‘Prison Break’ finds freedom outside of walls

Holes big enough to drive a Hummer through
What didn’t change were the show’s trademark plot holes, which require a pretty significant but still enjoyable suspension of disbelief. The “Fox River Eight” were, we were told, national news all season long, yet hardly any member of the public the fugitives interacted with seemed to recognize them — until those innocent citizens conveniently noticed a TV or newspaper with the fugitives’ faces and names on it.

The geography of the United States was compressed, as characters met and then drifted away from each other, only to meet in another state the very next episode. Others crossed the country in mere minutes.

Other characters appeared from nowhere miraculously, such as Lincoln and Michael’s father, who even announced his reason for being dropped into the story. “I came back so we can fix this,” he said last week, not-so-subtly confirming his role, although he then died his way out of the story to ensure that things wouldn’t be fixed.

Like last season, the lame conspiracy to frame Lincoln for the murder of the Vice-President’s not-exactly-dead brother has returned to be the weakest part of the series, as it is mostly used as little more than a plot device. Its players are so flat and cliché that they’re laughable.

A new Secret Service Agent, William Kim, is now the one responsible for making absurd, reason-less pronouncements about whatever unilateral action needs to be taken to prevent whatever absurd secret his faceless bosses are hiding. Reggie Lee plays Kim as superficially as possible, his face contorted into a half-smile, half-nauseated expression that conveys just how much his section of the script stinks.

Best new character
FBI agent Alex Mahone, however, had the most potential as a character, and in particular as a foil to Michael Scofield.

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Although he sometimes magically appeared wherever the convicts happened to be, apparently possessing the power of teleportation, he was apparently intellectually matched with Scofield, at least in his ability to analyze and interpret his surroundings. Like Scofield, he was also haunted by his past, and as played by William Fichtner, always seemed to be on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

Watching the two face off would have been thrilling, but alas, in recent episodes, Mahone was been kept at bay by Kim for because the writers apparently needed more meaningless lines for Kim to say. More tragically, Mahone was shot by Kellerman as this episode concluded.

Ironically, his (presumed) death may be what the conspiracy needs to break out from being a shamelessly thin backstory. After shooting Mahone, Kellerman told Scofield and Burrows, “President Reynolds ruined your life, she ruined my life. You want to take the bitch down? You just found your inside man.”

It was perhaps the most rational moment and twist this entire half-season, and finally offers payoff for having tolerated Kellerman’s presence these 35 episodes. Any alliance — between the ruthless former Secret Service agent, the man framed for murdering the Vice President’s brother, and his intellectually gifted, morally conflicted brother — will probably be short-lived, but it’s once again a sensible right-turn for a series that is not content to let itself wither away in a tiny little cell.

Andy Dehnart is a writer and teacher who publishes reality blurred, a daily summary of reality TV news.

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