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Now this is more like it! This episode had stabbings, and concussive blasts, and one really angry General Von Baldy.
So: Michael and Lincoln are trapped in the Panda (snerk!) Hotel, and Michael is using his big, juicy brain to transform a cart full of janitorial supplies into the necessary weaponry to get him and Linc free of the gas-wielding cops and up to the roof where they can escape via laundry shaft. Except his improvisational efforts get stopped by the cops and only the timely intervention of the balding goon from last week's episode save the boys from being hauled into the Miami PD headquarters, where they would have presumably been interrogated by Crocket and Tubbs. ("Talk or we put you in an unstructured, salmon-pink blazer!" "Noooooo!")
Then the brothers are hauled back to the suite that General Von Baldy's taken over, and the General conducts a performance review of everyone's efforts to retrieve Scylla. His verdict? Everyone needs improvement. General Von Baldy then provides fresh motivation by ordering Don Self's (paralyzed) wife to be murdered. Self gets to hear it all over the speakerphone. He responds by flinging himself off the balcony into the water below, in what appears to be a suicide. The balding stooge takes it as such, and helps Don along by aiming a few shots into the water behind him. Don, however, manages to crawl out of the water on his broken legs (ewwwww!)
Meanwhile, Christina is busy fanning the flames of an India/China border war, courtesy of Bannerjee's assassination and the (planted) news story that the Chinese paid Linc a lot of money for the killing. She makes arrangements to sell Scylla by the seashore to the prime minister of India and rakes in a cool $750 million for her troubles. Then she decides to sell Scylla to the Chinese at well, which Slick discourages with "Pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered."
The boys -- working under the General -- quickly figure out that Christina's sticking around Miami until she has confirmation that her ill-gotten gains have cleared their international wire transfer, so they race over to a Federal Reserve-backed bank. Then they put on ski masks and hold up the bank, taking Scylla away from Christina and Slick. That works for approximately five minutes. Then Christina's back-up goons descend on them and many, many guns go off.
And while that is going on, T-Bag manages to demonstrate his multitasking aptitude by making good with the General and exercising his Scofieldian vendetta at the same time. He suggests the General take Dr. Sara hostage, and volunteers to go get her, using the address that was in Mahone's vehicle. (Mahone had un-duct-taped her prior and advised her to run; naturally, Dr. Sara preferred to stay in the path of danger.) T-Bag manages to efficiently abduct Dr. Sara inside her own apartment. She … should take lessons for the time she has to kidnap her mother-in-law.
Michael and Mahone manage to escape thanks to Linc's agreeing to stay behind and shoot things up. Then Linc runs out of bullets, and he fails to rendezvous with everyone. Further fraying Michael's nerves: a call from General Von Baldy, wherein he sings the tune, "Bring Me Scylla Or I Will Kill Your Lady" followed immediately by a call from Christina with her top-ten hit "I Just Shot Your Brother, So Give Me Scylla Before I Kill Him For Really Real." O, THE TENSION! I cannot wait to see how it all gets resolved week.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We begin the episode immediately after where the other one left off: with complete and total panic among the world's finest scientific minds. Michael and Linc stand back to watch the hubbub, and thirty seconds later, one of the world's finest scientific minds happens to look up toward where the shots came from and notices the two brothers. His cries of "There they are!" alert a phalanx of cops.
Lincoln suggests they blend into the crowd, but Michael knows that won't work. He suggests heading toward the stairwell, but is confounded by the locked door. Linc picks up the murder weapon -- way to go with getting your prints on it, big guy -- and quickly shoots out the lock. That has dual benefits: the door swings open and the crowd goes into another panic. The brothers beat feet in the confusion. Linc leaves the weapon behind, since it's not like he and Michael will need to get out of any more sticky situations now that they're in an easily-accessed stairwell, right?
The boys go running through the service corridors and into the kitchen. A dozen cops are on their tails. Meanwhile, outside, Mahone is walking through the crowd of EMTs and dazed convention-goers. When he gets to Don Self, he says grimly, "This whole thing is falling apart." Don Self sarcastically answers, "Is it? It is really?" Mahone smacks him down by pointing out that once this hits the news, General Von Baldy's likely to conclude that Team Convenience there can't grab Scylla, so he'll just go after their families in retribution. Mahone concludes, "Yeah, that's really funny, isn't it?" Don Self rolls his eyes.
Back inside the hotel, Michael and Linc are hiding behind the serving trays in the kitchen. Michael speed-dials Mahone to ask him, "We're still in the hotel. Is there any way to get out of here without being seen?" Mahone tells him there is not, as there are cops and feds all over the place. Then Michael has to break two pieces of bad news: not only did he not get Scylla, "some guy got assassinated. And guess who got set up for it?" We cut to Linc rolling his eyes in exasperation, all, I didn't ASK to get set up, MICHAEL. Mahone irritably reminds Michael that they need Scylla, and Michael snaps that he's a lot less concerned about Scylla than he is about escaping the hotel with Linc. Mahone asks, "Oh, yeah? Where you going to go, Michael? With the [One World Conspiracy] breathing down our back [sic] again?" Sensing that Mahone is but one sentence away from a shrieking meltdown, Don Self grabs the phone and tags in. The look on Michael's face when he hears Don is priceless, and he demands to talk to Mahone again. "He's a little preoccupied right now," Don Self understates, continuing, "Look, you want to be mad, be mad at me after we get Scylla back. Now listen to me: the southwest loading dock is a large industrial door. It's not conducive to a quick exit. They only have one cop on it. You can get to the door, I can incapacitate the cop." Michael pettishly points out that he's on the opposite side of the hotel, and it will be difficult getting to the exit, as there are bazillion cops in the way. However, he and Don Self quickly figure out that the laundry's over on that side of the hotel, so if Michael and Linc can make it to the laundry, they can make it to the exit. They plan to do this by taking the hotel ventilation system to the laundry room; that'll put them right by the door.
Michael then requests that he be put on speaker so he can tell Self and Mahone to go to 4 Dunn Place where, in theory, Dr. Sara should be holding Christina Scofield hostage. "Make her tell us where Scylla is," he says, reasoning that doing so will get General Von Baldy and the forces of evil off everyone's backs for a while. Linc grabs the phone and growls, "Mahone, you do whatever you gotta do to get her to talk." Mahone's on it like a sunbonnet. Don Self has an expression like, "Damn, Burrows, that's hardcore." But in Linc's defense: the woman just set him up for murder. Wouldn't you want to deliver a smackdown?
Once the credits roll, we are whisked over to the condo where Lincoln and company were staying. FOX News is already on the scene, where some blowdried talking head is talking about how unconfirmed reports have pegged Lincoln Burrows as the assassin, along with "Michael Scofield, his mastermind brother." We cut to General Von Baldy doing a slow burn, and then his temper really blazes as he throws the remote across the room and shouts, "Christina sandbagged all of us!" He then orders his balding goon to head down to the hotel and make sure neither Lincoln nor Michael are caught. This is not because he yearns to see the boys fly free; Von Baldy is concerned about what they might say to the authorities. T-Bag volunteers for the mission, assuring Von Baldy "I will dispatch it efficiently," but Von Baldy shouts, "This is not an Alabama coon hunt, Teddy!" T-Bag says, "Don't judge me by desperate actions taken when there was a gun to my head. I ran an entire prison gang syndicate. Hardened felons called me 'Mister.' I'm so much more than a snitch, and if you continue to treat me as such, it will be your loss, General, not mine." General Von Baldy is pulling out his hair in frustration -- or he would be, had he any -- and he sets T-Bag straight: "Son, I have the fate of a multitrillion-dollar enterprise in my hands. And you want me to let you earn your stripes now?" He stalks off and we see T-Bag looking speculative. I think someone's just decided that he wants to assume control of a multitrillion-dollar enterprise. God help them all if he succeeds.
Back at the hotel, another ten dozen police have pulled up so they can join the mob inside. Michael's managed to find a Panda Bay swipe card on a maid's cart, and he and Lincoln scamper off so they can begin working their way toward the roof. After a standard chase scene where, as per usual, Michael and Linc manage to elude their pursuers, the pissed-off police chief orders the hotel security flunkie to lock every room in the hotel. Since the locks are electronically programmed, he can easily do so.
Linc and Michael attempt to lay down some internal Prison Break with Linc asking why they can't just take the stairs to the roof and Michael explaining that doing so would set off the fire alarm, whereas crawling through the ducts above the top-floor rooms will let the boys get to the roof undetected. All they need to do is to get into a room, which ... oh, look what the hotel security guys have done! They've locked every door in the place. Michael tests a few to confirm this, then states the obvious: "We can't go up, we can't go down ... we're trapped."
Fortunately for both of them, there's another maid's cart just standing in the hallway. Even more fortunately for them, they are nowhere near a TV set, as the FOX blowdried head is now reporting that "an anonymous source has provided FOX news with documents showing a wire transfer from Chinese operatives to Burrows and Scofield. The fallout from this from a geopolitical standpoint is staggering." We cut to Christina looking surprisingly grim for all that she's a she-viper with all the warmth of Pluto's surface, and she doesn't soften when Slick comes in with a big bouquet of flowers and the news that the prime minister (or, as they call him, Nandu) is reaching out to do business. Christina wanly tells Slick, "Nice audible on the Chinese document." He cheerily replies, "Thank you. Now we just watch the dominoes begin to fall." "I just wish they weren't falling on Michael," she says tightly. You know, you sort of made your own problem there, Christina.
We cut to Don Self giving Michael a pep talk: "There's cops everywhere. It's like a cop anthill. Look, it's just a matter of time 'til they find you anyway." Michael's not having it, and orders Self to find out what's going on. He does so at the top of his lungs, which is apparently the kind of persuasion Don Self needs. So he goes over to a knot of policeman and passes himself off as "Don Self, Homeland Security agent," and -- employing that bluster we've all come to know and, well, know -- manages to browbeat the seasoned cop into telling him their game plan for nabbing the brothers. "We're going to gas them out floor by floor until we find them," the cop says. Don Self hastily improvises, "If you gas them, you're going to compromise visibility, and I can't have another diplomat getting shot in the fez." The cop replies, "We're using chloropropane. It's colorless, it's odorless. They won't even know what hit 'em." Don Self feigns approval, because it looks a little like panic.
Aaaaand Mahone has finally made it over to 4 Dunn Place. He is somewhat consternated to see Dr. Sara all taped to the breakfast bar, and rips off the duct tape on her face to ask if she's hurt. Mahone quickly cuts Dr. Sara loose and updates Dr. Sara on the new adventures of old Christina: "She has Scylla, she set up Linc and Michael ... they were framed for the murder of an Indian official. It's all over the news. That was Christina's plan." Dr. Sara's about to stalk off and go rescue her pookie, but Mahone blocks her exit. "I really need you to get out of my way," she says. "That's not going to happen. You don't care for me, I don't care for you much either, but I owe Michael. Run. He's in a sea of trouble right now," Mahone says. Dr. Sara insists that she won't abandon Michael, and Mahone tells her, "I'm not telling you to abandon him. There's nothing you could do for him. Listen, I'd run if I could run. But if I run, they go after my wife, so I have to jump back in. You don't." Ah, but she does, what with carrying the spawn of Scofield and all. But Dr. Sara doesn't mention this; she only insists that she's not running. Her idea of a compromise is staying in the apartment so Michael can come back for her.
And now we switch to Christina crying crocodile tears for the benefit of India's prime minister. After baldly lying about losing a son when he was just a child, she demurely confirms that the Chinese were behind the killing, thus leading the prime minister to say, "I'm not here to discuss how my son died, but how to avenge him. Your technology -- as you put it -- I've heard rumors of its varied applications." Christina feigns shock and horror: "Your son and I planned to use the technology for humanitarian endeavors. Warfare applications are not our goal." "But now they are mine, and at the end of the day, you are a businesswoman with a product and I am a buyer," the prime minister says. He wants to commit to the entire Scylla inventory, so that China might feel his wrath in a dozen different ways. Christina can barely suppress the pleased grin from the big sale she just made. She flutters about "the ramifications of what it is you're proposing," then delicately accedes to his wishes. Oh, she's good.
Back at the hotel, the gassing has commenced. Michael gets a call from Don Self who tells him about the gassing. Michael zones out as he looks at the maid's cart, then snaps to. He asks Linc to help him, but Linc has descended into the slough of despair, muttering about how he's beaten the odds so many times, he figures the universe has made the bill come due. "What kind of loser gets set up for two high-profile assassinations within five years?" he asks. Michael's all, "I don't have time to do the math because I need to keep us from getting gassed. So stop with the thinky-thinky and make with the smashy-smashy for me, okay?"
We zip to back outside the hotel, where the tasty-looking, clean-cut Darrin Hooks, Bona Fide Homeland Security Agent, is introducing himself to the police. The cop replies, "Homeland? How many of you guys are they sending here? Agent Self's already inside." Agent Hooks is like, "Come again?" and the cop explains that Don Self showed up a little while ago. Hooks promptly calls the office to confirm that Don Self was "the name of the agent that was supposedly killed in L.A. recently." Oh, Don, this might not be your episode.
Back at the condo, General Von Baldy is gloomily monologuing, "It's all falling out exactly as Christina planned it. Now she's going to have everything she ever hoped for. She's trying to reignite the 1962 China/India border war, which ended in an uneasy truce when neither country could withstand the losses they sustained in those remote and desolate mountains. If she succeeds in provoking another war and framing China for the killing of India's prime minister's son -- and it's certainly provocation enough -- she'll set off a military conflict that will last for decades, that will never be resolved." Mahone comes in and asks why General Von Baldy didn't beat Christina to the punch. The General explains, "If India's involved, that drags in Pakistan, then Russia's going to want to defend its borders. Then within a year, Europe's in it, then after that, the United States. It's an apocalypse in which everyone loses! And Christina has always been too prideful and too unstable to accept it." Hmmm ... intimations of brain problems?
The gassing and the police-stalking-around continues. Michael, it appears, is having Lincoln construct bomb-type materials from toilet paper and toiletries while he short-circuits a lock. We cut to the loading dock area, where the receding-hairline-goon is busy introducing himself to the cop he is so obviously about to kill.
Meanwhile in a service corridor, Don Self runs right into the scrumptious Agent Hooks. He is somewhat nonplussed when Hooks calls his name, and even more so when Hooks introduces himself and whips out his Homeland Security badge. The two men warily walk toward one another, and Hooks is the first to pull his weapon and order Don Self to stay where he is. Don Self feigns outrage: "What the hell are you doing? Do you always pull guns on fellow agents?" "Yeah, when fellow agents that are supposedly dead are found later in a hotel with the guys who allegedly killed them," Hooks replies. He's quick, that one. Looks and brains? Be still, my heart. Don Self spins a weak story about how he was in covert ops, but Hooks isn't buying it. Fisticuffs ensue, and to make a long and sad scene short: Don Self kills the tasty Agent Hooks with a steak knife to the chest. AS IF we needed any more reason to loathe him.
Then Don Self discovers the dead body of the cop and calls Michael to warn him that this means "there's someone in the hotel other than the police that's looking for you." Michael passes the news on to Linc, then manages to break into a room. This sets off a security alert, and thing you know, eleventy-dozen cops are on their way to the 16th floor. Michael has filled a minifridge with the toiletpaper-and-toiletries bomblets. Then he sprays in some air freshener. Linc tosses in a match and closes the fridge's door. The brother sprint down the hall behind the fridge. When two cops get there, they see the fridge ... and then it blows apart. The force of the fire blasts both cops back, unconscious. So another set of cops sprints up the stairs and run into two uniformed, gas-mask-wearing cops who tell them, "They booby-trapped us and now they're up on the roof. I have to get him to a hospital." The other cops are all, "Whatever, hup hup hup hup hup!" and they continue up, leaving the two cops to stagger down the stairs ... until the chief realizes that maybe, these aren't cops. He's right. It's Lincoln and Michael. As the chief prepares to arrest them, however, Receding Hairline Goon comes up behind him and kills him. "The General would like you back at the loft -- NOW," he says.
General Von Baldy is knocking back some scotch in the loft, and when Michael and Linc slouch in, he turns around and guilelessly inquires, "Did all go well at the hotel?" Before Michael answers him, Mahone gives him a whispered update on Dr. Sara and Christina: the latter's escaped, the former's at the condo. T-Bag has noticed the exchange, which bodes ill for later. The General pulls his disappointed dad routine: "You need to take responsibility for your failures." Linc protests that "We failed nothing! This whole thing was a set-up." The General deadpans, "Lincoln Burrows was outsmarted. Who could have anticipated that?" HA! Michaels tells General Von Baldy to throw it in. At this, the General rolls his eyes and monologues some more about how he's been holding a chip and he intends to play it. Mahone freezes in dread, and we cut to T-Bag looking wary as well. (Interesting -- I wish this show had done more to highlight the similarities in their noggins.) Don Self is, as per usual, deeply clueless, even as the General picks up a fruit bowl, empties it, and begins dropping in small slips of paper upon which he's scribbled. The General says, "I wonder who the big winner will be ... when I sent you those envelopes, I wasn't just playing games. I made it very clear that you had one day to accomplish your job or there would be consequences." And here are the consequences: Don Self's name has been pulled out of the bowl. The General orders his flunkies to dial "our man in Queens," and once he's raised the guy, he orders, "Move on Subject Four." It finally hits Don Self that he's about to hear his wife get shot. He springs forward, crying, "You son-of-a-bitch! My wife is a defenseless woman!" Receding Hairline Goon holds Self at bay with a gun. Von Baldy makes Don Self's bad moment worse by sharing with everyone: "Mr. Self didn't tell you he had a wife, did he? Well, I wouldn't talk about my wife either if I'd had a few too many bourbons, got behind the wheel, and turned a beautiful young woman into a piece of broccoli." We cut to Linc and Mahone, both of whom are looking at Self with a queasy blend of pity and relief. The General continues, "I assume that's why you ran away with Scylla? To screw over a government that was giving you benefits that would only pay for a county facility overlooking the Belt Parkway, and to sell it so that you and she could disappear and be hidden forever." We cut to Don Self, who looks like a whipped animal. The man in Queens says, "I have the subject in sights. She's in a wheelchair under a tree in the hospital courtyard. Do I have a go?" We cut to Michael, who looks oddly impassive, then to Don Self, who weakly pleads, "Please don't do this. You can kill me. You can kill me right now. Please -- kill me." Mahone shouts, "You don't need to do this -- we'll get Scylla!" General Von Baldy wheels on him and crows, "That's what I wanted to hear. But you have to know what awaits you and your loved ones if you don't." As Don shouts frantically that he gets it, General Von Baldy calmly says, "Execute the order." We hear a gunshot, some frantic bystanders and then -- the line disconnects. T-Bag looks appraising, Lincoln somewhat angry and Michael disgusted. Don Self then shakes free of Receding Hairline Goon, sprints across the loft and flings himself into the marina below. Receding Hairline Goon shoots the water a few times, but we see neither a body surfacing nor blood, so Don's fate remains a mystery for now.
Now that everyone's motivated, the General orders them to get down to business.
We cut to Christina taking a receipt which confirms that the taxpayers of India are about to fork over $750 million to her. The prime minister says bitterly, "If you're still concerned about humanitarian efforts, write a check to UNICEF." Christina coolly tells him that all data will be delivered in 24 hours, and after the prime minister leaves, Slick comes over to congratulate her on a perfect close. Without looking up, C
hristina directs him to "reach out to our contact in China. I have a feeling they may be interested in what we're selling as well." As Slick moves Scylla to a smaller padded case, he cautions, "I don't advise playing both sides of this coin. Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered." Christina's immune to his animal-based analogies, and she orders him to reach. Out. To. China. Slick looks at her and drops the wee Scylla case on her desk before walking out.
Across town, General Von Baldy is shouting at people and Mahone is staring off in the middle distance, doing that getting-inside-the-minds-of-others thing he used to excel at. He reasons, "She played on India's emotions, which probably means she'd want to meet with one of their emissaries today while they're still running hot. She could still be in Miami, maybe at the embassy." Michael warms to his Mental Mind Mate's line of thinking but refines it: "Any deal she makes with India is strictly off the radar. She's concerned with two things. One is closing the deal on Scylla, which she's already done. The second is getting paid." T-Bag comes in to brightly announce that the sea has not surrendered Don Self's sodden remains just yet. Everyone sort of ignores him. Michael leads them all to a conclusion: Christina will have parked her ill-gotten Scylla gains in an overseas bank, but she'll want confirmation that the money's there before she leaves the U.S. "We find the money, we find my mother," Michael concludes. We then get a brief lesson in finance: it normally takes three days for an international wire transfer to clear unless the bank is a Federal Reserve signatory; in that case, it's immediate. Michael speculates that Christina will head to a bank to withdraw a few grand as a confirmation. Mahone sets to finding the Federal Reserve banks in Miami, because that's their best shot at finding Christina. General Von Baldy crows, "There, Michael, you see? That's why I didn't put your name in the bowl. You're the only one here that's irreplaceable. Agents, informants, muscle ... they're nice to have, but finally, they're replaceable." The apparently interchangeable Mahone has just found the one bank in all of Miami that is a Federal Reserve signatory, but that tidbit goes unremarked upon as the General kvells, "That mind of yours -- it's one in a million. Nice to see it finally working for me." Michael angrily says, "I do not work for you." The General says cheerily, "Not yet."
We zip over to the bank, where Christina and her tacky-ass French manicure are busy pushing a wire transfer confirmation across the desk to an easily-wowed clerk. "It's legitimate, I assure you. I just want to take out $10,000 so I can be assured the Luxembourg account is properly set up," she explains. As the clerk wanders off to go fetch a brick of currency, we see that Slick is sitting to Christina and he's got the wee Scylla case on the floor. We zoom outside the bank and we see Mahone walking back to a car, looking distracted. He hops in and tells Michael and Lincoln that Christina's in there with Slick. Lincoln figures the plan is that when Christina and Slick come out, they'll just jump them. Mahone asks, "So what do we do about her security? I mean, we jump her, we gotta jump the guys she's with and God knows how many agents are gonna come crawling out of the woodwork like ants." He sighs heavily, practically giddy with fear over Pam and stress over this stupid job. Then Mahone says, "I hate to bring up the obvious, but last time I checked, you two still disagreed as to what to do with Scylla if we actually get it." There's an awkward silence. Mahone then says with forced cheer, "Yeah! That's what I thought." Linc says, "Look, let's just go in there and get Scylla. Who's going to stop us -- the 17-year-old security guard?" "Noooo ... probably the guy with the gun," Mahone says. The poor guy has gone completely dingy. Michael gloomily adds, "He'll fire as soon as he sees our faces." "Then maybe he shouldn't see our faces," Mahone says.
And that is how that bank in Miami gets held up by three ski-mask-wearing guys who decline to take the fat wad of cash Christina's holding and carry off the wee Scylla case instead. And then STUPID LINC has to go and say, "Hi, Mom" at the end of it. That tips of Slick, who promptly calls his goons on the outside.
Meanwhile, guess what's finally washed ashore? It's Don Self, and he looks to have broken some bones in a seriously gross way. As a well-meaning kid runs off to call 911, Don Self frantically gasps for him not to call anyone. Oh, dammit. I was kind of hoping for a pointless death to cap off Don Self's pointless character, but it looks like we're stuck with him for at least another episode.
Back at the loft, T-Bag is pouring poison in General Von Baldy's ear, raising doubts as to the purity of Michael's motives. Naturally, he does not mention that the moment Michael decides to screw over General Von Baldy, it will be a race to see who can shove Scylla up Michael's special place for safekeeping until they can frogmarch the guy back to the General. Seriously: you think Mahone is going to let Michael do anything that jeopardizes Pam? Or that Linc would let Michael do anything that jeopardizes LJ? But it's not in T-Bag's best interests to point this out, because then it would impede his vendetta against Michael. So he points out that "Scofield, he thinks pure like a little Cub Scout. Burrows, he just thinks like a cub." The General turns around, and says, "He's right," in a tone that conveys Who would have thought this sinister inbred was capable of incisive insight? He continues, "I don't feel comfortable having Scofield out there with something I want while I'm stuck here with nothing he wants." And that is how T-Bag manages to a) introduce the idea of kidnapping Dr. Sara from the condo (remember: the location will be in the GPS of Mahone's vehicle, from his trip earlier in the episode) and b) get the go-ahead for the doctornapping.
Let's see how Mahone and the Brothers McSullen are doing. Answer: not well. Mahone and Linc are engaged in a firefight with Christina's goons while Michael and Scylla run off. Linc sends the other two on their ways with Scylla and stays behind to shoot his gun until it's out of bullets. We get a shot of him rolling his eyes and wishing he could re-deliver his monologue about how he can't beat the odds anymore. It doesn't look good for Linc, is what the deal is.
Okay: hands up, all of you who never tire of seeing Dr. Sara get taken down by someone physically, then tied up and/or abducted. No? Nobody? You mean I'm not the only one who tires of the good doctor being in perpetual peril? Who occasionally thinks, Holy gawow, this is the quite possibly the only person in America whose life was safer and happier when she was a morphine addict? Good. Because since we're all Over This, I can just sum up this scene in a few sentences: FOX News has already dragged out the talking heads to issue ill-informed blanket condemnations (at last! Some semblance of verisimilitude regarding how that operation does things!), Dr. Sara is watching the news, and then Dr. Sara is subdued by a wiry man with one arm who manages to persuade her that really, she should be used to being tied up in this apartment by now.
Michael and Mahone manage to hide out in an alley and Michael promptly begins fretting about Lincoln: "He's taking too long. Something's happened. We need to go back for him." Mahone is like, "No, actually, we don't. Call first." As Michael's waiting for Linc to pick up, Mahone wonders aloud, "Now that we have this, what the hell are we going to do with it?" Michael just gives him a look like I have no idea. Plus he's out of his mind with worry over Linc. Once he hangs up, his phone rings. "Linc?" Michael quickly asks. But no -- it's General Von Baldy drawling, "I heard about the bank robbery on the radio. You boys just can't stand to be out of the news, can you? I assume you've got Scylla?" Michael lies, "We're close. We'll keep you posted." General Von Baldy lets Dr. Sara pipe up just then that they're all in her apartment, and the General says coldly, "I know you have it. Christina wouldn't risk a shootout otherwise. Now, I'm going to make this easy for you: bring me Scylla, or this time, Sara's death will not be faked." He clicks off.
We switch to Michael, who is practically in tears. Mahone asks, "What is it?" and Michael turns to him, tears in his eyes, and says, "The General has Sara." Mahone hands over Scylla with "Take it." Then Michael's phone rings again and he answers, "I swear, if you touch her--" "Hello, son. I believe you have something I want," Christina snaps. She's on the top level of a parking garage, and Slick has just handed her a gun. Christina continues, "I have something you want, although I'll never really understand why." She walks over to a minivan and the hatchback opens to reveal a bound and gagged Lincoln. Michael says slowly, "All right. Maybe we can work something out." Christina snaps, "I gave you the opportunity to work something out. You rejected me Michael ... so here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to shoot Lincoln through his right ribcage, just grazing the lower quadrant of his right lung. It will slowly collapse, making it very difficult to breathe. If he doesn't get medical attention within five hours, he'll be dead." As Michael begs, "Christina ... Mom ... please!" she shoots Lincoln. We see Michael screaming, "Linc!" and then Christina snaps, "Second hand's spinning, Michael. Looks like you have a little decision to make -- Scylla, or someone you love."
OH MY GOSH, WHATEVER WILL MICHAEL DO? We'll find out in the exciting season finale!
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