Episode Report Card Sobell: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT It's so hard to find good conspiracy participants
By Sobell | Season 1 | Episode 5 | Aired on 09.18.2005
And then he gets his flashback to the day of the funeral. Mercifully, it's quiet. Dr. Tancredi asks if they're close now, and as the camera pulls in on Michael in the prison, Lincoln explains, "He's been abandoned his whole life. Dad, Mom -- she died young -- and now me. Now tell me again what this has to do with my physical health?" Dr. Tancredi fishes for more information on Michael -- favorite band, whether he's a Cubs or a White Sox fan, whether he digs brainy idealistic chicks. Lincoln gapes some more and says, "I abandoned him a long time ago. That's why he's here." The screen jump-cuts to Pope looking at old school photos of his secret son. Then we see Michael strolling into his cell: it's 5:44 PM, so it took him approximately 39 minutes to stroll over from Pope's office to the cell. The cell doors close and Michael says, "It's time." "Time? Oh, God, here we go again. Count's in fifteen minutes. What are you doing?" Sucre moans. Michael tells him, "Trust me -- the less you know, the better."
Speaking of people in the dark, Pope's busy praying in the chapel, and the chaplain comes on in to make things awkward by commenting on how rare it is for Pope to be in here at this hour. You know, having men of the cloth log my comings and goings would really set me on edge. More so than I would already be from having Secret Service men threatening to sabotage my marriage, that is. Pope spills his guts: "My son Will was my responsibility, and if I stayed in his life, I could have saved his life…he was a criminal and an addict, but he was only 18 years old." Father Frances Xposition helpfully tells us, "His mother made it clear you couldn't be in his life if you weren't going to be in hers. When you chose to stay with Judy, you understood that." Pope admits, "I not only understood it, I was grateful for it. I told myself I was respecting her wishes. I cursed her under my breath while every day I thanked God for allowing me to wash my hands of her. Of Toledo. All of it." Yes! Damn Frog City! Damn people who bear your children and expect things from you! How unreasonable of them not to make adultery consequence-free. And then I feel sorry for Pope because he finishes, "So I ran home to Judy. I got a chance to bury my secret. But I never got a chance to bury my" -- he breaks down before continuing -- "my son. What kind of a person does that -- sacrifices somebody else's life just to make their own life easier?" Father Frances Xposition sits there silently, not saying, Don't ask me. I'm just here to help you articulate one of the central thematic questions of the show.
Meanwhile, back on the outside…an evidence room clerk is giving Veronica and Nick the Legal Beagle a whole lot of attitude. Bring her back weekly. Make her an ongoing trial for Veronica and Nick the Legal Beagle. Please. Veronica and Nick do some more begging, and then the marvelous clerk is all, "Hold on. Last night a pipe burst upstairs, flooded the place. Files from a hundred different cases were pretty much ruined, including yours." Wow, what amazing coincidental timing for what the file clerk calls a freak accident.