Prison Break Season 4 Episodes 1 & 2

Having broken out of a maximum-security prison, gone on the run from the Feds,and been thrown into a foreign jail, escapee Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller)is now a fugitive with a vendetta against The Company — the shadowy governmentcabal responsible for his misfortunes, and killers of his girlfriend Dr. SaraTancredi (Sarah Wayne Callies)…

You have to give the writers credit for managing to sustain Prison Break’spremise into a fourth season, however awkwardly. Season 1 remains the strongest(a neat jailbreak with a conspiracy backdrop and inventive twists), whileseason 2’s resulting manhunt struggled to keep momentum, before season 3restored the incarceration but lost the heart. In essence, the beheading ofMichael’s sweetheart (the result of squabbles with pregnant actress Callies)left its lead rudderless and the ensuing prison break enjoyable, but lukewarmand silly.

Unfortunately, this third reinvention of the series may be one reshuffle toofar. Irritatingly, some of the situations we arrived at in season 3’s finalearen’t pursued — primarily the jailing of Sucre (Amaury Nolasco) in Sona,with inmates Bellick (Wade Williams) and T-Bag (Robert Knepper) forcompany.Instead, we’re told Sona’s prisoners have all rioted off-screen and escaped –news that must annoy Michael and brother Lincoln (Dominic Purcell),considering all the trouble they went to weeks before!

The ambiguity over Whistler (Chris Vance) is also made clear, onceand for all. It appears he was a good guy, trying to take down The Companyfrom the inside, unbeknownst to handler Gretchen (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe). Specifically,we meet Whistler in L.A trying to obtain “Scylla” (an electronic “little blackbook” that lists The Company’s agents and activities), before he’s interruptedby a vengeful Michael at gunpoint. Gretchen intervenes, admitting to Michaelthat Sara isn’t dead, because she escaped. The head of a look-alike cadaver was used to fool Linc, in season 3’s notoriousSe7en-inspired misstep.

Ex-FBI Agent Mahone (William Fichtner) is helping Whistler, acting asa Company chauffeur, but Whistler’s decision to pass on a duplicate of Scyllato Gretchen is uncovered by her boss, the ominous Pad Man (Leon Russom).As a result, Pad Man dispatches assassin Wyatt (Cress Williams) to killGretchen and Whistler, then “tie up loose ends”; meaning Michael, Mahone andLinc’s lives are all in immediate danger.

Elsewhere, escapees Bellick and Sucre have become unlikely allies in Panama,after Bellick’s mom arrives to whisk them to safety. T-Bag’s also on the loose,with Whistler’s all-important bird book of scribbled “clues” and codes. To befrank, it’s become vague how important this bird book actually is, as season 3left me with the impression it was a red herring anyway. However, T-Bagclearly thinks otherwise and makes some progress in deciphering the book’sscribbled clues — leading him to a locker in San Diego.

Anyway, the driving force behind season 4 is the recruitment of Michael by theUS government to take down The Company on behalf of Homeland Security’s DonaldSelf (Michael Rapaport), a man who worked with Michael’s dead fatherAldo. With Michael caught by the authorities, following the assassination ofWhistler by hitman Wyatt, Michael’s bail is posted by politician Bruce Bennett(Wilbur Fitzgerald), a friend of Sara’s who later reunites Michael withhis true-love — in a frankly underwhelming scene.

Michael faces 15 years in jail for his crimes, unless he agrees to help Donalddestroy The Company. After realizing there’s a hired gun after them, Michael’sforced to accept Donald’s offer — and recruits fellow “felons” Sucre, Bellick,Linc and Mahone to help him with the covert mission. Thus, the narrativesplits three ways: ice-cool killer Wyatt tracking down his prey (targetingMahone’s family and interrogating an official over Michael’s whereabouts),T-Bag’s misadventures with his bird book (camp fire cannibalism!), and TeamMichael trying to retrieve the real Scylla (a task that requires them to breakinto a luxury home crawling with security and high-tech alarms.)

But there’s something exasperating about this latest revamp. Once again we’velost the prison-set basis for the show, and unlike season 2 this sojourn in theoutside world isn’t particularly tied to the jailbreak genre. Instead, Prison Breakhas started to resemble The A-Team, which is quite apt considering its ’80s-stylehigh-concept silliness. Unfortunately, the set-up is similar to the lastseason of The A-Team — when Robert Vaughan became the group’s taskmaster.

The few things sustaining interest are loyalty, having followed these characters’exploits since day 1 — I’d be extremely surprised if Prison Break makes it toseason 5 (jumping all these sharks will make any show tired), so we’re hopefullytwenty-odd episodes away from The End. And I’m also rather fond of the actors,even if they’re two-dimensional marionettes for the writers to play with most ofthe time…

Wentworth Miller’s an intriguing screen presence, although his charisma doesnt really stretch beyond quiet smoldering. The emotional highlight of bothepisodes was the Michael/Sara reunion, but it was curiously inert. And, whilethe return of Sarah Wayne Callies is welcome (if a little preposterous), havingher safe denies Michael the enthusiasm to succeed. Everything boils down tovengeance for freedom this season, which is the best of limited options — butwith Pad Man untouchable (for now) and Gretchen out of commission for a while,there aren’t any villains audiences want to see punished.

William Fichtner is undeniably the best actor, but even he can’t wring muchfrom the writing. Season 2’s Mahone was a complex, tragic figure being made todo bad things to keep his family safe. Mahone’s family are killed in episode2, but he practically shakes off the event within minutes and it doesn’tseem to have fuelled much appetite for revenge in him. It made me wonder; isFichtner just fed up with the show’s direction, or was the writing at fault?Hopefully he’ll get a chance to vent his anger and flex his acting muscles soon.

Most worrying is the mechanism of season 4: finding Scylla, which we laterlearn is divided into 6 data units, meaning a half-dozen miniature “break ins”will be sprinkled throughout the year, before the conjoined data-cards areplugged into a reader hidden inside The Company’s secret L.A stronghold.Hopefully these mini-missions will be exciting and inventive to sustaininterest, as “Breaking And Entering” wasn’t particularly enthralling.

Overall, “Scylla” was an extended, creaking attempt to gloss over plot-pointsfrom season 3 and struggled to refit the concept into a team-based revenge-fuelledaction-adventure. I also had to laugh at Michael’s tattoo-removal scene, whichspiritually and physically scrubbed away the last vestigate of season 1 fromthe show. “Breaking And Entering” was more enjoyable, thanks to a divertingbreak-in scenario, but T-Bag (a character who became a joke the moment hejumped over Fox River’s wall) continued to drift through another dumb sub-plot –cooking and eating a fat Mexican in the desert!

For diehard fans, perseverance is called for in this likely final stretch.For anyone already clawing their hair out in season 3, it might be time tobreak loose from this show’s grip. It’s your call.

Join in the discussion about this episode atDan’s Media Digest

OVERALL

Dom Robinson

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.

DVDfever.co.uk