Episode Report Card Sobell: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Niedermeyer -- dead!
By Sobell | Season 2 | Episode 17 | Aired on 02.18.2007
Commercials. What is the sound of a thousand hands creeping me out? It's "Vaseline," is what it is. Disembodied body parts are freaky. Yet they are also oddly, thematically appropriate for this show, no?
When we get back, Pope is growling that he doesn't want any trouble. Michael replies, "Good, because that's not why we're here." Pope angrily rips off his apron (sadly, no "Kiss the Cook" motto in evidence) and snarls, "What are you thinking, waltzing in here? You're a wanted criminal. In case you'd forgotten, I'd dedicated my career and my entire life to keeping people like you behind bars." Michael corrects him, "You're talking about guilty people. My brother is innocent." I like how he sidesteps Pope's main point, as Michael is indeed guilty of armed robbery, however incompetently he performed it. Michael adds that he's got evidence to prove Linc's innocence, but Pope snaps, "I don't care. I want you out of here." Michael presses on, asking Pope to go to the cigar club. "Out!" barks Pope. Dr. Sara pleads for him to listen. Pope turns to her and bitterly says, "I'm tempted to say you should know better. But after what you did --" Dr. Sara interrupts, nervously fidgeting with the club key as she explains that Governor Dad was looking into the Burrows case when he was murdered and all she has is that key. Despite himself, Pope is intrigued.
Meanwhile, in another subplot, T-Bag has driven his new family to Conecuh County, Alabama. This has not been the kind of road trip where everyone has whiled away the time coming up with new lyrics for "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall." The car of tense and wary passengers pulls up to a dilapidated cottage. T-Bag drawls, "Well, lack-a-day." Indeed. Is that heady aroma the mixture of magnolias, moonshine, and gothic narrative? Or is it a bullshit backstory? I can't quite tell from this point in the episode. As T-Bag pulls closer to the house and takes in the weak graffiti, he snarls, "Miscreants, defilers, defacers, despoilers." It's delightful, it's delicious, it's delovely? Sorry -- the alliteration was too alluring. Susan asks what this is, and the music swells ominously as T-Bag snarls, "My home."
And now we come to... the recap where I don't do the one-paragraph summary of a subplot. Mostly because this is the tiniest subplot this show's done in a while anyway. We're in Tecpatan, Mexico, and the doughty little blue Beetle has broken down a scant 35 miles outside Ixtapa. (Naturally, as the car broke down, the background music slowed along with the car's pace.) As the car sputters to a halt, Sucre screams, "No, no, no, no, no!" and pounds on the horn. I think he's confused pounding on a hospital patient's chest ("Live, damn it! Live!") with repairing a car. Sucre gets out and within minutes, he is picked up by a kindly driver. As luck would have it, his driver is also going to the airport. There's some small talk where Sucre explains that he's meeting his girl's 4 PM flight. Then a walkie-talkie beeps and the driver, Cadena, explains that he's airport security and he's heading to work because "American fugitive's flying in, or something like that." Sucre turns away before Cadena can catch the "Oh, CRAP!" look on his face.
Speaking of hospitals in the southeastern Minnesota area, we're at The Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We cut to C-Note walking Dede over to a chair in the waiting room and being sweetly solicitous of her, then heading over to the receptionist. It does not go well. In fact, it goes the opposite of well, as C-Note does not have insurance and therefore, so far as the young lady manning the admissions desk is concerned, he is less than human.