Episode 18 - Vs
28 July 2009
Review
Synopsis: Sara is pregnant but doesn’t tell Michael. They follow the paper they found on their kidnapper and head to an airport in Fort Lauderdale to pick up a man named Vincent Sandinsky. Lincoln and company follow information they extract from the sniper and head to the Indian Embasssy. There Christina is trying to form a partnership with the Ambassador over Scylla. He agrees but Lincoln gets hold of Sandinsky’s details. They arrive at the airport in time to save Michael from Christina’s men and take Sandinsky. But Michael has his phone.
The Good: Sarah being pregnant could obviously have huge consequences for her and Michael. She decides not to tell him, presumably because she doesn’t want to fill his head with more to worries when he is trying to bring down the Company. It’s a noble decision and of course it leads to the question of how Michael would feel if he knew. The writing has drawn a clear line between Michael and Lincoln at this stage. Lincoln has had enough and has decided that there will always be an evil company somewhere in the world. But he wants to be a free man who can spend time with his loved ones once more. Michael on the other hand thinks as long as the Company can destroy people’s lives with no accountability, he will never be free. Michael seems willing to give up his freedom and perhaps his life to save the world from the Company. If he knew Sara was carrying his child, would he suddenly feel differently? It’s an intriguing plot development and not as clichéd as it might have seemed in another situation.
We learn more about the amazing science contained on Scylla. In addition to the solar energy cells (415), it contains new strains of plants, new vaccines and desalinization techniques. If true then it helps us get a clearer picture of the reasons Scylla is so important (see The Unknown).
T-Bag seems to have been made an offer by the General which fits his story arc for this season. The General has sent him a business card and T-Bag calls up to check that “the Car, the office and the house” are all still earmarked for him. It seems his time as Cole Pfeiffer has stuck with him and he is willing to sell everyone out to have a normal, respectable life once this is all over (see 412 and 414 in particular). The tension between T-Bag and Lincoln makes sense too. T-Bag knows that Lincoln isn’t telling the General about Christina because it’s his mother. Yet T-Bag has a good point, they are working for the General and they shouldn’t risk betraying him. It’s a nice irony that T-Bag is protecting his own mother as he tells on Lincoln.
To some extent it is good to see Mahone talking about bringing down the Company (see The Unknown). After all they have put him through it is difficult to imagine him being happy working for the General.
Sandinsky and Banerjee both play their roles well. It would be easy to come across as generic in those parts but I thought they both made the characters seem real. Despite lying Sandinsky seemed very much terrified and in over his head and Banerjee seemed relaxed and sceptical.
The Bad: Predictably there is no tension in any of the action sequences. This close to the end of the show, as a viewer you know that unless there is a climactic showdown, none of the main characters is going to suffer too badly. The endless gun fights aren’t helped by the fact that we don’t know whether Christina or the General are worth admiring or if they are both corrupt. Seeing Michael and Lincoln endlessly defeat faceless men in suits has lost its appeal at this stage.
The showdown between the brothers doesn’t feel very dramatic either. Again this isn’t helped by the lack of knowledge we have about what is really going on. We don’t know whose side Mahone is on, we don’t know whether Self is worthy of our support or if he is out for himself like T-Bag. We don’t know what is really on Scylla or (as I said) whether the General or Christina are intending to good with it. Such vagueness would be fine early in the season when you are building toward a payoff. The problem for Prison Break is that since Don Self turned on Michael, the show’s plots have become bogged down and convoluted.
These stories aren’t helped by the usual logic holes. The Indians don’t look too clever for allowing private security men onto their soil and not counting how many of them there were. When they let Lincoln walk out without questioning him it just feels too convenient. Similarly Michael calmly holds the airport tower operator at gunpoint. Then he leaves him and drives out to meet Sandinsky’s plane. What stopped the operator from radioing the plane and warning the pilot? Michael could have tied him up which would have covered for that.
The Unknown: Mahone’s great plan to take down the company is “I’ll know when I get there.” Without further explanation it’s difficult to know if he hasn’t thought about it yet or if he is just keeping his plans to himself. Either way his motivations need further examination.
It’s not yet clear what Scylla really is. A collection of new technologies to combat climate change hardly sounds like a super nova as Christina implies. So I assume we still don’t know the full potential of it. Or why she is using the Indians and Sandinsky in her plot.
Best Moment: Sarah reacting to her pregnancy. Without saying a word we can imagine all the thoughts rushing through her head and why she hasn’t shared them with Michael yet.
The Verdict: Not a great episode but it gets us another step closer to unravelling the mysteries once and for all.
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