Prison Break Recap: Top Gum
“This piece of gum will set off a series of events that will finish on the other side of the world.”
Yes, Prison Break really, truly is back, never more so than when Michael Scofield/”Kaniel Outis” is utilizing a stick of Wrigley’s to eventually extricate himself from a squalid Yemen prison.
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Whereas last week’s premiere got things off to a good enough start, I felt the storyline creaking a bit during Episode 2, specifically with regards to Lincoln’s quest to find the “sheik of light” mentioned in one of his brother’s always-cryptic notes. Muscling his way past a quartet of thugs in a garage is one thing; but the way that Lincoln very improbably 1) slipped out of the “sheik’s” home, past a street full of gunmen, 2) made it to the girls’ school window and hurried them out, 3) slipped into the terrorists’ 4) unmanned pickup truck and then 5) out-drove his pursuers, on a strange, rubble-filled road, while 6) eluding bullets from their roof-mounted automatic weapon…
No.
That said, the entire mission into the ISIS-occupied suburbs allowed Inbar Lavi’s Sheba to shine a bit, keeping a stiff upper lip when negotiating with government checkpoint guards or dealing with an extremist ex.
Far more entertaining were the separate Michael and Sara stories. Back in New York, Sara paid a visit to the local Department of State office, where the director turned out to be no less than Paul Kellerman. (Kellerman!) When not (conspicuously?) chastising Sara for drinking from a plastic water bottle, Kellerman stood firm that the man she knows/knew as Michael Scofield now, in the eyes of history/the federal government, goes by Kaniel Outis, a known terrorist. And it would take a very rare sort of genius bird — such as Michael — to pull off such a change of identity. Later, after a disbelieving Sara storms off, Kellerman points her to video from four years ago, in which Michael emerges from a remote cabin to murder a CIA chief. Admittedly taken aback, Sara reads in hospitalized husband Jacob on the situation, and he suggests, via game theory, that a man such as Michael, whose calling card was manipulating people to do his bidding, may ultimately have succumbed to madness.
Inside Ogygia, meanwhile, Michael launched his escape, scurrying through an oddly accessible air shaft to get the roof, where he and conveniently American cell mate Whip awaited a light outage… that never came. With a clock now ticking — the worst of the prison’s worst, including ISIS bigwig Abu Ramal, are about to be released from solitary — the always resourceful Michael then set in motion Plan B, using a stick of gum from cell mate Sid to start a fire with which he boils water that he then soaks a rag in to make himself appear feverish. Once in the infirmary, the infamous “Kaniel Outis” is beat on by a guard, after which he is handed a pair of morphine pills.
Michael trades those to Korean cell mate Ja, who has been suffering from DTs, for a cell phone and credit card with which to “order a pizza.” (Very) soon after, his son Mike back home is delivered an origami flower, attached to which is a note that Sara reads, alerting her to get everyone safe because “a storm is coming.” Back in Yemen, Michael and Sid get a signal from the “sheik of light” that the plan is back on, just as the door to solitary springs open. Abu Ramal emerges, then makes a beeline for and embraces Kaniel Outis, who informs him that their escape is set for tomorrow night.
What did you think of Episode 2?
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