1.12 - ODD MAN OUT


Michael, five years younger, adjusts his tie in a streamlined office of an architecture firm overlooking the Chicago cityscape. The interviewer across the desk comments on Michael’s impressive resumé, then asks why Michael is interested in architecture. Michael speaks with a quiet passion about structure, design and function. The interviewer appears impressed in the young engineer in Michael and asks, “What about the future? Where do you see yourself in five years?”

Five years later (in present day), Michael crawls through Fox River’s old sewer tunnels. He locates the hiding place where he stashed his bag of belongings stolen from the Receiving and Discharge room. He pulls the black suit coat he wore in his job interview out of the bag, folds it under his arm and continues on his way. He encounters a pipe that shoots off to the left. Michael removes a single button from the jacket and throws it down the new pipe. The button clatters down the pipe’s gentle downward slope. Michael nods, then tosses the jacket down the pipe and slides down after it.

He emerges from the sloped pipe of the very bottom of a huge vertical drainpipe resembling a silo. Michael’s attention is straight up: eighteen feet above him, a slotted grate with light streaming in from above. Michael kneels on the ground and tears open his suit jacket. From inside the stitching, he removes a thick nylon rope and a heavy-duty plastic bag. He puts the suit in the bag and knots one end of the rope around it, creating a bundle. Then, he stuffs the whole bundle into a small metal porthole in the base of the silo wall. He looks up again at the grate, well beyond his reach.

T-Bag, dressed for P.I., stands at the phones in the yard having a light-hearted conversation. When he looks up, he locks eyes with Abruzzi, who’s walking towards the guards’ room for P.I.. T-Bag squirms, then whispers into the phone, “ But, uh, things are getting pretty tense, like they fixin’ to collide. You know what I mean, Jimmy? There’s a potential, situation.”

Michael and Lincoln carry tools across the yard. Michael tells his brother that he found their access to the infirmary building, but he’ll need extra time to find out how they’ll get up a twenty foot vertical drain pipe without a ladder. He needs to skip P.I. to do it. It’s dangerous to leave P.I. and risk getting busted by the guards, but they both know that Michael has no choice. Michael then reiterates the conundrum they face; all seven men involved in the escape will be unable to make it over the wall in the eighteen minutes between the guards’ yard rounds. They turn the corner and halt to discover C-Note leaning up against the wall. “Mind if I share that with the rest of the class?”

Inside the guards’ room, C-Note continues, “ Apparently, College Boy here did some math, and figured out we got one too many clowns in the car. One of us is in here digging, but his seat ain’t guaranteed.” Michael can’t deny this. They need to cut someone from the escape. Sucre throws his shovel down. He’s not digging if he’s not going. Abruzzi mutters that they all know who shouldn’t be included. And as if on cue, the door opens and T-Bag walks in. He senses the conspiracy against him and announces an insurance plan that cements his spot on the escape. “I called up my man on the outside, and I told him our plan. And I told him, in all likelihood, I’ll see him next week.” T-Bag continues, saying that if his contact doesn’t hear from him five minutes before the escape happens and twenty minutes afterwards, the contact will blow the whistle on the entire escape.

Exiting P.I., Abruzzi assures Lincoln that despite T-Bag’s announcement, Abruzzi has plans of his own. Abruzzi will take care of T-Bag’s man on the outside as well as T-Bag himself. At the back of the line, C-Note falls into step with Sucre, hinting that among the escapees, their positions are the most precarious. Michael needs Abruzzi’s plane and Westmoreland’s money, but Sucre is only involved because he was in the right cell at the right time. Sucre, however, trusts Michael. C-Note continues prodding, “Really? How much has he really told you, anyway?... He probably says, the less you know, the better, right?” C-Note leaves Sucre, telling him that he’s happy to break out with Sucre before the rest of the group goes.

On the walk back, Michael turns around and sees a squat yellow hydrant with a wheel crank jutting out from the ground in a remote corner. But Tweener’s sudden arrival interrupts his thought. Tweener asks when he’ll be let on P.I.; Michael had promised to look into it if Tweener stole his watch from Geary. But Michael tells him that it can’t happen right now. Tweener walks away, frustrated and alienated by yet another inmate in Fox River.

Quinn’s stolen car pulls up to the emergency entrance of the New Glarus Methodist Hospital. LJ drives while Veronica keeps pressure on Nick’s bullet wound. Nick has lost a lot of blood, but he’s lucid enough to tell her that if he is admitted to the hospital with a gunshot, the doctors will call the police and blow their cover. “They can’t find the bullet,” he says and begs Veronica to dig it out of the wound. Shocked, but scared, Veronica reaches towards his bloody shoulder.

Alone in the infirmary before his appointment with Sara, Michael jams a mop handle into the grate where he has been pouring corrosive chemicals. The force makes a small hole in the pipe below. Michael produces an origami crane from his pocket and drops it down the grate. Michael watches the crane tumble through the air and flutter into a room below. Michael turns as Bellick’s voice booms from the entrance of the infirmary.“Where’s Scofield?” Michael jumps up, puts the mop back and takes a seat in a chair just in time for Bellick to saunter into the exam room. Bellick informs Michael that he has just searched his cell, but couldn’t find Michael’s credit card anywhere. Michael remains stoic as Bellick explains that he learned of the credit card’s existence from Nika, Michel’s wife. Sara enters as Bellick continues to needle Michael. “ Whaddaya call a girl who gets married to a felon to get into the United States? Why’d she hafta come here anyway, no strip clubs in Whazistan?” Sara instructs Bellick that her infirmary is not a place for him to perform an interrogation. Bellick objects, but complies with her request. Once he leaves, Michael pleads for her understanding as she prepares his insulin. “He’s had it out for me since the day I got here.” Sara doesn’t respond; she simply preps his arm for the shot. Michael tries to go into greater depth as to why he married Nika. She curtly tells him he doesn’t need to explain anything to her. Michael exhibits an uncharacteristic vulnerability when he softly tells her, “But I want to.” Sara avoids his eyes and leaves the room.

As the inmates file back into gen pop, T-Bag shadows Westmoreland. He tells Westmoreland that there’s no way a man who’s been locked up for so long is going to be able to survive on the other side of the bricks. “ World’s a whole different place, all scary now. They got computer phones, boobies made of silicone. You wouldn’t know what to do.” Westmoreland responds to T-Bag’s taunts with an old head’s grizzled readiness for a fight. He shoves T-Bag back, hard, until a guard warns them both to stand down. As Westmoreland walks away, T-Bag growls, “Bow out, cowboy. I’m not gonna warn you no more.”

Abruzzi sits in his cell with his back against the bars. His gaze is fixed on the upper, back corner of his cell. He’s transfixed, but there appears to be nothing there but some amber-colored water damage. A passing inmate quickly tosses a note onto the bunk next to Abruzzi. Abruzzi scans the message, his eyes drifting back up to the water mark.

Abruzzi crosses the yard and passes a note to Lincoln through the fenceline. “Records from the phone in the yard. James Bagwell, lives down in Gary.” James, T-Bag’s cousin, is T-Bag’s insurance policy. Abruzzi tells Lincoln the plan is to lock James up in a moving van; they’ll release him once the escape is complete. Abruzzi assures Lincoln that they do it all the time; the guy will be fine. Lincoln asks what that means for T-Bag. Smiling, Abruzzi explains that T-Bag is no longer a threat. T-Bag sits on the bleachers out of earshot, but he follows Lincoln and Abruzzi with his eyes as they discuss his fate.

Laundry is strung across a sagging front porch. In the cluttered yard, James “Jimmy” Bagwell places his son on a rusty rocking horse, then reaches for the beer can on the front porch. An older model van pulls up in front of the house and a large man in a suit, known as Maggio, gets out of the driver’s side. He tells Jimmy that he has a delivery for him, and Jimmy unsuspectingly approaches the van.

LJ and Veronica wait outside Nick’s hospital room. A doctor takes Veronica aside and informs her that Nick has lost a lot of blood and is currently in surgery. While they talk, LJ flips through a newspaper and sees a notice for the funeral services being held for his mother, who was shot by Agent Hale. The doctor, knowing that Nick’s wound was caused by a gunshot, asks Veronica what happened. Veronica maintains her false story. “He was in the garage, under his car…” The doctor explains that Nick’s injuries are serious enough that he has to be admitted. When Veronica turns back to LJ, he is gone.

Agent Kellerman calls Hale, who is driving through a cemetery. Kellerman tells Hale to be patient; they need to make sure they take care of Nick, Veronica and LJ today. Hale hangs up, steps out of the car and looks at the small group of mourners gathered at a tearful graveside service for LJ’s mother.

From the yard phones, Abruzzi calls Maggio for a status report on Jimmy Bagwell. Maggio reluctantly tells Abruzzi the news: the job went bad. While he was trying to get him into the van, Jimmy got paranoid and pulled a gun. Maggio had no choice but to kill him. This news hits Abruzzi hard, but it gets worse when Maggio admits he also killed Jimmy’s son. It was an accident; Jimmy used the kid as a shield. Abruzzi reels from this news, expressing an uncharacteristic interest in the details of the child victim. He moves the phone away from his face in a combination of disbelief and disgust.

Sucre is escorted into visitation where he is delighted to discover Maricruz waiting for him. She came to give him important news: she’s pregnant with his baby. Sucre lights up at the thought of the two of them having a family, but Maricruz says there’s more. Hector has asked her to marry him. Sucre demands that she say no, but Maricruz is torn between true love or having stable support for her and the baby. She confesses to being scared; her mother insists that being a single mother is the hardest possible job a woman can have. Sucre promises that he’ll be getting out very soon, sooner than she thinks. But Maricruz is unconvinced. The bells rings and visitation ends. Sucre tells Maricruz that he loves her. As Maricruz backs away, tears in her eyes, she responds, “But you’ll learn to love again, right?”

The mourners have departed and Lisa’s casket sits alone, adorned with flowers. LJ drives Quinn’s car into the cemetery. Hale sees him, immediately calling Kellerman to report, “The kid is here.” Kellerman instructs Hale to follow LJ back to Nick and Veronica. LJ walks to his mother’s casket and breaks down. Hale can only sit in his car and watch the suffering he has wrought.

Michael preps his bed to make it look like he’s asleep so he can dive back into the walls. Sucre sits up, the paranoia C-Note triggered rearing its head. Sucre wants to know Michael’s plan, but Michael only replies, “It’s complicated. I can’t explain. But if it works, you’ll see soon enough.” Sucre isn’t satisfied and he prods Michael. Michael insists that he needs Sucre to stay behind and keep look-out. Sucre watches Michael prepare to disappear into the bowels of the prison, his faith in his cellmate shaken.

Abruzzi still stares at the corner of his cell where a faintly discernable image continues to captivate his attention. On the tier, a note tied to a piece of paper is launched from the next cell. Abruzzi’s cellmate reaches out, removes the note, then reads it. He informs Abruzzi, ” We’re all lined up for tomorrow. Where do you want him?” But Abruzzi is transfixed by what he sees in the corner of his cell. His cellmate restates his question. “Tomorrow. Where do you want T-Bag, the shop or the shed?” Abruzzi coarsely replies that he doesn’t care, he just wants it done. Abruzzi looks back to the corner of his cell, where the water damage begins to take on the appearance of the face of Jesus.

Michael crawls back to the vertical drainpipe. This time, he turns his attention to an old crusty pipe protruding from the bottom of the wall. He grabs the wheel valve on the pipe and turns it with some effort. Momentarily, a small trickle of water comes out. Michael smiles.

It is suddenly daytime. And in the cavernous silence of a church funeral, Abruzzi stands and approaches a child-sized coffin. Abruzzi looks down upon the face of the little boy in the coffin. Suddenly, the boy’s eyes spring open. Abruzzi bolts upright from his dream and looks to the corner of his cell. The face of Jesus, even more vivid now, stares back at him.

Veronica stands over Nick in the hospital room as LJ walks in. She turns, relieved to see him, and wraps her arms around him. Unbeknownst to them, Hale witnesses the reunion from the hospital hallway. LJ is weakened and tearful. He says, clinging to Veronica, “She didn’t do anything. She didn’t deserve this.” When Veronica looks to the doorway, Hale is gone. Outside the room, Hale rests his head against the wall, his face troubled by the pain he’s witnessing.

The cons line up along the tier when an inmate known as Trumpets stops C-Note, “Here you go man, these were seriously hard to get.” C-Note looks at the items: a stack of postcards, all from Baghdad. C-Note smiles and walks off.

Outside T-Bag’s cell, Pope apologizes for keeping T-Bag from his time in the yard. An anxious T-Bag wonders what the matter is. Pope breaks the news about his cousin. T-Bag nearly collapses in grief.

Abruzzi sits on his bunk in his cell, Reverend Mailor beside him. Abruzzi wants to know if he has been “chosen.” The Reverend explains, “Often the Lord appears when you are in particular need of forgiveness. Maybe that’s what’s happening right now." Abruzzi’s eyes open wide and he flashes back to the brutal acts he has committed: murdering the men in Fibonacci’s warehouse, blinding Gus with the shattered light bulb and cutting off Michael’s toes. Abruzzi is moved and frightened by this manifestation. Reverend Mailor takes this opportunity to remind Abruzzi that it’s never too late to repent. Reverend Mailor reads from the Bible, “Revelations chapter three, verse twenty. Jesus said, ‘Behold, stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him.’” As Reverend Mailor reads, his eyes follow Abruzzi’s gaze to the corner of the cell. Reverend Mailor just sees some water damage.

Sucre walks next to C-Note in gen pop, telling him what Michael was able to do underneath the infirmary the night before, traveling through the pipe that runs under the guards’ room. The two bump fists in a fraternal alliance.

Captain Bellick and C.O. Geary walk along the yard fence. Geary eyes Tweener and tells Bellick that he’s the inmate who stole his gold watch. Bellick knowingly asks him who the watch belonged to in the first place. Geary’s answer of “Michael Scofield” instantly triggers Bellick’s increasing suspicions.

As the P.I. crew rakes the yard, Michael eyes the yellow hydrant he saw earlier. Westmoreland walks over, and Michael asks him to keep a look out. Michael moves to the hydrant and grabs the wheel at the top. He tries to turn it, but the wheel just doesn’t budge. Michael grabs his rake, and slips the handle through the spokes of the wheel. With one more good push, the wheel spins freely and water begins to rush into the eighteen foot silo below. Since Michael had plugged the drain with his suit bundle, the cylinder rapidly fills with water. Michael keeps an eye on his watch while Westmoreland keeps an eye on the yard. Michael’s stopwatch counts down from 3 minutes and 17 seconds as the flood waters rise. C.O. Patterson blows his whistle and calls the guys back in from raking. Westmoreland issues a warning cough to signal to Michael to come back. But Michael must wait until the clock runs down, allowing the water to reach the necessary height. With three seconds left, Michael spins the wheel and shuts off the flow of water, which stops only inches below the grating. Michael steps quickly back into line next to Westmoreland with a triumphant smile on his face.

In his cell, Abruzzi quietly recites verses from his Bible. He closes the book, repeating the last passage and reveals a crude shiv. He slips the blade under his wristband and covers it with his sleeve.

Three of Abruzzi’s men jump T-Bag and drag him into the tool shed.

Sucre sits at the desk in the cell, making a list of names for his unborn child. Michael asks what he’s doing and Sucre coldly says, “Nothing.” Michael pulls a rope across the cell, the tacit signal for Sucre to hang his laundry so Michael can go behind the walls. Sucre wants to know when exactly they’re getting out, but Michael only responds, “As soon as possible.” Sucre demands more. Why does Abruzzi know the exact time of the planned escape, but he doesn’t? Michael is surprised by Sucre’s sudden distrust. Michael insists that any information he keeps from Sucre is for Sucre’s own good. Sucre bites his lip hearing C-Note suspicions verified. Michael tells Sucre, “I need to go. I’ll meet you in P.I..”

Bellick sits behind his desk, shoving a hamburger into his mouth as he talks. Across from him is Tweener, looking nervous and hungry. Bellick tells Tweener that he knows he stole Geary’s watch and there’s no use in denying it. The punishment for such a crime can range from getting thrown into the SHU to getting a couple years added onto a sentence. Bellick tells Tweener that the watch incident can be forgotten if Tweener is willing to be Bellick’s eyes and ears around Scofield. Bellick removes another burger from the bag. He offers it to Tweener as an unofficial handshake on their agreement. “What do you say, kid? You want a burger or you want to go to the SHU?” After a moment’s hesitation, Tweener reaches out and takes the burger.

Back at his home, Hale speaks to his wife, Allison. Hale tells her that maybe they should think about moving west to Arizona or New Mexico. Allison is surprised by Hale’s sudden whimsy. Hale tells her he’s just tired of being on the road and being away from his family. She continues to resist his strange impulse to leave town until an urgency overcomes his voice and he moves closer to her. “We need to go.” Allison realizes immediately what her husband is trying to tell her. “You’re in trouble, aren’t you?”

In the guards’ room, Sucre hammers away at the top of the pipe from inside the hole. He’s almost through, but he’s wiped out. He hands the shovel to C-Note. Lincoln and Westmoreland change spots as look outs.

Michael works his way through the bowels to the drainpipe, which is now flooded. He strips off his clothes and dives into the water. He feels around the walls and finds the rope he affixed to the plastic bag. He wraps it around his hand and swims upward to the grating. With his head above water, he pushes his way up, moves the grate aside and finds himself inside a utility room. Once he’s sitting in the room, he pulls the rope. The plastic bag dislodges from the porthole in the wall and the water drains from the room below him. Then he walks across the room and finds the origami crane that he dropped from the infirmary. He climbs up a shelf and looks through a corroded hole above him to see Sara washing her hands. Michael has completed the route to the infirmary.

The phone rings next to Nick’s bed. Veronica answers. She asks who is on the other end and the voice says it doesn’t matter. Hale stands in his home, on the phone. He tells Veronica, “I have some information you may be interested in. Information that will lead to the exoneration of Lincoln Burrows.” He tells her to meet him later that night at the Highland Café.

Abruzzi ’s thugs have T-Bag’s wrists bound with duct tape and are working him over. Abruzzi enters and calls them off, “Leave us alone.” They toss the bloodied T-Bag on a table and leave as Abruzzi produces the metal shiv. T-Bag begs for his life, but Abruzzi is consumed with his righteous cause. He looms over T-Bag, announcing that he is just an emissary delivering justice on T-Bag for all the suffering he has caused. T-Bag begs for Abruzzi’s mercy. Abruzzi gives T-Bag a choice. “You want to live, you do it here, in Fox River. You forget you ever met us.” T-Bag, mind racing, admits he’d never make in the real world. He gives Abruzzi his word that he will drop out of the escape. T-Bag collapses into Abruzzi’s chest, and Abruzzi lets him fall to the floor. He conceals the shiv and turns away, commenting that Jesus has blessed them both. T-Bag, springs to his feet and pulls a razor blade from inside his mouth. T-Bag replies, “Speaking of Jesus… say hi to him for me.” T-Bag slices his razor deep into Abruzzi’s throat. Blood splatters across the wall and window as T-Bag rises and exits, leaving Abruzzi on the floor, clutching his neck with a pool of blood around him.

C-Note takes one more good swing at the pipe and breaks through.

Michael, climbing through the bowels, sees the dirt fall only feet in front of him.

Lincoln sticks his head in the guards’ room and warns the team of the approaching bulls. Westmoreland, C-Note and Sucre quickly try to cover the hole, but, shorthanded, they need more time. Westmoreland tells Lincoln he needs to stall. Geary makes a move to pass Lincoln after telling Lincoln to get back inside. Lincoln tells Geary to hold on a second, but Geary insists on bringing Lincoln back to the guards’ room. Knowing that if Geary enters the room before the hole is hidden, the entire escape will be blown, Lincoln punches Geary in the face. More C.O.s rush toward the scuffle.

Once the noise outside subsides, Sucre and C-Note pull up the rug and let Michael into the room. With a smile on his face, he looks at the guys. “Well, we leave tonight.” But then he sees the concern on their faces. Michael asks, “Where’s my brother?” Westmoreland can barely look at Michael as he says, “We’ve got a big problem.”

Outside the guards’ room, Lincoln is dragged away by two C.O.s to solitary confinement. By doing the only thing he could think of to save his brother, Lincoln might have just doomed his own chances of escape.


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