Prison Break Recap: Sweet Caroline

Title: “Sweet Caroline”
Original Airdate: March 5, 2007
GMMR Recapper: Michelle

The name of this episode is “Sweet Caroline.” I guarantee that once you see the episode, you’ll never again sing the Neil Diamond song with such sweet abandon as you did only a few hours beforehand. Trust me.

C-Note
C-Note is saved from his hanging attempt when guards find him dangling in his cell. He still wants to die, because he believes Mahone will carry out his threat to have his wife re-arrested and that treatment for his daughter will stop. C-Note calls Mahone at his office, but Agent Wheeler takes the call. When C-Note leaves the message, “Don’t hurt them” for Mahone, Wheeler, who has been suspicious of Mahone, starts putting the pieces together. He talks to C-Note and asks him to rat out Mahone and what he’s been doing. I’m thinking that this will be C-Notes ticket out of this mess: he’ll bargain dirt on Mahone for his own freedom, and that’s how he’ll escape having to return to Fox River.

Sucre and T-Bag
No, they’re not in cahoots, thank God. But they are both in Mexico. T-Bag beats up an airport baggage worker in an attempt to get his checked bag (dumbass) full of $5 million, which he can’t wait for at the baggage carousel because he sees Bellick is there, too (trust me, your bags will NEVER come around on the baggage carousel, anyway. They never do). But the bag gets away, and T-Bag runs. In bed with Maricruz, who is wolfing down food to satisfy a craving obviously brought on by her pregnancy, Sucre sees T-Bag’s picture on the TV news. He realizes that if T-Bag was seen trying to steal luggage at the airport, it must mean that he no longer has the $5 million. He goes out to get more food for Maricruz, telling her, “I’ll be right back.” I am immediately uneasy, since those are the exact words Tom Hanks yells to Helen Hunt in “Cast Away” right before his plane crashes and he spends the next four and a half years on a deserted island while his loved ones think he’s dead. Turns out my suspicions are not unfounded, as upon Sucre’s return to the house, Bellick is there. Bellick is going to take Sucre back into custody…until Sucre realizes that Bellick is only getting $100,000 to round up all the cons, but Sucre can offer him $5 million. He has a bargaining chip now. Good for him, because you know Bellick is slimy enough to take him up on it.

Michael, Lincoln and Sara
Michael, Lincoln and Sara are in the hotel room together, just having realized that without a date stamp, the tape of the President’s conversation with her brother is all but useless, except in terms of blackmail. Michael sets out to confront the President, who is in Chicago for an appearance, while Linc goes to talk to their buddy, Derrick Sweeney, regarding contingency plans should Michael’s conversation with the President not go as planned. Michael makes plans to meet with Sara later at a specific spot, and before he walks out the door, he turns to Lincoln and Sara and says, clearly and succinctly, “I love you both.” All sarcasm aside, this is my absolute favorite line of the series thus far, and the meaning within it summarizes exactly why. Michael is doing all of this because of his love for his brother, and in the process he’s come to love Sara as well. It also never ceases to amaze me that Michael and Sara managed to find love together in spite of the bizarre and dangerous circumstances in which they find themselves. Their relationship is honest and straightforward and refreshingly lacking in drama, and if any two people have the right to enter a relationship hauling an immense load of emotional baggage, it’s these two. Between the two of them, they’ve dealt with the disappearance of a parent, the real death of a parent, the murder of a parent that was set up to look like suicide, drug abuse, abusive foster parents, false imprisonment, and fleeing from the law, among many, many other things, and yet they use none of it as an excuse for their actions or their fears. Bravo. And I’m totally serious about that.

Getting back to the story, Michael meets the President in her throng of admirers before her appearance, and before he’s taken down by authorities, he manages to pass her a note that simply says, “We have the tape.” Finally, we’re going to hear what’s on that tape – and I’m not kidding! Before we do, a totally deranged and pissed Kim has his time alone with Michael, and after a speech about his time at a military academy and trying to further goals such as peace and harmony, he pummels Michael’s face in an attempt to get him to reveal where Linc is. But Michael didn’t get this far just to give up his brother to some government-sanctioned psychopath, so all of this beating is for naught. Just as Kim is about to shoot Michael, President Reynolds walks in and demands time alone with Michael. Kim looks beside himself with rage and confusion, but he leaves. Michael explains the situation, tells her about the tape…and then calls Linc to have him play a snippet over the phone. Turns out, Caroline Reynolds’ relationship with her brother was full of not just brotherly love, if you know what I mean. When he calls her “Sweet Caroline” on the tape, he’s not uttering a term of endearment for his little sister. If we’re at all confused, his full meaning becomes apparent once he starts ruminating about watching her sleep in bed. Unless I am totally misunderstanding, and I don’t think I am, Caroline Reynolds and her brother Terrence Steadman had an incestuous relationship. Anyhoo, she’s heard enough of the tape, looks justifiably horrified at the prospect of it leaking out, and knows Michael means business. He’ll release the tape if he doesn’t get what he wants. After a bit of waffling (and, really, what kind of wiggle room does she have here?) she agrees to his demands: he gets to walk out of that building a free man, and he and Lincoln get a full Presidential pardon, which she will announce on TV within the hour.

While all this is going on, Sara has been trapped in the hotel room with Mahone, who busted in after Michael and Linc left. She talks to a strung-out looking Mahone about drug addiction, and the two of them really do look like junkies forming a bond about their darkest moments. Mahone is on a very heavy tranquilizer (“It’s very quiet down here”) and basically tells Sara that he is responsible for some of the death he’s seen. Their buddy-buddy time draws to a close when Mahone threatens to shoot her; when her cell phone rings, she manages to get Mahone’s gun and get away. But he has the bullets. It looks like a set-up, as the female FBI agent is waiting outside the room and tails Sara as she leaves. She’s hoping that Sara will lead her right to Michael.

In the meantime, Linc has secured three tickets, a cabin, and a six pack of beer from Derrick Sweeney, who obviously owed him big time. Michael meets Linc at the warehouse and tells him what went down with the President. I am so happy for everyone that I almost start crying. And, really, I avoid all spoilers about the show, and my TiVo is showing no upcoming episodes, so that this point I believe that I may really be watching the end of the series. But wait! Mr. Kim has spoken to Silent Man (who IS this guy?) in the limo and told him about this dire turn of events. Silent Man slaps down a file with the label Soma (what does this mean? Anyone? Bueller?). Before President Reynolds takes the podium to supposedly announce the pardon of Lincoln and Michael, Mr. Kim reminds her that he, too, knows of her “secrets,” and asks her who she fears most: Lincoln and Michael, or Mr. Kim and his associates? The answer becomes clear when she begins her speech. Instead of announcing the pardon, she announces that she has a very malignant form of cancer and will be stepping down from office immediately. Brilliant. Genius. She’s avoiding the scandal altogether. Alas, this means she can’t pardon anyone, and Lincoln and Michael realize that their tape is useless. What now? Run. Again.

Michelle is the frazzled mother of two very young kids. In lieu of taking a shower every day, she writes TV recaps for GMMR to keep the remaining shred of her sanity intact. This also helps her justify her insanely intense TV-watching habit, which was spawned in her early childhood because she was allowed to watch an unlimited number of”Sesame Street” episodes when she herself was a preschooler.

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