How much more do they expect me to handle?
The tension is mounting and the closer they get to the escape the more pitfalls they have. The plot just gets juicier and juicier and I honestly cannot wait to see what happens next.
This week’s episode starts off with close up of Michael in the shower. Unfortunately nothing untoward, just the tattoo on his arm. There is a voice coming out of the mist pleading for help and it turns out to be Cherry, T-Bag’s bitch.
Before Michael can respond though, T-Bag enters the showers
And without his shirt on T-Bag is absolutely vomitworthy. Ok even with his shirt on, but this was just too much. I can completely understand why poor Cherry needs help.
T-Bag sends Cherry on his way and Michael tells T-Bag to give Cherry a break. T-Bag says that Michael should mind his own business especially since T-Bag knows all about the escape.
Reluctantly Michel concedes that it’s none of his business and walks out of the shower. He bumps into Cherry again and Cherry again pleads for help but Michael just walks straight past him.
Lincoln is in the Wardens Office, pleading with Warden Pope so that he can be allowed to go and look for his son,
LJ Burrows. Pope says he cannot allow him to leave, even under supervision as LJ is a suspect in a double homicide.
In the guards break room Bellick is giving Sucre a hard time, saying that he is lazy. When he leaves Abruzzi, Michael and Sucre carry on hammering away at the floor, while T-Bag stands guard.
Sucre mentions that if the debris is found they’ll be in big trouble. And Michael replies that they need to get rid of it, one piece at a time.
We see the boys in the yard, dropping the hammered pieces of concrete and burying it in the ground ala-Shawshank Redemption style.
Just then a bus pulls up with new inmates for Fox River Pen. You can see t-Bag salivating at the thought of fresh meat.
As everyone files back to their cells, C-Note walks up to the spot where Michael was standing, bends down and picks up a piece of concrete that Michael had dropped. He knows something is up.
On returning to their cell, Sucre is teasing Michael about no longer being the new fish in the tank. As they enter their block, Sucre looks up, eyes widening. Michael follows his gaze and sees Cherry climbing over the rails of the first floor cell block, sheets tied around his neck.
Before anyone can do anything, Cherry jumps and hangs himself.
Michael is feeling very guilty because Cherry had come to him for help and he had turned away from him. He is talking to Lincoln about it in Chapel and Lincoln says there was nothing he could do.
He says his mother would be turning in her grave if she knew what he id but Lincoln insists that he did the right thing. The escape was their priority but Michael wondered at what price.
C-Note is in the yard probably trying to figure out what exactly Michael is up to when one of the new inmates walk up to him.
Because of the war going on, the Caucasians and African Americans do not mix. The newbie being the former while C-Note is the latter. The new inmate’s hairstyle reminds me very much of Vanilla Ice with the shaved stripe thing he has going on.
Vanilla Ice tries to talk to C-Note but he is not interested and tells him to get lost.
T-Bag is watching from a distance. He says that although the boy is a little confused at least he has spunk.
Abruzzi is also busy burying concrete in the ground when Bellick calls him to the fence.
Clearly Bellick is on the take and his latest payment from Abruzzi has not come through. Abruzzi has no idea why there is no payment and says he will look into it. Bellick says that he will check online to see if it had come through, because if it didn’t all the privileges Abruzzi enjoyed would be history.
I think Bellick is kidding about that online thing because he doesn’t look like the type who would know how to switch on a computer much less try and navigate a mouse.
Abruzzi immediately calls Falzone’s office but is given the brush off. Falzone is not taking his calls.
Veronica is busy going through the cupboards in the kitchen of their safe house when she happens upon some guns. Nick walks into the kitchen and she immediately gets a bit jumpy.
As he knows what’s in the cupboard, he tells her they belonged to his father and that his life was also threatened and that he is not one of the bad guys.
He says he is there to help Lincoln who is a scumbag, who got caught for the one thing he didn’t do.
Nick is busy getting dressed when Veronica goes to him to apologize. Nick tells her the next plan of action is to go and see Terrence Steadman’s widow to see if they can get any clues.
The boys are in the guards break room working on the hole in the floor and Lincoln is hammering away angrily, still fuming because he cannot get to LJ. Sucre comes in to warn them that someone is approaching.
They cover the hole with a piece of carpet and drag a table over it so that no one can notice it.
In comes CO Patterson demanding that the boys vacate the building immediately. They do as he says but not knowing what is going on.
As soon as the boys are out of site, Patterson pulls Pope’s secretary out from where she was hiding and leads her into the break room.
They are there for a quick rendezvous and Patterson lifts her onto the table.
We don’t get to see anything (thank goodness for small mercies) but it is clear what is happening. “Were so bad” “you’re the warden” PLEASE – they could have spared me that at least.
ANYWAY, what I am worried about is that they might move the table during their escapades. Seeing the secretary fall flat on her ass would have been funny but then the boys’ secret would be out.
Luckily everything is still in place (except her skirt) but Michael is worried that it will be discovered soon.
Abruzzi is in the visitors room talking to someone who I can only assume is his accountant. Abruzzi had given signing power to Falzone, who had liquidated all of Abruzzi’s assets.
Abruzzi is broke, save for the thirty thousand dollars in his wife’s account, which he refuses to touch.
Abruzzi heads back out and bumps into Gus, who completely ignores him. Abruzzi’s eyes follow him and see that he is meeting with Falzone.
In the yard, Abruzzi walks up to Gus and questions him about going to Falzone without asking him first.
Gus gets stroppy and tells him because he couldn’t deliver Fibonacci there has been restructuring. Abruzzi was yesterday’s news.
Abruzzi gets all uptight and wants to start a fight but his goons are no longer on his side. They side with Gus instead.
Back in the cells, Vanilla Ice is having problems fitting in. He clearly likes the rapper gansta style but he’s not black enough for them. And the whites, well because he prefers the African Americans, they want nothing to do with him.
One of the other inmates punches him, telling him that he’s a disgrace to his race. T-bag quickly comes to his rescue and dusts him off, which is probably just an excuse to get his hands on him. T-Bag asks his name but either he doesn’t tell him or it’s lost in all the noise of the cells.
Lincoln is in his cell when one of the COs brings him his food. Lincoln grabs the arm of the CO and begs him to make a phone call to his son.
The CO is reluctant until Lincoln asks him about his son and what he would do if his son was in danger.
LJ is wondering the streets, still barefoot when his cell phone rings. He sees that it’s from Fox River Pen so he knows it must be his dad and answers the phone.
The CO had allowed Lincoln to make the call and Lincoln is busy telling LJ what to do and where to go.
He suggested Veronica but LJ said he tried her but her phone was no longer in use. Lincoln then tells him to contact Nick Savrinn at Project Justice.
As they are busy talking Kellerman and Hale pull up and luckily LJ spots them and starts running. Kellerman chases on foot while Hale drives around in the car.
LJ runs through the throng of people trying to escape but Kellerman is fast on his heels. LJ runs into a parking lot and while Kellerman's view is obstructed he hides underneath one of the cars in the parking lot.
Kellerman knows he is there somewhere and starts to taunt him, even going so far as saying his mom won’t be able to help answer him.
LJ sneaks from one car to another and even though his cell phone nearly gives him away, he manages to escape Kellerman and Hale.
Nick and Veronica in the meantime have managed to find Mrs. Steadman. She is sitting having lunch and they walk up to her, asking her for a minute of her time.
They tell her that they are from an organization called National Victims’ Right Association and they question her about her husband’s death.
She says that if she didn’t know for sure that Lincoln Burrows had killed her husband she would have suspected anyone having lunch there at the club.
Apparently, there were a lot of people who had a motive to kill Terrence. There was a rumor of his indictment just before he was killed but because of his subsequent death, nothing happened.
If he had been indicted for fraud, the shareholders and investors would have lost billions.
In the yard Vanilla Ice sits alone on a bench and T-bag approaches him.
T-Bag tells him he’s in an unfortunate position where the blacks don’t want him and neither do the whites. He’s a ‘tweener which is obviously redneck for someone who is in between.
T-Bag puts his hands on Vanilla Ice’s knee and asks if it’s ok. Vanilla ice jumps up and calls T-Bag a homo which infuriates him no end.
Vanilla Ice warns T-Bag to stay away him or be killed.
All the way back to the cells T-Bag taunts him, warning him to sleep with one eye open. Michael tells T-Bag to lay off but T-Bag is not intimidated at all.
Sara has called the Medical Aid trying to get a claim paid and for Michael’s toe incident when she finds out that he has had psychiatric treatment.
She goes to the Clinical Psychologist and although he is reluctant to talk, she convinces him that it’s for Michael’s own good.
And what she found out was really surprising. She's looking rather pretty too...
Michael suffers from low-latent inhibition. What that means is that when he sees an object, he sees more than just the object. He sees everything connected to it. All the intricate details.
The psychiatrist uses a lamp as an example. Normal people see a lamp. Michael sees the lamp, the shade, the bulb, the cord, how it works. Things normal people block out.
The psychiatrist says that if somebody with a low IQ suffers from low latent inhibition then they almost always go insane. But in someone like Michael, it results in genius. Which clearly Michael is.
The second thing the psychiatrist tells her is that Michael has no self worth. And coupled with his low latent inhibition, this makes him more attuned to the suffering of the people around him. Which makes him want to help everyone around him.
That night, as everyone is going off to sleep T-Bag sings to Vanilla Ice “‘Tweener, I’m coming for you………” Vanilla Ice sits in his cells crying while Michael listens from his cell.
Nick receives a message from LJ and Veronica calls him back immediately.
LJ wants Veronica to pick him up but she says she is not in Chicago.
Just then LJ Sees Kellerman and Hale and says to Veronica that he can’t believe that they found him.
She tells him not to worry; He should take a bus to Lake Mercer to where they are.
Kellerman and Hale sit in the car, listening to his conversation. LJ is being traced through his cell phone and that’s how they manage to get find him all the time. They decide to follow LJ there so that they can kill 3 birds with one stone.
Over and over again Veronica says that he must go to Lake Mercer. I don’t know what it is about that woman but I cannot stand her. Sure, she’s one of the good guys but please can somebody shut her up!
Back in the cells, Abruzzi takes a bulb out of a lamp. He breaks the bulb and holds the broken piece over a sleeping Gus’s eye. Gus wakes up and asks him what he is doing. To which Abruzzi replies. “Delivering yesterday’s news”
We see him put pressure on the broken bulb and we hear Gus screaming in the night.
LJ buys a bus ticket at the depot and boards his bus.
As the Lake Mercer bus arrives at its destination, Kellerman and hale jump on before any of the passengers have had a chance to disembark.
Their tracking device leads them to the bathroom where Kellerman sees LJs cell phone. He opens it up and sees the picture of himself that LJ took.
Another bus pulls up and we see LJ disembark. He sees Veronica and Nick across the road and goes over to Veronica, who embraces him.
And at that moment my heart breaks for him. He had seen his mother and step-father killed, his own life had been threatened and he has had to sleep on the street.
Until then, there had been no-one to comfort him. That’s a lot for a young boy to handle and for once I do not mind Veronica.
She had obviously guessed that his phone was being traced so she after she hung up with him, she had sent him an SMS telling him their proper location, thus evading Kellerman and Hale once again.
Lincoln is in his small cell going crazy with worry. A CO appears and hands him a package. Because all correspondence is checked, the documentation is in code but the message is clear. LJ is with veronica and he is safe.
The boys are on their way back to the guards break room to resume their digging when they pass vanilla Ice. T-Bag is in a good mood because pretty soon he will be free and he’ll be getting him some tail too.
As they enter the break room, Michael grabs a spade and whacks T-Bag on the knee, bringing him down. T-Bag calls for the guards while Michael threatens him.
Michael warns T-Bag that if he even as much as touches Vanilla Ice he’ll be in trouble. He knows how desperate T-Bag is to get out so he uses that as leverage.
Just then Bellick walks in and once again is at Sucre, calling him Julio. He clearly hates Hispanics and uses every opportunity to taunt him.
He walks in and stands right on the spot where the hole is supposed to be. He calls Abruzzi out, needing to speak to him.
When he leaves, Michael lifts the carpet and sees Bullock’s Employee of the month award over the hole.
He looks at Sucre who gives him a wink and a super sexy smile.
In the yard Bellick refuses to give Abruzzi more time to come up with the money.
As T-Bag limps through the yard, Vanilla Ice calls out to him, teasing him. T-Bag looks at Vanilla and also sees Michael and Sucre watching him. T-Bag limps on, ignoring vanilla Ice, who thinks that he has finally gotten to T-Bag. Smiles all round except for T-Bag.
Just then Sucre tells Michael that there’s trouble.
Bellick leads a new group of inmates to PI’s in the Break Room and when Abruzzi questions what is going on Bellick tells him that he no longer runs PI.
Which can only mean trouble for our boys.