Episode Report Card Sobell: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT He Sees Dead People
By Sobell | Season 4 | Episode 15 | Aired on 12.15.2008
Back at St. Conspiracy, Dr. Sara is consulting with one of the surgeons, if by "consulting," you mean "asking the doctors, 'is it just me, or is that tumor the size of Delaware? How is it possible he has any room for brains with that thing in there?'" The doctor more or less replies, "I know! It's huge, right?" Dr. Sara says, "Okay... will there be any memory loss?" The doctor blithely replies, "It hardly ever affects what's referred to as 'net memory.' We're all tapped into such small portions of what we've experienced in our lifetime. The bulk of it's just kept in storage, rarely acknowledged by the conscious mind. So while there may be some gross memory loss, he'll never know it was gone -- because he'll never know it was there." This does not comfort Dr. Sara.
Meanwhile, inside the wine-dark mind of Michael Scofield, the dream Michael is puzzling over the collage, looking for a message. Somewhere. The word "power" gets spotlight treatment, as does the periodic table of elements, but before Michael can think any further, he's jolted. Back in O.R., he jumps a little, and all the doctors respond with alacrity.
As the doctors work on Michael, he retreats back into his lucid dreaming, and the word "bargain" gets echoed over and over again. We see Michael reliving flashbacks through prior episodes, then writing "BARGAIN" on top of the collage. As Michael effectively relives all of Season Four in fast-forward, the doctors note with alarm that his "brain activity is all over the place." Michael keeps dwelling on "as long as we have Scylla, we have power." Then Michael inexplicably flashes to Dr. Sara's torture at Kellerman's hands, then to the Season One credits. I give the editing department kudos for re-using old footage. Anyway, the montage eventually comes to a close, the jail cell opens up, and Westmoreland materializes to say, "I'm sorry, Michael."
The moment Westmoreland apologizes like that, the doctors are all, "We're losing him." They begin working on him. Dream-Michael asks Westmoreland what's going on, and Westmoreland tells him, "It's time to go." Michael flatlines -- prompting Dr. Sara to burst in and administer some wildly unsanitary treatment of her own, i.e. pounding on Michael's chest and insisting, "We are not finished with this yet." Dream-Michael echoes her words to Westmoreland: "I'm not finished yet." Westmoreland insists that it's time. As Dr. Sara whispers, "Not like this," Dream-Michael begs Westmoreland, "Not like this." Westmoreland says, "It's okay. You've done your part." Dream-Michael pounds his fists on the collage and shouts, "I haven't figured it out yet!" Westmoreland slowly tells Dream-Michael he has. Back in the OR, Dr. Sara shouts at nobody in particular, "Would you do something?" Dream-Michael shouts up at the ceiling, "I'm trying!" The doctors inject him with something in a hand-labeled bottle. Westmoreland tells Dream-Michael to relax: "You might think it's bad, but it's not." Dream-Michael leans against the collage and asks, "Dying?" Westmoreland replies, "No!" Dream-Michael resumes looking at the collage -- specifically at the big demon-head drawing in the middle of it. Westmoreland watches as Dream-Michael draws boxes around the letters in "bargain" so it reads "b" "ar" "ga" "in." This wears him out. Westmoreland intones, "Not everything is as it seems. Goodbye, Michael." And then Michael comes back. 'Tis a miracle! Or the fact that he's the lead on this show. Take your pick.