Episode Report Card Sobell: A | 1 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT Tweener -- dead, yo!
By Sobell | Season 2 | Episode 7 | Aired on 10.01.2006
Mahone's eyes are nearly shut as he whispers, "Oscar Shales." We get three quick-cut black-and-white flashbacks: the first two are of Shales and the third is of Michael. Hands up, all of you who were not shocked by the idea that Mahone merely transferred his obsessive attentions from one target to another. Now, put your other hand up if you think he's going to get a little freaky about who's advancing in the next season of American Idol. Anyhoodle, Mahone continues, "A guy I was chasing a few years back. Smart as hell. I... kept just missing him. He made it kind of a game, just... it would have been fun if it weren't for the fact that he was killing people along the way." This actually gets to Tweener; he's clearly thinking of T-Bag here. Mahone continues, saying ruefully, "The bodies kept stacking up, and I started to feel it was because of me." He flashes a self-deprecating smile at Tweener, but it slides away as he adds, "Because I couldn't do my job. Because I wasn't smart enough." Mahone's lost Tweener again. Well, appeal to his cerebral side and that's the risk you take. Mahone finally concludes, "Never did catch him... but I did lose him." The agent then unscrews that fat black pen, telling Tweener that the loss so haunted him, he began hallucinating and suffering sleep deprivation. Mahone adds, "It was a complete break from reality." He then tells Tweener to say hello to his little friends. Tweener looks at the tidy row of pills. Mahone then looks up and, in a blatantly transparent attempt to be sincere, says, "So now you know. Now it's off my chest. Ought to try it some time." Tweener is sweating, and he leans forward, as if to finally disgorge some painful revelation. He blinks, swallows, and says, "Like I said before... I ain't gonna tell you nothin'."
Mahone issues one reptilian blink, then moves on to Plan B: showing Tweener pictures of Dr. Gudat's dead face and body. Oddly, I'm reassured to know that someone found him, and that his murder -- while senseless -- is not in the "It's a mystery -- next!" files. However, given Mahone's well-established record of indifference over any escaped inmate whose name does not rhyme with "Bike All, No Field," it's pretty freakin' rich that now he's playing the whole "Only you can prevent more of T-Bag's killings" card on Tweener.
In another law enforcement complex -- this one in Arizona -- L.J. is busy trying to talk his way out of a meeting the guard claims is set up with his lawyer. That L.J., he's got a nicely suspicious mind. It has to be a recessive gene, given how blithely Michael and Linc trot into sticky situations. Anyway, L.J. protests, "He's a court-appointed public defender in Illinois. I doubt he would come to Arizona without calling me."