"Prison Break" Recap & Review - "Orientacion"

Prison Break
“Orientación”

Original Air Date: September 17, 2007

Tom R - TwoCents Staff Writer

This show completely reinvented itself last year, so the big question is, can they do it again? After all, if they were Van Halen, this would be heading into the Gary Cherone phase. Yikes!

Luckily, the writers still have a few tricks up their collective sleeves, and the mix of old and new characters should bode well. So far, they’re off to a good start.

Last season closed with Michael Scofield imprisoned in Sona prison in Panama. After opening with a mysterious woman applying makeup to an awful scar, Michael watches a fight to the death. We then see Linc getting the lowdown on the place: No guards are present. The convicts have initiated their own system of rules and justice. The military maintains a presence only on the perimeter, gunning down any potential fugitives.

So from the outside, Linc tries to get Michael transferred to another prison. Inside, Mahone tries to prompt Michael to break the both of them out, while Bellick wanders the compound in just a pair of underwear. He is badly beaten and on the brink of starvation, but still tough and resolute.

After meeting Lechero, the man who runs Sona (Actor: Robert Wisdom), Michael is set up and challenged to a fight. Mahone gives him advice on fighting dirty, but Michael doesn’t want to go for the kill. When one of the other convicts slips his opponent a knife, Mahone steps in and finishes off the opponent, throwing back Lechero’s words about honor, rules and fair fights.

Making his way through menial tasks, Bellick encounters a man walled up in a basement. He feeds Bellick (although I’m not sure I want to know what he’s really eating) and asks him to perform an errand. Bellick slips notes into the pockets of both men. The man in the basement knows that whoever gets killed, the note will be found on them once the bodies are thrown outside the compound.

On the outside, Linc tries to find Sara. He gets word that she is dead, but when he IDs the body, it is not her. He connect with his son LJ, who arranges a meeting. However, when he gets there, it’s not LJ waiting for him, but the mysterious woman from the opening sequence. The bottom line to all this? Michael must break out within a week, taking with him the man behind the wall. If not, Sara and LJ are dead.

So you have Scofield needing to team with Bellick (although he doesn’t know it yet) and Mahone, who has the killer instinct that Michael lacks, as new inmate Bagwell insinuates himself into Lechero’s good graces.

It’s just the beginning. Some terrific groundwork has been laid, and it continues to be one of the most cleverly constructed shows on the air.

Prison Break airs Mondays at 8 PM on FOX.