Recap "The Old Ball and Chain"
A view of an ocean blue leading to a man on a pier staring out. Linc approaches, "You ready?" and Michael turns around. "I didn't think I'd be this nervous. Now or never."
A serious Lincoln and [lean again] Michael walk down the pier to meet another serious looking man being introduced by a now bearded and fuzzy headed Sucre. Ever the romantic, Sucre is the only one with what resembles a smile - other than Sara who is waiting on the beach for her soon to be husband.
The man officiating jinxes them all by stating, "It's my understanding you'd like to keep [the ceremony] simple... " and Sara taunts the fates with "We've never actually managed to keep anything simple, but you can try."
So an afternoon beachside cafe? bar & grill? is where the reception takes place, with a dancing in the sand Sara and Sucre as Michael and Linc tap their beer bottles in a non-verbal toast. Cue police sirens. The brothers, naturally, are upset and in the police/feds' faces, unaware that this show right now isn't about them but Sara. They all informed by a man with a wicked lisp that she is under arrest for the murder of "Christina Hampton."
[I just want to note that for the remainder of the episode Michael is wearing what appears to be the same army jacket that Julia Louis-Dreyfus wore in Seinfeld to disguise her pregnancy. It's very distracting.]
At the penthouse they were at during the end of last season, the gang [Michael, Lincoln, and Sucre] are talking to a man, Lou Phillips, I assume is working for the newest incarnation of The Company now employing future senator Paul Kellerman. He informs them that the arrest of Sara was to get back at them all, but not by the old Companies or their factions so much as by law enforcement in general who were not happy that they were all exonerated. As there was no proof to say that Christina was anything other than someone who worked as a law abiding technology consultant, there is nothing that the new company can do to help Sara right now and she is looking at 25 to life.
Sara is at the Miami-Dade Penitentiary Women's Facility due to overcrowded jails and budget cuts. Bunks are lined up inside the facility for those who are jailed while those who are imprisoned are in cells. She is approached by "Daddy", who asks if there is anything she needs, then who Sara hopes to be a well meaning guard who leads her to a "more secure and comfortable" area where she is then beaten by the guards to pay back for those guards who lost their pensions at Fox River.
After her return to the open floor jail Daddy greets her again and offers help. As good as Petty is, I think the actress who plays her "wife," Sufe Bradshaw, www.imdb.com/name/nm2395944/, steals their scenes.
On the men's side of the M-D Pen, the general has TBag as errand boy [two candy bars and a newpaper], and while TBag is bearing it for now, he clearly points out he knows the ropes of prison life and without money they won't be gaining any ground. The general sees an article about Sara's arrest [I was trying to see if there was a date on the paper and read what words they use for the article. It would've been more sensical had it been The Jabberwocky] and arranges for Sara's death using his lawyer as go between, offering a $100,000 reward. Gretchen gets the message.
Back at the women's side, Sara is in the cafeteria and approaches a large, quiet woman to ask if she could sit near her at the nearly empty table. Gretchen stops her with a warning, the last person to touch the inmate ended up with a busted kneecap, and an invitation to sit across from her.
Gretchen gives her insight to their fellow prisoners, Daddy's family members. Sara realizes she is having symptoms of strychnine poisoning and asks to go to the infirmary. With Daddy's help she is able to convince a guard to go. Sara was poisoned but they were able to help her in time and she and the baby are okay. Sara tells the doctor that he knows someone must have poisoned her by putting it in her food and he informs her she would need to talk to the warden about it.
He then asks her about her cut and bruised face. "I caught an elbow playing basketball." The doctor was less impressed than she was when she heard that line. He tells her about her situation as a pregnant mother in prison. Once she goes into labor, she will be taken to a nearby hospital along with three armed guards. After the baby is born, she will be able to see him/her for 30 minutes. He advises against seeing the baby as the depression that would set in afterward would be unbearable and she should consider herself as a surrogate.
Michael/Sara's lawyer, Phillips [from the earlier scene], that Sara was poisoned. Before Phillips can ask "do you have any idea who could've done this" Michael hangs up and goes to see the general, the only man depraved enough to kill an innocent woman and her child will bring peace. The general is "surprised" to see Michael and his reaction to hearing about the attempt on Sara's life ["Mercy!"] is priceless.
Michael asks for him to leave Sara alone, kill him if he wants to. The general points out that killing Michael would mean only a moment of suffering for him, but hurting Sara and his child would mean a lifetime of suffering for him and that is more meaningful for the killer.
Michael then goes to see the warden and asks for Sara to be moved to another facility. As warden's are stubborn and prideful, Sara isn't going anywhere and any suggestion to move her to a safer area such as the SHU only leads to questions about the structural integrity of the prison leaving Michael to think "You break out of prison ONE ti- okay TWICE and no one trusts you again." He tries to appeal to the warden again, reminding her that Sara is pregnant, but he warden doesn't care. As she moves across the room to get him a tissue to wipe his now bleeding nose, Michael follows her and, being Michael, looks out the window taking in the yard, fences, cameras, etc. Michael goes back to the penthouse with a plan he knows he would have to talk the others into. Linc is sure the lawyer can help Sara, but Michael doesn't think they have enough time with a bounty on her head from the general.
In Chicago, Felicia Lang is putting fangurls to shame in her testimony to reinstate Mahone. A less than impressed and increasingly pissed off Sullens not so subtly is feeling like chopped liver. Needless to say, only Lang is in favor of Mahone getting his job back. Sullens is willing to give Mahone a chance if he spys on the gang should they have plans to break her out. Having reliable information and possible incarceration of the brothers would be reason to get him back on the force.
Back in Miami, Michael is laying out his plan to get Sara out as Linc is asking what would happen next, would they be on the run again? Michael wants to just get Sara out first. Sucre comes in to inform them that they are being staked out. Michael tells Sucre he doesn't want to jeopardize his life any further and if he wants to go back to his family in Chicago, he will understand. Sucre lets him know that after all the crap they've been through, he isn't going to leave him there and apart from Sara.
Michael multitasks, giving the other two the lowdown on changes the prison has made over the years to prevent any breakouts while having a major migraine as a concerned Linc looks on. Sucre comes up with the goofiest of [desperate] plans and suggests they parachute in. Michael needs more information and gives Sucre a shopping list of things needed.
Sara, meanwhile, is lead by one of the guards to a secluded hallway where Daddy waits. "I don't know what you wamt, but I promise you I will go down fighting." Daddy lets her know she doesn't mean her any harm, but an opportunity to work with her and her crew in the motor pool.
Michael is being followed by the fed, Agent Wheatley, staking them out. They have a confrontation in a parking lot and after Wheatley asks where his little buddies are we see Linc and Sucre near their "broken down" vehicle outside the prison yard. Using dry ice in the radiator as cover, Sucre and Linc get measurements and photos of the area they plan to use for the escape. Michael checks in with Linc after the agent is gone and then checks in with the Miami-Dade Med-First Clinic.
At the motor pools, Daddy flirts with Sara only to get into an arguement with her wife, in a scene reminscent of season two scene stealing minor players. Daddy points out again the advantages of being part of a family in prison. As Sara goes to dump some oil in a can outside, she sees Linc at the fence as does Gretchen who questions Sara.
At the prisons, TBag is approached by another inmate who is willing to kill Sara for a reduced fee. TBag realizes that he's been lied to by the general about his lack of money and confronts him. Sara, meanwhile, after her meeting with Gretchen in the yard, decides to join in Daddy's family. She is branded and that is the mark on her shoulder you see in the finale.
When Linc and Sucre make it back to the penthouse, they are greeted by Mahone in the parking garage. Mahone informs them that the entire department is after them, not just the guy following them. Michael tells him it sounds like inside information and Mahone lets him know that the agency offered him his job back if he spies on them. He tells them if they go through with their plan, they better do it right and offers them his help.
Linc gives Michael the information they had gathered. Michael tells them that with the retrofits the prison did, they widened the fence line but didn't take into account that the cameras now have a blind spot. The plan is risky, but they go forward with it and Michael sends Sara the information on where to meet and when in a coded [is there any other kind with the Scofield/Burrows men?] letter that Sara folds into an origami flower to read.
The brothers and Mahone enter the penthouse to find Wheatley there, he has been looking over the photos and information they have laying out on a table and asks what they planned. Michael tells him that all that information is a peace offering to the warden, pointing out any lapses in security as a gesture of good faith, so he can see Sara, and that it looks airtight.
In the prison showers, Gretchen is flirting with a guard and offers to be good to momma so momma's good to her and gets Daddy's cell tossed and [planted?] drugs are found, sending Daddy to the hole.
Linc informs the others that Sophia is making arrangements for a boat to Central America after they break Sara out. Phillips calls to inform Michael that he can see Sara in a supervised visit.
It's the first time he sees her and he is upset by the beating she took. Sarah Wayne Callies is really good in this scene as Sara informs Michael she understood what he said in the letter. As Michael steps outside, he sees that the prison is making corrections to the camera placement after Wheatley has had experts look over the information he got from the brothers.
At the penthouse, the gang, now including Mahone, tries to come up with another plan. Michael goes back to Sucre's idea of parachuting in. Michael has a plan, but they will need a plan from "an old friend."
Linc is sent to see TBag, who is not entirely amused that they brothers would ask him for a favor, but as they did send him back to prison with a stick of chewing gum, 'What kind of man would I be if I didn't quid your pro quo?" Linc tells him they need him to set off the fire alarm at 7:30 the next evening. They will give him $5000. TBag lets Linc know he would do it for $100,000 the general has out there.
Mahone meets with Wheatley and we learn that he is the one who told the feds about the blindspot. Mahone says he did his job and Wheatley tells him his job isn't over until the brothers are behind bars for attempting Sara's escape.
In the prison yard, Gretchen tells Sara she knows about the escape plan and before Sara can deny it, she hands her the paper flower. She tells Sara she is coming with her and that she will protect her as she has no use for the general or his orders anymore she only wants to see her daughter.
A serious Lincoln and [lean again] Michael walk down the pier to meet another serious looking man being introduced by a now bearded and fuzzy headed Sucre. Ever the romantic, Sucre is the only one with what resembles a smile - other than Sara who is waiting on the beach for her soon to be husband.
The man officiating jinxes them all by stating, "It's my understanding you'd like to keep [the ceremony] simple... " and Sara taunts the fates with "We've never actually managed to keep anything simple, but you can try."
So an afternoon beachside cafe? bar & grill? is where the reception takes place, with a dancing in the sand Sara and Sucre as Michael and Linc tap their beer bottles in a non-verbal toast. Cue police sirens. The brothers, naturally, are upset and in the police/feds' faces, unaware that this show right now isn't about them but Sara. They all informed by a man with a wicked lisp that she is under arrest for the murder of "Christina Hampton."
[I just want to note that for the remainder of the episode Michael is wearing what appears to be the same army jacket that Julia Louis-Dreyfus wore in Seinfeld to disguise her pregnancy. It's very distracting.]
At the penthouse they were at during the end of last season, the gang [Michael, Lincoln, and Sucre] are talking to a man, Lou Phillips, I assume is working for the newest incarnation of The Company now employing future senator Paul Kellerman. He informs them that the arrest of Sara was to get back at them all, but not by the old Companies or their factions so much as by law enforcement in general who were not happy that they were all exonerated. As there was no proof to say that Christina was anything other than someone who worked as a law abiding technology consultant, there is nothing that the new company can do to help Sara right now and she is looking at 25 to life.
Sara is at the Miami-Dade Penitentiary Women's Facility due to overcrowded jails and budget cuts. Bunks are lined up inside the facility for those who are jailed while those who are imprisoned are in cells. She is approached by "Daddy", who asks if there is anything she needs, then who Sara hopes to be a well meaning guard who leads her to a "more secure and comfortable" area where she is then beaten by the guards to pay back for those guards who lost their pensions at Fox River.
After her return to the open floor jail Daddy greets her again and offers help. As good as Petty is, I think the actress who plays her "wife," Sufe Bradshaw, www.imdb.com/name/nm2395944/, steals their scenes.
On the men's side of the M-D Pen, the general has TBag as errand boy [two candy bars and a newpaper], and while TBag is bearing it for now, he clearly points out he knows the ropes of prison life and without money they won't be gaining any ground. The general sees an article about Sara's arrest [I was trying to see if there was a date on the paper and read what words they use for the article. It would've been more sensical had it been The Jabberwocky] and arranges for Sara's death using his lawyer as go between, offering a $100,000 reward. Gretchen gets the message.
Back at the women's side, Sara is in the cafeteria and approaches a large, quiet woman to ask if she could sit near her at the nearly empty table. Gretchen stops her with a warning, the last person to touch the inmate ended up with a busted kneecap, and an invitation to sit across from her.
Gretchen gives her insight to their fellow prisoners, Daddy's family members. Sara realizes she is having symptoms of strychnine poisoning and asks to go to the infirmary. With Daddy's help she is able to convince a guard to go. Sara was poisoned but they were able to help her in time and she and the baby are okay. Sara tells the doctor that he knows someone must have poisoned her by putting it in her food and he informs her she would need to talk to the warden about it.
He then asks her about her cut and bruised face. "I caught an elbow playing basketball." The doctor was less impressed than she was when she heard that line. He tells her about her situation as a pregnant mother in prison. Once she goes into labor, she will be taken to a nearby hospital along with three armed guards. After the baby is born, she will be able to see him/her for 30 minutes. He advises against seeing the baby as the depression that would set in afterward would be unbearable and she should consider herself as a surrogate.
Michael/Sara's lawyer, Phillips [from the earlier scene], that Sara was poisoned. Before Phillips can ask "do you have any idea who could've done this" Michael hangs up and goes to see the general, the only man depraved enough to kill an innocent woman and her child will bring peace. The general is "surprised" to see Michael and his reaction to hearing about the attempt on Sara's life ["Mercy!"] is priceless.
Michael asks for him to leave Sara alone, kill him if he wants to. The general points out that killing Michael would mean only a moment of suffering for him, but hurting Sara and his child would mean a lifetime of suffering for him and that is more meaningful for the killer.
Michael then goes to see the warden and asks for Sara to be moved to another facility. As warden's are stubborn and prideful, Sara isn't going anywhere and any suggestion to move her to a safer area such as the SHU only leads to questions about the structural integrity of the prison leaving Michael to think "You break out of prison ONE ti- okay TWICE and no one trusts you again." He tries to appeal to the warden again, reminding her that Sara is pregnant, but he warden doesn't care. As she moves across the room to get him a tissue to wipe his now bleeding nose, Michael follows her and, being Michael, looks out the window taking in the yard, fences, cameras, etc. Michael goes back to the penthouse with a plan he knows he would have to talk the others into. Linc is sure the lawyer can help Sara, but Michael doesn't think they have enough time with a bounty on her head from the general.
In Chicago, Felicia Lang is putting fangurls to shame in her testimony to reinstate Mahone. A less than impressed and increasingly pissed off Sullens not so subtly is feeling like chopped liver. Needless to say, only Lang is in favor of Mahone getting his job back. Sullens is willing to give Mahone a chance if he spys on the gang should they have plans to break her out. Having reliable information and possible incarceration of the brothers would be reason to get him back on the force.
Back in Miami, Michael is laying out his plan to get Sara out as Linc is asking what would happen next, would they be on the run again? Michael wants to just get Sara out first. Sucre comes in to inform them that they are being staked out. Michael tells Sucre he doesn't want to jeopardize his life any further and if he wants to go back to his family in Chicago, he will understand. Sucre lets him know that after all the crap they've been through, he isn't going to leave him there and apart from Sara.
Michael multitasks, giving the other two the lowdown on changes the prison has made over the years to prevent any breakouts while having a major migraine as a concerned Linc looks on. Sucre comes up with the goofiest of [desperate] plans and suggests they parachute in. Michael needs more information and gives Sucre a shopping list of things needed.
Sara, meanwhile, is lead by one of the guards to a secluded hallway where Daddy waits. "I don't know what you wamt, but I promise you I will go down fighting." Daddy lets her know she doesn't mean her any harm, but an opportunity to work with her and her crew in the motor pool.
Michael is being followed by the fed, Agent Wheatley, staking them out. They have a confrontation in a parking lot and after Wheatley asks where his little buddies are we see Linc and Sucre near their "broken down" vehicle outside the prison yard. Using dry ice in the radiator as cover, Sucre and Linc get measurements and photos of the area they plan to use for the escape. Michael checks in with Linc after the agent is gone and then checks in with the Miami-Dade Med-First Clinic.
At the motor pools, Daddy flirts with Sara only to get into an arguement with her wife, in a scene reminscent of season two scene stealing minor players. Daddy points out again the advantages of being part of a family in prison. As Sara goes to dump some oil in a can outside, she sees Linc at the fence as does Gretchen who questions Sara.
At the prisons, TBag is approached by another inmate who is willing to kill Sara for a reduced fee. TBag realizes that he's been lied to by the general about his lack of money and confronts him. Sara, meanwhile, after her meeting with Gretchen in the yard, decides to join in Daddy's family. She is branded and that is the mark on her shoulder you see in the finale.
When Linc and Sucre make it back to the penthouse, they are greeted by Mahone in the parking garage. Mahone informs them that the entire department is after them, not just the guy following them. Michael tells him it sounds like inside information and Mahone lets him know that the agency offered him his job back if he spies on them. He tells them if they go through with their plan, they better do it right and offers them his help.
Linc gives Michael the information they had gathered. Michael tells them that with the retrofits the prison did, they widened the fence line but didn't take into account that the cameras now have a blind spot. The plan is risky, but they go forward with it and Michael sends Sara the information on where to meet and when in a coded [is there any other kind with the Scofield/Burrows men?] letter that Sara folds into an origami flower to read.
The brothers and Mahone enter the penthouse to find Wheatley there, he has been looking over the photos and information they have laying out on a table and asks what they planned. Michael tells him that all that information is a peace offering to the warden, pointing out any lapses in security as a gesture of good faith, so he can see Sara, and that it looks airtight.
In the prison showers, Gretchen is flirting with a guard and offers to be good to momma so momma's good to her and gets Daddy's cell tossed and [planted?] drugs are found, sending Daddy to the hole.
Linc informs the others that Sophia is making arrangements for a boat to Central America after they break Sara out. Phillips calls to inform Michael that he can see Sara in a supervised visit.
It's the first time he sees her and he is upset by the beating she took. Sarah Wayne Callies is really good in this scene as Sara informs Michael she understood what he said in the letter. As Michael steps outside, he sees that the prison is making corrections to the camera placement after Wheatley has had experts look over the information he got from the brothers.
At the penthouse, the gang, now including Mahone, tries to come up with another plan. Michael goes back to Sucre's idea of parachuting in. Michael has a plan, but they will need a plan from "an old friend."
Linc is sent to see TBag, who is not entirely amused that they brothers would ask him for a favor, but as they did send him back to prison with a stick of chewing gum, 'What kind of man would I be if I didn't quid your pro quo?" Linc tells him they need him to set off the fire alarm at 7:30 the next evening. They will give him $5000. TBag lets Linc know he would do it for $100,000 the general has out there.
Mahone meets with Wheatley and we learn that he is the one who told the feds about the blindspot. Mahone says he did his job and Wheatley tells him his job isn't over until the brothers are behind bars for attempting Sara's escape.
In the prison yard, Gretchen tells Sara she knows about the escape plan and before Sara can deny it, she hands her the paper flower. She tells Sara she is coming with her and that she will protect her as she has no use for the general or his orders anymore she only wants to see her daughter.