Prison Break Season 5: Raw Breakdown 5

5.05. “Contingency”

It often happens in music albums but not that often on TV shows that an episode title makes in into the script lines. “We need to pivot to the next contingency”. Now that we’ve seen the bigger part of Season 5 and have reached the wrong side of it (sounds menacing), with only four episodes left, now that Michael has finally revealed his mystery, their mission changes from uncovering the secrets of the past to creating their own future. Hence “Contingency”, because anything may happen. But, as usual, so far they are left with a cliffhanger. Or cliff-hangar, more like. 

 

This episode was so awesome I’m not going to spare extra words analyzing it. Though long-form reviews/recaps are a drag to write and read. 

This episode was a perfect blend of action and emotion, words and deeds. As any given “Prison Break” ep usually is. Probably every show should be nine episodes long, if only because it helps to maintain this level of non-stop intensity and cut the unnecessary details like this season of “Prison Break” does. 

One could complain, though, that Season 5 often revisits, in a wink wink nudge nudge way, situations from the previous seasons. Like missing a plane, secret agents tailing the escaped convicts, working for a secret sub-governmental organization to protect the loved ones and so on. I don’t know if it is done on purpose. I don’t know if it fits with what Mr. Miller repeatedly referred to as giving fans a story that could stand toe-to-toe with the original series. But the new fans wouldn’t recognize these repetitions, while the ones who’ve seen Seasons 1-4 would probably see these revisions as pleasant callbacks. 

As far as emotions go – WOW. I grew up, as a young adult, watching “Supernatural”, so I know what good “man pain” or “broments” look like, and the original “Prison Break” rarely reached the Winchester Heights (doesn’t it sound like a prison name?) But this episode and this season in general give a fag hag girl like me the all the homoerotic vibes that I crave – particularly the scenes of Michael and Lincoln having their two heart-to-heart talks. There’s some serious brotherly chemistry going on between them. The way Lincoln strokes Michael’s face… pushes him into that room… in other words, where are the new slash fanfics yet?   

This episode is also especially high on beautiful and sad allegories and symbols, all realised via cinematography only. To name them:

PRISONS EVERYWHERE!

Michael is leaning on the lattice window. 

Michael is peeping through the door of an abandoned hospital they hid at.

Michael is sitting on the floor beneath the air shaft in the hospital basement. (Not resting, dejected because he, literally, can’t come up for the air of freedom).

Michael stops to stare at the cage with an owl inside in the flashback scene.

 

Michael and his team end up behind a real chain-link fence at the Sana’a airport. 

SAINT MICHAEL!

The natural golden light sifting through these bars and the lighting in in this scene form a halo over Michael’s head. Saint Michael? He is because he is sacrificial. 

Consider this similar, subtle hint from the opening credits of Season 3 as well:

The semi-ovals pattern over his shoulders and along his arms cleverly blends with the contours of the brick walls of Sona prison, but looks like wings. A bit clichéd, but true. 

BIRDS!

The allegorical grey-tinted flashback sequence in the tropical garden (South America?) is poignant in every possible way. Now that I’ve seen it in context, it’s one of my favourite scenes in the show ever. 

Michael has turned himself into a “ghost”, by his own admission, and is secretly watching Sara and their son. Sara and Mike have got a bright, cheerful parrot to behold.

 

Michael follows them but is stopped in his tracks when he notices that cage with a little grey owl inside that seems to have eyes on its back (just like Michael now has eyes tattooed on the backs and insides of his hands). Couldn’t tell if the bird has its head turned backwards, as owls do, or if it’s the mimicry effect on its feathers.

Anyway, an owl, in a forest, in a cage? How realistic is that? But that’s an allegory, so it doesn’t have to be realistic. He willingly put himself into a confinement, like the little grey owl. 


As he stops and looks down at it, there is such weltschmerz in his eyes it hurts. I don’t know which emotions Wentworth Miller was tapping into to play that tiny scene, but that stare is melancholy incarnate.

It’s a fantastic sequence as such but it’s made even more bitter by the bird symbolism. Paper swans (or are they cranes?) have become iconic images of this show. From what I read online, in common knowledge, owls symbolise wisdom, intuition, keen observation but also afterlife, death, silence, a lurking danger. They represent evil spirits due to their connection with the night and tell you you are making a false judgment about someone. Both descriptions are relevant to Michael and his situation.

Parrots, on the other hand, are symbols of truth-telling, mimicking powers (Michael was faking his death), a warning that one is being deceived (true of Sara), and, interestingly, a warning to be faithful to one’s husband. Swans, as we already know from Seasons 1-4, stand for faithfulness towards family, honesty, innocence, and may be sadly read as a sign of impending death. All fits. There should probably also be a phoenix in there somewhere in the remaining four episodes. And I hope there’s an equivalent to Athena in there somewhere, a Greek goddess of war and wisdom, who loved owls, to help Michael, just like she helped Odysseus.

On a funnier note, I’ve been Googling pictures of owls to understand what type of an owl we see here and noticed how some of them have eyes and eyebrows and the manner of staring just like Michael’s. Probably owls are his spirit animals.

Now that these breathtaking moments are out of my way, to save myself too much structural engineering editing, I’ll just go with the episode’s flow:

Poor T-Bag has gone all the way to investigate the mystery of the hacked phone on Sara’s behalf, had his shoulder wounded with a gunshot – and not a thank you from Sara for all these ordeals. Even though, he sounded almost sympathetic talking to her. Like he cared (he probably does now). In the original “Prison Break” only Officer Bellick went through such bad-to-good moral transformation. Look what it got him… Hopefully, T-Bag won’t end up dead.

It’s morbidly funny – the rebels have taken over the city, yet that barber is calmly going about his job giving his client a haircut. Business as usual.

Now that big money are offered in exchange for Michael and his men and an army of radical guys wants to find them, Season 2, with just two mercenary cops after them, will look like a jog in the park. Run, Barry Michael, run. 

Hopefully, Whip hypothesizing that one could sell one’s mother for a reward of “10 million rial” was him being rhetorical – so far, he’s shown nothing but admirable loyalty to his mates.

Michael and Lincoln are wearing almost matching outfits – white T-shirts. And I wonder why Michael has this dirty blue sweater (?) wrapped around his waist. It looks cool and distinctive and a bit Oriental and a bit gender-non-conforming, but it’s not like he’s going to freeze in Yemen, in summer, on the run. He didn’t wear it in prison, he put it on only when they launched their escape. It’s probably strategic. Episode 5.06.’s trailer shows him wearing it on his head like a turban (sun protection in the desert?) Creative solutions are Michael’s specialty. 

Finally, “PRODUCER: WENTWORTH MILLER” in the opening credits coincides with the actual shot of Wentworth Miller. I was waiting for it.

Whip is visibly surprised there’s someone who’s allowed to shout and push Michael around like he was a little boy who did something wrong (well, he did). I half-expected a physical fight, a few punches, a face slap. Some rough handling. It’s a beautiful contrast – Linc would defend his brother’s good name to others but when they’re face to face, he gives him that What the Hell, Hero? approach.

Again, no words of praise for them both, characters and actors, would be enough. As they’ve gotten older, they’ve gotten deeper.

The streaks of dirt on the window that Michael is propping himself up against look like tracks of tears. Reflecting his mental state, probably. He can’t even face his brother when sharing his story. #guilt

His explanation confirms what many viewers have already puzzled out – Michael was indeed hired, against his will, to work a dirty job to ensure the safety of his family. That’s what I’d call aggressive head-hunting.

What I didn’t figure out was Kellerman’s role or non-role in it and the fact that Poseidon was anti- rather than pro-government. And a psycho.

What is poignant is not Michael’s lies, but his decision to bear this cross all by himself prompted by his tendency for secrecy. Secrecy is part of his nature and it served them well when he created the elaborate plan to get Linc out of the jail and told nobody about it until he got there. But this same caution had got him trapped in Ogygia.

Frankly, I find it hard to believe Michael agreed to these humiliating exploitation without much fighting. Why would he unquestioningly believe just one person’s words and threats? Couldn’t he find a better way? But I guess we’ll have to go with the writers here.

Was he also faking the new bout of his hypothalamic hamartoma, blood test results, nose bleeds?  Awkward.

With Jacob, though, the writers have pulled a classy twist. Villain or not? Last episode we saw him talking to the couple of Poseidon-hired killers, in this one he turns out to be a knight in shining armour, risks his life to capture the criminal pair, disproving Sara’s and the audience’s theory of his evilness. Then again, I saw the trailer for the next episode, and the blonde murderer lady and her bearded partner were very much free and planning ahead. So, there are two versions – either Jacob is playing an elaborate double game (Sara is just that lucky – both of the men she loves know how to be two-faced Januses… er, Jacobs) and is a villain, or Van Gogh and A&W were promptly released from prison by Poseidon and his top secret superpowers.

I also don’t know if I can trust Michael, either. This show has taught me to routinely question and doubt the characters’ motives.   

I also wonder if that Asian guy from “The Prisoner’s Dilemma” is Poseidon? His associate maybe. It’s not like they’re going to show us the Big Bad that casually and flippantly. Michael describes Poseidon as a “deep-cover operative”. He’s chosen a good name, then. The Greek Poseidon lived at the bottom of the sea, I guess. The “21 Void” that he organised? Must be yet another puzzle for us all to solve.

[Another Greek reference – Michael says he’s “opened a Pandora’s box”. Michael as Pandora, mmm?]

In any event, Sara must be in distress – tearing between the two men that she loves and cares for, who both happen to be not as good as they seem (or so she thinks). Though she probably has a softer spot for Michael – hear the emphasis in her words when she talks about seeing Michael, alive, on that footage from Ogygia – “It’s all that matters”.

I don’t know why but it feels a bit out of character for Sara to have a best female friend and confidante and share with her, basically, every detail of her life story, past and present. Then again, she had that colleague while working at Fox River.

“Data archeology”/”Data dive”. I love it that they are using all these fancy scientific terms. Though I still don’t get it who and how “hacked” Sara’s phone via her fingerprint. If it was Kellerman, why? If he wasn’t meaning her harm? If it were the Blonde Hair and Weird Ear, how did they obtain that fingerprint?

That running gag with Ja’s love of Queen I don’t get yet. Is Ja also an ambiguously gay character (as Whip implies from time to time – “Getting off to Queen”) or is he just a nerdy fanboy? This show has never steered clear of gay subtext and (now) text.

Ja’s got a nice, deep singing voice, it turns out. And that Queen song is never going to sound the same for me, it’s been completely recontextualised in my memory now that they’ve, basically, shot an edgy, alternative tribute video for it. I wonder what Queen fans think of Whip and Ja desacralizing their idol’s memory.

That Ja paid a sum equivalent to 10 million rial for Freddie Mercury’s ashes – could it be an ironic hint at how much (presumably) the channel/studio had to pay for the rights to include Queen’s live footage and song snippets into the show?

Interestingly, another Queen’s song, “Bohemian Rhapsody” was the source of one of the funniest moments in “Dinotopia”, a 2002 mini-series where Wentworth Miller played one of his first leading roles.

By the way, “rogue” agents that Michael mentions referring to the people Poseidon made him set free – isn’t it a very subtle intertextual reference to “The Flash” and “Legends of Tomorrow”? The actor says it like he means it. 

The Train/Plain Dilemma. Even if they had reached the airport on time, Linc had told Sheba’s father to reserve only two seats for him and Michael. Not good enough for Scofield’s Five.

Whip and Michael seem to have a code – these phrases that sound like a repetition of well-rehearsed plan points (“Board spans the gap” – “Blanket covers the wire”, “Train station” – “Get up to the north” – “Exit the country that way”). Or they simply understand each other so well by now they can finish each other’s sentences in this intuitive call-response manner.

Yet Whip didn’t even know Michael’s real name all these years. Michael, it seems, didn’t tell him he wrote to his brother to ask for help. Whip’s future role in Michael’s plan is one of the most intriguing mysteries left for us to unravel. Michael asks him to “forget the past” and “the details” and remember that “there is a life at the end of the tunnel for [him]”. But the way he says it can “change [his] life”, drawling the word “life” like a Captain Cold (“laiiiiiiF”), gives me a premonition. 

On that note, I really love Michael’s/Wentworth’s “breathless” voice. Who thought the word “psychopath” could sound so sexy? And I adore this Emotional Instability Nerves Are Wrecked Extreme Glide-Up that his voice and intonation do. Listen to his breath hitching and his voice unexpectedly switching to high notes at “And if I did it, you and ↑Sara, you’d go ↑free”. It sounds so brittle I’m aching.  

That cool action sequence of them crossing the railway in front of a rapidly approaching train – I don’t know how it was filmed, what games with spatial perspective, light or CGI effects or stunt double work the film/postproduction crew used (or not), but the effect was chilling.

Lincoln says he “resents” Michael. That was harsh. I don’t believe him, though. Look at his actions. I think he’s frustrated because Michael wouldn’t listen. The eyes of them both.

    

That’s some deep feeling.

I love the irony of this shot. “The Man with the Plan” says he sees how his plans affect people. With his eyes closed. Cue contradictory signals and a cognitive dissonance. 

Michael may seem somewhat stubborn, insisting on following his plan through. But he’s spent four years in prison and has been out in the open again for less than a day. He has to adjust his vision and think on the spot at the same time, as he’s the only one in charge, responsible for them all. No wonder his perspective might be a bit skewed, his decisions imperfect. 

Also, interestingly, even if Michael was always a “scientist”, there was always a “faith” element in him too, a trust in something irrational and unplanned to help him. Like believing that following the cultural code of behavior (“the believing men [should] lower their gaze and be modest”) will lead them safely on board of that train. He says he trusts his instincts and they don’t normally fail him and have gotten them all thus far. Ironically, in this situation neither of his creative thinking solutions work out well.

That horse comparison (Whip: “Got to go with the horse that got you here. He’s my horse”) – I don’t know if it was a double-entendre or not. In Russian dubbing, it vaguely was. By the way, mythological horse-like creatures (symbolizing death) were Poseidon’s preferred animals/servants/symbols. Eerie. I wonder if there’ll be a Trojan horse in there somewhere.

“Crazy only works if it doesn’t get you killed”. Well, Ja is no less of a “crazy horse” than Michael. In fact, they all are. Michael is crazy to get involved in this masochistic seven-year-long self-sacrifice and then trying to escape from it. Linc is crazy in his tough abiding love for Michael that literally knows no borders. 

Some examples of more light-hearted humour from this episode: “Fighting is your default setting” (Michael to Linc). “I don’t think it’s that kind of a party, but I like your style” (Whip to Sid, he does love sexualized jokes). Whip and Ja’s quibbling over their nationalities.

It’s interesting that Michael gets behind the wheel and drives after declaring that he’s the boss, asserting his leadership in this way. In Seasons 1-4 it was almost always Lincoln who drove. And it would have been better if Michael had left it to his brother – he could’ve steered them out of the crash with Cyclops and his gang.

This beautiful, beautiful scene.“The pain would only be mine”.

Cry, Michael, cry. Third episode in a row. Just like I wanted. It’s only natural. And therapeutical. How much pain do you think he’s been harbouring and has accumulated during all these years he’s been a “slave” to Poseidon? Though I spy there will be no more crying for him for the next couple of episodes – until he meets his wife and son, probably – because he has to “keep it together”, keep on planning. He says as much, that he can’t think about it now because in that case everything will “fall apart” and that’s why he has to “stay focused”.

Speaking of beauty, Michael (therefore, Wentworth) is no longer “pretty” in that faux-adolescent way of Seasons 1-4 of “Prison Break”. He’s more gritty now. A ferociously handsome/beautiful man.

Michael had a “role” for everyone in his team. Sid’s one, though not instrumental, was equally important. As the only native Arab among them, he functioned as a translator. Now that he’s gone, interpreting people and their intentions would be more difficult. Granted, Michael (and probably others) know some basics of conversational Arabic but we’ll see if their lack of language will result in additional dangers.

Also, for Michael, who’s been, as opposed to Seasons 1-4, moved onto an elder brother role by virtue of his age, experience and strength of mind and will, Sid probably felt like a token “kid” (he calls him that), to be protected and saved from harm. Not necessarily like his own, son but close enough. The responsibility to bring the boy back to his father, safe, was his. Michael must be blaming himself now.

I even feel some pity for Cyclops – he works so hard but gets thwarted all the time. First, by a woman, then by a twinky gay guy. Beaten by both brothers. No wonder the man’s got a wounded self-esteem and an unhealthy hunger for dominance.

Sid’s story about his lover, and his death at the hands of Cyclops are heart-breaking. The guy who dreamt of going to Calgary to become a ski-jumper had developed a death wish. 

“I’m not giving up. And queer or not, you’re not, either. They’re in the wrong. Not you”. “You’ll beat him by surviving”. These words sound like a naïve anti-homophobic rhetoric but they are powerful.   

At the end of the day, it’s Lincoln who’s calling the shots. Michael decides he“need[s] to take a break from making decisions”, repeats Linc’s words (“We could/can be there in twenty minutes”). But big brother also fails. Train or plane.

Sheba is very brave. These guys who accosted the pilot and C-Note were obviously taken aback. A woman wouldn’t be seen as a potential threat. One advantage of being a female in a situation like this in an Oriental country.

Neither the train station nor the airport worked, so, I guess, that’s where Mr. Fernando Sucre will finally lend them their helping manos, because I spy they will now head onto the desert and (considering the next ep’s title) into the sea, and he’s been conveniently working on a ship these days. There was also that photo Mr. Miller posted online of Michael, Whip and Lincoln resting their weary bodies on board of a ship. This part of the story will surely prove more dangerous. After all, Poseidon owns the sea, in mythology at least. It’s getting more epic with every episode.

Pictures taken from the most complete “Prison Break” screencaps archive I’ve ever found http://prisoncaps.flaunt.nu and PrintScreen-ed and Word-to-JPEG-ed from https://gomovies.to.

Spacing is weird here because my blogging with pictures/HTML skills could be better.