Missing the Boat
On ''Prison Break,'' Sara sacrifices herself to help Michael and Lincoln escape to Panama; meanwhile, Sucre and Bellick team up to hunt T-Bag in Mexico
By Kate Sullivan
It must be lonely being Sara Tancredi. Who does she have to talk to? I suppose it helps to remember that Sara never really had friends, so maybe the kind of sadness she's set her self up for won't crush her as it would you or me. But now that she's taken yet another hit for the team, (''I'm already on board''), I can't help feeling miserable on her behalf.
Even if she escapes this, if the truth comes out and the greater good is achieved, she has no family, and she probably won't have Michael either. They might have two weeks of hugging and sobbing, and then they'll have nothing new to talk about. They'll each associate the other with the worst time in their lives, and who wants to wake up next to that every morning (even if it is oh so hot)?
And I worry that Sara's troubles aside, Michael is too damaged to have a relationship. He can have his giant tattoo removed (side note: how much do you think that would cost?), but can he remove the damage done to his heart and mind? He can find therapists with experience in handling former foster kids, ex-cons, and people who feel responsible for the death of innocents, but how is he ever going to resolve his feelings about being the target (maybe not the primary target, which is Linc) of a vast government-business conspiracy? I haven't found a psychological expert on that in the Yellow Pages.
The realistic outcome is that Sara and Michael will eventually - and painfully - part ways. I'm sure the writers will find some way around that though, and honestly, I'll be happy if they do. I'd also be happy if they wrote out Sucre soon.
No offense to Sucre. I enjoyed him as Michael's supportive sidekick, but I was really hoping his story arc was over. Why couldn't just one of them get away? Now cast in a buddy-cop movie with Bellick, Sucre seems to have had better police training than the recently deputized FBI agent. Not only was Sucre the one to catch up with T-Bag's taxi; he also suggested calling the cab company to find out where T-Bag went once they lost him, and he got an airport employee to track T-Bag. I definitely think Bellick was lying about holding Maricruz hostage. I hope Sucre gets her back in the next episode, because I can't handle him pining for her again.
And Linc can't handle Michael's guilt. Linc was trying to ease Michael's agony by saying that sometimes perfection isn't possible, a very wise older-brother thing to say. And Linc played the wise big brother again when he slammed the receiver down as Michael tried to call Sara. He also told Michael that he'd never asked for his help out of prison - sort of implying that the postbreak death count is more Michael's fault than his, which is true. But Linc's insistence that the brothers ''have all the time in the world'' and his implication that everything would work out fine were enraging. One does need to accept things as they are and move on, but what makes Linc think the future will be better than the past? Yes, Michael was able to get him out of prison, but just about everything since has not gone as planned. It was a little early for him to say there's nothing but smooth sailing ahead, even if he ended up on a boat by the episode's end.
And speaking of boats, what was up with the rowboat meeting between Kim and the suddenly not mute bald guy? Yeah, yeah, blind spot, recording device, whatever - it was just weird. But the mystery of the bald guy's speechlessness was solved: He fears being recorded. I was kind of hoping that he'd throw Kim overboard, but I guess if Kim is going to die, Mahone should be the one to kill him. He's going to be outed as a murderer soon anyway.
Because just as Mahone was making progress with Michael's whereabouts, C-Note was offered a clean record and a new life in exchange for his testimony against Mahone. After being on his own for a week, Mahone looked like he'd taken too many pills from his hollow pen. He was jumping around and throwing out insane theories about Michael's tattoos. Most of his crazy guesses were right though, save the one about Michael's mother maybe being alive. But hey, he's thinking outside the box.
He didn't have to think quite as hard to realize Wheeler was the person from his office who set C-Note free. He and Wheeler have been at odds ever since Mahone shot Abruzzi. It's so frustrating how Wheeler's view of Mahone is correct but not complete. Mahone has done so much evil, and he should be punished, and yet he remains a likable character who you want to see achieve some victory. He's smart, he's driven, he's a family man - these are things we love about others on the show. His telling Wheeler, ''Don't let anyone scare you into doing the wrong thing,'' was terrifying and moving. It's so hard to love and hate Mahone at the same time, and I hope to see him redeem himself soon. Unfortunately, I see a very Inspector Javert end in his future, if Linc doesn't kill him first.
source