Prison Break: Deal or No Deal

After last episode's blowing betrayal by Don Self, this episode focuses on the characters picking up the pieces and the writers setting up the story arc for the remainder of the season. After much maneuvering and double crossing, it's still not certain where things are going to be headed. There's the inevitable confrontation between Scofield and Self that's surely coming, but the rest of what's to come remains fairly uncertain. With so many characters and so many conflicting agendas, it's hard to tell where Scylla will end up and who will come out on top.

While all this uncertainty is certainly entertaining, it does lead to a lot of sitting around in various locations waiting for phone calls. Much of the plot development in this episode unfolded over telephone conversations and discussions on what to do next. There's a lot of threads to transition, and it seems like this episode was just a matter of setting up for what's to come. There was the matter of convincing Self's superiors about Scofield and team's innocence, which seemed a bit awkward, drawn out, and had a few too many double crosses to make sense of it all. First there wasn't a deal, then there was a deal, then people got shot, and then the senator talked about the covert operation never happening and apologizes. Does this mean that the team is free and can go about living their normal lives? Where's the binding motivation in that case? Do the remaining team members want to bring down the Company as badly and Scofield and Lincoln do?

Meanwhile, I'm now reintroduced to the villainous version of Don Self. While the last episode's betrayal was very unexpected, this time it was a bit hard accepting him as the main antagonist. The problem with Self is Michael Rapaport, whose goofy charm worked well as a dedicated government agent, but not carry over so well as a freelance killer. He seems uncomfortable cast in this new light, but it was fun to see him get outsmarted by Scofield with the missing piece of Scylla. With T-Bag as his new lackey though, there could be some potential for comedy here.

Gretchen's motivations are once again unclear - she seems to be working with everyone in this episode, but after her sister's held hostage by Self, it looks like she's working with him.

The real pointless filler bits in this episode involved the scenes with the General, who seems to be getting less and less interesting the more he talks. Somebody should give him a pen and a pad already and have him go back to writing things out on paper when he wants to say something- that might make us care about him again. Other than having him shoot a Scylla cardholder and make noise about getting Scylla back, I didn't get much out of the scenes with the General and his daughter.

While a lot of the scrambling conversation scenes were necessary to move the storyline forward, it doesn't quite translate to exciting or compelling television. Very much a filler episode that is meant to reshuffle the storyline, this was clearly not amongst the better installments of the season. It's a bit disappointing after the last episode's carefully crafted masterpiece that the follow-up would fall a little short.