1.01 - PILOT
Michael
Scofield watches a tattoo artist add the finishing touches
to a section of his arm. She marvels at her masterpiece. In
just a matter of months, Michael has tattooed his chest,
back and both arms down to the wrists. The tattoo artist
tells him that it takes most guys a few years to get that
much ink done. Michael cryptically replies, “I don’t have a
few years.”
Michael hurries back to his apartment, passing a
small origami swan perched on his desk. Every inch
of wall and window space is wallpapered with papers,
maps and newspaper articles. Some article titles
read: “Lincoln Burrows’ Final Appeal Denied,”
“Governor’s Daughter Wins Humanitarian Award,” and
“Life Sentence for Mob Boss Abruzzi.” Michael
methodically tears the web of information off the
windows, and then turns to his computer. He pulls
the hard drive out and steps out onto the balcony.
Michael rears back and throws his hard drive into
the Chicago River below.
The
next day, Michael stands inside a bank, arm raised
high with a gun pointed toward the ceiling. Bank
personnel and clients sprawl across the floor,
covering their heads. Michael fires his gun upward;
the people cower. He points the gun at a bank
employee behind the counter. “The vault. Open it.”
She tells him that she can’t because the bank
manager is not around; he’s at lunch. Michael aims
his gun upward again and fires twice. “I’m not
playing games, open it.” The bank employee tries to
convince him that the half million he has in his bag
is more than enough for him to just walk away. She
trails off at the sounds of sirens. Squad cars
surround the building. A police helicopter circles
the bank. Michael drops his weapons, raises his
hands and slowly turns around.
Inside a courtroom, Michael sits behind a table. His
lawyer and longtime friend, Veronica Donovan, stands
beside him. The judge is baffled by Michael’s no
contest plea and suggests that he rethink it. When
Michael says he is sure of his plea, Veronica steps
in and tries to convince him otherwise. But Michael
refuses to change it. The judge calls a recess to
determine Michael’s sentence. As the bailiff leads
Michael away, Michael sees his nephew, LJ, sitting
in the courtroom. “Go home LJ. I didn’t want you to
see this,” Michael tells him.
Veronica follows Michael to a jail cell in the
courthouse. “He’s not going to take this well,”
Michael says, referring to LJ. “Can you blame him?”
Veronica snaps back. She tells him that LJ is
beginning to feel like everyone he cares about is
going to end up in prison. Veronica adds and LJ
isn’t the only one who feels that way. Veronica
interrogates Michael further about his behavior in
the courtroom and the behavior that landed him
there. This isn’t like him. But Michael insists,
“You’ve got to let me deal with this.”
Back in the courtroom, the judge announces her
decision. She was inclined to give Michael
probation. But, because he fired a deadly weapon
during the attempted robbery, she wants him to do
time. She notices that Michael has requested a
prison close to his Chicago home and places him at
Fox River Penitentiary, a maximum security prison.
The term of his sentence will be five years,
beginning immediately.
Fox River
Penitentiary is an old prison. Guard towers
and forbidding razor wire line the perimeter.
Inside, a correctional officer barks out
orders as new inmates walk through their
welcoming process. Here, inmates shower and
receive prison uniforms. Michael is coldly
greeted by the head correctional officer,
Captain Brad Bellick. Bellick reads over
Michael’s forms and lays out the rules of
the prison. There are two commandments at
Fox River. “One, you’ve got nothing coming
to you,” Bellick gruffly states. When
Michael inquires about the second
commandment, Bellick replies, “See
commandment number one.” Michael tells
Bellick he’s just trying to do his time and
get out, fly under the radar. Bellick looks
down at Michael’s form again; the words
“Type I Diabetes” are written and circled.
In his cell,
Michael studies the hundreds of prisoners
milling in their cells. “I suggest you take
a seat, fish,” Fernando Sucre, better known
as simply “ Sucre,” tells his new cellmate.
Michael watches inmates walk across the
floor below. Suddenly, one of them is
stabbed by another. The victim falls to his
knees, bleeding and screaming. The inmates
holler in excitement. Sucre calls over
Michael’s shoulder, “Welcome to Prisneyland,
fish.”
Late at night,
Veronica is at home staring out the window.
Her fiancé, Sebastian, wanders down the
stairs looking for her. There’s something on
her mind. Sebastian asks, “You want to talk
about it?” Veronica tries to brush it off,
but she is troubled by Michael’s case. She
says she shouldn’t talk about it and
Sebastian heads back to bed.
Sucre and
Michael head out to the yard. Sucre serves
as a tour guide, telling him whose turf is
where. They walk by an older man holding a
cat. Michael inquires about him. Sucre tells
him that while the man will deny it, he’s
the infamous D.B. Cooper who parachuted out
of a plane thirty years ago with a million
and a half in cash. Sucre begins chatting
with some other inmates while Michael’s eyes
scan the yard. He focuses on two yellow fire
hydrants and a grate expelling steam. Next
to Michael’s foot is another grate, he
forces a magazine down it. Then he turns
back to Sucre and the inmates. “I’m looking
for someone. His name is Lincoln Burrows.”
Sucre takes
him to a part of the yard where they see
Lincoln squatting against a wall, far
removed from the general population. He’s
known in the prison as “Linc the Sink.” He’s
a death row inmate awaiting execution for
the murder of the Vice President’s brother.
Sucre asks Michael, “Why do you want to see
Burrows so bad anyway?” Michael boldly
replies, “Because he’s my brother.” Sucre
tells him that the only way he can get close
to his brother is through “P.I.” or Prison
Industries. But former mob boss and Fox
River celebrity John Abruzzi has a heavy
hand in P.I..
Michael folds another origami swan
in his cell. He flashes back to a
conversation he had with Lincoln a
few months ago, where they talked
about the date of his execution.
Separated by glass and steel in the
visitation area, Lincoln swears to
Michael that he did not kill the
Vice President’s brother. Lincoln
tells Michael that he doesn’t know
how they did it, but it was a set
up. Back in the cell, Sucre is
writing a letter to his girlfriend,
Maricruz. He wants to propose to her.
LJ and
a friend ride their bikes through a
dark alley in Chicago. They arrive
at a set of doors, push a buzzer and
a well-dressed man exits. They
follow the man to a car, where he
opens the trunk and puts a large bag
of marijuana into LJ’s backpack. LJ
and the man finalize the details of
the transaction and the boys ride
away. But undercover officers are
watching. Before the boys can flee,
the police close in on them.
Michael makes his way across the
yard where John Abruzzi sits,
playing cards. Michael boldly tells
Abruzzi that he needs to be hired
for P.I., but Abruzzi is not
interested in this new fish. Someone
like Michael has nothing to offer
someone like Abruzzi. Michael
quietly says, “I wouldn’t be so sure
of that,” and places an origami swan
before Abruzzi. Abruzzi’s goons
stand up, signaling Michael’s exit.
“Come find me when you want to
talk,” Michael says as he backs away.
Abruzzi flicks the swan away from
him.
Inside
a warehouse, giant slabs of meat
hang from the ceiling and butchers
stand about, chopping beef. Mobster
Gavin Smallhouse enters, carrying an
envelope. Maggio, a heavy set man in
a butcher’s outfit, walks over to
Gavin. Inside the envelope is a
photo of an older man, taken from a
distance. The man in the photo is
Fibonacci, a mob informant whose
testimony put Abruzzi behind bars.
Smallhouse and Gavin are very
interested in where the photo came
from. But there’s something else in
the envelope. “What is it?” asks
Maggio.
In the
prison infirmary, Dr. Sara Tancredi
sinks a hypodermic needle into
Michael’s arm. “I’m Michael, by the
way,” he says to her in a mildly
flirtatious tone. “And you are?”
Sara replies, “Dr. Tancredi will
do.” Michael asks her if she is the
daughter of Governor Tancredi, but
Sara doesn’t answer. If this
humanitarian award winning idealist
is in fact the daughter of the
tough-on-crime governor, it is not a
fact she likes to advertise. Dr.
Tancredi exits the room for a
moment, and Michael jumps up,
sneaking another origami swan into
the drainage grate in the infirmary
floor. He’s back in his seat before
Sara returns. She tells him that
since hypodermic needles are not
permitted in an inmate’s cell, he’ll
have to come to the infirmary for
his regular insulin shot.
In
Washington, D.C., Special Agent Hale
enters the office of Special Agent
Kellerman. Hale tells Kellerman that
everything is in place for Lincoln’s
execution, except for Bishop
McMorrow. Hale worries that the
Bishop has a lot of influence with
the Governor and may persuade him to
grant a stay of execution. Kellerman
realizes Hale’s point. “Maybe it’s
time we arranged a visit with the
good Bishop then.”
In the
prison chapel, Lincoln gazes up at
the chaplain. When he stands to
exit, he turns and sees Michael for
the first time. Lincoln can’t
believe it. “Why?” he asks Michael.
Michael tells him that he’s going to
get Lincoln out of prison. Lincoln
tells Michael it’s impossible.
Michael replies, “Not if you
designed the place it isn’t.”
Sebastian and Veronica flip
through a book of wedding
invitations. Sebastian tells
her that they need to make a
decision soon. But Veronica
wants to take her time and
do it right. Sebastian feels
like Veronica is having
second thoughts. Veronica
reassures him that he’s the
man she wants to be with.
Sucre is panicked about his
letter to his girlfriend.
She’s supposed to meet him
for a conjugal in a couple
days, but hasn’t called him
to confirm that she’s coming.
A C.O. bangs on the cell
door. “Scofield, The Pope
wants to see you.” Sucre
tells Michael that no one
gets an audience with The
Pope unless he’s really
interested in what you have
to say.
Warden Henry Pope peels off
his glasses and reads
Michael’s academic
accomplishments. “I can’t
help but wonder what someone
with your credentials is
doing in a place like this.”
Michael brushes it off.
“Took a wrong turn a few
months back, I guess.” The
Pope noticed that in
Michael’s file, he claimed
to be unemployed, but Pope
isn’t fooled. “I know you’re
a structural engineer,
Scofield.” Pope leads
Michael into the next room
where a massive model of the
Taj Mahal made out of
toothpicks sits atop a work
table. The model represents
his love for his wife, Pope
explains, and he hopes to
give it to her as a fortieth
anniversary present in two
months. The problem is, Pope
has built it without proper
reinforcements, and he needs
Michael’s help to keep it
from collapsing. Pope offers
Michael three days of work a
week in Pope’s office.
Michael rejects the offer.
The Pope is stunned, “Son,
it’s better for me to owe
you one in here than for you
to owe me one, I can promise
you that.” Michael says
he’ll take his chances and
Pope calls for the guard to
escort Michael out.
LJ is being scolded by his
mother, Lisa Rix. “Two
pounds of pot? Were you
trying to set a record?” LJ
cracks a smile, but Lisa
pounces on him. “It’s not
funny LJ, you could be going
to jail!” LJ’s stepdad,
Adrian, enters. Lisa says
that LJ needs guidance, and
LJ mutters that he certainly
won’t get it from Daddy
Warbucks. Lisa doesn’t
understand why LJ is
misbehaving, until she
thinks about Lincoln. Maybe
a face-to-face with his
father will set LJ straight.
Veronica visits
Michael. Michael
seems determined to
stay put in Fox
River, even telling
Veronica not to
appeal his case.
Veronica knows
something is going
on and she demands
to know what he’s
planning. The
conversation turns
to Veronica’s
relationship with
Lincoln. She tells
Michael that she
gave Lincoln every
chance to make it
work when she
returned from
college and Michael
points out that
maybe Lincoln was
hurt that she left
in the first place.
She begs Michael to
stop what he’s doing.
Michael tells her
that if they want to
save Lincoln, she
needs to find
whoever is trying to
frame Lincoln.
As Veronica signs
out, Lincoln is
being led through a
parallel corridor.
He sees her, but she
does not see him.
Hale and Kellerman
meet Bishop McMorrow
at his home.
Kellerman attempts
to convince the
Bishop to separate
himself, no matter
what, from Burrows’
case. The Bishop is
firm; if an inmate
on death row asks
for help, the Bishop
will intervene.
Kellerman plays his
last card, and
accuses the Bishop
of committing fraud.
The Bishop stands
strong and says he
will not be bullied.
Abruzzi leans
against a payphone,
on the other end is
Maggio. “You heard
me. Someone found
Fibonacci.”
Abruzzi’s eyes light
up and he wants to
know who sent it.
Maggio says he
doesn’t know, but in
the envelope was a
“folded up bird.”
This registers with
Abruzzi and he hangs
up the phone and
walks away.
Michael stands in
the yard over the
grate he dropped the
magazine into. When
he looks down, he
sees the swan from
the infirmary
resting against it.
Behind him, Charles
Westmoreland watches;
his cat, Marilyn, is
wrapped in his
jacket. Michael sits
down next to him.
Michael tells
Westmoreland that he
knew his wife. After
testing Michael to
ensure this new fish
can be trusted,
Westmoreland
relaxes. Michael
asks if Westmoreland
is D.B. Cooper.
Westmoreland smiles
and replies, “Every
new fish that comes
in here, first thing
they hear is that
Charles Westmoreland
is D.B. Cooper.”
Westmoreland denies
it. Abruzzi
approaches, flanked
by his goons.
Westmoreland takes
off.
Abruzzi wants
Michael to talk.
Michael only asks,
“Say you could get
outside those walls.
Would you have the
people in place to
make sure you
disappeared forever?”
Abruzzi says he
would, but that’s
not what he came to
talk to Michael
about. He demands to
know where Fibonacci
is. Michael makes a
threat; if someone
comes for him, he’s
going after Abruzzi.
Abruzzi’s goons take
offense to the
statement and jump
Michael. Michael
lands a punch on
Abruzzi before one
of the goons
unleashes a sock
filled with
batteries and begins
whipping Michael. A
C.O. in the guard
tower takes notice
and fires warning
shots into the yard
around Michael and
Abruzzi, ending the
skirmish.
In Pope’s
office, the
warden
threatens to
throw
Michael in
the SHU for
ninety days
for fighting.
But Michael
thinks fast
and offers
to help fix
the Taj
instead of
doing time
in
isolation.
Pope agrees.
The Bishop
is fast
asleep in
his massive
bed. A
shadow moves
across the
wall. A
floorboard
creaks.
“Who’s there?”
he groans.
He sits up,
eyes wide. A
gun with a
silencer
fires once.
In
Veronica’s
office, her
assistant
enters and
tells her
the news of
the Bishop’s
murder. As
it dawns on
her that the
one person
who could
have helped
save
Lincoln’s
life has
been
murdered,
Veronica
mutters,
“Michael was
right.” She
removes a
copy of
Lincoln’s
trial
deposition
from a file
cabinet.
A guard
walks
Lincoln to
the
visitation
area where
Lisa and LJ
wait. Lisa
informs
Lincoln of
LJ’s arrest
and tells
him that LJ
needs some
fatherly
advice. She
leaves the
two alone.
Lincoln
tries to
tell him
that he
needs to fly
straight
because he
doesn’t want
to end up in
a place like
Fox River.
LJ has no
interest in
taking
advice from
his deadbeat
dad.
“They’re
putting me
to death LJ.
In a few
months time,
I’ll be dead.
You get that?”
Lincoln
tells him.
LJ snaps
back,
“You’re
already dead
to me.”
Sucre paces
in the
conjugal
area,
nervous that
Maricruz
isn’t
coming. A
guard opens
the door and
Maricruz
enters. She
giddily
accepts
Sucre’s
proposal.
Michael
visits the
infirmary.
Sara reads
his chart;
something is
strange. His
blood
glucose
isn’t
reacting to
the insulin
the way a
diabetic
should. She
asks if he’s
sure he has
Type I
diabetes. He
says he’s
sure, ever
since he was
a kid. The
phone rings,
saving
Michael
momentarily.
He gets up
and looks
out the
window at a
telephone
wire that
runs from
the
infirmary
roof to the
prison wall.
He looks
down and his
hands are
shaking.
Sara tells
him she will
run some
tests the
next time
he’s in.
Back in the
conjugal
area, Sucre
asks
Maricruz how
she got to
the prison.
When she
answers,
“Hector,”
Sucre
explodes. He
doesn’t like
Hector. He
thinks
Hector’s
trying to
steal her
away.
Maricruz
tells Sucre
that he has
nothing to
worry about.
Michael
approaches
an inmate
named C-Note,
he’s the
“local
pharmacy.”
Michael asks
for PUGNAc,
an insulin
blocker.
C-Note says
that kind of
medication
should be
available at
the
infirmary,
but Michael
sets him
straight. He
can’t get an
insulin
blocker from
the
infirmary
because he’s
already
going there
for insulin
shot. C-Note
wonders why
anyone would
fake a
condition to
get insulin
they don’t
need, but
when Michael
hands him
the cash, he
stops asking
questions.
Michael is
in his cell.
A C.O. walks
up and taps
on the bars
with a P.I.
work card.
Michael
smiles.
After a
session of
painting the
halls,
Michael and
Lincoln walk
in together.
Lincoln asks
about
Veronica,
“She still
engaged to
that guy?”
Lincoln
comments
that it
could have
been him.
Lincoln
knows he
pushed a lot
of people
away in his
life after
he broke up
with
Veronica.
Abruzzi
watches them
from a
distance.
Michael and
Lincoln talk
quietly
about
Michael’s
plan,
“Getting
outside of
these walls
is just the
beginning,”
Lincoln
tells him.
Lincoln
grills
Michael
about the
plan,
Michael
smiles and
briefs
Lincoln
about the
prison
retrofitting
job in 1999.
“You’ve seen
the
blueprints,”
Lincoln says
quietly.
Michael
removes the
top half of
his work
jumpsuit,
“Better yet.
I’ve got
them on me.”
Michael
stands
before
Lincoln, his
chest, arms
and back
covered in a
massive
tattoo.
Michael
tells
Lincoln to
look closer.
Lincoln is
amazed as he
sees that
Michael has
concealed
the prison’s
blueprints
in his
tattoo.
SOURCE:
FOX OFFICIAL WEBSITE
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