By Frederic Germay
I cannot express how wonderful it is to have “Prison Break” going back to its origins. Unlike most shows that start to lose their creative stream, “Prison Break” simply rebooted itself back to its peak of quality while still retaining, or providing closure for, all of its previous plot lines, and setting the stage in a refreshing new direction. Thanks to the show’s major revamp, new viewers can join in without absolutely needing to have watched the previous seasons, whereas seasoned viewers can now add on to the compounding story with great relish.
In this episode, I did feel as though some elements from the first season where being recycled for Sona. The whole riot sequence brought on because of the deprivation of water and extreme heat also had occurred in the first season episodes “Riots, Drills and the Devil” parts 1 and 2. However, it is understandable that riots would occur in more than one prison, but I just wanted to point out that although this instance of repetition worked, that may not always be the case. Quite fortunately, this episode outdid its competition.
The appointed leader of the crooks, Lechero, seems to be losing his cool. Mildly wise he may be, but he doesn’t seem to appreciate the needs of the people as much as he should. After living in his little paradise in the prison with telephones and cable television, the other inmates would undoubtedly become jealous of Lechero’s comforts. However, they didn’t dare start a fight with him, seeing as they would inevitably lose to Lechero’s loyal and armed henchmen. Due to the lack of water and heat, just like the inmates at Fox River, Sona’s captives start to lose their better judgment and rally against Lechero.
Meanwhile, Bellick’s character begins to adapt to the prison environment in an most unsavory way. Contrary to my predictions, Bellick didn’t hold on to his information about Whistler’s whereabouts until he could utilize it for maximum profit. Instead he sold it to Michael for a few sips of water, and then resold it to T-Bag and Lechero for clothes and food.
T-Bag’s character seems to be developing in quite a predictable way. Thanks to a few well-placed words and actions, he has quickly ascended up the ranks, even so much as to possibly challenge the position of Lechero’s right hand man. As much as T-Bag may enjoy his newfound status, I don’t doubt for second that he would trade his position for freedom, or at the very least, use his status to blackmail Michael into letting him in on the escape plan to-be.
Mahone’s character seems to be rapidly disenagrating. Despite his sharp intelligence, he is becoming increasingly desperate and making rather dangerous judgment calls. After locating Whistler, he just barely extricates him from the sewers and forces him out into the yard, which is made even more dangerous since Lechero placed a bounty on Whistler’s head. Due to the extremely stressful situation that Mahone had been placed in, and in addition to the lack of his drugs, he seems due for a psychological breakdown. He is even more paranoid and distrustful than before, and he turned away the sole helping hand in his direction. Although T-Bag and Bellick are certainly not comrades, they seem to be on Lechero’s side, which unites them on the bad side. Michael seems ready to temporarily set aside his loathing for Mahone, but can the cat and mouse learn to work together?
Michael sensing weakness in Lechero’s tightly structured society lends a helping hand by securing water for the prison population in exchange for Whistler’s security inside the prison. I have to admit that I was extremely impressed with Michael’s methods for obtaining more water – I couldn’t figure out what he was up to until about a minute before he made the alcohol bomb. Now that Michael has made a successful exchange with Lechero, it seems as though Lechero might be a little less menacing towards Michael…it would certainly be an interesting development for the two of them to end up working together to break out.
As for Whistler, he continues to grow more mysterious as more information is found out about him. Apparently, his girlfriend on the outside got his message and retrieved an odd book about birds. Finally delivering some action to his storyline, Lincoln steals the book from Whistler’s girl and dumps a fake on the company people. Unfortunately, Lincoln is not nearly as skilled on decoding as his little brother might be. Sucre also delivered some relevance to his inclusion in the story as he finally said his good-byes to Marie-Cruz, and now his hands are completely free to aid Lincoln and Michael.
Overall, this episode took all the exciting new aspects of the premiere and radically improved them. This season is looking to be one of the most exciting shows on television’s fall lineup. I give this episode a 9/10
