Episode Report Card Sobell: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT …And Now Miguel
By Sobell | Season 3 | Episode 2 | Aired on 09.23.2007
And then there's some more prison business -- Splenda has a visitor so he takes off to see what's what, Mahone glares resentfully at Michael drinking his water, Michael gives Mahone a look that's the ocular equivalent of flipping someone the bird with both hands. Michael noodles over his piece of paper one more time: "Versailles 1989 V. Madrid." We flash back to Michael getting the paper, and then he heads over to where Bellick's attempting to lick a little moisture out of the long-dry tap.
Michael leans against a convenient pillar. Bellick comes over and croaks a plea for some water. Michael will give it to him, but he'd like some information in return: where did the note come from and why? Bellick explains the rat-meat-for-errands exchange he and Whistler conducted. Michael would like to know why this skulking figure in the sewer wanted a note to get out. Bellick grunts, "He's nuts, that's why. Doesn't have all his faculties, living down in the sewers." Indeed -- let the semi-naked man covered in his own filth speak truth to power about other people's fitness in Sona.
And oh lord, we are back in the festering cesspits where Wheeler lives. Michael finds the nearest gap in the walls and whispers an introduction: "Whistler! My name is Michael Scofield. I was sent to get you out of here. I'm going to assume they told you I was coming -- or that someone was coming." "Speak up! I can't hear a word you say!" Whistler replies. Oh, not really. He is silent as the grave. Michael impatiently whispers, "Last chance! I'm not coming down here again!" I don't blame him one bit. Whistler finally speaks up with, "You're here to get me out of Sona?" Michael asks if Whistler's surprised, and Whistler introduces another plot complication: "It's going to be a bit difficult getting me out of this hole, seeing as if I go aboveground, and other inmates spot me, I'm a dead man." Michael's expression can best be read as Who isn't here in Sona, you big drama queen?
Credit time! There are a few sequences we haven't seen yet in these episodes. The one with Mahone shouting does not make me feel good about his prospects for getting out of prison.
After a pause where the commercials would be if I weren't watching this on iTunes (thank you, FOX, for maintaining a relationship with iTunes!), we resume the conversation between Michael and Whistler. Briefly: Michael will come back to fetch Whistler when the time is right. Whistler protests, "I won't make it, though." Michael snipes, "That's your problem, my friend. I've got problems of my own." Whistler asks if Michael works for "these people, the ones who want me out of Sona," and Michael totally avoids answering that question. Whistler persists, "Why do they want me out of here so badly? Can you at least tell me that?" Michael rolls his eyes and answers, "Is this the part where you tell me you're innocent and you're just a pawn in all this?" Channeling the same urgent sincerity that Scofield has occasionally conjured for skeptics, Whistler replies, "If they told you anything about me before you came here, you'd know that to be true. I just want to know what they want with me." Michael bluffs by fiercely repeating, "Stay put!"
Meanwhile, in Panama City, Linc is about to meet his lady contact in the same bar where they first clapped eyes upon one another. When he sits down, he is on the receiving end of a monologue that is supposed to radiate sangfroid, but sounds more like someone spent a lot of time rehearsing in front of the ladies' room mirror before walking back into the bar: "In an effort to save some time, I'm going to have to insist that we just skip right past all the threats I know you're prepared to lay out: should anything happen to Sara or L.J., you'll scour the Earth and hunt me down, and rip the heart from my chest and bop-bop-bop. [pause for effect] I absolutely know how you feel. As would I. Okay? So that's done. On to business." She confirms that Michael got the first message, then tells Linc they'll meet here every day for progress reports. Then we learn that this woman is more demanding than most fun-hating sitcom wives, up to and including Debra Barone: "When I call your cell phone, answer. Don't ask me stupid questions. Don't waste my time."