Episode Report Card Sobell: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT A Girl Named Disaster
By Sobell | Season 3 | Episode 9 | Aired on 01.13.2008
We cut back to Michael. Amazingly, he has not moved from a solid to a liquid state, but he's close.
Meanwhile, on the outside...Sucre's getting off his shift when Augusto hits him up to make another delivery to the inside. Sucre asks how much, and Augusto says, "I gave you ten grand!" Sucre coolly responds, "Ten grand for the last one -- how much for this one?" Augusto offers Sucre a quick gunshot to the gut, so Sucre sensibly decides to do the job for free.
So he's back at Sona, just in time to interrupt some flunkie giving Zavala lip -- the good general wants to give Michael some water, and the guard's all, "He doesn't deserve it." Sucre hastily offers to bring the water instead. He walks it over and proffers the Dixie cup with the sweetly affectionate, "Hey, brother. Remember me?" Michael is not in a happy place mentally, and Sucre patiently coaxes, "Come on, Papi. Drink this." Michael pleads, "You can't let anything happen to L.J., okay?" Sucre reassures him, "It's okay. He's doing much better than you. Come on. Drink this. You need it." Michael sure does. Sucre tells Michael he's very sorry about Sara, and adds that he'll try to sneak more stuff inside. Michael says shakily, "I want you to quit," but Sucre's not having any of Michael's martyr moves. Awww! I want these two to run off into the sunset together, but platonically. Think of the buddy-comedy potential.
Meanwhile, Lechero and Whistler have resumed work on the tunnel that is supposed to help them burrow out. Lechero's sniping at Whistler for that little stunt with the helicopter. Whistler says matter-of-factly he was looking out for his own (aesthetically pleasing) posterior. After Lechero knocks a chunk of concrete out of the roof of the tunnel, a thin trickle of sand follows. I shudder (y'all know I hate the feel of sand, right? Yet I love the ocean. Stupid sand getting in the way of my good time!) and so does Lechero. Whistler says calmly that all they have to do is brace the ceiling. Lechero looks up at the ceiling and concludes, "No, we need the engineer." The two of them scamper out of the tunnel. Lechero keeps an eye out so Whistler can hurry past Sammy, Octavio, and the rest unnoticed. However, he misses T-Bag, who is deliberately lurking out of eyeline and watching everyone. We get a close-up on T-Bag, who looks pensive. That's surprising -- he should look delighted that once again, he'll get to weasel his way into an escape without doing much of the heavy lifting aforehand. Oh, wait -- now he does.
Zavala decides it's time to see if Michael's ready to talk. He notes, "Ninety-eight degrees in the shade, 125 in the box. Let's go inside. We'll have a chat in the air conditioning." You're assuming Michael's not out of his mind with heat stroke and capable only of babbling nonsense syllables. Zavala continues with a weather forecast for the next two days -- continued heat wave with rising chance of fatality. Michael gasps, "You don't understand...if I thought you could help me..." Zavala says simply, "I can. You're unaware of the influence I have in this province. You'd rather I be your ally than your enemy, would you?" Michael replies, "You don't know these people. We can't stop them." We can only hope to contain them. Zavala gives him a little pep talk: "There was a man, a drug kingpin, the most powerful man in Panama. A ruthless killer with an army of thugs and thieves behind him. He killed judges, policemen, anyone who stood in his way. They said he couldn't be stopped, but now Lechero is in prison, and I am in power. I decide whose life is at stake, and right now, it's yours." There's a long pause, and Zavala turns to go. Michael speaks up, and the music booms dramatically as he says, "From the moment I got here" -- gives Zavala the full Blue Steel -- "I've been planning my escape." Zavala makes a gesture as he walks off and the guards head to the hot box.