Episode Report Card Sobell: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Haywire -- dead!
By Sobell | Season 2 | Episode 16 | Aired on 02.04.2007
Oh, delightful -- Agent Kim has heard about Haywire as well. He brightly says, "He goes!" Mahone protests, "The man is mentally ill. He doesn't know anything, he's not a --" "He was one of Scofield's cellmates for a while. Scofield included him in the escape. Who knows what he knows?" Kim points out. Mahone tries to make the "Speaking of Scofield... " argument, but Kim is all, "Eh, not to worry. Do the clean-up duty on this one." Mahone snaps the phone shut, simmering with fury.
Speaking of people who are marinating in righteous rage, here's Dr. Sara in the train station. A few yards away, Michael watches her glower while Kellerman stands next to him and snows a train agent into believing that "I'm transporting a fugitive to Chicago. I need you to clear a car for me." The train agent stammers that they're already near capacity, and Kellerman asks, "Do you want him to rub elbows with the other passengers?" The train agent gulps and says, "No, sir. (pause) What's he wanted for?" In a can-I-get-you-to-buy-this? tone, Kellerman replies, "Killing people?" The agent looks at Michael's Blue Steel and turns away, muttering, "Good lord." Heh.
No sooner do those two follow the agent into the train than Linc approaches Dr. Sara. He looks down, then says, "It's going to be all right." "If you say so," she replies skeptically. Linc tells her, "We'll use him to get what we need, then we'll dump him." Dr. Sara whispers her assent. Linc sighs, pushes back his hat, sits down, and apologizes nicely for Dr. Sara getting dragged into a conspiracy that killed her dad, left her as a wanted woman, and now has her traveling in the company of the guy who ruined Calgon for her forever. "The fact that you're helping us means a lot. Thank you," he adds. He reaches over and pats her arm reassuringly. Dr. Sara looks over.
Inside the train car, the nervous agent is showing Kellerman and Michael to their seats. After Kellerman confirms that nobody's coming in the car, he whistles Lincoln and Dr. Sara forward. They hop into the car, and Kellerman says, "We'll be in Chicago in five hours. You'll want to get some rest." Michael would like to sit and stare at Dr. Sara for a while. And so, as it turns out, would Kellerman. Love triangle? Or prelude to the Who Will Kill Whom First? show?
Meanwhile, back at Fox River, Mahone walks into a room. He says, "Brad," then begins chortling darkly -- "You don't look too good." Bellick spits, "I helped you with Sara Tancredi and you were supposed to get me into Ad(minstrative)Seg(regation)!" Mahone replies, "I tried. But your new warden -- eeeccch." It's amusing. And I wish that the writers would come up with a way for Mahone to stop being such a miserable S.O.B., because the character's mordant sense of humor is so appealing, and William Fichtner has such a dry delivery, and it would be SO AWESOME to have a wicked wit on this show instead of dozens of broody men. Now enough about that -- as it turns out Mahone has a Plan B that could either work out well or be a hot, wet disaster: "You found Burrows and Scofield through the Russian girl, right? And you tracked down Bagwell by following Susan Hollander." Bellick charmingly replies, "Yeah, and I blow my nose with my right hand and I wipe my ass with my left. What off it?" Mahone shifts, then says quietly, "I've got very powerful people behind me that want me to finish my job. They can push through the quickest habeas corpus proceedings the courts have ever seen. Paperwork sitting on the right person's desk as we speak, setting forth alllll the constitutional violations in your prosecution. It's just waiting to be rubber-stamped." Bellick asks, "And what do I have to do?" Mahone replies, "You just find those cons. Only thing is, this time, you're going to do it for me. Unofficially, under the radar, no paper trail." Bellick gives him a dubious look. Mahone leans in and implores, "I need a junkyard dog who's willing to do the ugly things it takes to bring a con to justice. Are you my dog, Brad?" For a moment, Brad Bellick's face is replaced by Iggy Pop's, then reality reasserts himself. Bellick replies, "Damn hell yeah, I am."