Episode Report Card Sobell: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Bad Boys Eventually Get Quiet Time
By Sobell | Season 4 | Episode 11 | Aired on 11.17.2008
I have to hand it to the writers: making the need for total silence one of the conceits of this caper is a stroke of genius, because it forces the viewer to pay attention to every little thing. Also, it ratchets the tension up through the roof. When Sucre drops the frozen nitrogen canister, I nearly shouted in alarm. Sucre dives after the canister and catches it mere seconds before it hits the floor. He's now clinging to the bridge by his feet, and honestly, that doesn't look like it's going to hold for very long.
But! But! You don't get abs like Sucre's without doing a lot of core strength work, and that is what ultimately brings him back up onto the bridge. Well, that and Lincoln's quiet, LINCOLN GRAB move he performs. Back on the other side of the wall, Mahone lunges for the cables, lest they begin fraying under the combined weight of so much beefcake. Sucre and the container are safely collected, Lincoln shimmies back out of the Scylla Chamber, and Sucre collapses on the half-completed bridge. He kisses his crucifix in gratitude.
Upstairs, however, Gretchen has just walked back inside T-Bag's office with a big duffel bag. All business, she tells T-Bag, "When Scofield and Burrows walk in that door, give them an opportunity to surrender. Best-case scenario, we can avoid a confrontation." T-Bag warns her, "Ain't no way they're going to hand it over without a fight." Gretchen, who is fiddling with the as-yet-unseen, very-likely-lethal contents of her duffel bag, says impassively, "If they take that position, we respond in kind." T-Bag is positively giddy over the prospect of getting a nine-figure payday and being able to kill Michael. We finally see what's in the duffel bag (guns) as T-Bag sidles up to Gretchen and asks, "Just leave Scofield to me." She absently strokes him under the chin in response.
And now, because a caper that requires total silence isn't nerve-wracking enough for me as a viewer, the conspiracy stooges ratchet it up a notch: General Von Baldy and Lisa, She-Wolf of the Conspiracy, are all ready to move Scylla. But wait! It gets even more tense! Because now the bridge is done, Michael's on it, and he's just had a serious attack of the tumors. Everyone else watching just sort of sweats and panics. Michael reels, he sees double, he shakes a little, then he finally manages to regain his footing and make it to the glass wall. The heat-seeking alarm flashes yellow. Michael notices in time to turn on the frozen nitrogen. Then he gets up and stares at Scylla and we get a really cool shot of him up against the glass wall, utterly entranced by the problem he's about to solve.