By Faith McQuinn

It’s been two weeks, and Fox spent a lot of money during the Superbowl to advertise the escape that was supposed to happen tonight on PRISON BREAK. Well, I waited an hour just to get a bunch of men huddled in a dirt tunnel waiting for some lights to go out. Oh well, at least I finally got a good episode out of it.

I think I can safely say tonight’s episode was the best of the season. Not as good as anything from season one, but definitely better than the crap the producers and such have been passing off as good television.

The episode starts with Michael (Wentworth Miller) hanging out with his ever-growing gang of escapees. They’re all waiting for their leader to tell them how and when they will escape. Michael and Whistler (Chris Vance) are on a time crunch. They have to be out by morning, or Lincoln’s son will be missing a head. The others, especially Lachero (Robert Wisdom), point out they have no time schedule and would just like to get out alive. Michael could care less, but no matter how he feels, he explains the plan.

The men will dig all night and escape at first light. But uh oh, things get a little wet. With a sudden downpour risking the integrity of their tunnel, Michael moves the escape to before sunrise. The men grumble, but Michael says they go then or never. At night, the guards are doubled and they do jeep patrols. More guards mean more guns, and more guns usually makes for better television.


Meanwhile, on the outside, Lincoln (Dominic Purcell) and Sucre (Amaury Nolasco) are preparing for the morning escape. Sucre meets with Susan (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe) and is pressured into telling her the truth after she returns the bomb he left in her car.  He reveals that Michael is having reservations about handing Whistler over, and Susan pulls out her badass card and starts choking Sucre. Now, I know Susan is supposedly some amazing trained killer or whatever, but she always goes way over the top with her mean bitch act. It’s not even scary. Unfortunately, no one will kill her anytime soon, so I’m just going to have to deal with O’Keefe’s overacting for the next couple of weeks.

After Sucre spills all he knows to Susan, Sofia (Danay Garcia) is abducted. Susan is so worried that Michael will actually get cold feet that she decides to take a little more insurance out on the plan. Susan calls Lincoln. Lincoln arrives to find Sofia. Lincoln calls Michael to talk to Whistler, and through the best cell phone reception I’ve ever heard, Whistler hears Sofia being tortured.

What’s a man to do when his girlfriend is being threatened? He has to give The Company the information they want, right?  Well, Michael doesn’t think so. He tells Whistler that he can’t give The Company what they want. Without a bargaining chip, everyone will die. In the end, Whistler listens and ends up giving Susan only half the information she requested. Susan is not happy, but admires Whistler’s newfound pair of “oysters.” She gives Michael and Whistler 24 hours to escape, or L.J., Sofia, and probably Mary Cruz will die.

Stressed beyond belief, Michael starts setting his plan in motion. First, the entire escape crew works overtime at getting the tunnel dug out. Second, Sucre cuts the gas lines to all the jeeps. Third, Lincoln has got to figure a way to cut the power to the prison, giving everyone 30 seconds of darkness before the backup generator kicks in.


Wow. If all this isn’t enough, Sucre gets called in because the head guard did a background check and found out his alias is actually a wanted man. Then, Lachero and T-Bag (Robert Knepper) stage a small coup.  For some reason, they don’t trust Michael (imagine that), and they decide they want to be the first out of the hole. Michael lets them, and the episode ends with Lachero perched and waiting for the lights to go out.

I guess next week we’ll find out if all the decisions Michael was forced to make will work out for the best. The first time he planned an escape, he let out the likes of T-Bag and got a whole bunch of people very dead. This time, maybe T-Bag will end up dead and everyone who deserves to be safe (Mahone, Michael, and Whistler) will be.