With only six episodes left in this season do we have enough time to build up to another huge escape? Prison Break was always about stretching that tension over time and I’m worried that it’s going to rush the eventual climatic prison break. Sure, in Panama he didn’t plan to be in prison but he had a few episodes to figure out a game plan. He’s really truly screwed and we’ve never seen Michael in a position like that. Seeing his reaction at the end and his tearful “final” call to Sara convincingly sold this isn’t just part of Michael’s grand plan.

Michael’s old intricate plans were meant to fail so now he has to think on his feet without any backups. The show could be playing with our expectations. Now part of me thinks this was intentional. Plus we don’t know this new prison very well. When one of them can’t make it, I don’t really feel all that bad for him. We get some broad-brush strokes but we needed some smaller conflicts with them before they’re all thrust into this kind of high stakes action.

While it’s nice to see a prison break so early in this season, it doesn’t connect because we don’t know any of these characters. Plus by then we’d gotten to know all the major players in the escape. We’d seen Michael explore every corner of it and even get nearly caught a few times. By the time the team attempted their first major escape we knew the whole layout of that place.

Watch prison break season 1 episode 3