Prison Break Season 4 Episode 20 Cowboys & Indians

Michael’s evil Mother has a good plan. It doesn’t make sense, but on a gut level you just know that causing a world war will serve her ultimate purposes somehow. Said conflict is brought on by the assassination of the son of the Indian Prime Minister. Lincoln Burrows was easily framed for this luncheon murder. Michael and Lincoln hook back up, the incompetent police barring their escape, and giving us the setup for this episode. The rest of Lincoln’s team is on the outside to provide support. The General gets angry, but lamely doesn’t even smash the TV.

Michael Rapaport’s Donald Self gets some screen time after being ignored last week. Self plays a great jerk, and finds out the cops plan to use Chloropropane, odorless and colorless to take down our heroes. The S.W.A.T. team is brought in, but we all know that S.W.A.T. teams always end up failing 100% of the time. The S.W.A.T. team tries really hard to look tough and tactical clearing the hotel, but the extras, like Scofield’s angry yells, are preposterous.

The Indian Prime Minister plans to use Scylla’s ‘peaceful’ technology for warfare against the Chinese, whom he believes , sight unseen, is behind his son’s murder. Evil Mom feigns protest, but agrees to be paid handsomely for the technology which will ignite the globe in a hegemonic conflict between the two most populous countries on the planet. Perhaps Scylla can be used to create solar laser cannons instead of solar panels.

The General, suffering from a nasty case of rosacea, gives some exposition about the coming China/India war, proclaiming that “IT’S AN APOCALYPSE!” Poor Don Self accidentally kills a Homeland Security agent. The General’s favorite henchman gets into the hotel, killing Officer Hapless. The S.W.A.T. team yells “Go Go Go” and “Move Move Move” running up the stairs. Michael gives us a first by taking out an assault team with rolls of toilet paper (not too shabby Michael). However, the police captain doesn’t fall for the ‘steal the S.W.A.T. uniform’ trick (the oldest trick in the book) that Scofield tries.

General gets hardcore, reveals that Don Self turned his wife into a turnip on a drunken drive, and then has her assassinated on speakerphone to let the rest of the team know he means business. Evil Mom sells Scylla to India for 750 million, and then begins the process of selling the same kit to China. When both sides have solar laser cannons, the destruction will be gigantic.

The hook to catching Evil Mom is her appearance at a Federal Reserve Bank to transfer her new fortune. Does Evil Mom really have to talk to a lowly loan officer at the bank to get her evil funds? Team Scofield makes another derivative Jack Bauer move by robbing the bank. Apparently the theme of this episode is ‘being hardcore’ because Burrows shoots a handful of goons to death outside the bank, showing shades of Michael Mann. Meanwhile T-Bag goes about kidnapping Dr. Tancredi to get leverage. In a profile shot, the knife covers her neck in the foreground, either an ode to the Season 3 decapitation fake out, or an omen of a headless future.

Michael has Scylla, but his brother and his girl have been kidnapped to boot. Scofield’s classic look of concern looks quite a bit like constipation. To be fair, he has to choose between giving Scylla to Evil Mom, saving Lincoln, or giving it the General, saving Sara. Perhaps Michael should have explained the situation to dear old Mom, since she has shown an interest in keeping her unborn grandchild alive, but he doesn’t

This episode felt pretty stale. On the plus side, a S.W.A.T. team got blown up. On the other hand, there is everything else. Fortunately, the series finale is next week. It is worth noting that several extra episodes were slated for this season, but they must have been shoehorned into the end. It will be better for death to come quickly to this show, hopefully as painlessly as possible. I will be back next week, at the bedside of a once great show, in its final hours.