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
Then we hear the usual noise inside the prison -- doors clanging, inmates who won't shut up. The boys are heading back to their cell when Sucre's held back from the cell so that Pope and Michael can have a private conference -- in his cell, where everyone can see and hear everything. Pope's lounging near Michael's escape hatch. He asks rhetorically, "Why do I get the feeling that there's more to you than meets the eye, Scofield?" Because the writers mandated it. Next question! Michael's busy quietly freaking over the water leaking around his escape hatch -- water that could, in theory, attract Pope's attention and derail his questions about whether Michael wants to cop to having some other reason to hang out in prison, beyond the usual ones like male companionship without the pesky presence of women, or the exhilarating thrill of not knowing if today's the day that you lose another toe or become the latest Fabulously Gay White Supremacist, despite having heretofore been pretty happy as a Fabulously Heterosexual Proponent Of Affirmative Action, et cetera.
Michael's freak-out gets taken to a whole new level when Pope walks over and says, "You're being transferred." Michael finally tears away his eyes from the leak long enough to gasp, "What?" Pope confirms that they're moving him over to Statesville, and Michael says numbly, "You can't do that." "Yes, I can. I'm the boss here. This is my house," Pope lies. Michael looks lost as he blurts, "Three weeks…Lincoln Burrows. He's being executed in three weeks." Pope shrugs, "Well, I'm aware of that. What's that to you?" Michael says simply, "He's my brother. When I knew I was being sent to prison, my attorney petitioned the D.O.C. --" "So you could be near him," Pope finishes. "That's right," Michael says, not adding, "And I am in no way planning an elaborate escape for us both. No sirree. Not at all." Instead, he whispers, "Don't take that away from me. Not 'til it's over." Pope comes clean with, "I'm not the one who arranged the transfer. You're up against much bigger fish than me. I'll arrange for you to say goodbye. You ship out tomorrow." Pope stumbles out without noticing that Sucre's also wearing the "Oh, crap!" look, and Michael simply stares at his bunk.
Commercials. Do you suppose the FAA will ban Jodie Foster's latest movie, I'm The Passenger You Don't Want To Sit Next To? on all international and domestic flights? And if they do, can they then become drunk with power and ban all Kate Hudson movies too? Please?
When we get back to Elysian Fields, we get a long shot of the exterior, then pan abruptly to the TOLEDO folder. I bet it's full of exciting facts about the Maumee River. Nope -- it's full of exciting tidbits about this dead kid in Toledo, who apparently died in July 1998. Pope brings out an old battered Bible he was keeping in his desk drawer and sets it atop the folder.