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Season 4 Episode 7: “Five the Hard Way”Broadcast on Sky One, Tuesday October 7th, 2008 As premiered ondanowen.blogspot.com
Season 1-3 Boxset:
Season 3 Blu-Ray:
Director:
- Garry A. Brown
Writer:
- Christian Trokey
Cast:
- Michael Scofield: Wentworth Miller
Lincoln Burrows: Dominic Purcell
Alex Mahone: William Fichtner
Sara Tancredi: Sarah Wayne Callies
Brad Bellick: Wade Williams
Fernando Sucre: Amaury Nolasco
Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell: Robert Knepper
Gretchen Morgan: Jodi Lyn O’Keefe
Don Self: Michael Rapaport
Trishanne: Shannon Lucio
Wyatt: Cress Williams
Roland Glenn: James Hiroyuki Liao
General Krans: Leon Russom
Howard Scuderi: Jude Ciccolella
Casino Detective: Charles Emmett
Alexa: Amanda Tosch
Bartender: Hector Atreyu Ruiz
Beware spoilers.
Last week’s episode had a vague Ocean’s Eleven vibe to its opening. This week, the similarities to those movies are unavoidable, as half of “Scofield’s Six” head to Las Vegas to electronically swipe another Scylla data-card. Back in L.A, T-Bag (Robert Knepper) allies himself with nasty Gretchen (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe) to help her capture Michael (Wentworth Miller) and force him to decipher Whistler’s bird book
Christian Trokey (who worked as a script editor, until his season 3 breakthrough “Bang & Burn”) crafts a fun episode that isn’t clean and efficient enough to have you marvelling, but gets the job done. Typically for Prison Break, there are moments that strain credibility and pull you out of whatever semblance of reality the show has. For example: I just don’t believe that GATE secretary Trishanne (Shannon Lucio) would become T-Bag’s accomplice and co-kidnapper so easily, and having Mahone (William Fichtner) escape T-Bag’s trap, by jumping over a wall and generally running in a straight line as T-Bag fired off terrible gunshots, was laughable.
The Vegas storyline wasn’t particularly strong given the exciting opportunities the city affords, either. Linc (Dominic Purcell) is so underused he may as well not be there, Sara (Sarah Wayne Callies) is again only used for eye-candy distraction purposes (nice bikini, though), Roland (James Hiroyuki Liao) is already the most irritating and stupid new character on TV, and Sucre (Amaury Nolasco) gets a supposedly hilarious mission to flirt with gay Company mark Howard Scuderi (24’s Jude Ciccolella) long enough to copy his Scylla card.
Fortunately, T-Bag’s storyline was more eventful and relevant to the deeper mysteries of the show. Michael is forced at gunpoint to make sense of Whistler’s bird book, as T-Bag threatens Trishanne’s life and Gretchen lurks out of sight in another room as the insidious puppeteer. Michael soon starts assembling pages of Whistler’s book, revealing a blueprint of the GATE offices where the Company’s Scylla-reader is located. Amusingly, T-Bag has no idea Scylla is The Company’s “little black book”; just that it’s likely to fetch a handsome sum of money. It’s a greedy motivation he incorrectly thinks Michael shares.
I also enjoyed Don Self’s (Michael Rapaport) story this week, as the dopey-looking government agent grew some balls on the advice of Mahone and took his fight to sinister General Krans (Leon Russom) personally. Yes, I’m going to stop calling him Pad Man, as his inexplicable season 2 fondness for silence and scribbled dialogue has long since vanished. Don’s actually growing on me, too; his reactions to everything are more realistic than the macho posturing of the other emboldened characters. His means of ensuring his safety from the likes of Company assassin Wyatt (Cress Williams) also made some sense — and that’s a rarity on this show.
Overall, a reliably entertaining episode that doesn’t quite deliver the goods, but significantly pushes the GATE storyline forward. It was also good to get some clarity with Michael’s nosebleeds — he’s inherited his mother’s fatal brain aneurysm. I’m sure Michael’s health will fuel a major cliffhanger in the future. But I’m still very disappointed by the treatment of Linc (who is now almost irrelevant) and particularly Bellick (Wade Williams) this season; the latter of whom spends the episode sat on a floor shouting at T-Bag. Prison Break could do with trimming the fat, and losing Bellick would be a step in the right direction.
Join in the discussion about this episode atDan’s Media Digest
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.