S04E16

• Name: The Sunshine State
• Air Date: December 22nd, 2008
• Season: 4
• Number: 16
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Episode Outline

I had the pleasure of watching the Prison Break fall finale at Cousin Joe's house last night where, between the two of us, we managed to call every possible surprise or twist in the episode. Allow me to summarize...

We open with Linc, Gretchen, T-Bag and Self arriving in Miami. Linc calls Sara, who's in a gorgeous hotel room back in LA, to tell her where he is. Their conversation goes something like this:

Sara: They took Michael from me! I'm so sad!!

Linc: I'm going to find Scylla in Miami and then give it back to the Company.

Sara: Do you think that's wise?

Linc: What's this 'wise' that you speak of? I'm Lincoln, I just do shit. Maybe I'll get to hit someone in Miami!

Sara: Where's Sucre?

Linc: Sucre left.

Sara: *GASP!* No! Why?!?!?!

Linc: I also left messages for Mahone about Miami, but we'll have to see if he shows. That guy is only quasi-reliable.

Linc hangs up and Gretchen announces that the guy who took Scylla from them in LA (apparently known as nothing but "The Representative" on IMDB) has some connections to a bar called "The Grafton".

Let me take this opportunity to tell you that all four of the people in Miami are dressed up or wearing nice, trendy clothes. Linc's in a nice suit, while T-Bag actually looks better than he has in years. But Gretchen...she's wearing a black leather suit. Sure, it looks businessy, but it's so freaking impractical for August / early-September in Florida that it makes me want to scream.

Anyways, Linc and Self trade barbs (and death threats) and Linc heads off to the bar.

Michael, who has also blessedly changed into something more attractive than that jean outfit he's been sporting for half of the season, wakes up in a beautiful cabin the woods. At this point I was all "Michael's recovery time is ridiculous!" He notices that the doors are locked and there are Company guards outside. He goes into a bathroom and notices a water heater tucked away, along with a whole lot of cleaning supplies. Cousin Joe shouts out "he's going to make a bomb!", which was call #1.

Michael goes downstairs to meet Dr. Knowlton, who's a psychiatrist. Knowlton tells Michael that he's got some misconceptions about the Company. Because apparently they didn't set up his brother to be executed, and then systematically take down the Fox River 8, and then try to kill the brothers and are responsible for enough deaths that Michael can use an entire piece of paper to list the deceased. Knowlton quickly tells Michael that his mother, Christina, is still alive and works for the Company. Next to Sara's resurrection, this was the second worst-kept secret in television. I called it at the beginning of the episode, but that's because I read spoilers, so we won't count that as a call.

Linc arrives at the bar to try and track down the Representative, but that quickly leads to him smacking around a few people (Linc's favorite pastime) and then dragging out a girl who claims that the Representative is dating some girl from the bar and she can help track her down.

Now Michael and Knowlton are taking a stroll around the property. Knowlton tells Michael that his mother left because he and Lincoln were in danger of being kidnapped. Which is precisely why Aldo Burrows left the boys. Christ, couldn't these boys have at least one normal parent? Apparently Christina was in an Africa rainforest during Linc's whole stint in Fox River and didn't resurface like their father did. Knowlton tells Michael that Christina was working to create farmland out of a desert and now they want Michael to join the Company to help out.

Blonde chick from the bar and Lincoln arrive at some boardwalk and Linc gets his gun ready for shootin'. Blondie points out a girl on the boardwalk and Linc goes out to meet her. Before he gets too far, some of the Representative's goons fire on Linc, allowing Blondie to escape in a car.

Now Blondie and the Representative are reunited and we learn that he set up Linc. Blondie notices that Linc lifted her wallet.

Linc delivers Blondie's wallet to Gretchen and we see Self and T-Bag talking outside. This episode is like Survivor...everyone's making alliance with everyone else and everyone's trying to take over the group. Linc sends T-Bag and Self off to Blondie's apartment (Blondie is actually named Tia).

Pad Man's enjoying a lovely lunch in his office when Sara arrives. She wants to help nurture Michael back to health, but Pad Man is not prepared to release Michael until nearly a week, at which time he hopes that Michael will be prepared to realize his full potential.

Knowlton is trying to tell Michael about how similar he is to Christina. Knowlton tells Michael that the Company wants Michael and Christina to use their genius brains together to put plans into practice. Michael is about to leave when Knowlton pulls out a photo album of Linc and Michael as children. He offers it up as proof that Christina is still alive.

Sara's pacing in her hotel room when she gets a text message, telling her to go to Grand Street.

Self and T-Bag arrive at Tia's apartment and begin to take it apart, looking for clues. Self tells T-Bag that they need to usurp Linc from the leadership position.

Back at the hotel, Linc tells Gretchen that the Company will be emailing her Tia's credit card history. Gretchen tells Linc that she thinks this is an inside job, at which point I say "I bet you Christina Scofield is the Scylla buyer", which was call #3. Gretchen then comes on stronger to Linc than I do to attractive men while drunk in bars (um...I probably shouldn't have said that). Self and T-Bag return before the two of them can go at it.

Linc hands Gretchen Tia's hard drive and tells her to get the Company on extracting information from it. Self then tells Linc that he's been voted off the island. The hotel door opens and the boys all draw their guns, at which time I say "I bet that's Mahone!", which was call #4.

And then Mahone comes walking in the door (called it!) and the chances of success of this little operation just increased ten-fold, because if the team can't have Michael's brains, then Mahone's brains are a nice second-best.

Michael's looking through the photo album Knowlton gave him, telling Knowlton that the photos are from a family camping trip two years before Christina died. Knowlton tells Michael about how his mother used to watch him visit her grave each year and Michael gets increasingly upset.

Mahone's now brainstorming with the team. They eventually come to the conclusion that Tia and the Representative were at the marina yesterday and they're all off to the marina. Mahone tells Linc that he owes him for helping him get Wyatt, but I think those two may just become life-long friends like Michael and Sucre (where's Sucre?!).

Sara arrives at Grand Street, looks around and then sits down to wait.

The team arrives at the Miami marina and Mahone and Self go inside to the office. Self and Mahone pretend to be with DHS and question the marina guy about Tia. After throwing around some government weight, the marina guy tells them that Tia was in yesterday, meeting her boyfriend, who was asking about a boat to the Bahamas. The marina guy tells them that the boat has arrived. Self goes to greet the people who are disembarking from the boat and begins a search. A sketchy guy takes off and the group goes to follow him. Unfortunately, that guy was just smuggling in some Cuban cigars and ran because he thought he would be in trouble.

Michael's still looking through the photo album and he sees a picture of him and Linc dressed up as robots one Halloween. They're literally the cheesiest costumes I've ever seen. Knowlton's talking with Pad Man, telling him that he thinks Michael will come around within three days. Pad Man suggests that the doctor use penathol to make Michael more pliable, but Knowlton says it'll be like giving him a chemical lobotomy. Pad Man tells Knowlton to keep working at it.

Back at Grand Street, Sara goes to answer a ringing pay phone and then gets grabbed by some men in a van, who put a sack over her head. At this point Cousin Joe says "I bet Sara's going to meet Pad Man's daughter", which was call #5.

The funniest thing that happened to me while visiting family was this: I showed my 11 year old cousin/godson Vincenzo the trailer for Terminator: Salvation this weekend because he loves The Dark Knight and action movies. About halfway through the trailer he turns to me and says "[Christian Bale's] doing that whisper thing again". I about nearly died from laughter, because the freaking 11 year old notices the whisper and is annoyed by it.

Sara is taken from the van into a limo where she's greeted by Lisa Tabak (and Cousin Joe called it right!). Lisa tells Sara where Michael is being held and tells her that while she is with the Company, she's not about killing innocent people.

Self and Mahone return to the marina office and get the security footage tape from the marina guy.

Back at the hotel, the team is talking about how to find Scylla and Gretchen is still searching through photos to find the Representative. She comes across his face while Mahone and Linc are talking about Michael. Gretchen hides her discovery from Linc.

Sara's on the phone with Linc, telling him about her conversation with Lisa Tabak. Sara's all for going to rescue Michael, but Linc's convinced he can hold on for another day. Linc tells Sara to stay in her hotel until he comes back to save the day and we see that T-Bag has overhead Linc's conversation. T-Bag promptly calls Pad Man and tells him that Sara is going to retrieve Michael.

Pad Man calls Knowlton and tells him to use the chemicals to turn Michael. He tells him that their transit vehicle will be arriving in 20 minutes.

Knowlton and the goons are preparing the penathol, while Michael's washing up in the bathroom. Knowlton calls Michael out and Michael flashes back to the chemicals he used in Fox River, which also happen to be in the cleaning supplies in the bathroom.

Linc and the others recognize the Representative from the marina security footage and pull the image for the Company to track down. They also notice that Gretchen has left.

Gretchen, meanwhile, meets up with the Representative at a cafe. She tells him she knows he's working for someone in the Company and demands $10 million for her silence and for bringing Linc and the others to him. We also learn that the Representative's name is Scott.

Back at the cabin, Michael comes out of the bathroom and the goons grab him, making a move to stick him with the needles they had been preparing. Fortunately, for Michael, the little bomb he built using the cleaning supplies and the water heater (Cousin Joe called it right!), goes off. This allows Michael to grab a gun and have one of the goons stick Knowlton with the needle. Michael has the goon handcuff himself to the bed and then runs out of the house.

Unfortunately, Michael leaves at the same time two more goons arrive in the transit vehicle. Two of the goons jump into an ATV (I want one!) and take off after Michael.

Back in Miami, Gretchen tells the team that she tracked down the buyer and that she knows where he is staying.

Michael's still running from the goons (but stupidly not staying hidden among the trees). He nearly manages to escape, but he's cornered by them and their guns. Fortunately, Sara comes barreling down the street in her own car, pushing the ATV off the road, and she and Michael drive off.

Gretchen takes the team to a hotel when Scott and some of his goons show up with guns. Gretchen admits she set them up. Self, inexplicably, calls Gretchen a "whore" for betraying them (seems like a ridiculous insult at a time like that). Gretchen flashes back to kissing her daughter and then shoots Scott's goons. Mahone realizes that Scylla is now gone and then Scott shoots Gretchen in the chest (not fatally) and Mahone shoots and kills Scott. Self encourages Linc to kill Gretchen, but T-Bag is the voice of reason and begs for her life. Linc refuses to kill Gretchen and leaves her there for the police, who are quickly approaching the scene. The boys drive off.

Michael and Sara are chilling on a bridge. Michael tells her that he thinks his mother is alive and Sara's all "shit, I thought I wasn't going to have to deal with a mother-in-law when we got married!".

Scott's cell phone rings and Linc answers (because T-Bag lifted it from him when he got shot). The woman on the other end of the phone doesn't respond to Linc's greeting, so he basically tells her "I'm comin' for you".

We get our first glimpse of Kathleen Quinlan after Linc hangs up. She's in a hotel room, along with Scylla (called it!). She tells one of her men that her son Lincoln was on the phone. Boo-yah!

And there we have it, folks, the fall finale. As I told my grandfather last night, we're going to have to wait a couple months for the return of the show. But it'll be back, with 6 to 8 episodes, depending on what the studio people decide.

And now, on the night before the night before Christmas, I'm going to go get in the spirit by watching Home Alone. Because nothing says Christmas like robbery and child abandonment. See you all back here in 2009!

Written by: Clarissa
clarissa@prisonbreakmanhunt.com

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