Prison Break 1.8: "The Old Head"

In which Michael’s plan hits a snag when his blueprint turns out to be a but outdated, while the conspiracy takes things a step further by trying to kill or capture Lincoln’s family and allies…


After a short break for the evil that is Major League Baseball, the series returns with a big ol’ jump into the complication phase of the season arc. Actually, I consider this more of a transition between the end of the introduction and the meat of the story, because this really brings the full “escape team” together, if one counts our friend with the dead cat.

Michael is faced with a number of curve balls in this episode, and he’s forced to make concessions that he normally wouldn’t. Perhaps the most impressive thing is that he manages to deal with people a little bit better than his past activity would suggest. The only time he really stumbles is with Sara, which is understandable. Even Mr. Westmoreland doesn’t really throw him off.

The beginning of the episode presented the real issue: Michael is just over the halfway point in his very short window of time. At this point, I can’t see how he’ll make it. Sure, the plan is moving along quickly, but he’s still operating on luck. Just having T-Bag around is a huge liability. I still don’t understand how that big hole in the wall will remain undiscovered for days on end, and after the riot, things are back to status quo way too fast.

But this series is full of plot conveniences, because the story is only meant to hang together long enough for the momentum to remain constant. And this episode certainly keeps the story moving forward. Actually, one has to wonder if the network wanted to save money by cutting back on guest stars. Talk about cleaning house!

Captain Bellick is thankfully just as frustrated, because just as he seems to get all the power to abuse that he could possibly want, he ends up getting blamed for the fire in the break room. Never mind how crappy it must be to have a break room in the middle of a storage shed! But I can’t help but laugh every time the jerk finds himself under the 8-ball again.

Meanwhile, we have LJ running around with a picture of one of the Secret Service agents on his phone (leave it to a government employee to have no clue about technology), but no support system. Veronica is in the middle of the woods, “off the grid”, with someone who still doesn’t seem to be who he says he is. And there’s only 17 days until Lincoln’s execution. No pressure!

As usual, I see flaws here and there. Sara isn’t stupid, so why hasn’t she figured out how Michael knew about the crawlspace and the prison layout? In this case, her attraction to Michael might be getting in the way, but I still would hope that she would be smarter than that. Is she trying not to believe what she must suspect? I feel like this was an ill-conceived plot thread.

I’m also not sure how the Escape Squad is going to work fast enough to make that “on-ramp”. After all, they should be making some progress on the job they were assigned to do. I assume that will be covered in the next episode, but still, I was hoping that the plan would be a little more fleshed out by now. But then again, this is “Prison Break”, and as I already said, I have to shut down the higher brain functions and enjoy.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/2

Final Rating: 8/10