Episode Report Card Sobell: B+ | 1 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Let the Water Wash Away Your Sins
By Sobell | Season 4 | Episode 9 | Aired on 11.03.2008
Down in the bowels of the tunnels, Team Scylla has no success in pushing the sleeve back up and threading it through the hole where it needs to be. Linc and Bellick hear a low rumble in the distance, and Bellick nervously notes that the water's coming back on. Linc says they've got to get out of there, and Bellick plaintively protests, "But then we'll never get Scylla!" Linc counters that they have no choice. Bellick squares his jaw and says, "You don't. I do." He then hops back into the big pipe; over the faint roar of the oncoming water, Linc inquires (at the top of his lungs) after Bellick: "What are you doing? What are you doing?"
What Bellick is doing is lifting up the sleeve so that it can slide into the hole on the other side of the vast water main. Once he fits it into place, he'll be trapped in the pipe. We cut to Michael and Sucre panicking because they think the guys are trapped; they don't know that Bellick's inside, guiding the sleeve to Linc on the other side. Wait -- now they do. Michael bellows, "Brad! Drop the sleeve and get out of there!" But Bellick's determined to make sure that something comes of this boondoggle. Linc begs Bellick not to do this, but Bellick shoves the pipe up with "You have a son!" He then rouses Michael with "Scofield! Push it through!" Michael and Sucre do. And then all that's left is for everyone on Team Scylla to sit outside the pipe and listen to the thundering sound of the water as it surges through. We get a shot of Bellick standing in front of the sleeve. He hears the water, turns to meet it head-on with a squared jaw. Then, as the water swoops around the pipe toward him, he falters for a moment, then closes his eyes with fresh resolve --
We see everyone outside the pipe slumping as they're washed in leaks. At least Bellick's death gives the end of his life the kind of greater meaning that was lacking in everything leading up to it. R.I.P., Brad Bellick. The writers used you as a stand-in for all sorts of character flaws, and the arc of your redemption as a human being was approximately 42 minutes long, and therefore slightly eyebrow-raising. But however poorly served Bellick was by the writers, he was magnificently played by Wade Williams, and I will miss seeing Williams spin gold out of straw in his scenes.
Has everyone finished discreetly sniffing into their hankies? General Von Baldy calls everyone into his office with dismissive talk about how he was never in danger from a pissed-off, gun-wielding sociopath, and Lisa comes back in looking like she could murder Gretchen with her bare hands. When General Von Baldy asks what's the haps with Scylla, Lisa glares at Gretchen as she says, "I'll tell you in private." "You can tell me in front of Gretchen." We cut to Gretchen faintly smirking. Lisa would rather not update anyone on Scylla just yet, because she needs to try and make a threat to Gretchen first. But Gretchen's not having any of it, and the General breaks their little staring contest by reminding everyone that they're supposed to be concerned about Scylla. Lisa says happily that she got the safeguards in place faster than expected so "We can move Scylla tomorrow, if we wanted. But now that [Agent Blots Out the Sun] has eliminated Scofield and Burrows, there's no need."