Soup of the Week & Prison Break: Chicago

Using chicken bouillon and frozen hash browns makes this soup easy to fix.

Cream Cheese Potato Soup

3 cups water
3 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
1 page (8 oz) cream cheese, cubed
15 oz (1/2 of a 30 oz bag) cubed hash brown potatoes
Cubed fully cooked ham
Chopped onion
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dill weed

Combine the water and bouillon. Add the cream cheese; cook and stir until cheese is melted. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Simmer, uncovered, until vegetables are tender.

Prison Break: Chicago

A lot going on during this solid episode of Prison Break that first aired February 5.

We learned why the President sounded all robot-y on the phone, just saying the same things over and over again -- because it wasn't actually her! And frankly, this plot development helped Kim become more of a character too. All season long, he's just been this mustache-twirling "shadowy figure" on one end of a phone spewing cliche dialogue. This episode, he actually showed some intelligence in knowing exactly how to bait Paul Kellerman. (It just happened Paul was smarter still.)

It was touching to finally see Sara and Michael connect. We'll see how that plays out over the last few episodes of the season. Hopefully it won't be too much of a distraction from their overall quest to be set free.

The T-Bag plot continues to interest me, even though it's growing ever more bizarre. The creepy family home becomes the creepy family road trip. Where are they going and, more importantly, what fate awaits them? I don't even want to consider it.

Bellick has instantly become compelling and relevant to the plot again. Fantastic that his trip to prison was just a short side trip, and that he's now back on the hunt for the escapees. The "bulldog" analogy Mahone used was absolutely perfect. Bellick really is a bulldog, and in any other role, he simply wasn't fun to watch. Though frankly, Mahone could probably confide his real mission regarding the fugitives. "Bellick with the Bureau" doesn't strike me as the sort of person who would shy away from killing the Fox River Gang rather than bringing them in.

The Haywire story closed tonight, as it inevitably had to. I liked that this death was not the execution that Abruzzi and Tweener faced earlier this season. Mahone used more finesse this time, pushing the crazy man just that last bit over the edge. It was fascinating and sad. Without ever actually saying it, Mahone leads Haywire to believe that the only way out of his mess is death. And the beloved Crazy guy is gone for good. Another tick mark in Mahone's "dead" column.

And then... well, there was C-Note. Again, the weakest plot of the night. But this time was a little better. I guess where I found a soft spot for this plot thread was in how the other people at the restaurant reacted at the end, covering for C-Note and helping him escape even after learning he was a convict. Sure, perhaps they would not all have done so had they known he was one of the famous "Fox River Eight," but in that moment, with the information they had and the experience they'd just had with C-Note saving their lives, it made sense.