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Send up the white puff of smoke -- we have a Pope in this episode!
Michael and Dr. Sara go to see the former warden after their humidor-raiding mission goes awry, as Pope is also a member at the swanky and exclusive club. They ask him for help, but it takes a lot of persuasion, and a few moments where it looks like Michael is going to turn himself in. However, Pope gets the external drive that Governor Dad had stashed in his club cubbyhole. He also wriggles free of Agent Kim's clutches, thanks to Michael's well-timed vehicular intervention. And at the end of the episode, he's decided to let Michael and Dr. Sara run free, 'cause that's what a swell Pope he is.
Now, on to the other plotsâ¦C-Note spends a lot of time running around assorted Minneapolis clinics as DeDe's condition worsens. Eventually, he picks up the phone and makes a deal with Mahone: if Mahone can guarantee Kacee's freedom and DeDe's medical treatment, C-Note will give up Michael. We'll see how well this works out.
South of the border, down Mexico way, Sucre manages to make it to the airport for his rendezvous with Maricruz. He grabs his woman and runs, right as the cops descend upon them. The two of them cab it off into the sunset.
Speaking of south, T-Bag's plot takes a detour through William Faulknerville, only to land in V.C. Andrews country. We learn that T-Bag is not only burdened with a family tree that makes Charles II of Spain's look branchy, he's also as sterile as a microprocessor facility. After countless minutes spent listening to T-Bag carry on (and on and on) about how he wants to start a new family line because of love, Susan finally breaks it to him that she will not play happy families with him in the ancestral home. So he locks her in a basement and, in what is clearly meant to be an example of personal growth, elects not to chop her head off with an ax.
Relegated to the sidelines this week: Linc and Kellerman. As a consolation prize, the former gets to land some juicy punches on Agent Kim, and the latter gets left behind after Michael runs down Agent Kim. Oh, Magnificent Bastard, I can't wait to see how to deal with your ride ditching you. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
The episode picks up right where the last one left off -- with Michael and Dr. Sara walking into the swanky and exclusive cigar club. You will recall that they are there not because they're decided Everything Nineties is hot again, but because the late Governor Dad appears to have secreted something in his humidor that could come in handy for anyone who wanted to take down the One World Conspiracy.
So Dr. Sara goes skulking through the halls, and if her pop-eyed, suspicious glares don't make people think, "Hey, maybe she shouldn't be here," then her lank and uncombed hair surely does. I realize it's all chopped and badly dyed, but come on -- brush it at least. Michael hangs out at the bar and tries to act all casual, but he's very tense. I don't blame him: that background music is ratcheting up my stress level too.
Right as Dr. Sara opens up a climate-controlled room and prepares to find her dad's humidor, some unctuous tool in a suit tries to gull her into walking into the waiting arms of the Chicago P.D., all, "Miss Tancredi, can you come here a minute? No, no, I won't come over there -- you need to come here." Dude -- she's a junkie, not a moron. She can see through your little ruse. Blind Catfish Jefferson could see through your ruse. Michael, who is sitting in another room looking fidgety, can see through your ruse. Of course, it helps that Michael can also spot the police cruiser that's just pulled up outside.
Michael and Dr. Sara run into each other in the hall, and decide that yes, it is time to go. They leave via the fire door in the kitchen, setting off all sorts of alarms, then manage to sprint past all the cops just pulling up.
Naturally, this is when we cut to a plane landing in parched and sunny Minneapolis. I was going to nitpick about the climate relative to Chicago and all, then realized I don't even have any idea of what time of year this is supposed to be anymore, so for all I know, the season finale could culminate on a cliffhanger note at Marshall Fields in Chicago where Michael (now hiding in plain sight as a department-store Santa) ends up with Mahone in his lap. ["Don't tease me." -- Sars] I mean, I had thought we were in April, possibly early May, but these people are always running around all bundled up, so I just don't know.
Sorry, I seem to have wandered off there. Reeling it back in to the land of a thousand lakes... we see that the props department has elected to create a newspaper that bears no resemblance to either the Minneapolis Star-Tribune or the St. Paul Pioneer Press. You will be happy to know the Minneapolis "Register" is reporting that "Zoo Will Investigate Grants for Renovation," "Senate Approves Revised Highway Funding Bill" and "Lawsuit Against School Board Treasurer." Not a thing about those crafty escaped felons. Also, this newspaper has not a thing to do with the episode. I just like that someone in the props department put so much care into it.
We see Mahone striding around the airport terminal, mobile phone pressed to his ear. We then cut to the saucer-eyed, slightly battered moppet on the other end who is presumably one Cameron Mahone. After a little back-and-forth about the state of hospital food and Cameron's new resolve to stay out of the street, Cameron asks, "Are you mad at me?" Mahone comes to a screeching halt and the jovial-dad façade he had collapses. He replies, "Listen, son. No one is mad at you. And this wasn't your fault. I'm the one who should have been looking out for you." Cameron rebuts, "You weren't even there." Mahone says, "I should have been." And it is a credit to William Fichtner that despite Mahone being a catspaw for the One World Conspiracy and a repeat killer, I heard him say that and was all, "Yes! You should have been. Oh, Mahone, I hope you can work this whole thing out and get back together with Pam and live happily ever after. Just don't look so torn up!" Curse you, actor who makes this character sympathetic! Anyway, Mahone gets another call that he has to take, and right as Cameron's all, "Bye! [phone slams]," Mahone's weakly saying into phone, "I love you."
It's Lang on the phone, giving Mahone the 411 on C-Note's latest whereabouts. As Lang tells Mahone that Dede's been ill with a chronic condition, Mahone happens to see a teddy bear with "Get Well" emblazoned on its belly. He's examining it as we find out that Lang's already faxed C-Note's mug shot to every hospital in southeastern Minnesota. Lang says, "With any luck, [Dede] will get sick enough to need [a hospital], then he'll show his face." Mahone's slightly taken aback. He asks, "You don't have kids, do you, Lang?" She leans back and cheerily says, "Nope." Mahone gets off the phone as soon as possible. He buys the bear.
Somehow, Michael and Dr. Sara manage to rendezvous with Lincoln and Kellerman. I am a little unclear as to how the guys in the car knew where to meet up with the alley-skulking pedestrians and how they eluded the cops, but I am just going to put this confusion up on the shelf to "What day is it anyway?" The upshot of this scene is that Michael's worried the One World Conspiracy will soon hear that Dr. Sara was in the club and they'll start poking around, so can he borrow the car, please? He has to run an errand that'll take a few hours. Lincoln asks Michael where he's going. Michael hands up a four-color membership roster listing... Henry Pope, 32-year member, favorite cigar the medium-bodied Churchill. Oh, this is going to be fun. ["Speaking of the prop department making its own fun, I loved how the name on the list was 'Bishop.' I hope we meet that guy and he's played by Jason Priestley. Hee." -- Sars]
We cut to a cozy-looking kitchen and hear a knock on the door. Pope calls out, "Just a minute!" Oh, it's so good to hear his voice again. I didn't realize how much I missed him until right this moment -- this season's been rich in antiheroes, but woefully short on people who aren't always making deals with the devil. Pope opens the door, but the polite smile on his face vanishes the minute he sees Dr. Sara. I, however, am no longer scowling, as Dr. Sara's finally combed her hair and pulled it back.
After a moment, Pope asks, "What are you doing here -- aside from jumping bail and evading the authorities?" Dr. Sara tells him there's something he needs to hear, but she needs to know he'll listen. Pope says coolly, "I can assure you, Sara, we've got nothing to discuss." Dr. Sara pleads, "Just five minutes. After that, if you want us to, we'll leave." Pope quickly asks, "Who's us?"
Cue the ominous music as Michael pops into view, Blue Steeling away. He and Pope lock eyes and we go to the credits.
Commercials. What is the sound of a thousand hands creeping me out? It's "Vaseline," is what it is. Disembodied body parts are freaky. Yet they are also oddly, thematically appropriate for this show, no?
When we get back, Pope is growling that he doesn't want any trouble. Michael replies, "Good, because that's not why we're here." Pope angrily rips off his apron (sadly, no "Kiss the Cook" motto in evidence) and snarls, "What are you thinking, waltzing in here? You're a wanted criminal. In case you'd forgotten, I'd dedicated my career and my entire life to keeping people like you behind bars." Michael corrects him, "You're talking about guilty people. My brother is innocent." I like how he sidesteps Pope's main point, as Michael is indeed guilty of armed robbery, however incompetently he performed it. Michael adds that he's got evidence to prove Linc's innocence, but Pope snaps, "I don't care. I want you out of here." Michael presses on, asking Pope to go to the cigar club. "Out!" barks Pope. Dr. Sara pleads for him to listen. Pope turns to her and bitterly says, "I'm tempted to say you should know better. But after what you did --" Dr. Sara interrupts, nervously fidgeting with the club key as she explains that Governor Dad was looking into the Burrows case when he was murdered and all she has is that key. Despite himself, Pope is intrigued.
Meanwhile, in another subplot, T-Bag has driven his new family to Conecuh County, Alabama. This has not been the kind of road trip where everyone has whiled away the time coming up with new lyrics for "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall." The car of tense and wary passengers pulls up to a dilapidated cottage. T-Bag drawls, "Well, lack-a-day." Indeed. Is that heady aroma the mixture of magnolias, moonshine, and gothic narrative? Or is it a bullshit backstory? I can't quite tell from this point in the episode. As T-Bag pulls closer to the house and takes in the weak graffiti, he snarls, "Miscreants, defilers, defacers, despoilers." It's delightful, it's delicious, it's delovely? Sorry -- the alliteration was too alluring. Susan asks what this is, and the music swells ominously as T-Bag snarls, "My home."
And now we come to... the recap where I don't do the one-paragraph summary of a subplot. Mostly because this is the tiniest subplot this show's done in a while anyway. We're in Tecpatan, Mexico, and the doughty little blue Beetle has broken down a scant 35 miles outside Ixtapa. (Naturally, as the car broke down, the background music slowed along with the car's pace.) As the car sputters to a halt, Sucre screams, "No, no, no, no, no!" and pounds on the horn. I think he's confused pounding on a hospital patient's chest ("Live, damn it! Live!") with repairing a car. Sucre gets out and within minutes, he is picked up by a kindly driver. As luck would have it, his driver is also going to the airport. There's some small talk where Sucre explains that he's meeting his girl's 4 PM flight. Then a walkie-talkie beeps and the driver, Cadena, explains that he's airport security and he's heading to work because "American fugitive's flying in, or something like that." Sucre turns away before Cadena can catch the "Oh, CRAP!" look on his face.
Speaking of hospitals in the southeastern Minnesota area, we're at The Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We cut to C-Note walking Dede over to a chair in the waiting room and being sweetly solicitous of her, then heading over to the receptionist. It does not go well. In fact, it goes the opposite of well, as C-Note does not have insurance and therefore, so far as the young lady manning the admissions desk is concerned, he is less than human.
Then, to my great amusement, we cut to Pope snarling, "I don't give a rat's ass about your or your brother." Cut to Michael, looking stricken by this possibility. Pope continues, "I trusted you. I took you under my wing. I treated you like my own son. I believed you. Day after day, you lied to me. What kind of a man does that?" Michael rolls his eyes all, "Overreact much? I am a convicted felon!" He tells Pope he's the kind of man who's a desperate one. That has to have been hard for him to admit. Because Pope's still the kind of guy who believes in the rule of law and all, he tells the two fugitives he's going to call the authorities right now. Michael pulls out a gun and says, "I'm sorry. I can't let you do that." We go to commercials as I say, "I don't believe Pope didn't just reply by pulling out his own piece and capping Scofield. For pete's sake, the man was in law enforcement. Those dudes are on it."
Commercials. I am missing the part of the human genome that is coded to respond positively to auto commercials. Sad but true.
When we get back, Michael's got the gun trained on Pope and he's saying, "I don't want to hurt you, Henry." "Said by the man with the gun," Pope dryly replies. There's a little more back-and-forth, then Michael says, "I'm not the man you think I am." "I have a pretty good idea who you are, Michael," Pope ripostes. Go, Pope! Michael replies, "Then you already know I never wanted to be in Fox River. I never wanted to meet you, Henry. I certainly didn't want to ruin your life." "Yeah? Well, you've done a pretty damn good job," Pope says. Dr. Sara says she's tried this same song-and-dance number on Michael and all that happened is that it turned her into a crusading fugitive with one hell of an interesting love life. Michael adds, "I just want my brother's life back. I want people to know the truth. I'd lay down my life." "That's easy for you to say, standing on that side of the gun," Pope says with asperity. So Michael lays down the gun, spins it around, and asks, "What if I'm standing on this side?"
Meanwhile, back in Minneapolis, the hospital personnel are busy explaining to C-Note that they don't see people who might need medical attention. They only see genuinely ill people. The manager lady finally snaps, "This is a hospital, not a homeless shelter." That cuts C-Note to the quick. Nearly in tears, he says, "I can't believe you people." Then he stalks off, gathers up the listless Dede (remember: not sick according to those medical professionals) and leaves. I ask the cats, "So does this mean the subplot's not going to turn into John Q?" But they don't read spoilers so they can't reply one way or the other.
As soon as C-Note leaves the building, Mahone screeches up in a sedan. Well -- now I'm wondering if maybe the hospital personnel weren't bureaucracy-bound tools, but merely trying to stall the fugitive until the FBI could get there. Maybe I'm giving them too much benefit of the doubt. Anyway, C-Note picks up Dede and tears back through the hospital. Mahone strolls on after them. C-Note galumphs out another side door. There's a little chase through a parking lot and then C-Note boards a parking lot shuttle. Mahone pulls his gun, and C-Note's like, "Okay." He turns around and puts one hand up in surrender. When he tells Dede to let go and get down, she clings more tightly. Trying not to lose it, C-Note says, "No, no, no, sweetie, you got to get down." Still holding his gun and looking all bad-ass, Mahone coaxes Dede with, "You gotta let him go, honey." C-Note's still trying to talk Dede down, and she won't go; Mahone calls again, "Honey, you gotta let him go." But Dede won't let go, so C-Note manages to escape (?) via shuttle bus (?) with an invisible driver (?). Poor Mahone. All he can do is implore, "Don't let her pay for your mistakes. You hear me?" This plotline is killing me, with the parallels between the two days and their desperation and the look on C-Note's face.
Fortunately, now we switch back to the awesome Pope. He hunkers down to look at the gun and calmly says, "I could shoot you right now and not even think twice." Michael replies, "But you won't. You spent too much time around prisons to throw your life away like that." Pope snaps, "What the hell are you trying to pull?" It's simple: Michael wants Pope to go clean out Governor Dad's humidor. Pope is resolutely against it until Michael Blue Steels him with, "Maybe there's something I can offer to make you change your mind."
And now, back to the heady redolence of delta breezes and verbena, the faintest notes of Faulker and Williams dancing in the air... the T-Bag subplot. The door to Tara-lette swings open and T-Bag gapes, too undone to utter even, "Derelict! Dilapidated! Disintegrating! Deteriorating!" Susan and the kids reluctantly come in. T-Bag wanders ahead of them, his eyes taking in the boarded-over windows and graffiti but actually seeing something else. T-Bag walks over to a dusty console bookcase, pushes it away from the wall, digs a foxed dictionary out of the wall. The pages are swollen from water damage. We get a nicely-composed shot of him resting the book on his prosthesis and flipping through it with his good hand; I am choosing to interpret that as a visual shorthand for how the present damages the past. We see that the page has arrows and words scrawled on it. T-Bag hears a laugh and whirls around; Susan and the kids, all of whom have been silent, flinch. Susan finally asks what T-Bag intends to do with them all. T-Bag turns back to the book, then slips into a full-fledged flashback.
I take back what I said about Faulkner and Williams. This here is Erskine Caldwell territory. We see T-Bag's banal and evil father, his father's equally banal and venal friends, and a carefully-screened shot of T-Bag's mentally-challenged, silent mother. Young Theodore is sitting on the floor when his old man shouts that it's time to play a game -- "Ten synonyms! [turns to his friends] Pick a word." One of them says, "DEE-stroy." Young Theodore turns around and stands up, reciting, "Ten synonyms for 'destroy.' 'Annul,' 'mutilate,' 'liquidate,' 'abrogate,' 'quell,' 'ravage,' 'expunge,' 'demolish,' 'extirpate,' 'extinguish.'" The men on the couch look like they're still stuck back on "abrogate." As T-Bag flashes back to the present, we hear his father saying, "'Stupid,' my hell. My boy's going to be president." So Team Escarpara was also an exploratory committee, is that what we're saying here? T-Bag hugs the dictionary, then continues his survey of the family manse. We then flash to the scene in Young Theodore's life. We learn that Father T-Bag would, to paraphrase the great Florence King, rape a rattlesnake under a rock pile; apparently he has yet to meet -- or father -- a relative he does not molest. We flash back to the present again, where Susan asks gently, "Theodore? Theodore, do you hear me? What are you going to do with us?" In the flashback, Father T-Bag closes the door; in the present, T-Bag turns away from the now-closed door and says, "We're going to put down some roots." I have ten synonyms for T-Bag's plotline: contrived, pretentious, extraneous, ridiculous, spurious, fabricated, labored, melodramatic, histrionic, unnecessary.
Meanwhile, Linc and Kellerman are making awkward small talk on a Chicago rooftop. Linc points out that Kellerman wanted him dead; Kellerman replies that he was merely following orders. Linc does not reply, "You mean like the Nazis?" Linc quickly figures out that Kellerman followed all these orders because he loved Madame Evil. Kellerman disses Steadman's say-so of this matter and adds bitterly, "You don't love someone who loves power more than life. I don't [love her]. No offense, but you're not capable of understanding the relationship." Linc gives him a long look like, You are really not fooling me, son. Kellerman decides to change the subject, moving on to the far more cheery possibility that this whole caper will end in their sticky deaths. He tells Linc, "One way or another, you and I, we die. And your brother too, which is a shame, given all he's done for you. I have a sister I haven't talked to in 15 years. Think she's better off for it?" I am incredibly curious to find out what Kellerman's sister is like. Do you suppose she rules her PTA by threatening to shoot dissenting soccer moms in the head? Linc merely tells Kellerman, "We'll make it." Kellerman snaps back, "What is that -- faith?" Linc says it is. Kellerman replies, "All I see is a black hole." On the couch, I say, "So he's a nihilist?" As if on autopilot, the husband replies, "Nihilists! Fuck me! I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, dude, at least it's an ethos." Wait -- wait, Kellerman has an ethos: "Sooner or later, they're going to suck each one of us into this [black hole]. But when they come for me, I'm going to take as many of them with me as I can." Linc smirks, "She must have really broken your heart, Paul."
We then get a picture of the heartbreaker herself as Fox "News" reports on her attendance at a Chi-town fundraiser. We see Agent Kim watching the footage as he makes notes on something at his desk. Another agent pops in to give Kim the heads-up on Dr. Sara's appearance in Chicago at the cigar club. Once Kim hears that Governor Dad kept a private humidor at the club, he picks up the phone and orders his assistant to get him a jet to Chicago.
Meanwhile, at the Ixtapa aeropuerto, Sucre is trying to split from his good Samaritan without rousing any suspicion. The very minute Sucre leaves, an uniformed guard approaches Cadena, asks if he has his pistol, then adds, "We may need it. Here's our guy. Cadena looks down at a leaflet bearing the face of... the guy he just drove to the airport. Everyone runs off into the commercials.
Commercials. Jim Carrey? Joel Schumacher? Now I only have to come up with 21 other reasons not to go to the movies this weekend.
When we get back, Maricruz's sister is busy telling Maricruz how silly she's being to expect Sucre to show up, since the boy does have a history of letting her down. Maricruz insists that this time will be different. Teresa says, "I don't mean to burst your bubble, but he's not going to show." Cue Sucre sprinting through the crowd. The music swells romantically, he's bathed in a golden effulgence, cherubs burst out of the security checkpoint and begin releasing rose petals and doves onto the masses below. Sucre kisses Maricruz passionately, then says, "I've got three words for you." We all swoon in anticipation of... "We'd better run." As they sprint off, Sucre calls, "Nice seeing you, Teresa!" We get a shot of the gaping Teresa; then we see Sucre, holding Maricruz by one hand and her luggage by the other (aw!) and running off. They actually escape by cab. I love it! And I really hope they get to cab off into the sunset.
Back in Chicago, Michael and Dr. Sara are dropping Pope off, a few blocks away from the cigar club. Michael and Pope give each other long stares -- Pope's is full of wounded betrayal -- and then Dr. Sara reaches over from the back seat and hands over the key. Pope is still looking intently at Michael as he asks, "You're certain about what's in the box?" Michael's Blue Steeling away as he replies, "No, but it's all we've got." Dr. Sara is missing this complex ocular byplay. Pope silently leaves. A minute later, Dr. Sara asks, "You sure about this?" Michael replies that he is not. Dr. Sara says, "Either way, you still owe me dinner." Michael cracks a smile before asking, "Is that so?" Not looking at him, Dr. Sara replies, "Yup -- first week at Fox River. You promised me if you ever got out of there, you were taking me to dinner." Still smiling a little, Michael says jauntily, "Well maybe after we wrap this up, we can stop off and get you a burrito on the way back to Pope's house." Dr. Sara shoots back, "Scofield, I'm not sure what you're used to, but anything short of a filet mignon is not going to cut it for me." Michael genuinely smiles at this. He tells her, "It's a date," and they hold hands.
As Pope walks toward the club, Linc and Kellerman watch from their rooftop perch. Linc asks Kellerman for his phone, uses it to call Michael, and they chat briefly.
Pope heads in and opens Governor Dad's humidor. He finds an envelope with a USB memory stick inside. When Pope cruises back into the lounge, he's sniffing a cigar (hurrah, multitasking!) and he quickly solicits the use of some random guy's computer.
And now, as the scents of fried green tomatoes and catfish come wafting on by... T-Bag is frantically picking up trash and he calls out in a manic voice, "Come on, chitlins! Pitch in!" Susan tries to reason with the crazy, telling him they can't live in the place. T-Bag screams, "Not like this! We gonna clean! We are cleaning! We gonna rebuild!" And let me tell you, I am a HUGE fan of those TV shows where people force you to clean your house, which means I have seen many ridiculously cluttered and filthy households in my day and am therefore a sofa-side expert, and I think T-Bag's on to something: all he needs is a supporting crew that includes Niecy Nash and quite possibly some square-jawed carpenter. Susan tells T-Bag to look at the kids. They're looking pretty shell-shocked. As T-Bag locks them into a dark room, he says, "We're past me wavin' that gun around, don't you think?" Susan would like to know if there's a reason T-Bag's separated her from her kids. T-Bag sits her down and lays it on thick: "Susie, Susie-Q, do you think I'd bring you down here to so sacred a place to me as this if I meant you ill -- LOOK AT ME! I am not the animal you think you see before you. I am the laws of karma all come down wrong. Don't you understand?" I take back the Erskine Caldwell remark. We're not looking at a neighbor to Tobacco Road. We're looking at the shack down the road from the Dollangangers' place. Hello, V.C. Andrews!
Susan says she doesn't understand, actually, and T-Bag tells her, "What I'm trying to say is that... I am the sin of my father." Susan would like to know why she has to hear this. T-Bag says, "Because I love you. Because I want you to understand me. I am the last in the line of Bagwells. The tail end of the corrupted breed. The Earth, thank God, shall see no more of our generations." T-Bag stops for a moment as if pained, steels himself, then admits, "I cannot procreate, Susan. And yet there is something in that, that gives me great hope. No more Bagwells shall roam this planet, with that vile blood in their veins! All I want to do is end that bloodline! Extirpate it! And start another, afresh, a new family." As Susan whispers, "Oh, Teddy... " T-Bag plows on, "Those children are my salvation. My chance to make this work a better place." T-Bag kneels down before Susan, touches her face, and chokes out, "I will be good, Susan. I will love them. I will love you. I will take communion, be baptized under a truer light. All I ask, is that you love me back, just a little. Or learn to do so in time. Can you do that, Susan?" There's a moment where T-Bag's leaning in to kiss the weepy Susan, and then she pulls away, saying, "I can't. I can't. I'm sorry." T-Bag stands up, his face blank and implacable now. I have ten synonyms for this scene too! Overwrought, ludicrous, fatuous, melodramatic, grandiose, mannered, histrionic, overweening, lamentable, exhausting.
Then we cut to Susan and the kids locked in a basement while T-Bag sits outside and contemplates the head of an ax. And I realize this is a totally inappropriate time to think of this, but I just got a good look at the bones on that house and it's one hell of a fixer-upper. How on earth does T-Bag manage to keep falling into these fabulous real-estate steals?
Some miles away in Minneapolis, C-Note is at the local free clinic, getting the eye-opening lesson that the kinds of health-care options poor people have are much different than the kinds of health-care options everyone else enjoys. C-Note barges into a grizzled doctor's office, bullies the guy into seeing him, tosses down all the money he's got ($400), then begs, "Please look at my daughter." We learn that Dede's got PKD. C-Note says, "Normally we have it under control, but I don't like what I'm seeing right now. She says her stomach hurts, and she's always hot." The doctor asks about Dede's appetite, and C-Note fearfully tells him, "It's gone. She's always tired -- ain't that right, baby?" The doctor finally grunts for C-Note to put Dede on the examination table.
Back in Chicago, Michael's called Linc to find out what's going on. Everyone's about to wig out over Pope taking too long inside when the ex-warden reappears at the entrance. As Pope walks along the sidewalk, a sleek black sedan pulls up. Cut to Michael asking, "What's happening?"
What's happening is that the beaming Agent Kim has just intercepted Pope's path with a cheery "Hello, Henry!" Everyone not named Kim goggles in dismay as we go to the commercials.
Commercials. Oh, TurboTax, you are making me feel guilty over scheduling my appointment with my accountant in mid-March. Just for that... I have an appointment with an accountant instead of with you. So there!
When we come back, Pope is making a heroic effort to look Kim in the eye without stooping. Kim says, "I didn't know you were a cigar man?" Pope chuckles mirthlessly and says, "Who are you?" Kim says, "A-a friend. A colleague, in fact. We're both in law enforcement." Pope points out that he's not anymore. Kim gives a patronizing little smile as he says, "That's right. You're... retired."
Up on the roof, Linc turns to Kellerman and asks, "You know that guy?" Kellerman can't keep the loathing out of his voice as he replies, "Yeah." The guys head off.
As Michael and Dr. Sara watch from their (stolen) car -- hey, why aren't there APBs out for that thing? Why didn't either Michael or Dr. Sara ask to take Pope's car? Why do I even bother to ask these questions? ANYWAY, as Michael and Dr. Sara watch from their car, Kim continues to make small talk with the unreceptive Pope. Then he gets all serious with, "You don't mind if I ask you to empty your pockets?" Pope replies, "As a matter of fact, I do." Kim continues nattering on about the real reason Pope showed up at the club, and Pope eyes the beefy blond enforcer guy who just stepped out of the car. As Pope tries to walk down the sidewalk, Kim blocks his path, then discreetly flashes his firearm. As Kim continues trying to put pressure on Pope, Pope looks around as if biting his tongue to keep from saying, Your strong-arm tactics don't work on me. Don't you even talk to your other conspiracy goons? And Michael decides that now is a fine time to use his vehicle to break up the conversation between Kim and Pope. Kim clings to the hood for a moment, then rolls to the ground. And then -- because Michael lacks a killer instinct, or because the writers really like Kim that much -- he does not roll over Kim's prone body and finish the job. Instead, he collects Pope and gets ready to pull up.
Right as Kim sits up, he has the misfortune to run into Lincoln's fist. And right as the blond goon goes to take out Michael, he's shot from behind by Kellerman. Linc continues to pound on Kim while Michael shouts at him, "Let's go! Linc!" Linc hops over and gets in the car. But right as Kellerman jogs over, Dr. Sara locks the door on him. The car drives off, leaving Kellerman alone with the dead blond guy and the battered Kim. He sprints off right as the police arrive. I believe I speak for many of us with, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
And after the bitter stench of betrayal clears, I catch a warm whiff of gulf breezes, overlaid with the fecund fragrance of camellia and the faint top notes of canned Southern Gothic Drama. We are back at Bagwell Acre, and we soon see that the police have found Susan and her kids, frightened but otherwise unharmed, in the cellar where T-Bag imprisoned them. A remarkably drawl-free local policeman says, "We got a call -- someone said there was a hostage situation here." A stunned Susan can only reply, "No one knew we were here."
Cut to a broken mobile phone lying on a gravel road, and T-Bag sitting above it. He's in the driver's seat of the car, sobbing like a man with a broken heart. Ten bucks says he goes on a killing spree, and his new signature will be using the victim's blood to write on a wall, "If you love something, set it free... "
And then we skip to Minneapolis, where Dr. Overworked is giving C-Note the results of the tests he did on Dede. The little girl is suffering signs of renal failure. C-Note is rattled. Although Dede needs dialysis, neither she nor the clinic are prepared for that, so the Dr. Overworked plans on putting a catheter in Dede's neck so she can be examined at a nearby dialysis clinic. However, once C-Note gets an eyeful of the trocar that'll be used to place the catheter, he is not cool with what's going on. You can tell he was the kind of dad who got the shakes if he was asked to hold Baby Dede for her shots at the pediatrician's office. Right before poor Dr. Overworked can get everything going, C-Note picks her up and bundles her off, saying, "I can't do this."
A few miles to the east, Michael, Pope, Dr. Sara, and Lincoln have pulled up at Pope's place. I bet that was a fun car ride back. Pope gets out and looks at Michael. Lincoln asks, "What's going on?" Michael says shortly, "I made a deal with Pope." He gets out of the car. Lincoln understandably wants details. Michael rolls his eyes and sighs, "If he came with us, if we got what we needed, I said I'd turn myself in." Linc, understandably, flips out: "What? We don't even know what this thing is! It could be nothing, Michael." He turns to Dr. Sara and asks if she knew anything about this. Why would she know anything about this? The plan is coming from a guy whose idea of saying "I'm in love with you" is "Me too." He's one of prime time television's least communicative characters. Anyway, Michael's being all noble, telling Linc and Dr. Sara to go on and take the One World Conspiracy down without him. Linc hollers, "I'm not going to let you do this, Michael! There's no coming back from this!" Pope pipes up with, "Your brother's right. I wouldn't count on the courts to show you any leniency in this." Michael's head swivels from one father figure to the other. He says stubbornly, "That doesn't matter. I said I'd hold up my end of the deal." Pope then tells him, "You already did." He then holds up the memory stick: "I listened to this. You have something here. I think there are going to be a lot of people who wish you didn't, but you do." Michael says, "Listen, Henry --" "I'd go now, if I were you. And don't consider this forgiveness. In fact, I'm about ten seconds away from changing my mind," Pope says. Michael thanks him, and the fugitives take off.
We cut to C-Note sitting on some milk crates, cradling Dede and rocking back and forth as he sobs. As he sniffles, "You know Daddy loves you with all his heart, right? I love you so much. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, baby," I wonder irritably how this room's pollen count managed to zoom up so suddenly. I mean, I Swiffered today and everything, yet my eyes are streaming. It's a total mystery. Anyway, C-Note notices a pay phone nearby and within seconds, Lang is patching C-Note through to Mahone.
C-Note asks, "Is this the man in charge?" Mahone says grimly, "Oh, yeah." C-Note, holding the limp Dede, says resolutely, "My name is Benjamin Miles Franklin, and I want to turn myself in, but on one condition. My wife, she goes free. My little daughter, she needs her mother." As Mahone drives, he says coolly, "I don't think I need to make a deal with you, Mr. Franklin." C-Note pauses for a moment, sets his jaw, then says, "What if I got something you need." We cut to Mahone who -- although silent -- is just second away from crooning, "Goooooo onnnnnnn?"
Cut to a pristine hospital room, with lovely robin's-egg-blue walls. Mahone walks over and gently lifts the sleeping Dede's IV-tubed arm, so he can tuck the "Get Well Soon" bear beneath it. He looks at her for a moment, clearly imagining Cameron in his hospital bed. Then he walks over to C-Note and says, not unkindly, "Your wife was released an hour ago. She'll be here soon." C-Note's leaning against the doorjamb; his reddened eyes are fixed on Dede. He whispers, "Promise me she will be okay." Mahone looks back at the girl, then snaps into agent mode, saying. "Just hold up your end of the deal." C-Note replies, "I will -- I'll get you Scofield."
Back in... someplace else, the fugitives have checked into some plushy hotel suite, cleaned up real pretty (Linc is wearing a new, sternum-baring shirt for the occasion), and procured a laptop computer. Michael plugs in the memory stick and says, "You ready?" "Let's do it," Linc replies, and... we don't hear the conversation that exonerates Lincoln, because the episode's OVER. Tune in week, true believers.