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
Cue a wide-eyed Michael crouched below the Taj, holding that support in place and asking with a tooth-achingly sweet innocence, "What's going on?" Bellick grabs Michael by the throat, slams him against a doorjamb, and snarls, "I could kill you -- and the paperwork wouldn't need much more than the date." And if this show goes in the OZ direction folks are rooting for, there wouldn't even need to BE any paperwork, since prisoner mortality was never really an issue.
Right after Michael gasps, "Let go of me," Pope calls Bellick off. He turns and glares at everyone in (feigned) insulted anger and snits, "It wasn't dry. You said to stay until it was." Pope's all, "You were in here the whole time?" Becky adds, "Yes, it's true." "I must not have seen him behind the table," Patterson ruefully adds. Bellick snarls, "Warden, with all due respect, this is ridiculous. This prisoner was out of his cell. He missed the count." And everyone's missing the most significant clue here: Pope's grate is on crooked. And so is Pope's administration: he takes this time to claim that "there was an error in [Michael's] paperwork, and he's being transferred after all."
Cue Michael losing it, Michael-style, which is to say that he vacillates between urgently asking for just three more weeks and growling at the guards to get off him. Pope stands there and wonders what kind of a person sacrifices somebody else's life just to make his own life easier.
Meanwhile, on the outside…Nick the Legal Beagle is walking Veronica home and asking, "Any chance you want to write this off as coincidence? Me neither. Any chance you want to maybe consider letting me stay the night? Me too!" Or maybe that second part was all subtextual. Veronica wonders how these conspiracy types are so on top of the game, and Nick the Legal Beagle tries to deflect that line of thought. As Veronica enters her apartment, she chatters about having a copy of the tape.
And then she realize her apartment's been tossed. Veronica wanders through with the numbness of someone who's imagining strangers rummaging through her stuff, and eventually thinks to check for her copy of the tape. Sure enough, it's the only thing that's missing. Oh, Veronica, you need a Lone Gunman or three to school you. You've uncovered evidence of a conspiracy, you've got a tape that's already attracted a lot of attention, and you're finding that it continues to provide clues. Wouldn't it make sense to keep the tape with you? Veronica asks, "How did they know?" Nick the Legal Beagle is all, "Hey! Let's change the subject!" Veronica hollers, "How did they know exactly where to look?" Nick the Legal Beagle is all, "No, really! Let's change the subject! It'll be fun!" Veronica says, "You were here, remember. I was talking to you, I walked toward the cabinet and I…" It finally hits her that maybe Nick the Legal Beagle is not as benign as he seems.