Prison Break OAD 4-3-06, "Brother's Keeper" *spoilers*

[terpfan1980]

As noted previously by Jesda, tonites show is proving to be a flashback episode that fills in much of the back story of the various players. It's probably not a bad idea, given that the NCAA championship game is on tonite and many people may be distracted and thinking of watching that instead. (Over on NBC there's a 2 hour marathon of Deal or No Deal as competition also).

It does seem that the Prison Break folks have been watching LOST and have opted to have a few of the prisoner's lives cross in the flashbacks. (I think Jesda had noted that also).

It's interesting to see that Michael owes everything to his brother after thinking that his brother was nothing more than a screw up. That obviously gives him all the more reason to be working to get Linc free.

The doctor being a Morphine addict gives her a lot of possibilities later, and perhaps explains why she's so sympathetic towards the prisoners. Watching the child that was hit on the bicycle basically die in front of her obviously shocked her.

SGT Franklin being arrested for wanting to press the Prisoner abuse case smacks of obviously liberal politics... especially compounded by his being arrested by the superior officer for doing what the officer had 'ordered' him to do. Dishonorable discharge for doing the right thing. Not fair to the brother for sure.

The rest of the show is ok, but again, as Jesda had noted previously, isn't doing much to advance the story. Hopefully we won't have too much more of these type episodes in the future.

[puckettcg]

I'm glad they threw in this episode, and I think the timing is right because we know the characters better. Several times I've wanted to know more of the history. I agree that the background on some of the characters was fluff, and didn't add to the storyline much. But, there wasn't enough to fill an hour without adding in the other characters - and it was interesting. The NBA game might have had something to do with the scheduling, but here on the East Coast, the game wasn't scheduled to start until after Prison Break ended - so not a factor for me.

[puckettcg]

Woops - meant to say NCAA

[terpfan1980]

The history was interesting for some, though didn't tell us much about most of the lesser characters. That worries me a little, because it leaves me thinking they'll go back and try to fill in time again in the future with some of these other characters.

It was a little interesting to see that of the group, T-Bag is the one that is obviously a bad guy. The rest have done what they needed to in order to get by.

Sucre getting screwed over by his homeboy wasn't too nice either, and it seems that he obviously doesn't know that.

[LordKronos]

The buddy that set up Sucre....was that the same one that's been hooking up with his girl while he's in prison?

[dswallow]

I think most -- not all -- but most of this episode was a big waste and was some sort of self-masturbatory attempt by the writers to copy something done by Lost -- done by Lost for a reason. They seem to have neglected that reason in Prison Break. It's gratuitous. It's not even like a good nod towards Lost for doing it. It's just copying.

[terpfan1980]

The buddy that set up Sucre....was that the same one that's been hooking up with his girl while he's in prison?

Yes, though I don't think he's actually hooked up with Sucre's girl, only tried to do so. The back story puts those pieces together a bit for us to show us that the buddy was also eyeing Maricruise (sp?) when Sucre was.

It seems that Sucre's buddy was jealous of Sucre and wanted that gal for himself, including promising to make her a material gal and give her all the stuff that Sucre couldn't. Sucre has been promising Maricruise that he'd see her soon though, and has been trying to keep her from 'going to the dark side'.

[Kamakzie]

It was an okay ep.. Nice to see how the main characters in the show got sent to prison..

[JYoung]

I hope they didn't pay Jonathan Billingsley by the line.

[tivogurl]

Why was T-Bag dating a woman? I thought he was supposed to be homosexual. He didn't seem to be there just to kill her for a quick thrill, or to molest her kid (which, if he's gay, why would he molest a girl?).

[cwoody222]

Why was T-Bag dating a woman? I thought he was supposed to be homosexual. He didn't seem to be there just to kill her for a quick thrill, or to molest her kid (which, if he's gay, why would he molest a girl?).

T-Bag isn't necessarily a homosexual. He's a depraved child abuser. He abuses whatever he has a chance to - girls, boys, whatever.

While he prison he does the same to grown men because, well, that's all he has access to.

I'm sure out in the world he has some experiences with grown men too but that doesn't preclude dating women... especially when that means getter closer to said woman's children.


I thought the episode in general was a waste. Oh sure, EVERY main character was a good guy on the outside... let's all feel sad because Sucre robbed and the other guy got kicked out of the Army for doing the right thing. Couldn't they have made the criminals have just been bad guys? :rolleyes:

The doctor was the worst. She's suddenly a drug addict who got fired? Whatever. Her character never showed anything like that.

It was a cop-out.

Next week, back to normal I guess.

[ILoveCats&Tivo]

I think most -- not all -- but most of this episode was a big waste and was some sort of self-masturbatory attempt by the writers to copy something done by Lost -- done by Lost for a reason. They seem to have neglected that reason in Prison Break. It's gratuitous. It's not even like a good nod towards Lost for doing it. It's just copying.

I enjoyed this episode, but I've never seen Lost :)

[bigcb37]

What a waste. Total filler. It was a bad attempt at a Lost flashback. I dont really think the episode revealed anything deeper in any of the characters that we didnt already know.

[mightyb]

"I've got a gift card to the Red Lobster..."

That doesn't make good TV?? hahahaha...

I would have been interested in more of the "work" Michael was doing when coming up with his plan.

[gchance]

Lost flashback?

No, it's a Shield flashback.

No wait, it's a Highlander flashback.

PERHAPS, it's a literary device.

About the doctor, I had no problem with her being a former addict. In the group meeting, she said she'd been sober for 18 months. We don't know exactly how long from that point until now it's been, but it was implied at the very least it was long enough for Scofield to shoot his gun at the bank & be convicted, plus the month or so he's been in the prison. We're looking at almost two years here.

Outside of that, it did bug me that the prisoners' lives were crossing prior to prison. The time element was off as well, it looked like T-Bag hadn't been in prison for very long, but he's like the king in there. He has influence, anyway. I would have expected him to be in prison for quite a few years, not the short time portrayed in this episode.

I also would have liked to seen more backstory on Abruzzi. I realize they're trying to make us think he's dead, heck, he may even be dead. That doesn't preclude him from being around. Maybe they didn't do that because they showed the flashback of him in a previous episode.

Anyway, I enjoyed it. We learned a bit more about the characters and what led up to the events we've already seen. Most importantly, we now know why Scofield's loyalty to his brother runs so deep and that Lincoln Burrows isn't just some idiot criminal.

Greg

[KRS]

While it might have been filler/Lost-esque, I enjoyed the flashbacks for the most part.

But the most interesting tidbit (aside from Lincoln's $90,000) was the VP's brother putting his teeth in. So now we know that he is not dead and that they took his teeth to plant in the imposter corpse. All the more reason that they should have done some DNA testing when it was exhumed. I guess cremating the body and letting the guy keep his teeth would have been too simple for Prison Break.... :)

[Jesda]

I didnt like previously how the show was just situation after situation with no resolution in sight. Now I can understand the characters so I care more about the show.

I agree with gchance on the prisoners' lives crossing before prison -- I thought it was unnecessary and cheesy.

[JYoung]

Why was T-Bag dating a woman? I thought he was supposed to be homosexual. He didn't seem to be there just to kill her for a quick thrill, or to molest her kid (which, if he's gay, why would he molest a girl?).


Did you notice how the woman's son was sitting away from everyone else?
He could have abused the boy.

[goMO]

help me out here.... what was Michael doing with the Mexican guy who said something like "usually we do it the other way around". Then we see Michael at a gravesite. Whose? What was he doing???

[KungFuCow]

I think we saw quite a bit of stuff that hasnt actually been incorporated into the storyline yet.

[jschuur]

Have we been told the end game yet for the VP's actions? Her brother was involved in some shady financial transactions that made them a ton of money (half a billion?) that they intended on using to finance the veep's bid for the presidency. Why did they have to fake his death?

For that matter, with all the evil people the veep is surounded with, including rogue secret service agents, why not just get close to the president and kill him and inherit the presidency that way?

[mask2343]

We really didn't need that episode to enjoy the show....didn't add much. It felt like a Survivor mid-season recap show.

[Rob Helmerichs]

We really didn't need that episode to enjoy the show....didn't add much. It felt like a Survivor mid-season recap show.
Yeah, it kind of summarized all the bits and pieces of back-story we've gotten over the course of the season, and added a few bits.

But considering how spread-out all this information was to begin with, and the very long gap in the middle of the season, I found it worthwhile.

[DevdogAZ]

help me out here.... what was Michael doing with the Mexican guy who said something like "usually we do it the other way around". Then we see Michael at a gravesite. Whose? What was he doing???
I'm not sure if this is correct, but I got the impression, based on the fact that they showed the Abruzzi newspaper article right after that, that Michael had found the mysterious guy who had ratted on Abruzzi and that Abruzzi was looking for. He turned out to be dead and Michael had to dig him up to get some kind of info or token from him so that Abruzzi would believe that Michael knew how to get to him.

Why was T-Bag dating a woman? I thought he was supposed to be homosexual. He didn't seem to be there just to kill her for a quick thrill, or to molest her kid (which, if he's gay, why would he molest a girl?).
I think we were supposed to believe what T-Bag said in his conversation with the girl. He really had been trying to reform and was in love with her. That's not to say that he wouldn't have lapsed back into his old ways, but at the time he was probably doing better. However, her turning him in brought the old T-Bag back and now he's embraced that vice.

[bigcb37]

How did Michael get such a nice office? That office was awesome...two HUGE circle windows...sweet!

[tms317]

What did not make any sense to me was the bit with the Veep's brother's falsies. So, are we supposed to believe that they somehow removed all of his teeth and just stuck them into the corpse's mouth? If they did that, the dental xrays would show the implants. they definitely couldn't have removed the brother's whole jaw and put it on the corpse.
I know that we are supposed to imply from the false teeth that the dental records were somehow faked, but i don't see how we get from fake teeth to corpse with his real ones...

[5thcrewman]

I think most -- not all -- but most of this episode was a big waste and was some sort of self-masturbatory attempt by the writers to copy something done by Lost ....

Did they hang up a sheet?

[Idearat]

What did not make any sense to me was the bit with the Veep's brother's falsies. So, are we supposed to believe that they somehow removed all of his teeth and just stuck them into the corpse's mouth? If they did that, the dental xrays would show the implants. they definitely couldn't have removed the brother's whole jaw and put it on the corpse.
I know that we are supposed to imply from the false teeth that the dental records were somehow faked, but i don't see how we get from fake teeth to corpse with his real ones...

You're trying too hard. All they proved with the exhumation was that the body matched some dental records. If the records were for the body, then all they had to fake was the name on them. That's why going through all the motions and only checking dental records was kinda bogus.

It was presumed that the records were the VP's brothers, but they weren't. Now we know from the denture scene that he at least is missing all the teeth on top. If he's missing all his teeth then there would have been little in his records to match. It looks like the whole scene was just to give us a hint that the dental records were not his.

[eugene82]

What did not make any sense to me was the bit with the Veep's brother's falsies. So, are we supposed to believe that they somehow removed all of his teeth and just stuck them into the corpse's mouth? If they did that, the dental xrays would show the implants. they definitely couldn't have removed the brother's whole jaw and put it on the corpse.
I know that we are supposed to imply from the false teeth that the dental records were somehow faked, but i don't see how we get from fake teeth to corpse with his real ones...

The body that was exhumed could not be identified to begin with. Or could it? Remember what the lawyer helping Veroncia said about the coffin as it was being raised out of the ground. And her reply, "Thats smart if you don't want the body to be identified".
I think the guy in the morgue said only what the VP wanted him to say. Why was she there to begin with other than to intimadate and give orders? I know that the lawyers representing Linc were told they could bring in their own private person to check the teeth. But both knew they had to take a different approach.
I think the VP would have even gotten to that independent person.

[Idearat]

The body that was exhumed could not be identified to begin with. Or could it? Remember what the lawyer helping Veroncia said about the coffin as it was being raised out of the ground. And her reply, "Thats smart if you don't want the body to be identified".

The body had been given a "green" burial. Minimal embalming was done and the casket was designed to allow decomposition. Bones and teeth would be around quite a while and still be usable for indentification, but fingerprints would be out. A more conventional burial would have preserved more parts for I.D. purposes.

[5thcrewman]

The body had been given a "green" burial. Minimal embalming was done and the casket was designed to allow decomposition. Bones and teeth would be around quite a while and still be usable for indentification, but fingerprints would be out. A more conventional burial would have preserved more parts for I.D. purposes.
Quick Lime works too! Never saw the Fishers offer it though.

[SullyND]

How did Michael get such a nice office? That office was awesome...two HUGE circle windows...sweet!

That's an actual architecture firm in Chicago. I believe they used to be Lohan Associates, then Lohan Caprile Goettsch, now Goettsch Partners, Inc. Dirk Lohan, who is the Grandson of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe), left to start another firm. At one point there was a photo of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois (http://www.gpchicago.com/projects.asp?id=3) on the wall, which is a building Lohan did that can be expanded in ~33 story increments. There were also models for earlier schemes of 111 S Wacker (http://www.gpchicago.com/projects.asp?id=18), which just opened. The offices are located at the top of the Sante Fe building (http://www.planetware.com/i/photos/US/ILCH13.JPG) on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. This floor was once occupied by CF Murphy, another famous architecture firm, as well as D.H. Burnham and Co. who designed the building. Several other large architecture firms from Chicago have offices in the Santa Fe building, including SOM.

[Idearat]

Quick Lime works too! Never saw the Fishers offer it though.

:) All I know about funerals I learned from Fisher & Sons (& Diaz)

I think the lime method might have been a little too obvious that they were trying to cover something up.



While the show is dragging a bit for me, weekly cliffhangers tend to wear me down, I did like seeing John Billingsley as the maybe-not-dead brother of the VP. I recognized his voice before he turned around. He played a pretty creepy bad guy on Cold Case, so maybe he'll have a good role in this show a little later.

[hanumang]

I dunno, I loved this episode. I found a lot of story value in it. In particular, T-Bag's story was was a bit of a surprise (in the fact that he got turned in, rather than caught).

And what was up with DB Cooper? I realize in been in prison a long time (20+ years?) but I would have liked to have seen something on him.

And for me, how Sucre and C-Note ended in up prison made perfect sense cuz that's how most dudes end up in the pen: either they go to that one well too many times or they get caught the first time out.

About Sucre, that wasn't just his homie, that's his cousin (who's name I cannot remember), a fact established in the first 3 episodes or so. (And no, I'm not talking about the chubby dude with the goatee who now 'works' in the prison laundry - though he's also Sucre's cousin)

I disliked the doctor's back-story the most, though it does add an extra layer to the 'distance' between her and her father. I'm curious to see if they'll address that specifically later on...

[goMO]

I used to have the hots for the doctor, but she wasn't looking so good this time...

[gchance]

I used to have the hots for the doctor, but she wasn't looking so good this time...

I think that was the point, hehe.

Here. This will help.
http://www.101lifestyle.com/images/celebs/sarah_wayne_callies/sarah-wayne-callies-001.jpg

Greg

[smak]

She's hawt!! Part of the recent surge of cute red headed doctors on TV.

Amy Adams from Dr Vegas, Allison Cameron from House and the aforementioned.

-smak-

[FLbadgirl]

This week's show was UNBELIEVABLE! It was riveting, telling, and dramatic...

Explains so much about each character and why they play the roles they play in the scheme to break out of Fox River.

The writers are incredibly talented. I wish I had half the imagination these gifted people have!

[FLbadgirl]

I dunno, I loved this episode. I found a lot of story value in it. In particular, T-Bag's story was was a bit of a surprise (in the fact that he got turned in, rather than caught).

And what was up with DB Cooper? I realize in been in prison a long time (20+ years?) but I would have liked to have seen something on him.

And for me, how Sucre and C-Note ended in up prison made perfect sense cuz that's how most dudes end up in the pen: either they go to that one well too many times or they get caught the first time out.

About Sucre, that wasn't just his homie, that's his cousin (who's name I cannot remember), a fact established in the first 3 episodes or so. (And no, I'm not talking about the chubby dude with the goatee who now 'works' in the prison laundry - though he's also Sucre's cousin)

I disliked the doctor's back-story the most, though it does add an extra layer to the 'distance' between her and her father. I'm curious to see if they'll address that specifically later on...

I am with you 100%.

Teabag got exactly what he deserved. And I too would have liked to know a little background on DB Cooper...

[Rob Helmerichs]

Teabag got exactly what he deserved. And I too would have liked to know a little background on DB Cooper...
Of course during the timeframe of this episode, probably the most interesting thing Cooper was doing was sitting in his cell petting his cat...

[DUDE_NJX]

help me out here.... what was Michael doing with the Mexican guy who said something like "usually we do it the other way around". Then we see Michael at a gravesite. Whose? What was he doing???

The mex meant "We usually smuggle people from Mexico TO the U.S.". The letters on the piece of paper (which then he put on as part of the tattoo) are really border point coordinates when read upside down.

I haven't figured out the grave digging part yet.

[SullyND]

I haven't figured out the grave digging part yet.

I was wondering if it wouldn't be tied into Abruzzi, and I was disappointed they didn't provide any backstory for him.

[cheesesteak]

So Lost owns the patent on flashbacks? Whatever.

This wasn't a bad episode it provided a good amount of backstory for most of the major players. C-Note's arrest and dishonorable discharge didn't make too much sense, though. They should have threatened him with a quick trip back to the front as punishment if he didn't keep his mouth shut.

[FLbadgirl]

Of course during the timeframe of this episode, probably the most interesting thing Cooper was doing was sitting in his cell petting his cat...

Well, obviously not in the 3 year span they were concentrating on but I would like to know a little more about his character... it seems only far we got to "meet" the others!

[DreadPirateRob]

Didn't love this ep, but didn't hate it either. At most it was "eh".

The one thing that bothered me - how the hell is C-Note providing for his family while he's locked up? Sure, he told his wife he was on leave, but then he told his BIL he had to get a job to support his family which is why he eventually took on the truck-smuggling thing. But now that he's locked up after telling his wife his unit was being re-deployed, shouldn't she be a little suspicious that the Army pay isn't coming in?

[diana731]

Didn't love this ep, but didn't hate it either. At most it was "eh".

The one thing that bothered me - how the hell is C-Note providing for his family while he's locked up? Sure, he told his wife he was on leave, but then he told his BIL he had to get a job to support his family which is why he eventually took on the truck-smuggling thing. But now that he's locked up after telling his wife his unit was being re-deployed, shouldn't she be a little suspicious that the Army pay isn't coming in?

Perhaps his brother-in-law (Mike Jones) is helping out?

[MickeS]

I liked this episode, nice break from the usual scenery, and good to get some backgrounds on the characters. Yeah, I missed Abruzzi too.

When I saw the stuff with the mexican, I was thinking it had to do with the part of Michael's plan that has to do with DB Cooper. Wasn't he in Arizona or something?

[ping]

Put me down as another who absolutely loved this episode (and I had read somewhere that it was going to be a flashback, so I went into it expecting to not like it). One thing that I thought was especially effective was the acting. The way they were playing the same characters, but just different enough.

[eugene82]

The body had been given a "green" burial. Minimal embalming was done and the casket was designed to allow decomposition. Bones and teeth would be around quite a while and still be usable for indentification, but fingerprints would be out. A more conventional burial would have preserved more parts for I.D. purposes.

You are quite correct. "I was referring to the jaw that the previous writer had mentioned." Not the teeth per se. The teeth were going to match because they were the actual teeth of the person in the casket. The biodegradable casket was indeed used to allow other body parts to decompose. The VP had all this done to cover her bases. She was thinking of what could happen in the future.
The leaked documents to the judge certainly have nothing to do with the VPs brother even though the person leaking them thought they would surely exonerate Linc. As for the brothers false teeh. Who knows if he did not have them prior to the conspiracy of his death?

[SuperZippy]

finally got to watch this last night...

great episode, imo...

i needed the backstory...

[tivotvaddict]

That's an actual architecture firm in Chicago. I believe they used to be Lohan Associates, then Lohan Caprile Goettsch, now Goettsch Partners, Inc. Dirk Lohan, who is the Grandson of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe), left to start another firm. At one point there was a photo of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois (http://www.gpchicago.com/projects.asp?id=3) on the wall, which is a building Lohan did that can be expanded in ~33 story increments. There were also models for earlier schemes of 111 S Wacker (http://www.gpchicago.com/projects.asp?id=18), which just opened. The offices are located at the top of the Sante Fe building (http://www.planetware.com/i/photos/US/ILCH13.JPG) on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. This floor was once occupied by CF Murphy, another famous architecture firm, as well as D.H. Burnham and Co. who designed the building. Several other large architecture firms from Chicago have offices in the Santa Fe building, including SOM.

Wow, just got around to watching this episode (and thus reading this thread) and I gotta say - will you give me a tour next time I'm in Chicago? You're much more interesting than the boat tours (and I don't have to keep something over my head :D )

ETA: Oh yeah, I meant to say that I found the doctor's story the most out of character, but yet it makes the most sense FOR the character. Really, you don't find that many dedicated doctors in the prison system. At least I wouldn't think so, though I can't say I've been there. :p Her "checkered" past makes this career path a lot more realistic.