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Season 4 Episode 3: “Shut Down”Broadcast on Sky One, Tuesday September 9th, 2008 As premiered ondanowen.blogspot.com
Season 1-3 Boxset:
Season 3 Blu-Ray:
Director:
- Milan Cheylov
Writer:
- Nick Santora
Cast:
- Michael Scofield: Wentworth Miller
Lincoln Burrows: Dominic Purcell
Alex Mahone: William Fichtner
Sofia Lugo: Danay Garcia
Sara Tancredi: Sarah Wayne Callies
Brad Bellick: Wade Williams
Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell: Robert Knepper
Don Self: Michael Rapaport
Wyatt: Cress Williams
Agent Felicia Lang: Barbara Eve Harris
Roland Glenn: James Hiroyuki Liao
Gretchen Morgan: Jodi Lyn O’Keefe
Fernando Sucre: Amaury Nolasco
LJ Burrows: Marshall Allman
Bruce Bennett: Wilbur Fitzgerald
Pad Man: Leon Russom
Pam Mahone: Callie Thorne
Beware spoilers.
Season 4’s direction now looks fairly obvious: Michael (Wentworth Miller) and his team will spend the year trying to findthe remaining 5 Scylla data-cards to expose The Company for Agent Self (Michael Rapaport), while their existence as a covertoperation is occasionally threatened by Self’s bureaucratic superiors. Surprisingly, the most intriguing aspect of “ShutDown” is actually T-Bag (Robert Knepper), who’s investigating Whistler’s life by assuming one of his fake identities — aseason 3 mystery the other characters no longer care aboutÂ…
The title of the show doesn’t carry any relevance now, as the best we get are break “ins” to buildings housing vital information. Here, the team need to gain access to a physical server in Anaheim, to steal an e-mail that mentions the location for an important Company meeting at 4pm, so they can hopefully learn who has the remaining 5 Scylla data-cards. The exercise itself is quite fun with some engaging jeopardy — like Michael and hacker Roland (James Hiroyuki Lia) becoming trapped in a server room where the oxygen is being sucked out to protect the system from fire. It remains enjoyable seeing Prison Break’s eclectic characters working together like this — although Sucre (Amaury Nolasco) and especially Bellick (Wade Williams) are still superfluous.
The big turning point is when the team’s handler, Don Self, has his operation closed down by his superiors — who are curiously unimpressed that Michael has already stolen one of the Scylla cards. Glossing over that, half the episode becomes a rush for Team Michael to prove their worth to the Feds by snooping on the Company meeting and gaining valuable intel, while avoiding Self and his men after they arrive to pull the plug and thrown them in jail. But didn’t Linc get a full pardon for his “crimes” when the Company’s presidential conspiracy was exposed in season 3?
T-Bag is once again flying solo in his own sub-plot, having used Whistler’s fake ID to become “Cole Pfeiffer”, a new employee for the mysterious Gate company in California. I’m pleased to see the importance of Whistler’s bird book isn’t being downplayed or ignored this season, and having T-Bag investigate gives him something more interesting to do than skulk around killing people. Actually, he’s the only character involved in a storyline that has a bit of intrigue to it. Why did Whistler have a fake ID? What are Gate? Are they connected to The Company somehow? Hopefully this storyline will continue to develop and prove the writers have some deep-rooted ideas about how to knit season 3 and 4 together.
Elsewhere, there’s a protracted interrogation of Bruce Bennett (Wilbur Fitzgerald) by hitman Wyatt (Cress Williams) using chemical injections, in an effort to extract information about Michael, Linc and Sara’s whereabouts. Wyatt’s clearly assumed the Agent Adelstein role from season 1 and 2, minus any sympathetic side. Will he remain cold-blooded and ruthless for long? Even super-bitch Gretchen was eventually given a tragic back-story to help smooth over her heartless actions.
William Fichtner gives another excellent performance, as usual. Here, we learn his wife Pam survived Wyatt’s hit and is in protective custody, although his young son is definitely dead. I suppose Pam’s survival is to give Mahone the chance of a happy ending with her, but it’s difficult to imagine her accepting Alex back into her life after what’s happened!
Fichtner totally commands the screen as his family tragedy hits home and he asks former-colleague Agent Lang (Barbara Eve Harris) to get him a file on his son’s killer. We can assume Pam gave the cops a detailed description of Wyatt — which does make super-efficient Wyatt look pretty inept. Revenge is certainly foremost on Mahone’s mind, and it was nice to see Linc (who spent last year preventing the same tragedy befalling his own son) comforting him — as the two men rarely see eye-to-eye. A late scene between Fichtner and Purcell is a refreshing oasis of acting in a show not known for its performances.
Overall, I still have doubts about the direction of season 4 and how it’s keeping the story going (the whole Scylla thing still seems ridiculous), but T-Bag’s investigation of Gate added a welcome tinge of mystery, and lead villain Pad Man’s (Leon Russom) mention of a top-secret project sounds promising. A bomb? A virus? They must be cooking up something pretty nasty; if only so the gang can ironically end the series as national heroes for stopping it!
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.