Episode Report Card Sobell: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Score one for the Darwinists
By Sobell | Season 1 | Episode 10 | Aired on 11.06.2005
The next morning, Abruzzi's on the phone. Some voice on the other end tells him, "You hear the news? Falzone got popped up in Canada last night. International gun charges, parole violation. He's in deep." Abruzzi gazes across the yard at Michael (who's being escorted to the clinic by a guard) and slams down the phone.
Michael says to Dr. Sara, "You threw away your flowers." She doesn't even look up as she replies, "Like I said, they don't last." Michael eyes the still-vibrant bouquet sitting in the trash can and says, "I don't think they're dead yet." Dr. Sara finally gives him a look and she says, "I don't like getting attached to things if I know they won't last." Michael looks thoughtful. Then he asks, "Why are you so cynical?" "Because I work in a prison and prisoners lie to me all the time?" she shoots back. Oh, of course not. Dr. Sara looks all over the place as she explains that there's cynicism and realism. Then the man who's all, "The swell fella I used to be died when he came in here! I'm a bad guy! I swear! I don't need no stinkin' compassion from you, lady!" has the nerve to tell Sara, "There's optimism, hope, faith." Dr. Sara averts her gaze from the relentless Blue Steel and snaps, "This coming from an eight-toed guy in a penitentiary." Michael shrugs and says toes are overrated. Sara puts in a cork in the conversation with, "Thank you for trying to make me smile. Not today." Michael actually smiles at her and says, "You never know." Sara's not having it. Assuming Dr. Sara doesn't spend the rest of her days hunting down the escaped Michael like Carrie Fisher did John Belushi in The Blues Brothers, she will have reams of raw material for that upcoming best-seller Don't Do Life In The Prison Of Love.
Anyway, Michael gets up and walks out, and the camerawork is deliberately vague on this point, but moments after he walks by her desk, we see that there's a red-and-green origami rose sitting on top of a pile of paperwork. Dr. Sara notices it and melts. Oh, it's back to "Mrs. Dr. Tancredi-Scofield? Dr. Mrs. Scofield? Dr. and Mr. Michael Scofield?" doodled on lab charts for her!
Abruzzi shoves his way through cellblock A on his way to Michael's cell, and boy, is he looking miffed. Maybe it's because he's looking less sebaceous than usual and he's confused when he's not leaving oily films on everything. Abruzzi looks around to make sure he's in no danger of finks, then swings into the cell. He leans into the bottom bunk where Michael's woolgathering, and snarls, "You and I have a lot to talk about, don't we, fish? Seems Philly Falzone ran into some problem up in Canada, just because of the information you gave him." Michael's curious as to what kind of trouble. Sadly, he is not curious about which country Abruzzi's vowels are currently hailing from. Abruzzi elaborates, "International gun charges, parole violation -- oh, he's going to go away for a long time." Abruzzi's practically choking on the last phrase. Michael asks how Abruzzi feels about that, and he cocks his head at a 90-degree angle before grinning and saying, "Pretty darn good." Psych!
Michael smiles too, and it becomes abundantly clear that the two of them set Philly up. While I appreciate the episode's twist and all, I really would have loved to see how Michael sold this idea to Abruzzi. And I would have loved to see one or both of them thinking, "Hey, what's to stop the organization from ordering a hit on us after Philly goes down?"