rosemary green: May 2017

5.08. “Progeny”

THE MIND BOGGLES. That’s my tagline for this episode. Not that it was devoid of minor plot holes, but Michael Horowitz, its author, expertly wove all the story threads together, honouring each and every character by finding proper places in the tapestry for them all, tying up many loose ends and leaving a few unfinished corners for the final outing. “Progeny”, as usual, saw a lot of rapid and dynamic plot developments, a lot of physical and narrative distance was covered. With its extended flashback, it functioned like Season 1’s “Brother’s Keeper”.

There has been a shift in COLOUR CODE again. I love it how Michael’s attire has been gradually turning from beige to blue during Season 5. In the first episodes, he was dressed in clothes the tones of ochre. Then that faded blue windbreaker, worn around his waist and head, appeared. In the zoo flashback he was donning a dark blue, almost black hoodie. In 5.07. “Wine Dark Sea” he had beige trousers and a blue shirt on. In “Progeny” he’s finally wearing dark blue jeans and shirt and a white undershirt, like it was Fox River again.

This shift is supported by the book too. When Odysseus shows up before his son, Athena turns him from a wrinkled old man in rags back into a cleanly dressed, taller, younger-looking man. Michael in “Progeny” goes through the same transformation – changing into fresh blue clothes, cleaning stubble, dirt and tiredness off his face, acting differently. This change of colours and clothes does not only illustrate his return to his home turf and culture but also shows him reclaiming his usual self. There has been a shift in his attitude – Michael in the USA is different from Michael in Yemen – cool-headed, calculating, less lost, more self-assured. I don’t know how the actor and the crew achieved this subtle modification, but in that flashback sequence, the scenes where he’s executing his plan and meets his son, he does look younger and more radiant. That’s magic. Or clean shave. Just look at that:

Is he twenty all over again or what?

So far their TRIP looks as follows – Sana’a, Yemen – Phaeacia, Yemen – Finikas on Crete, Greece – Marseilles, France – Lyon, France –Ithaca, New York State, the USA – Syracuse, New York State, the USA – Long Lake, Finger Lake District, the USA.

JACOB/POSEIDON. What a villain. Jacob is like the worst versions of Mahone and T-Bag put together. Ruthless and perverted to the point of psychopathy and very clever. Even though Jacob thinks he can outsmart Michael (“I’ll always be a step ahead of you. I can see everything in your eyes”), he and Michael are on an equal footing when it comes to reading and predicting each other’s intentions. There are little personal details that they don’t know about one another. Like that agreement between Sara and Michael about not calling their son “Junior”, that Jacob was unaware of. I hope there’s some personal trivia that Sara knows about and could share with Michael so that he could use it against Jacob.

Jacob obviously thinks of Michael and people in general as things to be owned or discarded. Tools to “make omelets” with. “Pieces” in a chess game. He is also prone to projecting his own qualities onto others. When he says about Michael, “He thinks I stole his life, ruined him, which speaks to his dissociative mind”, Jacob is really talking about himself. When in one of the opening episodes he was describing Michael as a person engaged in a manipulative game with people, he was talking about himself.

Jacob makes a good point when he states that Michael was trying to beat the system, just like him, when he “busted out” Lincoln, bypassing the rules. True, Michael’s motto was similar to Jacob’s – “Be the change you want to see in the world”. But there’s a fundamental difference. However smart he is, Michael is driven by his self-effacing heart. Jacob is led by his merciless, power-hungry mind.

THE FLASHBACK. Michael said to Sara that he had started planning his escape four years prior to the current events – but the full flashback we’ve seen shows he had set about freeing himself from Jacob’s tentacles almost from day one. He has been gently breaking Poseidon’s rules from the start, testing their limits. Going to the zoo 18 times a month to think over his new assignment and see Sara and their baby son. Getting the basics of his Arabic tattoos on his wrists and justifying it to Jacob by saying “empty skin” looked boring to him. Securing a strategically useful partner (David Martin, i.e. Whip). Sending paper cranes to Sara. Working his own deep cover job. Jacob doesn’t have to be ironic – Michael IS a thinker. That grey owl was a symbol of that too.

What is ironic is that Professor Ness, without knowing, has probably given Michael a few ideas about his own escape. Once inside Jacob’s university office, Michael was definitely scanning the surroundings, remembering helpful details. “The key to real power is to disappear… to never betray your intentions. To wear nothing on your sleeve. And to never let anyone see your face”. Michael has taken this sage advice too. Wore nothing but tattoos on his sleeves. Erased his identity, face and name. And while these actions were meant to help facilitate Jacob’s plans, they were also secretly designed to helped Michael achieve his aims. “It’s what behind the eyes that counts”, wink-wink.

When Michael's got that look on his face, you know there's something on his mind.

BROTHERS. Lincoln makes a good point – so far the season has been revolving around Michael exclusively – but the elder brother has also had some life to live in those seven years. Though fans may criticise Mr Burrows for making poor life choices and not matching his brother in smarts, when it comes to tactics, he often comes up with very reliable, practical solutions. And at the end of the road, the rescue team inevitably boils down to just the two of them. Lincoln is Michael’s “biggest piece”, in every way.

WHIP AND T-BAG. Whip was indeed Michael’s leverage to overcome Poseidon. In a more complex way than I had imagined but that’s “Prision Break” for ya. Nothing is very simple. I didn’t see that revelation about Whip coming. Not until I read that some fans were discussing the possibility of him being T-Bag’s son. Then I realized the two men do have something in common – namely, the nasal voices and the manner of speech.

Looks like Michael had figured out his former arch-enemy’s fundamental human need. T-Bag’s failed attempt at civilian life with Susan and her kids showed he was looking for normalcy, a family, some people to connect with. Now that he’s found his son, both he and Whip could mutually benefit from their bond. T-Bag was the only of Michael’s escape partners who was left frustrated at the end. By giving him back two favours – his son and his hand, Michael is making it up for the damage he’s caused him. I don’t know how Michael was “watching” Whip, but I’m sure he’s always intended to use T-Bag’s son in his own escape. Now that Mr Bagwell seems to have become a better man, it will be hard for him not to return these favours. Or perhaps I’m being too idealistic, and Michael simply warned him in that letter that he would hurt Whip if T-Bag refused to “take a life”. Michael might not mind killing Jacob with his own hands, but he’s trying to avoid direct murders at all costs, and T-Bag is the only associate whom Jacob still doesn’t know personally. As Kellerman prophesised, that former criminal may end up being a patriot serving his country if he ends Poseidon’s existence.

Fate does have a sense of humour. T-Bag used to be Michael’s foe, but Whip is his faithful ally. In the original “Prison Break” T-Bag voiced his lust for “Pretty” more than once. Whip doesn’t go that far but his bromantic attitude towards Michael is absolutely possessive and, as some fans noted, verging on jealousy.

Now it’s clear why Whip is a “kid”, from Linc’s perspective. The guy was born on 3^rd May, 1992, so he’s just turned 25. Lincoln's own son LJ is only a couple of years younger.

To give Augustus Prew his due, in that equally bitter and hilarious reunion scene with T-Bag, he really made Whip look like a cheeky teen. The first thing they did was attempting to strangle each other. Whip unleashed his crazier self (the “mean streak”), inherited from his Daddy. It was also one of the few times when I did see the goodness in Mr Teddy.

Whip says he doesn’t “exactly cotton to strange men coming up to me in the middle of the night”. But he cottoned to the mysterious Michael just fine. Michael himself grew up almost “without a family”, a semi-orphan, with Lincoln as a father figure. It takes one to know one.

GRATUITIOUS “ODYSSEY” PARALLELS: Odysseus sailed to Phaeacia on a raft (not inflatable). Syracuse is a Greek name. It makes sense that the “end game” takes place on an island – the Greek Ithaca was an island. Greek temples models and a vase in characteristically ancient Greek black and ochre tones on the table in Jacob’s house. Odysseus relies on plans, but these plans are prompted to him by different gods, goddesses and semi-deities (Athena mostly). Michael, being a science graduate, doesn’t believe in gods, I’m sure, but there is an element of irrationality embedded into his planning – he trusts his “instincts” and intuition, these modern equivalents of gods. And as unpredictability, spontaneity, “a few leaps of faith” are essential features of contemporary science, Michael remains totally scientific in his approach.

BIRD SYMBOLISM – the owl, gulls, ducks in that lake and a green pillow with a silhouette of a white raven, sitting on a branch, imprinted on it, in the house by the lake. Poe references? Deathly events approaching?

COOL CINEMATOGRAPHY – the combined shot of the car driving along the road that looks like the hydra’s neck.

Finding roles for everyone demanded a hell of an ORGANIZATIONAL ACUMEN from Michael, and he coped with the task. Sucre was to mislead the agents bringing that phone onto a different plane. C-Note was to recruit people to masquerade in a dashing gambit of DEA officers showing up on scene. T-Bag was to receive a letter and come to an immaculately timed reunion with Whip.

MIKE AND MICHAEL. I was wrong about the last episode – it featured three cliffhangers, not two. The third one was Heather and Mike returning home only to be captured by Van Gogh. But we don’t get to see how it went, how Mike was brought back to Jacob, whether he began to realize something was wrong, if it affected him at all. The way Christian Michael Cooper plays Mike in this episode you can’t tell if he’s baffled at all. Either he is blissfully unaware of the danger till the very end or he’s taking after his father and is very good at concealing his true emotions and thoughts.

The scene where Michael meets Mike was yet another brilliant performance, by both actors. I wasn’t looking forward to it. I don’t dig soppy romance and cheesy family reunions. But I was moved and touched anyway. The moment Michael walked into that door, he’s transformed into a caring, gentle father, shining love in his eyes. Mike, startled and awed, guessed who the mysterious man was and trusted him immediately. That father-son dynamic was played as beautifully as it could possibly be.

When Michael held Mike in his arms, it reminded me of those World War II Soviet posters of women with children asking silently for protection from soldiers. I think this image of Michal embracing Mike was one of the early promotional photos for Season 5, but it’s only now that we know what an eerie scene it’s taken from.

Of course, Jacob used Michael’s parental vanity to fool him. To give Michael his credit, he acknowledged he might be a bit crazy believing this drawing was a map. He was driven by a fervor – the thrill of meeting his son for the first time in his life and the fear of losing him and Sara. That’s a big difference between him and Jacob – Jacob wouldn’t let his heart and emotions get in the way of his mind.

The final blood shot wasn’t very CLIFFHANGER-y. It had a strong shock value but it’s hard to believe it was Michael’s blood. He wasn’t standing in front of that door. Most likely, it was a shot through A&W’s head. Question is, by whom? Was it Jacob, disappointed by her mistakes? Was it Van Gogh, fed up with Poseidon’s machinations? Agent Van Gogh seemed to have doubts about Jacob’s purity from the start – at least, since Kellerman’s last words that affected him. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that Poseidon will let them both live after they’ve seen his Operation Outis and screwed up his excellent plans so often in the process. They can “disappear”, but just like Michael – into death and oblivion. For real. Poseidon will take care of it.

What is a cliffhanger is whether Lincoln makes it out alive. If the “Prison Break” story is meant to be truly over with Season 5, the writers might want to sacrifice him. If there’s no Lincoln, there’s no reason for Michael to get in trouble saving him again. But of course I don’t want Michael to lose the brother he’s been fighting so hard for in the first place. Sacrificed his normal life for. Unless his death is as mysterious and dubious and fake as Michael’s own, so that we could have Season 6!

RANDOM BITS

We see three “progenies” in this episode – John Abruzzi’s son, Luca, Whip, who happens to be T-Bag’s son, and Mike. They all fit the infamous proverb. Mike has Michael’s smarts, Whip has T-Bag’s survivalism, Luca is resourceful and blood-thirsty like his late Mafia boss Dad.

If we return briefly to the previous episode – Sara said Michael looked “grayer”. This could have been a pun – she referred to his hair, I’m sure, but his deeds are also “grayer”, as in “gray area”, “grayscale”, in between good and bad.

Speaking of puns – do the fishes on Michael’s palms signify him, a former “fish” in his first prison? Chased by sharks like Poseidon?

"Seafood". Fish for Poseidon. Humour.

I wonder what happened to the remaining crew members of Sucre’s ship, the captain including. Hope they made it out alive in their own inflatable boats.

Whip is doing all the S.O.S. work in the opening scene, while Michael is brooding – it says a lot about their respective modus operandis.

There is something deeply slashy in that texting exchange between Jacob-as-Sara and Michael. Fanfics? Not sure I’d want to read them, though.

The blood stains on Whip’s shirt when he and Sucre are gulping down their boudin noirs – no, not suspicious at all.

“Difference is, this time you’re not alone” – Michael is echoing Lincoln’s words to him earlier when they were escaping from that hospital basement.

I get planes and boats on Mike’s drawings, but rabbits? What kind of code are these?

Maybe the glass jar Whip found in the middle of Lake Michigan contains some evidence of Gaines’ murder by Jacob. Body parts?

“Visiting hours for zoos, links to defunct message boards”, namely, Truesnuff.com and Hunterspycamporn.com. Michael loves cryptic web sites, remember the European Goldfinch?

A&W also has a mangled ear and a scar under it. What kind of a torture she and Van Gogh have been subjected to?

Sheba wears trousers and no headscarf once she’s in the States. Both C-Note and Lincoln are more than friendly with her but it seems she’s not gonna marry any of them any time soon.

Thank you, “Prison Break”, for introducing me to concepts like “steganography”. This whole show is like a lesson in it. Looks like in those years Michael has upgraded his skills to software engineering. Perhaps it’s Jacob’s face hidden behind those eyes on his palms, or is it too easy?

BEHIND THE BARS SYMBOLISM GALLERY