[PRB] The Killing Box

TV Programme: Prison Break
Season: 2
Episode: 13
Date I watched this episode: 28/03/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: Less than 1 day.

This episode was the Christmas midseason finale of this season; after it aired in late November 2006, the show took an 8 week break from broadcast. As I predicted last episode, it marked a turning point for Paul's character, where he joined forces with the rebels. However the show did a pretty good job of convincing me that he was going to decide to stay with The Company, it really had me fooled until the last minute. And Paul made the right decision, as Mahone would have killed him otherwise. As for the brothers, they actually have quite a lot to thank The Company for; they have saved them from arrest more than once now.

The bulk of this episode was taken up with tense looks between Michael, Lincoln and Mahone. This actually came off quite well, as we knew something big was about to come and it just built up that tension. As the episode drew to a close, all the card were thrown on the table as far as Mahone and Kellerman were concerned.

I don't know if Mahone himself is dead or not. I really hope he isn't, it would be a tragedy to this show, over and above the tragic deaths of Abruzzi and Tweener. He's also the only one who knows what just happened with Kellerman, and so he's still valuable to The Company for that reason.

I don't know who on earth the man in the room with Bill Kim is. That man who never speaks but only writes notes...perhaps he is the boss of The Company? For such a powerful organisation to have a leader who can't speak, quite unlikely, but again I am going to give the writers some leeway here, as they have done so many things well this season. Certainly from a dramatic perspective he seems to be quite a formidable character. He is credited as "Pad Man", which reminds me of the early days of Caroline Reynolds when she was credited as "The Garlic Cutter" to disguise her identity.

Bradley, Bradley, what a mess you have got yourself into? The episode closed with him stuck in a cell with that sick convict Tweener had been locked up with earlier. As before though I don't even care, I'd rather he was just not shown on here anymore than punished. He really is the bane of this show.

T-Bag finally found Susan Hollander, and entered her house unarmed...what is his plan? She obviously feels threatened by him, but if he wants redemption then he is going about it the wrong way. If he wants revenge, then why didn't he bring a gun?

There would have been a lot to look forward to for 2006 fans of this show (and incidentally I would have been a fan back then, but probably only just getting to the end of the first season). Not just Paul and the brothers, but also what was Sara scratching into that mirror? What is T-Bag going to do now? Where will Sucre go? And where the hell is Charles Patoshik?

This show is good at making long stories still seem like short ones. The hints that are dropped throughout, add up to something which is only properly viewed when you look back across the whole season. Unlike 24 and Damages, I can look back across the first half of this season and don't find loads of story threads which are now totally irrelevant. And that's the brilliance of the writing on this show, and what keeps me coming back for more.