Dr. Tancredi examines Michael’s foot. She finds no redness or swelling; he’s healing well. But she’s still concerned for his well-being. “Michael, you understand by law I’m obligated to file a report if I feel there’s been prisoner misconduct.” Michael tells her that if she files that report, things could get worse for him. Sara asks him if he’s afraid. Michael recounts a story from his childhood, about how his brother helped him face his fear of monsters in the closet. His brother told him that you face your fear by opening the closet door and seeing that nothing’s there. Fear doesn’t exist. It’s not even air. Michael tells her that in prison, when you face your fear, when you open the closet, there are a 100 more doors, and the monsters are very real. Sara offers to send him to protective custody for his safety, but Michael refuses.
Veronica looks up from her typing with a start as someone walks into her office. It’s Kellerman, who introduces himself with a smile. He knows she’s looking into Lincoln’s case, and while he is sure they got the right man, he tells her that if she “comes across anything that could shed some light on his innocence, I’m offering my help.” Veronica thanks him guardedly and as soon as he’s gone, her thoughts turn to Leticia. She searches the lounge, but finds only a coil of smoke rising from a cigarette still burning in the ashtray. Veronica races out of the office and into the Chicago streets, but she doesn’t find her. All she sees is a man in a trench coat step into a car which proceeds to speed away. Just then, her cell phone rings. It’s her fiancé, Sebastian. He’s at the reception hall with the vendors. They scheduled meetings with the wedding planner today. Veronica cannot think about that now. She hangs up, her thoughts on Leticia who may have just disappeared for good.
Abruzzi and his cellmate, Gus, look down at Michael limping back to his cell. Abruzzi mutters, “We could cut off all his limbs, he still wouldn't talk. Pain's not the answer here. Maybe the Beatles were right. Maybe all you need is love.”
Michael returns to the cell to find Sucre packing his things for a cell transfer. Still angry, Sucre tells him that he’s going somewhere with a normal cellmate and not someone whose crazy plans threaten to ruin his chances of getting out. Michael begs Sucre to stay, but Sucre is resolute. “Fish, listen to me. I got 16 months. I got a fiancée to think about. I get caught with a hole in my wall, I don't see the real world for another 5 years. I can’t do that.” Sucre grabs his belongings and pushes past Michael.
Reverend Mailor sits on Lincoln’s bed while Lincoln squats on the floor. Echoing Pope’s sentiments, Mailor questions Lincoln’s desire to exclude his family from his last days. Lincoln doesn’t want to cause anyone any more pain and wonders why he should ask anyone to be with him in his final hours. Mailor tells him, “It’s about how you want to leave this world. What is the last image you want to take with you? A stranger?”
In the mess hall, T-Bag glowers, concealing the jagged-edged “Gutter” beneath the table as Michael clears his food tray. T-Bag stands to make a move but is stopped by Abruzzi. “Got an issue with our little friend there?” Abruzzi asks. T-Bag blows off Abruzzi. He doesn’t need Abruzzi’s okay to settle the score with Michael. Abruzzi corrects him. “Everything runs through me in here.” T-Bag snarls that he wants Michael. Abruzzi replies, “Seems you and I have something in common.”
As the inmates march out of the mess hall, one of Abruzzi’s goons shoulders Michael and forces him through an open door leading to a vacant kitchen annex where Abruzzi waits. Michael steels himself, but Abruzzi warns, “Easy now, fish. Don't make this any harder than it needs to be. It’s time we came to an arrangement, don’t you think?” On cue, T-Bag walks out from behind Abruzzi. T-Bag approaches Michael, “Gutter” in hand, preaching his twisted thoughts. “You know, I was thinking I was gonna gut you bow to stern soon as I laid eyes on you. But alackaday you look so pretty when you’re scared, don’t you? Maybe we ought to get the love out of the way before we get on to the hate. What do you say to that, Pretty? Maybe it's time I lit up that leather once and for all.” T-Bag takes one more step forward, and out of nowhere, Abruzzi elbows him in the face. The goons grab T-Bag and beat him down. Abruzzi escorts Michael out of the backroom before the C.O.s arrive. “That back there's my way of saying I know I've gone about this whole thing the wrong way. I'm trying to make amends here,” Abruzzi extends a hand to Michael, who pieces together the unexpected events with a quizzical look at the mercurial John Abruzzi.
As the inmates file out to the yard in their daily processional, Abruzzi asks what Michael needs from him. “A trade. You get me a plane, I’ll give you Fibonacci.” Abruzzi presses Michael further about the specific date and time of the escape. Michael holds the information back; he doesn’t trust Abruzzi that much yet.
Lincoln walks into the visitation cage, escorted by a guard, Louis. Lincoln asks Louis to take off the shackles and Louis says no, but Lincoln begs. “Ten minutes, please! It’s my kid.” Lincoln sits before LJ, the conversation is awkward. Lincoln tells LJ that he has to decide who should attend his execution. LJ squirms as Lincoln tells him how important he is to him. Lincoln presses his hand to the cage and asks that LJ do the same. Their fingers meet and Lincoln asks that LJ be there the day before he dies so Lincoln can see him, hug him one more time before his death. “I love you,” Lincoln mumbles. Tears well up in LJ’s eyes. “I’ve always loved you.” LJ blurts out that he doesn’t know if he can handle this. Lincoln replies, “Neither do I. But I don’t really have a choice. But you do.”
Veronica is late for a dinner out with Sebastian, who unsuccessfully tries to mask his frustration. Veronica rattles off her discoveries about Lincoln’s case, but Sebastian cuts her off and asks pointedly, “Do you want to get married or not?” Veronica says that she’s unsure and maybe they should postpone it for now. Sebastian counters with an ultimatum; if Veronica wants to postpone, then they should cancel it. Veronica sighs, then simply tells Sebastian, “I’m sorry.” “I’ll come get my stuff tomorrow,” he says as he walks away from the table.
In his cell, Michael flips open a hollowed-out book that stores his homemade allen wrench. Before he can dismantle the toilet, Bellick yells out, “Open on Forty!” Michael quickly conceals the bolt into his front pocket as Bellick swaggers in. “Scofield. Found you a new cellie. As luck would have it, I found him in Psych Ward. You were the only guy with an open tray, so...” Bellick is enjoying the moment and brings in a man introduced simply as “Haywire.” Haywire lurks at the cell door, clutching his possessions. “Oh, and Scofield. Just a heads up. Don’t make eye contact with him.”
In the yard, Michael walks along the fence near Lincoln. Michael tells Lincoln about Haywire. There’s no way they can bring Haywire into the plan. Michael will just have to work at night. “How far behind are we?” Lincoln asks. “Three days,” Michael says flatly. “I thought you said the margin of error was zero days,” Lincoln asks. “I did,” Michael says as he walks away.
Hale and Kellerman’s sedan creeps into a secluded clearing. Kellerman maintains a cool demeanor even as they open the trunk to reveal a bound and gagged Leticia. Kellerman instructs Hale to take her into the woods to dispose of her. Hale protests, but Kellerman is firm. Hale drags Leticia into the woods and forces her to the ground. Hale apologizes to Leticia for what he’s about to do. But before he can pull the trigger, a train whistle startles him. Leticia uses the distraction to get up and start running. Hale fires, striking her in the leg. As Hale approaches, Leticia begs for her life. Hale looks in her eyes, gun trained, but he just can’t squeeze the trigger. A gunshot rings out. Kellerman stands over Leticia’s dead body. He coldly tells Hale, “Pick up the casings.”
Michael waits until Haywire is quiet before he begins working again. He inserts the wrench into the bolt, but stops when he feels Haywire’s eyes on him. He slowly turns and, indeed, Haywire is watching him from the top bunk. Unnerved, Michael asks what Haywire’s problem is. “I have a neuroanatomic lesion affecting my reticular activating system,” Haywire replies. Michael asks, “What’s that mean?”
Haywire replies, “It means I don’t sleep. At all.”
Prison Break
Episode 104 - "Cute Poison"
Airdate: 09/12/2005
Asleep in his darkened cell, Lincoln jerks awake as the fluorescent lights snap on and the cell door slams open. Bellick storms into the cell with a crowd of C.O.s behind him. The C.O.s wrestle Lincoln off his cot as Bellick barks, “On your feet.” Lincoln struggles against the guards, demanding to know what’s happening. His questions are ignored by the guards, who rush him into a long, sterile corridor toward a metal door.
The door opens to reveal an execution chamber. Faceless onlookers watch Lincoln impassively through a glass window. Lincoln’s eyes grow huge as he sees the prepped electric chair. He looks again to Bellick, insisting “I’ve got a month left!” But the C.O.s force Lincoln into the chair and strap down his arms and legs. One C.O. wets Lincoln’s forehead with a sponge while another places a metal halo on his head. Lincoln fights to keep from hyperventilating, begging Bellick for mercy. Bellick leans towards Lincoln and murmurs, “Make your peace.” He pulls a black hood over Lincoln’s face and gives the signal to two C.O.s who pull the control switch. Lincoln’s body begins to shake.
Lincoln wakes up in his cell, still shaking. He sits up, haunted. His head sinks into his hands.
Michael crouches next to the toilet in his cell. He’s managed to pull it out about a foot from the wall and he uses his homemade allen wrench to scrape out the concrete between the cinder blocks. “Open on forty!” an unseen C.O. shouts out. Michael quickly pushes the toilet back to the wall as his cell door opens and Haywire returns. Michael’s new cellmate hops onto the top bunk and Michael asks, “Haywire, you ever thought about breaking out?” Haywire scoffs at the idea. On the outside, he’d face a barrage of halfway houses, psych visits, meds, parole officers, urine tests, and trying to keep a job. Haywire advises Michael that anyone who has suspicions of an escape plan should tell Bellick. “He’ll make life easier for you if…” Haywire trails off, distracted by Michael’s tattoos. “What are they of?” he asks. Michael quickly grabs a long sleeve shirt and covers his skin, telling Haywire curtly, “They’re just tattoos.” A C.O. calls into the cell, “It’s candy time, Haywire.” Haywire walks to the bars where a doctor hands him a cup of meds. Haywire swallows, then opens his mouth and moves his tongue around to prove that he took the pills. As soon as the doctor and the C.O. leave, Haywire pushes past Michael to the toilet and forces himself to vomit up the pills. Michael notes that maybe he’s being given those pills for a reason. Haywire replies, “Yeah, to keep me in their invisible freakin’ handcuffs.” Haywire steps towards Michael. “Seriously, though. Those tattoos. They’re beautiful. Mind if I, you know, see the whole thing?” Michael says yes, he does, and moves towards the opening door as inmates are released for yard time.
Outside, Michael crosses toward Sucre. Before Michael can say a word, Sucre brushes past, saying, “I’m not even talking to you.” Michael’s eyes turn and follow Sucre out, and then lock on Haywire, who stands by himself, staring at Michael’s torso. Michael turns away from Haywire, and rolls up his sleeve. He examines a tattoo on his forearm. It’s an overturned jug spilling liquid down a drain. The jug’s label reads, “CUTE POISON.” As Michael studies the tattoo, he flashes back to his old apartment where a web of documents are affixed to his wall. With a red marker he writes “CUTE POISON” across a page containing a complex chemical equation. Back in the yard, Abruzzi finds Michael and searches his face, suspicious. “What’s the problem?” Abruzzi asks. He pushes further to find out why Michael looks so tortured, Michael nods towards Haywire, who still stares at Michael’s torso. “That’s my new cellmate. He doesn’t sleep.” Which means, Michael tells Abruzzi, there is no digging. Abruzzi tells Michael that either he takes care of his problem, or Abruzzi is going to take care of Michael.
“It’s really coming together, isn’t it?” Warden Pope asks Michael as they survey Michael’s progress on the massive Taj Mahal model. Michael tells Pope that there’s still plenty to do, but they should be ready in time for Pope’s anniversary. Pope, grateful, says he wishes he could pay Michael for his help. Michael mentions that he would appreciate a cellmate transfer, if possible. Pope shakes his head. Bellick is in charge all cell transfers and unless there are extreme circumstances such as violence or sexual predation, the prison is too crowded to accommodate transfer requests. The door to Pope’s main office opens and Becky, Pope’s assistant, walks in closing the door behind her. “Warden, sorry, but your wife is here.” Caught off-guard, Pope slides out of the Taj Mahal room, careful that his wife doesn’t catch a glimpse of her anniversary present-to-be.
Pope tries to hurry his wife, Judy, out of the office, but she pauses and studies him. “You’re acting funny. What’s going on in there?” She motions towards the room housing the Taj. Pope tries to placate her, but this only piques her interest further. “This isn’t Toledo all over again, is it?” Pope is wounded by her vague insinuation. She takes a step towards the door, but Michael opens it before she can get any closer. “Warden, I’m not going to be able to cooperate. I’d get killed if I did. Johnson’s still deciding.” A look of relief on his face, Pope orders Michael back to his cell.
Lincoln enters the Attorney/Client visiting room, his hands and ankles shackled. Veronica stands at the table, waiting for him. “What are you doing?” he asks. “I’m your attorney,” she replies carefully. “If that’s all right with you.” Lincoln is hesitant. The last time they spoke she called him a liar and suspected that the judge who sentenced him to death “got it right.” Veronica explains that things have changed. She sits down and tells him that Leticia Barris corroborated his story. Unfortunately, Leticia is missing, and Veronica suspects that the Secret Service is involved. Lincoln knows that Veronica can’t do this alone, especially with government agencies working against them. He points her to Project Justice, a law firm that deals exclusively with death row cases. Lincoln has sent copies of his casework to a man there named Ben Forsik and Veronica agrees to follow up with him. Lincoln pauses, then asks about Sebastian. Veronica tells him that the engagement is off. Lincoln tells her that he’s sorry, to which Veronica coyly replies, “At least say it like you mean it.” Veronica gets up and heads for the door. Lincoln thanks her for coming to help. She offers a smile. “You can thank me when I get you out of here.”
