight gave us a small return to that.

I also thought that tonight, Prison Break showed an edge it has over 24, particularly in 24's recent seasons. I watch Prison Break unfold, and I believe that it was planned in advance. Maybe not every single beat, but I do believe some of the big elements were planned for, as opposed to 24 (which the creators themselves have admitted to "winging it" after about the first 4 or 6 episodes of a season).

Why cast Michael Rapaport to play such a wishy-washy pushover? Answer: they didn't. They cast him in anticipation of this mid-season plot twist.

Speaking of casting, I think they did a credible job of finding a woman who looked like she really could be the general's daughter. I believe they planned that in advance as well.

Yes, Prison Break still has its preposterous moments. Hell, multiple times a week, sometimes. But it does feel like they work out the major beats a season at a time, and give us satisfying moments along the way.

Tonight we got to see the smug General dressed down and defeated by Our Heroes as we've long wanted, we got to see a few brief moments of happiness for Our Heroes, we got some fun action sequences, some nice beats of tension.

That's pretty much all you can ask for from this show, I think.

Quiet Riot

Tonight's installment of Prison Break was a good one, but a bit hard to evaluate on its own. More even than usual, this episode set things up to flow right into the next one, with the Scylla heist halfway in progress.

As for the very end of the episode, my assumption is this: knowing that only the General looks at the surveillance camera, Michael deliberately tripped the security alarm as part of the plan. The General comes down personally, which will somehow provide the opportunity to get the sixth and final card from him. But we'll find that out next week.

There were a few weak links in the chain tonight, with some characters behaving somewhat more stupidly than normal to further the drama. Agent Self and his mole at GATE stupidly walked into the ambush T-Bag lured them into. Granted, Self hasn't been all that bright a character, but I'd have hoped for more intelligence than that. And while I believe Michael would insist to go along on the job, despite his health risks, it just seems silly that he was actually the person to cut through the glass and get to Scylla. Any reason not to send one of the other guys (say, Mahone) to do that?

But those were perhaps necessary evils for an episode that otherwise clicked quite well. The tension of the heist itself was very satisfying -- some of the best edge-of-the-seat stuff the show has delivered in many seasons. It left me looking forward to next week's Prison Break more than I have in quite some time.

The Legend

I wanted to like this week's Prison Break episode, but when you get down to it, I just didn't all that much.

What I wanted to like was the fact that the writers chose to deal with the death of Brad Bellick. They acknowledged him as a significant character from the very beginning, and didn't simply wash him away (pun intended) without giving the death some weight. They devoted a good amount of time this week to "wrapping things up" for the character.

But while I liked the impulse, I had a hard time with the execution. In short, I just didn't find the emotions expressed by the other characters to be convincing. To Linc and Michael, he was a nemesis most of the time they knew him. He went on to simply be a nuisance by the time of Michael's Panama imprisonment, and a bit of an oaf in their quest for Scylla. I just don't see where along the way they'd grow to like him all that much.

We're told that Sucre developed a good friendship with Bellick, and man did the writing (and his acting, for that matter) try to sell us on that. But the events that bonded the two characters all took place off screen. In the long gap of the writers' strike, between the abbreviated season three and the start of season four, Sucre and Bellick had a series of adventures we've heard about from time to time. But "telling, not showing" is a cardinal sin of writing. It didn't much matter when it was background, but thrust front and center this week, it just rang false.

And why the hell would T-Bag give a damn? The composer tried his best to score T-Bag's speech in the board room in an epic manner, and again, the acting was highly pitched to sell us on the idea of some relationship here. But I can't believe T-Bag would feel anything but joy at the death of Bellick.

Mahone? He used to call Bellick his "dog" back in season two. They've hardly had any interaction since then. Why does he suddenly care?

Basically, Sara's response I believe, because she and Bellick have a history going back prior to Fox River, at the recovery meetings. But then, her reaction was most muted of all, and less focus was given to it than all the other reactions.

So basically, it felt like a misfire all around, with characters behaving quite unlike themselves in the name of giving Bellick his sendoff.

Meanwhile, the plot treaded water this week without advancement. And my disappointment in the Bellick wrap-up spilled over into every other aspect of the episode, unfortunately. The ridiculous double-speak of the bad guys talking about all the goobledy-gook required to move Scylla seemed unusually onerous. The requisite "threatened by Agent Self / counter-threaten Agent Self" scene dragged. Even little details were getting to me.

Like, have you ever really looked at that white board in the warehouse, with all the photos of Scylla card holders attached to it? Card Holder #1's photo is clearly the real life actor's "head shot," and it looks absolutely silly, this supposed evil baddie smiling with a hand on his chin. Every time I saw it tonight, it jolted me completely out of the moment.

I'm hoping things will get back on track next week.

Greatness Achieved

Tonight brought us a strong episode of Prison Break. No beating around the bush -- the highlight was of course in the two deaths contained within the episode. Granted that with this show, it seems you can't actually assume anyone is dead until you see their severed head in a box. (And not even then.) But would appear we've seen the last of Company cronie Wyatt, and there-since-day-one Brad Bellick.

William Fichtner once again delivered a top notch performance as Mahone. Even though the character was largely returned this week to druggie-like climbing the wall territory, the emotional impact of the material was still powerful. I'm not necessarily a fan of watching torture in drama, but for this character and this storyline, it was the right place to go.

And said torture wasn't nearly as unsettling to watch as that creepy, creepy kiss between the General and Gretchen. Ew. I have to assume she's just leading him on to get inside and betray him. As I recall, Scylla required six keycards to access and Our Heroes only got five, with the General's still safe. I presume Gretchen is acting on the inside to procure that sixth card. What remains to be seen is whether the General is clever enough to see through the ploy, and to double-double-cross Gretchen.

But the big moment of the hour was for Brad Bellick. Having been comic relief for the show basically since the beginning (and in real earnest since season three), I started to wonder what weirdness was up when he started in with all the serious talk about having nothing in life to be passionate about, wondering how Linc's kid was doing, and such. But it wasn't until he crawled in that pipe that I put together where things were going. And even then, I thought the writers might chicken out.

I say good for them to take this twist in the road. Bellick gave us a few laughs, sure, but in truth his character hasn't truly been served well since season two. Sending him out this way was a great thing for the character and for the story. I only wish they'd laid a little more pipe (pun not intended) in earlier episodes setting up for this grand exit. Still, a minor quibble with what really was a great creative decision.

Speaking of minor quibbles, I'll leave you with this. If I'm ever in a medical emergency, get me Dr. Sara Tancredi. Because just hours earlier, Sucre was suffering a gunshot wound to the gut, and here he was doing all sorts of strenuous physical activities with only an occasional hand to the stomach in an almost "maybe I should take a Tums for this upset stomach I have" sort of mild discomfort.

That woman can work miracles.

The Price

Football coverage postponed this week's broadcast of Prison Break here in Denver, but tonight I was able to catch up with the new episode. It was rather worth the wait, fortunately.

First and foremost, we had the demise of the most annoying character on the show, that annoying Tech Guy (whose name I won't even bother to try remembering). I think the writers were trying to have him be sort of like Marshall from Alias, but it so didn't work. Whether it was part of the writers' original plan to kill him off, or they just arrived at the decision to do so after watching the character fail, the right decision was made either way. The only bad thing about the death was how they tried to kind of make a "moment" out of the death of this character we actively despised.

But the episode also included another death with a far more effective impact, as we saw flashbacks of Sara being held captive by Gretchen. The execution of the guard who helped Sara escape was a great plot thread all around. It was an effective emotional beat for the character, and storywise it explained how it was that Sara even managed to escape (with head attached) in the first place. This might well have been the best story of the season so far not given to the character of Mahone.

In truest Prison Break fashion, the show ended with things seeming to come unraveled. Just when the sixth keycard was in reach, "the General" got wise to the plan, and is now preparing to move Scylla's hiding place. Sometimes it hasn't always seemed realistic or fair when the "finish line" has moved on Our Heroes in seasons past, but this time it felt pretty natural. It's nice when the bad guys can be as clever as the protagonists. In any case, something needed to happen to keep this season's story from apparently wrapping up in less than 10 episodes. (Not that any of us actually thought that would happen.)

Now the biggest question: will the World Series mean no new episode next week?

Five the Hard Way

Tonight's episode of Prison Break was fairly entertaining, even though not the best the show can offer. Fracturing the group seemed to be a pretty good technique in this episode, again breaking up what would otherwise be a monotonous gathering of "Scylla card" data.

Mahone gets to repay the rescue from last week right away, bailing Michael out when he's captured by T-Bag. That chunk of the story offered a few interesting character moments, like T-Bag's test of how far Scofield has fallen, but for the most part it was only moving plot forward.

The Vegas plot seemed like the more interesting one this week, not for its complexity or suspense, but because it used the characters well. It was a nice change of pace to see that the latest attempt to use Sarah as eye candy wouldn't work this time out, and better still to see Sucre in a job that (despite the initial impressions) turned out not to be pure comic relief. Plus, Linc let Sarah (and the audience) in on the details of Michael's nose bleeds.

Gretchen and T-Bag did make an interesting team, but I did find it a stretch (even for this show) that she would be so determined to look out for him so quickly. I had a hard time accepting that she'd be trying to bargain with Our Heroes for T-Bag at the end of the episode; it seemed more plausible that Gretchen would simply cut her losses and keep going. (Of course, that would see T-Bag off the show, and we can't have that.) Perhaps the writers will offer more justification for this in the next week or two.

Blow Out

Tonight brought a pretty good episode of Prison Break.

The story had Mahone in the central role, and William Fichtner continued to deliver the high caliber performance he's brought so far this season.

The formula of recent weeks was broken up, with this week's "Scylla card heist" already in progress as the episode opened. This story instead focused on the fallout after the job, giving us some welcome variety.

Gretchen thankfully took a step toward being a more real character. After last season spent doing nothing but mustache twirling, and this season (so far) being tortured, I'm very glad she's on the loose and apparently will be given different material to work with. It also helps to hook her up with T-Bag; he needs another main character in his story.

The annoying Tech Guy was hardly in this episode. Yay.

They are running through these Scylla card holders awfully quick, though. I sure hope the writers have a plan for where the rest of the season will go after this is all wrapped up -- which is looking like it may be in just two more short weeks from now.

Eagles and Angels / Safe and Sound

Thanks to last week's internet calamity, I didn't get to comment on last week's Prison Break episode. So let me toss a few quick remarks about that before forging ahead into this week's installment.

Last week was a pretty pedestrian episode of the show. I would have thought it merely average, but it strayed into decidedly below average territory with the Sara plotline. Yes, she is a recovering addict, and yes, her trip to a bar while under stress is believable. But to have endured what she did at the hands of the Company, escaped, and lived for a time on the run, she also has to be smart. And we saw in the first couple seasons, she can be smart. Usually is. Which is why it's so painful and such a disservice to her freshly resurrected character to make her so dumb for the Company Hitman to be led to her.

Or, in a nutshell, I'm disappointed in the writers for it being the "girl" responsible for screwing up and leading The Killer to them.

But on to this week...

Things moved a little better this time. Sara found her brain again, and had a nice few moments of working together with Mahone. (That stupid new tech guy was involved too, but we all hate him.) We also got to see Mahone out being a badass like he was back in the days of season two, figuring out how to track someone with his ultra-keen instincts.

This week's Scylla caper was entertaining, though it is getting a little tired already seeing Sucre and Bellick used as bumbling comic relief. (Well, Sucre, anyway. Bellick was made for that stuff.)

Interesting to learn that whatever Michael's nose bleeds are all about, it's a condition Linc was already aware of. But the "warm climate" excuse begs the question why this didn't come up down in Panama. (Other than, you know, the plot device not having been thought of yet.)

And I'm glad Gretchen is now on the loose, so we don't have to watch the weekly torture session with her anymore. Oh... did anyone else think that guy's scream sounded like a TIE Fighter when she jammed that nail into him?

Anyway, an overall improvement, I'd say. But I'd still like things to keep getting better. I think more focus on Mahone will help that. His story has been the best thing about the season so far, and William Fichtner deserves it after the fairly lackluster material given him in season three.

Shut Down / Fringe

Due to the Denver FOX affiliate opting to simulcast last night's Broncos game, it was only tonight that this week's episode of Prison Break aired.

It was a pretty average episode -- nothing really great in it, but neither anything to really discourage the hope I'd started to have last week about the revitalization of the show.

William Fichtner's performance as Mahone tonight was especially good, but then he always delivers when given good material. I found it less plausible that Linc would suddenly abandon his "you killed my father" vendetta against Mahone just because the man lost his son, but... shrug.

Where Fichtner's acting shone bright, new-to-the-show Michael Rapaport's acting seemed pretty feeble. I hate to say it, because I've like this guy on other shows (such as Boston Public), but he seems way miscast in this part. It seems like his character is destined to spend a lot of time badgering and threatening Scofield. But he comes off far to meek to be credible at this, especially given how strong we know Scofield is from having watched him for three seasons. I think New Guy is just gonna get plowed over.

We'll see if things pick up more next week.

A quick footnote, though, as long as I'm talking about FOX television. Tonight marked the premiere of J.J. Abrams' latest creation, Fringe. After the pilot episode, I find myself a lot less enthusiastic about this series than I was about his past efforts. I remember liking Lost and Alias right out of the gate. Hell, I even thought Felicity started strong. (Yes, snicker if you like -- I watched Felicity. It was a good show.)

After about the first half of the Fringe pilot, I was seriously contemplating turning it off. The pace was slow, the story didn't seem solid, and none of the characters were really popping for me. I am glad I stuck it through, though, because the second half really did improve. Things got tighter and more interesting. It didn't leave me eager for another episode, but it did at least leave me in a place where I think I will watch the next episode.

Again, we'll see if things pick up more next week.

Scylla / Breaking and Entering

It's been a long time since the last new episode of Prison Break. If you recall, I said at the time that I wasn't sure if I truly wanted it to continue. It had left off in a decent enough place, and had long since reached the point where it was a near parody of itself. As much as I loved Prison Break in season one, did we really need more Prison Break?

The creators seem to have answered "no" to this question, because instead of giving us Prison Break season four tonight, they kicked off what appears to be Alias season one. It appears the show is now going to be about heists and capers, espionage missions, living a secret life, and trying to bring down SD-6 The Company. Hell, we even introduced a new tech mastermind to serve the group, a shadowy government agent to run and protect the operation, and a "base" -- complete with giant conference table -- from which to plan their missions.

But lest it sound like I'm down on all this, let me state clearly I feel quite the opposite. I don't expect this show is going to live up to the quality of those first two seasons of Alias, but I feel like I really could go for a show of that tone right now. If Prison Break can become that and still be true to the characters we've come to enjoy, I think I'm on board.

But oh... not so fast, Whistler. You're not invited to this grand series re-invention. I can't say I fully understand why the creators decided to off that character. It's not that I felt very attached to him, having only seen him in the truncated 13-episode season three. But I did find it interesting what a truly graphic death it was, for prime time television. You're not seeing brain matter exploding out the back of a head during "family hour" very often.

Of course, the reason for that is so we all understand he really is truly dead and not Dr. Sara Tancredi "dead." I thought of Soapdish a dozen times during tonight's two episodes, and that hilarious scene between Whoopi Goldberg and Robert Downey Jr. ("He doesn't have a head! How am I supposed to write for a guy that doesn't have a head?! He has no lips! No vocal cords!" "Guess what? You're a writer. You'll think of something.") I never really was a Michael-Sara "shipper," so I don't much care that that element of the show has been returned. But it is nice to have a female character in the mix. And not a truly dumb female character, like too many past Prison Break fixtures have been. (Remember Veronica? I wish I didn't.)

I can't say I'm suddenly feeling real excitement about Prison Break again. But I did find myself enjoying tonight more than I thought I would. We'll see if they're able to build on this bit of momentum in the weeks to come.

P.S. -- I bet the writer of the second hour sat at his computer screen for about five minutes going back and forth about the line "What, did you eat bad Mexican?" He must have been sitting there going: "Oh, it's such a horrible joke. I can't write that down. Oh, but it's so great, how can I not write it down?"