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Every week, FOX promises me explicit scenes, and every week, they fail to deliver. Well, I'm not falling for their carny tricks any more. Unless an episode features human decapitation or an orgy that even Caligula would have found unnerving, I'm not passing on any more warnings to you.
Michael's working on the Taj Mabadiea. Pope comes in and seems heartened by the progress that's been made on it thus far. A rather unshaven Michael warns that plaster adds a lot of weight, so he may have to add reinforcements. This bothers Pope not one whit, so long as the Taj Mabadiea is done in time for the big anniversary. Good to know he and the missus are still planning on meeting that benchmark, even after the recent news of Pope's secret fatherhood and bereavement. Michael imperiously says it'll be done, then thrusts the model's dome toward Pope, commanding, "Hold this." Ever a people person, the warden jovially shares the story about how Shah Jahan loved the Taj Mahal so much, he planned on building a second one across the river from the first -- a darker one, so it was like the Taj's Evil Twin or something -- except that the Shah was then overthrown by his favorite son Aurangzeb, Michael dismisses it as a myth. That's okay, Michael. We here in TV Land are dismissing it as "really obvious foreshadowing as to what will happen to Pope." The good warden insists the story's 100% true, then adds, "I think." He begins chortling, and even Michael's sour puss relaxes for a moment.
Just then, Pope gets a message that Dr. Tancredi's there to see him. As Michael's escorted out of the office, he gives the good Dr. Sara a long, loaded look. When he leaves, Dr. Sara's all, "Funny how coincidental that is, since I'm here to talk to you about Michael Scofield and how he has burnt crunchy bits of prison guard uniform in his ugly burn."
The topic of all this twittering is back in his cell, trying to reconstruct the piece of tattoo he burned away. To bring home the point that verily, this tattoo is complex, Michael is wearing a wife-beater, the better to show off his intricate skin art. Sucre asks what Michael's doing. Could that question be more superfluous? You're stuck with the man in a tiny cell; it's not like Sucre wandered in from the other end of the estate and discovered Michael in the middle of an unfamiliar activity. So it's kind of no wonder that Michael pissily explains he's trying to reconstruct the tattoo. Well, it'd be no wonder even if Sucre had just come in from tilling the back forty -- we've established via flashback that Michael's not exactly what one would call a bubbly personality.
Anyway, Michael broods about how he's trying to reconstruct the lost tattoo area, because without it, they'll never be able to navigate the labyrinth of pipes beneath the psych ward. He says, "I spent a lot of time studying those blueprints, tracing them night after night, considering every possible route to the infirmary." And engaging in endless flashbacks that look really cool because of the diffuse lighting and yoga-like poses Michael struck with blueprints fluttering behind. So the problem with just remembering the blueprints, Michael explains, is that "it's like trying to take a test you studied for ten years ago." Sucre has a baffled look on his face like, Study? What is this "study" of which you speak?