Prison Break Season 5: Raw Breakdown 4

5.04. “The Prisoner’s Dilemma”

• Frankly, I couldn’t find what the dilemma was. But…

• This episode is when true blood starts to spill for real. Five notable supporting characters are killed off. Television Without Pity used to title each episode review of “Prison Break” in Season 2 with a “[Character name] – dead!” teaser. Now, here we have the bad officer Mustafa, the good officer Zakat, the government servant Paul Kellerman (or is he really dead?), the prison revolt’s chief for a day, Cross, and the head of the terrorists Abu Ramal himself – dead! In a standard 22-installment season an episode like this would stand for a mid-season finale. All of them are eliminated to make way for a new chapter of the journey. Now that Michael, his mates and Lincoln have finally escaped from their Season1-like confinement, they’re off to travel, Season2-style, across the open expanse of Yemen to fulfill the second part of their mission – to leave the country. Being chased by Ramal’s revenge seekers, no doubt. In other words, fasten your seatbelts.

• This episode manages to be both funny and brutal. People around Michael and his team die or nearly die, or get hurt, or kill each other. They risk losing their lives every second. Never know if they will pull through. Yet they keep on running and even joking in the process. Guess it’s their way of coping with the hell surrounding them and not going crazy.

• Just a few examples of such edgy, dark humour: “I need to get in” – I need to get out” between Lincoln and Zakat, the exchange between Mr. Tic Tac Lincoln and that boy with a scarf, T-Bag calling 911, Ramal throwing pebbles at his infidel companions in misfortune, Whip mimicking knife to a throat.

• Speaking of that boy with a scarf – if we keep on finding Greek literature parallels, isn’t that curly-haired “urchin” supposed to be something of an angel, a modern-day Cupid bringing good news or unsolicited help from Heavens?

• That Mustafa was coldly shot by the rebels is understandable on a story level, and probably gives the viewers a sense of gratification – like he deserved it for being indifferent and cruel to inmates, for leaving his fellow officers behind. But Zakat’s death at the hands of Cross I do feel sorry for. That is a man who retained his professional and personal integrity till the end. He went against this emotionally charged crowd of prisoners to protect Sid (again), and lost his life for that (he could’ve just stayed in that vault with weapons). The Army honour was in him, not in a guy like Cross.

• Speaking of Cross, to have a guy use Christian symbols and rhetoric to deceive and murder others is ironic. Shows how easily religion – any religion – can be turned into a manipulative tool. I’d bet one of the major reasons Cross was so eager to oppose the terrorists rather than flee from them was that Christian tattoo on his chest – not a good thing to show to Oriental religious fanatics.

• In Cross, Michael could’ve found a powerful, cunning ally but the man chose to keep himself to himself. For the better. Two leaders in one team wouldn’t make it.

• Now I get it why Whip is Whip. He’s hyperactive and very quick. Witness the scene where he steals Ramal’s knife and stabs him with it. In a way, Whip is like Mick Rory (“a loveable rogue”, as the actor put it in the pre-Season 5 documentary), minus the heat gun and the muscles. Same unpredictability, short temper, restlessness and dedication to his “partner in crime”.       

• It was gracious of Sheba’s father to thank Lincoln for having saved his daughter from the trouble the reckless American has gotten her into in the first place. Though he did supply them with the money to get the plane trickets. Favour for a favour.

• That federal judge, a fan of luxury vehicles, was mercenary and unscrupulous. But who knows, maybe that paper granting Michael parole signed by him will serve them well someday, for example, while crossing the border.  

• Lincoln’s devotion to Michael has never been as clear as here, when he decides to stay in a country swept by the chaos and war, about to be cut from the rest of the world, to head straight into the prison full of rioting inmates to find his brother.

• Of course, the news of Sara’s husband Jacob having ties to agents Van Gogh and A&W was a big revelation, though a surprising number of fans have intuited he was the “villain” the second they saw him. Now it’s clear who sent all these paper cranes into the sewer. Now that you think about it… yes, why would a man marry a woman, with a child, with a dark past, who doesn’t even love him with all her heart because she still can’t get over her short-lived relationship with her previous storm-like boyfriend? Out of his good heart only?

• It’s still not clear who Poseidon is and what role he played in Michael’s misfortunes but at least we know now he’s a very undercover, very rogue, very anonymous, hard-to-find former CIA agent with big plans of domination of his own.  

• Michael is normally cool, quiet and calm, but this episode was a real screamfest for him. And I loved it. It shows he’s experiencing “normal” human emotions too. And screaming at whom –a powerful anarchist leader who has threatened to kill him. He’s being desperate, Michael, and is brave, always. That extended scene when Michael is reasoning with Ramal through their cells windows was equally hilarious and creepy to watch.  

• It’s only in this episode that we fully appreciate the full scale of Ramal (played by Numan Acar)’s evilness. He is a “baroque” character, indeed, a typical eccentric, even comedic movie villain, though surely menacing.

• It’s not that Michael’s word, as opposed to that of Cross, is to be fully trusted – but we know by now that despite himself, reluctantly he is frequently forced by circumstances to keep it. Though he didn’t intend to get Ramal out of Ogygia, he eventually did.

• Watching the original seasons of “Prison Break”, some people complained that Wentworth Miller’s (as well as Dominic Purcell’s) acting lacked emotion or wasn’t varied enough. Sometimes I could see what they meant, though it never interfered with my enjoyment of the show. Reticence was Michael’s modus operandi, after all. He was constantly thinking, constantly on the alert. That didn’t allow for a lot of drama. But in Season 5 he is (they are) anything but emotionless. The range of feelings he is (they are) showing is disproving that earlier hypothesis completely.   

• Frankly, I don’t mind if every episode ends with a scene of Michael crying. No matter how much Whip rolls his eyes at such unmanly, touchy-feely behaviour.

Prison Break Season 5: Raw Breakdown 3

5.3. The Liar

• Who’s a liar? Michael seems to be the one, but, in fact, everyone is. Everyone here is a liar, bigger or smaller, everyone is playing their games.

• Unlike # 1 and 2, it was a very informative episode. Very fast, action-packed, a bit like “Riots, Drills and the Devil” from Season 1.

• Kaniel Outis’ “Wanted” poster says he’s “mixed race”, while Michael Scofield is definitely Caucasian. It’s probably easier to fit into a multicultural place like Ogygia if you claim multiracial background. It’s also a nice example of real life showing up in the script, as Wentworth Miller is of mixed race for real.  

• Finally, we have one puzzle encoded in his tattoo solved – it was a sura extract shaped as Sana’a map with an indication of his workshop/headquarters. The text of the sura is a poignant hint – he did spend several years in prison, “forgotten” among the living.

• He made the most of that gum – tinfoil wrapper served as a part of the “prison lighter”, and the gum itself as a payment for postal delivery.

• Though that scene with the “Bubble Gum Man” and the “Tic Tac Man” was light-hearted and perhaps the first genuinely (not darkly) humorous fragment in the three episodes we’ve seen so far, it was also bittersweet. These boys picking something from the ground next to Ogygia prison were more than ready to receive bubble gum and Tic Tacs for their work. Though their clothes did not look shabby, I can’t imagine American or European kids doing such risky favours for such a small fee as these kids in the country swept by the civil war were.

• “Bubble Gum Man” and “Tic Tac Man” could be names of superheroes. Okay, in a Disney cartoon. They’ve been Captain Cold and Heatwave, what’s to stop them after that? In fact, Michael is more of a Tic(k) Tac(k) Man, with his habit of measuring every planned action with a watch.

• Looks like Michael and Whip have had some history together. Had each other’s backs, joined forces a few years ago, still in the USA (Michael “pulled [Whip] out” of a prison in the Ozarks and “recruited” him), have spent these years in different countries (Columbia, Egypt) under fake aliases (that’s why Whip is Whip, no name) under the aegis of the CIA, doing what Michael has learnt to do so well during his stints in Fox River and Sona – breaking out political prisoners. The government, as he says, then sent them to Ogygia to free Abu Ramal to assist its “foreign policy” (the harshest critique of the American government here). Michael invented the persona of Kaniel Outis, a cunning terrorist ally, to get into super security Ogygia (just like he faked a bank robber persona to get into Fox River). Then the mysterious Poseidon “betrayed” them, and they were left in Ogygia by themselves and spent, I guess, FOUR years in that Yemen prison, and in solitary cells as well.

• Why would Michael agree to that Ogygia gig, knowing that was morally wrong? Had to? Was forced to? I don’t think he was thinking about money only.

• There are some theories explored in fan discussions about who “Poseidon” may be. Some people firmly believe it’s Sara’s husband Jacob Ness. I spy many of them think so because they’d rather have him out of the picture, ‘cause, you know, Sara is Michael’s and Michael is Sara’s. As I don’t watch “Prison Break” primarily for its love story in, I find this version hard to believe. Then again, it’s also true that in detective stories the most unlikely suspects turns out to be villains. We’ve got to wait and see. Poseidon? I personally believe the more obvious version that Poseidon might be Mr. Paul Kellerman or one of his allies/bosses, if only because it explains why Sara is still left to live – he’s had feeling for her in the past, after all.

• Anyway, a question of who severed the ties between Michael and Whip and Poseidon and why still remains to be answered? If that Poseidon is so clever and likes to play a game of “chess” with people, how did he lose touch with Kaniel Outis and Whip (not necessarily “betraying” them)? Or perhaps it’s them who have lost touch with him on purpose? In any event, now he is monitoring and tailing Sara to find a way back to Michael and decode his plans. Not that he and his agents have been terribly successful at that so far – the messages on that paper cranes (that were likely thrown into the sewer by the likes of Van Gogh and A&W) couldn’t be deciphered yet.

• I like these mythology and art history names – Poseidon (is there a Zeus somewhere?), Van Gogh, Cyclops. But I don’t like the characters, for sure, as they are meant to be. Van Gogh and A&W specifically look physically unpleasant – the man has got a mangled ear, the woman, though elegant, sports warts on her face. Cyclops is yet another physically compromised character.

• Greek themes are specific not only to this season – Christina Rose, Michael’s mother, was a figure that seemed to have stepped out of Greek myths too. Such evil, fatal mothers, so hateful of their children, Medea-level crazy I have never seen in any other show before.

• Good to know that even though Michael admits he’s “not much of a brother” anymore, he still thinks of Lincoln as “the only person in the world that [he] trust[s] as much as [he] trust[s] [Whip]”.

• My only complaint is that they are so separated – they’ve only seen each other for a minute and we will have to wait for some more before they finally hug.

• That scene where Michael is the last to come to Sid’s (euphemistically proclaimed a “deviant” by Ramal) rescue and save him from being hung, left both Ramal and Sid suspicious, I believe, because it felt like Michael was compromising his loyalty to both. Later, during their escape attempt, he is indeed forced to leave Sid behind – just what he had promised him he wouldn’t do to him – but, whether he was really leaving him behind seeing no other way out or if he was leaving him behind because he knew their escape would likely fail – it turned out to be to Sid’s advantage. At least he was not caught on that roof, so, technically, he can’t be accused of breaking out.   

• The staring contest between Michael and Ramal in that scene is intense. Here’s one character who could rival Michael’s eyes language skills.

• Even though he does go against his words later in the episode when he orders his colleagues to “shoot to kill”, if they have to, looks like there is at least one honest officer in that prison, i.e. the wonderfully named Zakat (whose name, accidentally or not, means “Sunset” in Russian), following “the law of the land” rather than that of the cruel and capricious God that the rebels live by.

• Anyway, Michael’s “huge heart” (Wentworth Miller’s definition) is going to interfere with his plans, that’s guaranteed. He’s trying to make up for it, strategically, when he throws a punch at Whip after he had “touched” him, to make Ramal and his men believe that he’s against “deviants”.

• That is surely a double-entendre situation. Put it this way: when a straight character (played by an openly gay actor) stands up against religion-based homophobic bashing depicted in his show, it’s a very powerful statement, in and out of fictional context.

• I respect it that unlike the other portrayals of LGBTQ characters on American television shows that I’ve seen (not many), “Prison Break” does not attempt to use the I’m okay-you’re okay, unproblematic approach towards these characters and their portrayals. Though it might have been disturbing to watch, in previous seasons (especially Season 1, where T-Bag’s “pocket boy” hang himself), “Prison Break” touched upon the less comfortable, even controversial aspects of queer characters and their situations. They writers keep on doing it here, to their credit.

• Speaking of Wentworth Miller, openly out, playing a straight character – before Season 5 went on air, I thought if it would be difficult to reconcile the now more colourful image of the actor with his predominantly straight character’s persona. It turned out to be surprisingly easy. Michael of Season 1-4 I would never call a very masculine man, and Michael of Season 5 is not, either. He’s still got a full range of sensitivities in his manner of looking/walking/talking/gesticulating, but this new Michael really feels more like a man, less like a boy, more self-assured, more hardened. I guess, the actor’s personality is seeping through his character (him consciously trying to be a man, not a “man-boy”, in his own words, these days, in particular). And he uses these colours for this specific role. Michael might be as ruthlessly calculating as Captain Cold, but he’s nowhere near as camp as Leonard Snart. Acting choices are different.

• Through his skillful half-truths Michael has indeed planned himself into a corner, maneuvered himself into a position where nobody, either his “team” or the rebels’ boss, trust him fully. Whip’s doubts are easy to understand.

• In that failed escape, there must have been time or human factors that fell through. On his part, Michael has taken care of everything – secured the lockdown of the cells, planted the officer’s gold watch into Ramal’s jacket to ensure his being caught and locked. But who knew that precisely when the lights went out, these criminals would be out of their cells, that these wild card cross-wearing brothers (bad boy counterparts to Mike and Linc?) would kill the guard to get the keys, open Michael’s cell and attempt to follow him, creating a commotion? Who knew there would be extra guards on the roof, robbing them of the little time they had to run for their freedom?

• All in all, the second escape attempt ended up disastrously for almost everyone. Michael has lost his credibility with Ramal, who’s now threatening to kill him. The Cross Guy’s brother was killed, thus leaving him, a murderer, with a huge drive for revenge, I believe. A few of Michael’s cellmates were caught escaping with him. His own brother and the woman who helped them arrange the escape on the outside, faced a life-threatening situation, procuring passports for them. No wonder Michael is breaking down at the end.

• We haven’t seen Michael cry in close-up, like, ever. He a stoic character. It was a marvellous, emotionally cruel scene.  

• Multiple identities is one of the central themes of this season and probably the series as a whole. Michael is a prime example, but nearly every other character has a mysterious past that they hide or a fake identity with a code name or a double agenda. I don’t think Michael has forgotten who he is, but four years in the solitary confinement can drive anyone crazy. Even though just two episodes ago he denied being Michael, that scene clearly showed he wanted to be remembered as Michael.  

• He has also very clearly confirmed Sara had everything to do with his “lies”. And even though that last scene was heart-wrenching, and Michael was 100% honest, there might have been a tiniest hint of calculation in it. He filmed it right next to the window in the door so that everyone could potentially see and hear him, the scary Abu Ramal including. This way he could give them all an impression that he was shattered and giving up. And why was he staring so intensely at the palm of his hand, flexing and unflexing his fingers? Reading a new plan between the lines? Here’s hoping.

• Random bullet points to wrap this up:

• Michael and Whip are dressed in distinctively light-coloured clothes. Like, good guys.

• I guess T-Bag has indeed changed for the better, but he is also effectively bound by a moral obligation to the “Nobody”, so, out of his good heart or pragmatic interest, he offers his help to Sara. It’s Michael’s game theory at work.

• Humour: Lincoln to Sheba: “You’re accusing me of having a heart”. Yeah, the man’s toughness is just a mask to deal with temperamental ladies. He has already proven that, even if he is manipulating her, he will stand by Sheba’s side.

• “You’re my Whip hand” – yeah, exactly what does that mean? Judging by what Michael did to Whip (pulling him out of a prison), the talkative chap may not be such a simple guy as he seems.

• It’s interesting that without the passport Lincoln is also an “Outis”, “nobody”. Brothers even at that.   

• Blood scabbed on Michael’s face looks like Arabic calligraphy. Surely, it’s a code too!? I like the look on his face here. (image PrtSc-ed from 123movies, or is it gotomovies now?).