417: 'The Mother Lode'
Wr: Seth Hoffman
Dr: Jonathan Glassner
Synopsis: Michael and Sara journey to Miami while Lincoln meets with his mother. T-Bag and Self's mission to locate Scylla takes a dramatic turn. The General comes under pressure.
Review: What a jumbled mess Prison Break is these days, eh? Since the culmination of the 'retrieve Scylla for the government' storyline, the programme has lacked focus, moving hastily from underwhelming development to underwhelming development, searching desperately for something with which to engage its ailing viewership. The end result is ultimately little more than a glorified run around as characters chase other characters, switch allegiances and then chase some more, with very little rhyme or reason to the whole thing. And then a few 'shock' beats are thrown into the mix in attempt to liven things up but, unfortunately, they fall depressingly flat. First, we had the crushingly pointless turn of Agent Don Self which, frankly, has yet to prove even remotely worthwhile since he's done little more than be an irritating ball of smug for the past five episodes, and now there's the revelation that Mike and Linc's mother is alive and well and (probably) trying to take over the Company by WHATEVER MEANS NECESSARY. Sigh. When this revelation was made at the end of 'The Sunshine State', an entire nation let out a collective, disappointed groan. Really, is there any point to this other than to manufacture some hopelessly transparent 'character drama'? And where to begin with the logistics of it all... is it even remotely possible that it might make any sense when taken into context with the show's mythology? I mean, are we just supposed to believe that she sat by and twiddled her thumbs while her son was on Death Row and the other one was getting himself imprisoned to rescue him? Oh, um, yeah actually, we are because LOOK, SHE'S (PROBABLY) EVIL! She'll happily order the execution of her son! What a bitch! Except, um, no. This is just embarrassing because it's so easy to see through it to what it really is: a desperate clutch for something dramatic to infuse the story with. And even if she isn't evil (which, let's face it, with the way Prison Break see-saws between extremities from episode to episode, she likely isn't), there's no way we're ever going to get a logical explanation for her behaviour in the past year or so. Just look at the scene where Linc confronts her: oh, she can't reveal her reasons NOW, that'd be too convenient. No, 'the time must be right' or some such bollocks. In other words, the writing staff haven't got round to figuring that bit out yet so we'll stall, and probably kill her off before she can justify everything. Joy. Elsewhere, the plot bounces off the walls of its cell in annoyingly schizophrenic fashion, introducing a thread, resolving it two minutes later and then rebooting as if nothing ever happened. Case in point: the attempted execution of Krantz which comes out of nowhere, happens and then, within two subsequent scenes, sees the guy back in his office with a sling around his arm, dictating to his lackeys. By this point, the narrative has moved on and we are expected to too. THINK about what's just happened? Put it into context? Don't be silly. This is Prison Break, you're not supposed to dwell on trifling things like that. Just let it all wash over you... 'enjoy the roller-coaster ride'. Um, how about no? How about we're treated with a modicum of intelligence for once and given something that's at least remotely plausible and that makes maybe an ounce of sense? Oh, and how about we DON'T spend a third of the episode in the back of a van with Michael and Sara, pondering life, love and the pursuit of happiness? 'The Mother Lode' is the first instalment of Prison Break's final eight episode run and as an introduction, it fails spectacularly to engage. Further proof, as if any was needed, that the programme should've ended with 'Selfless'. 5.5
418: 'Vs'
Wr: Christian Trokey & Kalinda Vazquez
Dr: Dwight Little
Synopsis: Michael and Lincoln come to blows over Scylla as Christina sets the wheels in motion for her plan. Meanwhile, Sara recieves life-changing news. T-Bag arrives at the Indian Embassy. The General becomes increasingly paranoid.
Review: Well, at least this is a bit of an improvement on last week's episode but problems remain. Firstly, the decision to split the central narrative into two threads that lead to the same goal fails to make the ultimate basis of the plot particularly interesting; by having both Linc and Michael in pursuit of their mother but along differing routes, it weakens the narrative's substance, making it seem thinner than it actually is, and furthermore, it makes the end resolution utterly, utterly transparent. Prison Break cannot keep its favourite twosome, the brothers Sco, apart for long before both the wants of fandom and the needs of the story demand that they unite. The mother can only be in one place at any given time so inevitably, Linc and Michael are going to bump into each other. What are they gonna do then, keep bitching about the motives of the other so that she has time to scarper in the opposite direction? No, they're going to 'put aside their differences', hug and get on with bringing down the Company or whatever nonsense they're driven by these days (really, does anyone know any more?) In fact, they almost do that in this episode with that little scene by the pier but sadly, Michael won't have any of it. And what more can they do with this sort of narrative structure? It doesn't seem like Christina's plot strand is convoluted or involved enough to keep Michael and Lincoln apart for very long so, inevitably, they're going to cross paths again. So in episode 19, will we have a retread of the Mahone scene? And in episode 20? 21? Til the end of the season? It's just frustrating because the viewer knows that it will be resolved and so the whole altercation comes across as depressingly pointless. Then there's the presence of T-Bag and Self which remains a complete mystery, other than the fact, I suppose, that the Company have threatened the lives of their loved ones but still, when the writers can think of nothing better to do but than to have T-Bag chain himself to a gate and whine about elephants, you know something's up. Oh and of course he wouldn't actually be arrested! That would be too much of an inconvenience to the plot. No, the police beat him up a bit AND LET HIM GO! Well there's a prolific law enforcement agency for ya! Entirely implausible and frustratingly idiotic. Why not simply have Bagwell uncuff himself and leave before anything happens to him? Would that have been such a difficult thing to write? And while we're on the subject of lunatic plot developments: Sara's pregnancy. As someone has pointed out over on TV.com, the two have actually kissed on the show around two or three times and now she's having a sprog? When did this happen? When, in fact, did they have time to fornicate and where? Haven't they been a bit busy trying to save their own asses and working for the government? Oh wait, maybe they did it on the table in their base of operations when Brad and Sucre weren't looking. Euck. Well, at least it's not another lapse into drug addiction, which is exactly what I thought we're were going to be treated to when she walked into a bathroom, stared in the mirror and that bloody irritating female falsetto began wailing in the background. Thank Heavens for small miracles. So, erm, what wasn't so bad about 'Vs'? Elements of Christina's storyline actually show promise: the scene with the Indian ambassador was at least mildly interesting and the notion that she's in cahoots with the scientist giving the speech does at least make things a little more complex and a tad more intriguing. The show's got a long way to go yet before it wrestles itself from the jaws of mediocrity though. 5.9
419: 'S.O.B.'
Wr: Karyn Usher
Dr: Garry A. Brown
Synopsis: A wary Michael meets with Christina. The General arrives in Miami. T-Bag must prove himself to the Company.
Review: Sara might've been on hospital-grade morphine when she was a member of the AA, as she takes great pains to point out to a 'mistaken' Christina, but the writers were more than likely on smack when they storyboarded the final third of Prison Break's closing season. Just to keep things consistent, 'S.O.B.' adheres to the show's new-found penchant for asinine allegiance shifts as deals are made left, right and centre. Everyone's doing it: from Christina and Naveen to the General and Bagwell to Christina and Michael, doubt and grudge are cast aside in favour of, well, moving the plot along a bit! Yay! And what better way to do that, I ask you, than to have everyone run around for half an hour?! Christina runs to find Michael, the Three Amigos (Linc, Mahone and Self) run to the energy conference, Christina's lacky runs to the energy conference, Michael runs to the energy conference and, you guessed it, Christina even runs to the energy conference in a taxi that travels faster than the speed of light! You'd be forgiven for thinking you'd tuned into the London Marathon or something. In a similar vein to last week, the two 'separate' plot strands, centred around the brothers (sorry, they're not even that any more but we'll get to that one in a second), have the same essential goal and so the actual plot is stretched wafer thin; everything else that happens is just extraneous incident. At least it looks like they've actually paired the two permanently again since it's gonna be a bit tough for Michael to high tail it now that Linc is apparently framed for murder. This, in itself, is enough to induce a case of the groans as where's it inevitably going to lead? To more running as the police chase after them! Linc is 'back where he started', remarks the lackey at episode's end and instead of it being a satisfying cyclicality, it's just plain boring. Mind, I will acknowledge that the set up itself is quite cleverly established and not particularly predictable, given that it is wrapped up in so many convoluted alliances, pacts and motives, but even this is flawed, given that it is very dependent on the chain of events unfolding as it does. Of course they'd have the stupidity to touch the shell casings! Obviously they'd find the letter and Sandinsky would give them the code! and so on and so forth, ad infinitum. Still, at least it is somewhat entertaining and, thankfully, there are other high points too: the acting is top notch in places, particularly from Wentworth Miller in his scenes with Christina. You buy into his anger and resentment and actually start goading him on when he threatens to drown the woman. William Fichtner is also rather good as Mahone starts to unravel in the hotel room and at least T-Bag's story is mildly engaging, even if it is obvious that he fail to execute Linc. However, these aren't enough to gloss over the colossal mistake that is the 'Lincoln is adopted' reveal. This is yet another familial retcon that undermines the show's history, feeling less like a satisfying and unexpected twist and more of a forced artificial U-turn in a direction that no one really wants to head in. Oh sure, there are logical elements to this. Patches of Christina's dialogue actually make sense and are even (dare I say it) well written, but after the swerves about their father a couple of seasons ago, their mother being alive and having worked for the Company a few episodes ago, it just seems like one alteration too far. I don't doubt that the show will do a decent job of maintaining the strength of the 'brotherly bond' between the two characters but meh, it just reeks of desperation. There are a couple of other, slightly milder, stinkers too: Krantz's arrival in Miami within the first four minutes of the episode is absolutely ridiculous, since it was only at 38 minutes into the last one that Bagwell told him about Christina and virtually no time has elapsed between them. And then there's the continual skirting around the issue of Christina's reasons for leaving her sons and abandoning them to fate when they were in Fox River, which is achieved this week by having her reference Sara's pregnancy. More stalling for time for the writers as they try to cobble something together and more frustration for the rest of us who just want to see this faltering drama put out if its misery. Around 15 minutes into 'S.O.B', Mahone remarks, "this whole thing, it's just crap." And it's hard to argue with him. 5.9
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