Prison Break 1.22: "Flight"

Written by Paul Schuering
Directed by Unavailable


The writers took a chance by staging the break-out in the penultimate episode. After all, most shows would mark the cliffhanger right at the moment where Michael is making that last ditch effort to climb to the wall. But the writers of “Prison Break” have a plan, and they have kept to it, with very minor exceptions. So this episode feels more like a pilot for the second season, preparing the audience for the plot threads and situations to come.

It’s a bit surprising that all of the Escape Squad survived to the end of the episode. I figured Westmoreland was dead by the end of the previous installment, and Sucre’s worthless cousin was never getting out anyway. But everyone else made it? Quite unexpected. I figured Tweener or Haywire would get caught, at the very least, but they actually seem better off than the main group.

As for them, I couldn’t work out why the plane left without them, unless they figured that Abruzzi was cutting it too close. Whatever the case, they are in serious trouble now, because they are literally yards ahead of half the law enforcement in the greater Chicago area! In that final scene, all I could think was that one good shot each would have ended the running pretty damn quick!

Thankfully, that’s not the case, and it was fun seeing everyone scramble for position and speak to their hopes for the future. We were duly reminded that Abruzzi hasn’t forgotten why he allied with Michael in the first place, which will probably come up in the second season. And T-Bag will probably survive his little encounter with an axe, even if he deserves to bleed out slowly. Bellick is going to be the least of their problems!

I love how all the lead-up with the VP and her troubles with The Company came to a momentary head. I guess she does, in fact, have her own resources! I didn’t see that assassination coming at all, and this just raises the stakes for Michael and Lincoln in the second season. That was one hell of a great plot twist. (And I imagine that Veronica’s confrontation of the VP’s brother will directly factor into the new president’s agenda.)

One thing I didn’t see coming was Sarah’s death, even though the writers planted all the right seeds in earlier episodes. I expected her to relapse, especially if she came under suspicion, but I never thought she would overdose like that. It’s a sad end to the character, but imagine how that’s going to screw up Michael when he finds out. His psychology isn’t going to allow him to let it go.

Perhaps the best thing about this finale is that it doesn’t really feel like a finale. This was structured like a number of “regular” episodes this season, right down to the cliffhanger at the end and the intense stakes. It’s just that some events were bigger and had more impact. That’s why I have very little concern about the second season. If it’s planned out even half as well as this season was, it’s going to be one hell of a ride.

This is the part where I would usually launch into a discussion about the season as a whole, but I’m doing things a little differently moving forward. The “Prison Break” post-mortem (so to speak) will be the main focus of this week’s episode of “Dispatches from Tuzenor”, a new podcast started as an expansion to the written reviews conducted every season. That episode should be up after the weekend, so I invite anyone interested to drop by the archive site (www.entil2001.com) and click on the link. (It’s also available on iTunes.)

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 3/4

Final Rating: 9/10

(Season 1 Final Average: 7.8)