Prison Break–They Break Out–’Nuff Said

Personally, I’ve really liked a lot of what’s been done with Season 3 of “Prison Break.” Admittedly, killing off Sara was handled in a pretty shitty way, but nonetheless, I feel the season overall has been pretty interesting and threw in a few new characters and a couple of curve balls that have really added to the story. Last night’s episode was big, seeing as how they, well, finally broke out…again.

Seeing Michael’s plan in action, I wasn’t terribly impressed. I felt like there were a lot of details that made it susceptible to failure, but one major twist made up for that minor shortcoming. At the end of last week Lechero and T-Bag, being the resident assholes who actually belong in prison, turned on Michael at the last minute and insisted they be the first out of the tunnel to ensure that no matter what, they’ll escape, being that there will only be 30 seconds of darkness before the back-up generator kicks in and activates the lights. Michael is a genius though. Them leaving the tunnel first was an integral part of the escape plan. A diversion was part of the escape plan. What the escape crew didn’t know, was that a few of them were Michael’s diversion.

And so, while Lechero, T-Bag, and Bellick are getting caught in the middle of the yard and the guards do a head count in the yard, Michael, Whistler, Mahone (who no doubt would’ve been among the intended guys to get caught had he not been smart enough to stay behind Scofield), and McGrady (little basketball-wielding Spanish kid) sneak out of the yard. They run through the jungle (Whistler “tore his ankle up” and had to hobble part of the way), rendezvousing with Link at the beach. They dig for a cooler hidden in a previous episode, where there are 4 small oxygen tanks…apparently another integral part of this plan is successfully swimming underwater for roughly 5 miles. Brilliant.

Granted, in this scene down on the beach it’s important to recognize Lincoln Burrows for the badass moment of the night. After packing phones and accessories in a plastic bag to avoid damages, Mahone asks Link to put a picture of his son in the bag. Wait, wait, now get this. Link hears this, turns to Mahone and says, “Screw you, Mahone.” Apparently, Link has not completely forgiven Mahone for killing his father. I guess we all carry baggage.

Oh shit moment of the night is dedicated to Sucre, who was detained at the prison and not able to carry out another integral part of the break out. After the 5 mile swim, a boat is supposed to pick them up at a buoy. Well, as we know, Sucre isn’t really sharp enough to be in one place at once, let alone two. For all his Chewbacca-like loyalty, he rarely comes through when needed, and so it was probably a bad idea for this whole plan to in essence, lay on the incapable shoulders of Sucre.

All right though, enough of this. To wrap up, thank god McGrady was pulled in at the last minute, because somehow his old man found them and got them back to shore to finish the escape. Michael, Link, Whistler, and Mahone take off, play a little chicken on some Panamanian back roads with The Company, finally winding up at some empty warehouse. Link points a gun at Mahone, but Whistler takes off, Link and Michael have to go chase him, Mahone escapes, and there we have it.

Unresolved issues: Whistler lost the bird book with the coordinates The Company needs from him, but T-Bag found it in the yard. Sucre is still being detained at the prison, and now they know that he’s got some history with Scofield. Where’s Mahone off to and how will he fit into the finale? The psychotic but smoking Susan is still holding LJ, but now the boys don’t have Whistler to make that trade possible. And of course, the question plaguing us for 3 seasons that probably still won’t be answered…who the hell is The Company? More importantly, where will next week’s finale leave us hanging?