Episode Report Card Sobell: A- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Brief Wondrous Life of Cole Pfeiffer
By Sobell | Season 4 | Episode 14 | Aired on 12.08.2008
Meanwhile, Dr. Sara and Sucre have broken into Don's hotel room and learned, to their horror, that Don Self has the inside peek into Team Scylla HQ and is retrieving the chip. We then have a desultory scene where Don retrieves the chip and reminds Gretchen not to kill him if she wants to see Emily again.
And then we're in the world's creepiest medical facility. Michael is restrained at both ankle and wrist and some benign-looking doctor is busy prepping a syringe for an injection and advising him, "Try and relax." That's kind of tough to do when General Von Baldy's just showed up and begun patting your hand. Although it kind of wouldn't surprise me if it turned out that General Von Baldy had one hell of a bedside manner. He seems like someone who would sort of calm you down -- or put you into a fearful stupor -- if he were delivering bad news at the doctor's office.
Back at Team Scylla HQ, Dr. Sara's a weepy mess, Sucre's panicky and Lincoln is all, "[Sigh.] Why do I only get to be team leader when everything's gone all pear-shaped?"
We then cut to Michael getting an MRI. Having recently gone in for an MRI for my own cabeza-sited medical issue (alas, not a TV-style tumor that makes me more brilliant as it grows ever more malignant), I have a little firsthand experience in this, and so I immediately began shouting things like, "Where is the IV to deliver the contrast dye?" and "Why doesn't he have earplugs to help muffle the noise?" From the depths of the couch, Mr. Sobell inquires, "Everything that goes on with this show and you take issue with the MRI?" And to that I can only reply, I have no experiences with prisons, either domestic or international division, but this I can quibble with. So I do. Anyway, the upshot is that Michael is pretty out of it, but he appears to be getting comprehensive medical care.
Meanwhile, Gretchen and Self are on a foggy pier, waiting for Vykin. T-Bag chooses that moment to call and share the news about his new hostage. "He could be a [One World Conspiracy] operative," T-Bag frets. "So kill him," Don Self orders. T-Bag hesitates, then admits, "He could also be a Bible salesman." "Then he shouldn't have any problem getting past St. Peter. Kill. Him." Don orders. He's a meathead, but that was a funny line. T-Bag hangs up the phone, sighs, and orders Rita to go hang with Emily in the playroom. She wants to know what's up, and T-Bag tells her again to am-scray. Rita walks off. T-Bag begins preparing to kill Ralph (shower curtain on the floor, Ralph on top of the shower curtain), Rita comes out again and asks T-Bag not to kill Ralph. T-Bag shouts, "I told you to go back yonder! You don't want to see this." Rita says, "Cole Pfeiffer wouldn't do this." T-Bag says, "Cole Pfeiffer isn't here. It's just ol' T-Bag." As Ralph begins praying, Rita says, "If you want to be free, start right now. Start this minute. If you pull that trigger, Cole Pfeiffer's gone forever. Don't do this." As Rita says that, Emily comes out and eyeballs the scene. Since T-Bag is a sucker for the redemptive powers of a mother figure (see also his hang-ups about his ex in season two), and since the Bible thing triggers memories of being an abused kid, T-Bag is now even more racked with indecision. After a minute, he cocks the gun. Rita ushers Emily out, and T-Bag tells Ralph, "My daddy was a religious man, just like you. We used to ... pray together in my room at night. I used to be crying on the floor, just like you. Sometimes, when I couldn't take it no more, my daddy would cite a particular piece of scripture he was fond of: 'Weeping may endure through the night --'" "But joy comes in the morning. Psalms 35," Ralph wheezes.