In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
Team Escarpara makes it over the wall! And there are surprisingly few screw-ups! I know, I'm shocked too.
So here's what happens: Michael apologizes to Pope in advance for holding him at knifepoint (wherein Pope makes a call ordering Lincoln to be sent to the clinic), tying him up in his desk chair, knocking him out, and shoving him in the closet. He then gulls the front office staff into thinking that Pope's on a conference call. This buys the team lots and lots and lots of time.
Then they all get through the toilet in Sucre and Michael's cell, set off a fire drill in the Whack Shack so they can all shuffle in as patients (except for Michael, dressed in Bellick's bizarrely well-fitting togs, who masquerades as a CO), get through the Whack Shack and to the clinic, and begin the real escape.
Fortunately, Dr. Sara's left the door unlocked. Unfortunately, Haywire's tagged along. Linc makes the last-minute executive decision to include the little nutbar in the escape, just to shut him up. Within moments, the team's gotten the bars off the window and is shimmying across the cable one at a time. Naturally, this is when Pope's discovered, so the alarms begin going off, the pandemonium mounts, we get some will-they-or-won't-they-type shotsâ¦
Michael is the last inmate to make it across the cable. Captain Calories (a.k.a. Manche) tries to go after him, but his weight takes down the cable. And back in the clinic, Westmoreland's gently bleeding to death; his gut wound is too severe. But before everyone takes off, Westmoreland lets slip that he didn't skyjack $1 million. He skyjacked $5 million -- thus providing C-Note and T-Bag with their motivation for sticking around in Season 2.
Meanwhile, in other news, Nick proves to be spectacularly lousy as a bad guy. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
We begin this episode with the same tableau that closed the prior episode: Michael holding a shiv on Pope. Pope snarls, "You son of a bitch!" Michael just tells him he plans on taking this real easy. Pope is in no mood to negotiate: "You just bought yourself ten years!" His walkie-talkie crackles, and we learn that Bellick's truck is, indeed, in the parking lot. Unsurprisingly, it's one of those "This is no way overcompensates for my manhood -- this is my manhood" trucks, like the ones Toby Keith shills in his not-at-all-homoerotic Ford Truck commercials. Michael grabs the radio, and Pope tries to reason with him one more time, but Michael overrides him: "Tell the guard you just spoke with Bellick, and he said he's taking some personal time." Pope protests, "You can't possibly get away with this!" Michael leans forward with the shiv, his voice thick with menace as he says, "I don't think you want to find out how badly I want to get my brother out of here." Pope notices that the blade is now closer to his throat. So he does as Michael asks. Michael is still giving Pope the Blue Steel as he keeps the shiv up, and he tells Pope he needs one more thing.
Apparently, it had to do with office supplies. Michael is taping Pope to his office chair as he gives Pope the order to have Lincoln transferred to the infirmary for overnight "testing." Pope asks Michael how long he's been planning this, and Michael keeps the knife to Pope's throat as he replies, "That is a conversation for another day. Or read the recaps now." It hits Pope right about then that Michael's been planning this all along, and whatever positive reform efforts he thinks he had were probably all a ruse. But Pope makes the order, and then Michael spills Bellick's location, then adds, "One day, you'll understand why I did this. After you read the recaps." Pope tells Michael that he'll never make it over the wall. Discouraged by this unconstructive criticism, Michael gags Pope. He then rolls the warden into the closet. That is one enormous closet. Granted, I live in a house built back before Americans invented closets, so I'm a little biased here, but it's a walk-in! With a whole second wardrobe! Michael then grabs the radio and walks back over to Pope. He's practically tearing up as he says sincerely, "I'm sorry, Henry." Then he knocks Pope out with a conveniently placed blow to the head. Panting heavily, Michael closes the door. He then dials a number and leaves the phone off the hook.
Then, Michael strolls out to Becky and tells her, "Um, he's getting an earful from someone at the D.O.C." Becky looks over and sees a light, so she's satisfied with that explanation. Michael adds, "It's turning into a conference call, and he said he didn't want to be disturbed." Becky nods. As Michael turns to leave, she casually calls his name. Michael turns around, and Becky says, "You know, he can be a big ol' grump sometimes, but I hope you know how highly he thinks of you. There was no way he could get that Taj Mabadiea done in time for his anniversary without your help." Michael tries not to look too remorseful and guilt-wracked.
Down in his spiderhole, Bellick is still grunting and writhing and rubbing things, and honestly, Prison Break, I didn't think you were that kind of show. ["...you didn't?" -- Wing Chun]
Michael heads back into his cell. Sucre is a big ball of nerves, obviously staying silent only because some survival mechanism has clamped his jaw shut lest he scream out, "GOSH. EVERYONE, I SURE HOPE OUR ESCAPE WORKS THIS TIME!" Michael notes that it's one hour to the count, and betrays his own nervousness by rubbing his hands together as he says, "One hour to get over that wall and as far away from this prison as possible." Sucre resumes rocking back and forth, and Michael settles for trying not fidget.
And now, such a sad scene with Westmoreland. He's sweating profusely and looking a little ashy, and he's shaking in pain. Before he changes the dressing on his wound, he bites down on what seems to be a leather billfold of some sort, and then pulls the blood-soaked rags from the gash. Oh, it's awful-looking. It's like Sid And Nancy awful, like that scene when she stumbles out of bed and into the bathroom and there's all this bright red blood smeared everywhere, and you can tell Nancy's on the verge of dying because instead of shrieking "Siiiiiiiid!!!" at the top of her lungs, she can manage only one adenoidal, bleated "Siiid..." before collapsing. Who'd have thought the old man would have so much blood in him?
We see all the other cons waiting. T-Bag and Abruzzi are making eyes at each other through their bars, Tweener's trying desperately to get his jumpsuit white and bright enough for the caper, and C-Note is noticing that Trumpets has just threatened to kill him. As if C-Note needed more incentive to escape.
Michael asks Sucre, "You unscrewed the toilet, right?" Sucre makes the universal uh-oh face, and Michael snaps, "That's five minutes we don't have!" Sucre goes into a fit of apologizing. These two are so married -- that exchange takes place in households all over America every day, with everything from "You locked the door, right?" to "You sent my mother a birthday card, right?" Except that for most married people, the exchange doesn't end with one spouse vomiting into the toilet the other one's trying to unscrew. Michael is like, "Couldn't you have done that when you were busy not-unscrewing the toilet?" To his credit, he asks Sucre if he's okay, and Sucre emotionally says, "If we get caught...I can't do ten more years, bro. I can't."
Then the buzzer sounds and it's tier time. Michael hands Sucre a bolt and pointedly says, "There's no going back now."
Commercials. How interesting that Burger King has deposed its despotic mascot.
When we get back from commercials, the assorted members of Team Escarpara are preparing to amble casually over to Michael and Sucre's cell. T-Bag ambles along behind Manche (a.k.a. "Captain Calorie") and says, "If you get stuck in one them pipes, boy..." T-Bag is not a team player. The two of them join Abruzzi in Michael's cell. Westmoreland's hanging out casually outside the cell. Everyone acts super-casual when a guard comes out, and T-Bag mutters, "Keep walkin', Bull, keep walkin'."
As assorted Team Escarpara members file in, they hand over their jumpsuits to Sucre, who shoves them under the blankets in Michael's bunk. C-Note's hanging out in front of the cell, watching Trumpets. Tweener comes by and hands Sucre his jumpsuit. Sucre is none-too-discreet when he says, "These got blue streaks." Tweener protests that he got a late start, and Sucre snaps in return, "Only one thing you gotta do." Pretty rich talk coming from the guy who forgot to unscrew the toilet.
Abruzzi decides to freak out T-Bag by sneaking up behind him and hissing, "Say a prayer, Theodore!" T-Bag wheels around, and Abruzzi adds, "Say a prayer for us all." Heh -- blessed are the batshit insane mob bosses, for they shall add garbled situational humor to the mix. C-Note eyes Trumpets and heads into the cell; Tweener, Manche, T-Bag, and Abruzzi are casually mingling outside it.
Trumpets then collects the rest of the band and heads over to perform for Team Escarpara. Their likely set list? Perhaps "Mack the Knife." Perhaps a cover of Cake's "Shadow Stabbing." Or maybe they're a tribute band covering songs by Stabbing Westward.
Oh, crap, Bellick's finally managed to sever some of the bonds around his hands. He can hear the guards above him discussing coffee. The Anti-Pope: "Just a half-cup, man. If I have more than that, I'll be up all night." Good to know it's the caffeine that keeps him up, and not, say, his ADULTERY. The guards walk off, totally not hearing Bellick's frustrated, muffled screams.
Team Escarpara's not looking too casual anymore, and it doesn't help that Trumpets and the band are now lobbying for their missing C-Note. Abruzzi is all, "He's not in the cell," and Trumpets spits out, "That's real touching, you stepping up for a brother, but y'all need to step aside right now." The Team Escarpara members do so. Trumpets strolls into the cell, stands in front of the bunk where he presumes C-Note is hiding...and gets the full-on Blue Steel from Michael. Scofield calmly asks, "Something you need?" Trumpets checks under the bed. He turns back to Abruzzi, who can't resist saying, "Told you we haven't seen him." Trumpets looks back at Sucre, who raises his eyes in confirmation. Amaury Nolasco, please don't ever lose your comic touch. Michael's still Blue Steeling away, and a deflated, befuddled Trumpets skulks out of the cell. We then see C-Note in the pipes area, sweating bullets.
Meanwhile, on the outside...Veronica's asking Nick, "This whole time, everything you said was a lie?" Nick says that he never stopped fighting for Lincoln, and unspools his sordid little story: Abruzzi and his crew approached Nick after he took on Lincoln's case and arranged for one of Abruzzi's crew to take the rap for Nick's dad: "I agreed to keep tabs on you. In exchange, Abruzzi got some guy named Aleuri to agree to do a life sentence for the murder my dad didn't commit. And that's how I got him out of jail." Veronica spits, "Your dad's life for mine." Nick idiotically insists that it won't be like that. What, is he thinking that Abruzzi's got a crush on Veronica and is too shy to pitch woo in the standard way? Nick insists that all that has to happen is that Michael gives Abruzzi what he needs to know. Yes, so Abruzzi can take off that burning need to forgive Fibonacci, no doubt. Veronica leans forward and asks, "You don't think they're going to let me live, do you?" Nick foolishly thinks they do. Veronica chews her newly-inflated lips. Then Nick prods Veronica with the gun, pushing her to her feet.
And now, Team Escarpara's going through the hole. Sucre lets them into the cell, one at a time, and as they head to the toilet, Michael hands them their jumpsuit. After Sucre drops the sheet, it's Manche's turn to go through. He eyes the hole with justifiable trepidation. T-Bag actually kicks him through, snarling, "Move your fat ass."
Bellick is still mmmphing for help.
As Abruzzi prepares to disappear down the rabbit hole, T-Bag snipes, "Age before beauty." Boy, he really is a lookist. Michael rolls his eyes. Then it's just him and Sucre. Sucre asks if Michael's got a key to the infirmary, and Michael hedges, "Not exactly."
What Michael does have is the deeply conflicted Dr. Sara. She's still standing on the shore of Lake Michigan, looking photogenically conflicted.
Team Escarpara's officially ten minutes behind, but that doesn't dampen the first flickers of enthusiasm. They hop into the pipes that will lead them to St. Louis.
Bellick is now trying to scrape the gag off his face. Team Escarpara's scurrying through the pipes. We see Bellick succeed in getting some of the tape off his face, and he bellows a long, long syllable that sounds sort of like "Guards" but more like "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrgh!" Michael stops short, eyes bugging out. Bellick manages the slightly more articulate, "Heeeeeeeeeeeeelp!"
Commercials. Maybe I'm all tense and testy from the episode, but how is the Jon Lovitz character in the "Subway Dinner Theatre" commercials not merely a sweatier, puffier, testier version of his character on The Critic? Also, have you noticed how The Critic is kind of like Family Guy version 0.9b?
So we come back from commercials, and the COs are walking outside St. Louis when Bellick's wrathful bellow comes wafting up. Mack turns to the Anti-Pope and asks, "Did you hear that?" They amble back to St. Louis to investigate.
Bellick continues to ululate right up to the moment when T-Bag slaps a sinewy hand over his face and slides a blade to his throat. Michael comes over to see what's going on, but Bellick is silent. Frustratingly (for Bellick) or tensely (for T-Bag and Michael), the guards decide that they must have imagined whatever they heard, and they take off.
In the tunnels below, T-Bag says with relish, "Scream and I'll cut out your windpipe." Michael tasks T-Bag with getting Bellick's jacket and hat. T-Bag undresses him ungently.
Meanwhile, on the outside...Dr. Sara broods some more. It's a good look on her. She apparently brooded all the way to Fox River, but that's not saying a whole lot, as she evidently made it from downtown Chicago to Fox River in all of ten minutes. Crafty use of tesseracts? A secret talent for teleportation? Or merely more proof that things like "space" and "time" are merely guidelines for storytelling and not actual constraints? Anyway, Dr. Sara strides back into the prison.
In the pipes, Bellick contemptuously asking, "Brains of the outfit, huh, Scofield?" Well, yes. How is that simple observation an insult? And why has nobody thought to gag Bellick again? Bellick, more loudly, "He's leading you off a cliff, boys," and C-Note dismissively says, "You acting like you still in charge? Shut your mouth, bitch." T-Bag leaps over in a very Gollum-esque move, and seizes Bellick's skull in his hands. He is aching to be allowed to do him some harm. Sucre wanders by, taking the time to call Bellick a pendejo. Again, it kills me that they allow the Spanish cussing. Manche passes by T-Bag without comment. Then Tweener comes by, and Bellick's face curdles with derision. He says, "You...you know what he's --" We'll never know, because Tweener's punch to the jaw interrupts him. Tweener is finally the one to put the gag back on. Abruzzi comes by to bid him, "Ciao, bello." Then T-Bag makes another sideways Gollum leap to Bellick's front. He forces the guard to look at his grinning face, and then leaves, satisfied that Bellick knows he only lives because T-Bag couldn't be bothered. After Michael takes off, we see Bellick staring, plotting intently.
Meanwhile, on the outside...Veronica is begging Nick not to do this. Nick steadfastly says, "Tell Michael to give Abruzzi what he wants," and Veronica sobs in return, "Please, Nick, come on. They're going to kill me." To shut her up -- and reap the benefits of not having to actually have any reminders of his own weaselly betrayal -- Nick sticks a pillowcase over her head. Yeah, that will never attract any attention from fellow motorists. Who among us hasn't idled at a stoplight, looked over, and seen a nervous-looking man chauffeuring someone with a pillowcase over their head?
Team Escarpara puts on their coveralls while Michael -- who is now wearing Bellick's jacket -- disappears to do an errand. C-Note would like to know where Michael's headed, but he's no more likely to get an actual, illuminating answer to that than he is to be able to fool his wife into thinking he's just stepped off the plane from Iraq. Everyone dresses sullenly. Michael, meanwhile, has blown white powder -- foot powder, aspirin all crushed up, baby powder, whatever -- onto a keypad and is using it to determine the stickiest keys. These are presumably the ones that are used in the security code, and so Michael spends a few minutes figuring out what the code is. He enters a boatload of combinations since -- unlike, say, my cell-phone provider who only gives you three attempts to log into their site before booting you out for security reasons -- this SECURITY SYSTEM in a PRISON has absolutely no failsafes whatsoever.
Oh, Westmoreland. It hurts me to look at you. Of course, it doubtlessly hurts you to be you, but it's not like I'm particularly relishing this. C-Note has finally noticed that Westmoreland's bleeding too.
Meanwhile, on the outside...after the Middle-Aged White Guy Conspiracy gets through deciding on such weighty matters as whether or not the Bolivian government will nationalize its natural gas industry (yes), it will permit news to leak out concerning monkeys' love of happy hour (yes) and it'll sink the As as part of its grand plan to discredit SABRmetrics (apparently so, if their recent performance is any indication), talk turns to what to do about Caroline Reynolds. Or, as we know and love her, Madame Vice President. They decide she's not working out. Madame Vice President is shown deciding to have a drink or ten. The only question they want to know is whether they should let her live or die. They ask Brinker, and she tells them, "Becoming president is the most important thing to her. If we take that away, she has absolutely nothing to lose. I guarantee you, she will do everything she can to take everyone she can down with her." Well, it sounds like Madame Vice President shouldn't make any long-term plans.
Dr. Sara walks through the hall and sees Lincoln being escorted into the clinic. She seems surprised. After opening the clinic door, she JUST HAPPENS to notice the many bottles of morphine in the same medical supplies cabinet she's looked at for years. After taking a moment to recall the halcyon days of yore when she self-medicated, Dr. Sara snaps out of it.
And now it's time for Team Escarpara to get into the prison yard. But how? Manche's having a little bit of a meltdown and concludes, "This whole thing is messed up." T-Bag coolly injects, "Feel free not to come, Gordo." T-Bag's team evaluation is going to be really negative if he keeps up the comments.
Becky notices that Pope's on the phone, shrugs, and resumes her paperwork.
Then a fire alarm goes off. Everyone in Team Escarpara has a fit. Michael looks up from his little security box, alarmed.
Commercials. The people who are marketing the X-Men movie should really just stick to the moneymaker and run seven-odd minutes of nothing but Hugh Jackman in his leather pants. (From the depths of the couch, the husband is marinating in jealousy, simpering, "I love Wolverine. Oh, Wolverine, when we get married, will I be Missus Sobell Wolverine, or would you consider hyphenating?")
When we get back, T-Bag's hyperventilating, "We're screwed -- we're screwed!" C-Note joyously seizes the opportunity to take charge and begins ushering everyone to go back. That's when Michael pops in and says, "We'll stick to the plan." C-Note loses his cool, shouting, "Do your ears work, fool? Do you hear that?" Michael tells them it's the fire alarm in the psych ward and -- more significantly -- he's the one who set it off.
Cut to all the Whack Shack habitants being escorted outside, all of them doing the Thorazine Shuffle.
Meanwhile, on the outside...we see a plane land at Goose Park Airstrip, ten miles from Fox River. We know the locale because it's helpfully captioned for us. The beefy guy from last episode (Maggio) gets off the plane. A moment behind him, the pilot gets off and nervously says, "We're in the sticks. You know how many people must have heard a jet like this land?" Maggio's not too worried. He's got a police scanner, so he can keep tabs on the local chatter.
Back in the prison, an orderly barks that this was a false alarm and that everyone can just head back inside now. All the inmates begin lurching back inside. We see the manhole cover pop up, and then we get a shot of Team Escarpara all hustling toward the pack: the shot's around a corner and sort of pixellated; it's also accompanied by the kind of loud breathing you normally hear when you're snorkeling, you hear this Darth Vader-y "whoosh-pash-whoosh-pash," and you realize you are the loudest submerged breather ever.
The inmates are all filing inside the Whack Shack, and Sklar the orderly is about to lock the door when Michael bellows, "Hold on!" Doing his best Bellick imitation, Michael yanks a thumb back and says, "Got some stragglers." The rest of Team Escarpara do their best to appear criminally insane. Although it's a look that comes naturally to Abruzzi, but T-Bag's looking pretty cracked too. The orderly calls Tweener out since, of course, his jumpsuit's not exactly white. Sklar says, "Wait a second -- that's not Whack Shack issue. Everybody stop!" Michael channels Bellick to bark, "Stay where you are!" He ushers Sklar away from the group, and Sklar says, "That's John Abruzzi right there." Michael speaks normally when he says, "Ah, that's bad news. Listen, you know that sedative you were talking about? You got some now?" Sklar does -- and how, what with Michael neatly taking the syringe from his hand and dosing the orderly. He orders the team straight down the hall.
Meanwhile, on the outside...Veronica continues to beg for her life through the pillowcase. Going by Nick's expression, he's acutely regretting not knocking her out. He then pulls over and pulls off the pillowcase. Unsurprisingly, Veronica looks like hell. Nick pulls her out and tosses her in a cab, telling her she still has time to get to the airport, catch a flight to Blackfoot, Montana, and find Steadman. Oh, like the route between Chicago and Blackfoot is so well-traveled, there's a flight between them every hour on the hour? Also -- unless I missed the scene where Nick just happened to pick up Veronica's carryall and purse on the way, how in the hell is she even supposed to be able to board a plane without ID? Nick, you are both ball-less and an idiot. If you're going to sell someone out, at least go through with it. Nick then calls his dad and tells the old man to meet him at his apartment.
In the prison, Team Escarpara's now in the bowels of the whack shack. As the other team members amble around, Michael walks over to Tweener, who says, "Halfway there, yo." I've said it before and I'll say it again: Tweener has the survival instincts of a mayfly. It's a miracle he's lived this long. A dark, twisted, inexplicable miracle. Michael says, "I know you told Bellick." This is the point where the husband and I both say melodramatically, "I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!" Tweener attempts to bluff, but his bluffing skills are about as finely honed as his survival instincts. Michael says, "I owed you, and I pay my debts. But as soon as we're out of here, you go your way, and we'll go ours. You understand?" Tweener sulks his comprehension. Then Team Escarpara heads through some corridor.
Dr. Sara's standing outside the door of the infirmary, making a show of locking it, but confirming that she didn't. Nurse Gossipson sneaks up on Dr. Sara, scaring the bejeesus out of her, and shares the news about the false alarm in the psych ward. Dr. Sara stalks off.
Team Escarpara scarpers along a pipe-filled corridor. Most of the guys are hustling along, and Westmoreland's struggling to keep up with them. C-Note drops back and says, in one of the most compassionate deliveries he's ever mustered on this show, "Hey, there's no point in getting out if it's going to kill you." Westmoreland looks at him; the way the light hits his face makes him look like he's lost ten pounds -- all of it blood -- in the last day. C-Note understands. He gives Westmoreland a sorrowful look and gently pats him on the shoulder. Oh, how I like these two together. C-Note as a character just fascinates me, and you all know how I feel about Westmoreland. By the way, that whole scene was being watched by the loudly-respiring guy who spotted them earlier.
Dr. Sara leaves the building, Nurse Gossipson cheerily bobbing in her wake. The minute those two are out of eyesight, Michael pokes his head out. The team's made it to the infirmary! He quickly sidles across the hall, and then gestures for the rest of Team Escarpara to follow him.
Meanwhile, on the outside...we see that Madame Vice President's a mean drunk. She's tossing glassware in the fireplace in a fit of pique. Hey! How do we know that's not official vice-presidential glassware? Then it's my tax dollars at work. I demand an investigation into Highballgate! She continues to huff around while Kellerman tells her she's overreacting. Madame Vice President snaps, "I don't mean to shock you, Paul, but I am privy to things you're not, and I am telling you, the company's selling me down the river." Kellerman makes the argument that getting uninvited from one literacy fundraiser is not the end of the world, but Madame Vice President snaps, "Which I got uninvited to on the day of! You don't do that to your candidate unless your candidate is no longer your candidate!" Kellerman says exactly the wrong thing: "You've been drinking, and you're upset." Sure enough, Madame Vice President goes into full-on meltdown mode, and man, it's just...I can't decide if she gets away with being so verbally abusive toward him because she's all, "You'll take my insults and like them, peon!," or if there's some weird psychosexual thing that'll resolve itself later in bed with her asking a trussed-up Kellerman, "Who's your president? Who's your president? Say Madame President, bitch!" Frankly, with the way Kellerman steps into her personal space and holds her by the shoulders as he tells her, "They're doing this to see how you will react, so you need to be strong, be presidential and get through this...we get through this," I'm going with the weird psychosexual hypothesis.
Lincoln's hanging out in the infirmary with a guard who is absolutely lousy at small talk. As the guard natters on about how he's going to outfit his truck, Lincoln's looking like "Death cannot come soon enough -- I don't even care that I'm being wrongfully executed anymore." The guard natters on about coils and springs and spacers, and as he does, Linc looks up, and his expression is just delightful -- shocked surprise, which he's trying valiantly to restrain. The guard finishes the automotive monologues with "What do you think?" The massed members of Team Escarpara think it sounds great. The guard leaps out of the chair and walks backward, saying, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I ain't a hero for fourteen dollars an hour. Do what you will." Michael orders Captain Pragmatic to uncuff Linc, and the CO does with all due haste. Captain Pragmatic shrugs, "Pretend I ain't here, boss," and T-Bag chortles, "Yeah, you and the radio." He then knocks out the guard and lifts his walkie-talkie. Then, sure that nobody's looking, T-Bag discreetly pockets the handcuffs that are nearby, too.
Meanwhile, on the outside...Nick is entering his spacious, well-decorated Chicago pad. Who knew that being a crusading activist lawyer paid so well? Nick calls for his dad. Dad is currently socializing with a friend, if by "socializing," you mean "being held at gunpoint" and "a friend" is "that menacing guy we may remember from the scene with Nick in the cell-phone store." Nick realizes that perhaps Veronica was on to something with the mob and the fondness for killing people.
Back at the office, Becky has gotten tired of flipping through what appears to be a bridal wear catalog., and she's already won the computer solitaire game She decides to do a little furtive eavesdropping, and discovers that the alleged conference call Pope's on is actually "Welcome to Jokeline -- just $2.99 a minute!" Now she's irritated.
The mob muscle would like to know where Veronica is, and Nick defiantly says, "She's gone." Mob Muscle says, "Yeah? Then so's your dad." "No, no, no!" Nick screams desperately. Mob Muscle matter-of-factly asks, "Have you got her or not?" Nick says he can find her. Mob Muscle says, "Can you have her in front of me in the two minutes? It's a very simple question, Nick." Nick says, "No, just give me a chance. Just give --" BLAM! Mob Muscle shoots Nick's dad in the head. We even see the smoke come out the other side. Nick begins screaming, "No!," and Mob Muscle cuts right through that crap with "This is happening right now. You have one more chance. Where's the lawyer?" Since Nick now has nothing to lose, when he looks at Mob Muscle, his face is set with hatred and resolve; he takes his shot to the chest, and smiles darkly as he says, "She's about a million miles away from here." Mob Muscle shoots him again; we only see the barrel of the gun, so who knows where the bullet went?
Commercials. It always cracks me up to see car commercials set in San Francisco because they all inevitably promulgate the quaint fiction that there is no traffic on the streets. This is a lie. A car commercial in San Francisco should show a lot of cars on the street. Some should even be parked in traffic lanes with their hazards flashing, since this is something of a civic tradition. You can't drive a mile in that city without someone just blithely parking his vehicle in a turn lane and dashing in to do some errands.
Team Escarpara makes its way to another part of the infirmary -- the part with the door Dr. Sara left unlocked. Only Michael doesn't know that, so there's a very tense moment as he goes to open the door. He sighs and says, with palpable relief, "We're in."
Outside, Dr. Sara is sobbing in her car. She may be crying because: she's disappointed in her dad; she's disappointed that she put all her best efforts into a system that's rigged and corrupt; she's just sabotaged an institution she believed in; she feels used; she feels a relapse coming on; she feels lonely because she's got nobody to talk to; she already misses the comfortable little routine she had with Michael. Maybe it's all of the above.
How Dr. Sara feels is not anywhere on Michael's mind. Striding to the window, he says they have to get it out, and the team sets to work. The exception is Westmoreland, who keels over from the pain. Blood has now leaked through his jumpsuit. Michael and C-Note hit the fire hose, C-Note asking, "Is this plan going to work?" We'll all find out together.
Becky's worked up the nerve to check Pope's office. He's not there.
We flash back to Team Escarpara working on the window. The plan's pretty simple: tie the hose around the window grill on one end, tie the other end to the elevator rail, punch a hole in the elevator, and let the velocity from the moving car exert enough force to pull the grill out of the window. However, there's one big problem: because the hose threads through the door, the sensors in the door won't permit it to close. T-Bag snipes, "What now, genius?" Michael gives him a look like "Remind me again what you bring to the team?" He hits the button a few more times, and the members of Team Escarpara watch the doors bounce open. Michael punches the button in frustration, and T-Bag goads, "Take your time. Fifteen minutes to get over that wall." Tweener finally steps up and strides into the elevator, punching the buttons and somehow getting the door closed. Within seconds, the grill's off the window.
Becky's gone and gotten Stolte, and they look around Pope's office.
Tweener pops back into the office, and Abruzzi says, "Great job, kiddo." Abruzzi! Each is stripping out of his jumpsuit. We get one more shot from the "Hello! I am a loud respire-r!" perspective, and then we see that it's Haywire. Now that he's off the pills and high on life, he wants to join the fun. And if they say no, he'll just squeal into the discarded CO's radio that T-Bag somehow forgot about when he was busy needling Michael. Linc makes the executive decision: "He's in."
Then Lincoln hops out the window, preparing to shimmy across the cable to the other side. Abruzzi says, "Okay, after Lincoln, we go alphabetically." Heee! C-Note protests, "Hold on, A-bruzzi!" Abruzzi tells him to shut it if he plans on getting on the plane. Lincoln is already suspended from the wire. He'll inch along hand-over-hand, using his feet to scoot along. Each tosses his jumpsuit on to Lincoln's stomach, and he begins inching along. Abruzzi swings out of the window to wait.
The COs and Becky are now confirming that there is no way Pope could have left the office.
Lincoln easily makes his way across the cable. Wow, good thing being shackled to a wall 24/7 for the last three days hasn't affected his muscle tone or condition at all. Once Lincoln's to the other side, everyone watches him drape the barbed wire with the jumpsuits, then step on it so that everyone can get across. Abruzzi goes . We see the cable's anchor give a little. Then Sucre goes, and I am now wondering: did people only agree to the alphabetical thing to shut up Abruzzi? Why isn't C-Note howling over Sucre going after Abruzzi? Possibly because he's distracted by Westmoreland's sick gurgling noise and subsequent collapse. Michael leans in, genuine concern in his eyes as he says, "Charles..." C-Note asks, "You okay, old man?" "No," gasps Westmoreland. He's got the Corpse Gray pallor that is so often used on TV to indicate imminent death. Haywire looks over, and then dismisses the spectacle as beneath his interest. Besides, it just jumped him a few places in line. Michael gently pries up Westmoreland's shirt, saying, "Let's have a look." He and C-Note are both appalled at the extent of the damage. Michael desperately says, "It's just a few more steps. You can make it!" Westmoreland points out that no, he really can't. And he adds, "I wasn't going for me. I was going for my daughter, and you can do that." C-Note looks like he's about ready to cry. And after Westmoreland weakly asks Michael, "Will you promise me?" Michael does well up as he whispers, "Yes, I will." And -- ah, I can't even type this without my throat getting tight. Stupid allergies! Stupid pollen! Stupid plotline that kills off the Silver Fox! As is the case with all dying people on TV, Westmoreland's positively chatty. He groans, "The money's buried under a silo at the Double K Ranch, just outside of Tooele, Utah. There's plenty to split. The government didn't want any more embarrassment after I took off with that money, so they low-balled it to the papers. Truth is, Michael, it's not one million under that silo. There's five million dollars there." C-Note's got a look like, "Five who what now?" Michael and C-Note look over at T-Bag, who is utterly failing at trying to pretend he didn't heard that. His too-casual look combined with conspicuous ear-cleaning and rapid blinking are what gave him away. Everyone just sort of sits around, except Tweener, who begins his shimmy.
At long last, Becky, Stolte, and the Anti-Pope have harnessed their collective brainpower and arrived at a marvelously innovative solution to the "Where's Pope?" question: they call his cell phone. When they hear it ringing from the closet, that's how they find Pope.
Back in the clinic, Westmoreland grits out, "Give Anna her papa's love." Michael's squeezing Westmoreland's hands in his own as he vows, "I will." Ah, man, poor Michael -- he's forced to knock out one semi-paternal figure earlier tonight and now he's going to be leaving the other behind.
As T-Bag shimmies across the cable, we hear the cable's anchor groaning ever more ominously. Then C-Note goes out. Michael is carefully helping Westmoreland to a more comfortable position.
When the prison's crack security squad finally finds Pope and ungags him, he weakly orders, "Sound the alarm."
It's just Michael and Manche now. Across the yard, Linc's giving Manche a speculative look, and he doesn't like where that line of thought is taking him. Manche tells Michael that they need to hurry up, and Westmoreland tells him, "Go, Michael. Go and don't look back." That doesn't bode well for him sending a Christmas origami to Dr. Sara, does it? We get one last shot of Westmoreland. From the depths of the couch, the husband opines, "He's not so much the Silver Fox now as he is the Gray Fox." "You're just saying that because you're still miffed I paused on Wolverine!" I snap. Manche sensibly tells Michael to go first. Linc implores, "Come on, Michael. Come on." The very second Michael's on the cable, the floodlights snap on and the klaxons begin blaring. Michael only pauses for a moment before resuming his trek. On the other side of the cable, Lincoln's chanting, "Come on, Michael! Come on!" I love how it's half older-sibling order and half prayer.
The guards are now running across the lawn with the dogs, and it's all very tense, and riiiiiiiight as Michael's to the very end of the cable, Manche gives in to his case of nerves and grabs hold of the cable. You can guess what happens : the cable anchor comes out of the wall, Manche plummets to the ground, and Michael's slammed into the wall, about six feet below the top. Lincoln's "Michael" is a wailed plea. He leans forward and urges Michael to take his hand. Michael's struggling up the cable, Linc commanding him, "Mike! Take my hand." And I love how Lincoln is the only person on Earth who would even think of calling Michael "Mike," much less be able to get away with it. Note well, y'all: that is twice I have said favorable things about Lincoln tonight. Anyway, it's all very tense with the will-they-grab-hands-or-won't-they business, and there's lights and noise and, and, and -- well. What do you think? Of course it all worked out. We know this because after the guards finish apprehending Manche, they head over to the wall and we get a dramatic shot of the wall with the bent-down wire. The music swells as we zoom down the other side of the wall and confirm that Team Escarpara is now escaped. Hooray! T-Bag's on the lam! As is Haywire! How can we not greet that news with unconditional joy?