Bellick looks into the hole. Westmoreland comes out from a corner and knocks him out. Michael joins him and they tie him up and gag him and dump him in the hole while Tweener stands guard. Westmoreland says that’s for Marilyn. Then they clean up and cover the hole.
Michael visits Sara and apologizes to her for the key and tells her why he did it. She continues to be distant. “I’m getting my brother out of here tonight”, he tells her. He explains that Lincoln has been wrongfully accused and asks her to pretend to be on duty and leave the door unlocked and the light on in the infirmary. Sara doesn’t look like she’s going to comply and is contemplating informing the authorities.
Veronica and LJ have his 1st hearing for double homicide and attempted murder. Things don’t go well and a trial date is set. Veronica calls Lincoln to update him, he’s devastated.
Lincoln broods in his cell while Michael puts the finishing touches on the Taj Mahal. He reluctantly hides something (possibly a knife, how do they get away with stuff like that beats me) inside the Taj Mahal, knowing that he’s going to be betraying Pope, who has always been like a father-figure to him. Pope is happy to see the Taj Mahal completed and grants him a visit with his brother, who is under 24 h surveillance in his cell.
Michael and Lincoln brood in L’s cell. With Bellick missing and LJ in trouble, they need to move up the escape to tonight. Michael needs to change plans, he looks up at the wall, knowing he’s finally got to use the escape route he had dreaded.
In their cell, Michael tells Sucre about the change of plans, but Sucre starts freaking out. He only has a year to go before being eligible for parole and he fears that it wont be long before Bellick is found. Not to mention, the new plan Michael is proposing stinks, there’s no way they’re going to be able to accomplish that. He thinks they’ve blown it already and shouldnt risk going ahead with the escape. Michael gives him this tragic look saying they don’t have another choice.
In the yard, he updates the rest of the gang. “As soon as it gets dark, we go”. No one’s happy coz the new suicide mission. They will now be meeting in Michael’s cell, not the guard room, and even if everyone could get into Michael’s cell unseen, the pathway from there to the infirmary is too dangerous and was the reason Michael hadn’t wanted to use it. (Quite frankly, I don’t see the problem, coz he did go from his cell to sick bay to rescue Sara during the riot and Sick Bay and the infirmary, if they’re different, cant be that far from each other.) ANyway, they have to start out at 7pm which gives them exactly 60m till count, when each cell is checked.
Abruzzi has to call Nick to inform him of the change of plans and to make sure he has the plane waiting for them at the nearby airstrip. Veronica overhears this and realizes Nick is connected to Abruzzi. She steals one of his guns from the closet and confronts him. He tells her about his association with the mob and that if she caused any trouble, he was supposed to kill her, but you get the impression that all the time they’ve spent together has him conflicted. She pulls the gun on him and they wrestle for it, Nick gets shot and she takes off, whole Nick is left to bleed to death. Next stop, Blackfoot, Montana, she has to figure out what’s up there.
The whole team is tense, coz tonight’s the night. At around 7pm that night, Lincoln visits the infirmary for the bruises he recd during the accident. During one of the break sessions when the boys are allowed to move around, they all manage to sneak into Cell 40, where they have a date with a certain hole in the wall. Once inside, the boys (Sucre, Tweener, T-Bag, Abruzzi, Manche, Westmoreland, C-Note) put on Psych ward/ infirmary staff whites that were earlier stolen from the laundry by Manche and hidden in the pipes by Michael. Michael though is wearing a grey sweatshirt and blue pants, later he dons one of Bellick’s jackets and caps (also stolen, I’ve long since suspended belief and chosen to simply enjoy the show as is). They crawl through the pipes towards the infirmary (don’t have any idea what horrors they face along the way, possibly they have to bypass an exhaust fan and other such stuff, I just hope its more original than that, and to think of all that time and effort they put into that hole in St Louis). Anyway, they all make it to the infirmary where Lincoln is waiting and happy to see them (Yes folks, he somehow managed to get alone).
Just as they’re getting out of the uniforms, guess who happens upon them. Its Haywire! His photographic memory retained the layout and he made his own way from the hatch in the coal room of the Psych ward through the tunnels. Along the way, he met Bellick and stole his gun and walkie-talkie and reached the infirmary by the safer route. Michael, Lincoln and Westmoreland try to reason with him, but its always dangerous reasoning with a psycho, but its Tweener that tries to sneak up on him and disarm him and Westmoreland gets shot! The others gang up on Haywire, disarm him and knock him out. Michael doesn’t want to leave Westmoreland, but there’s no way he can carry on and he tells Michael “Go, and don’t look back”.
During the escape, Micheal pulls a knife, which hid in the taj mahar, on Pope, gets the infirmary keys from him and locks him in a closet.
In the meantime, Bellick remains bound and gagged in the hole. The night shift guards notice Bellick’s truck still in parking and find he hasn’t checked out. They hear sounds coming from the floor of their guardroom and find and release him. Bellick is now on a warpath and he and his little posse get loaded on the ammo and charge out.
Michael blows some dust on the keypad and from the fingerprints finds the access code to the locked room (this is different from the door he needed the keys for.) The team then breaks the bars on the window. Lincoln is the 1st out on the wire and helps the others across. Michael is last and just as he going across, the flood lights come on and sirens go off. He rushes across the wire and the boys scamper through the trees and over a hill and down Fitz street towards the airstrip. Guards and cop cars chase them, Bellick saying “they’ve signed their death warrant.”
Elsewhere, Brinker (The Company’s assassin) tells Reynolds and Kellerman their services are no longer needed. Kellerman has screwed up way too many times and besides, now that they’ve flushed Mr. Burrows out of hiding, their agendas are no longer the same as the VP’s. They’ve also discovered that Veronica is getting too close and needs to be eliminated.
In Blackfoot, Veronica arrives at the address from where the calls were made to, to find the house on fire. She hears screaming and is just in time to find Terrance Steadman alive. Kellerman comes out from behind a nearby horse wagon taunting her that her evidence is going up in flames and he’s going to take her out too and fires. But guess what, he’s the one that goes down. Agent Hale is alive!
Just got another spoiler that suggests that Westmoreland actually gets hurt in the scuffle with Bellick in the guard room and not during the escape. He does however tell Michael to leave without him, coz it doesnt look like he'll make it and possibly asks him to check on his daughter and gives him the info to his millions. Not sure which one is true, but this could explain why Tweener blames himself for someone dying. Guess a rattled Tweener will have to do some damage control to earn his spot on the team and would allso explain why Michael forcefully tells Tweener to do a swipe for him.
Another thing I forgot, Bellick and his posse waste time looking for the boys in the pipes under the guardroom because that was the way he thought they were going to escape. That bought the team sufficient time to get to the infirmary and start over the wall.
The escapees reach a cliff overlooking a body of water and have to jump to avoid being gunned down. (I’ve looked at satellite pics of Joliet and am not sure which street is Fitz. Its most likely Collins to the East in which case there’s a lake just beyond it. We’ve got to assume that it’s a large body of water than cannot be circumvented). When they arrive on the other side (I’m trying to imagine D-Cups making it across), they have to run a bit to the airstrip. (There really isn’t an airstrip near the prison, but Galt Airport was used during filming). The police chase is full on as they run to the waiting jet (guess Nick had time to arrange it before V shot him). Not sure who gets shot before they take off.
The use of the tattoo will not end with the season. Michael still has info that he will need (such as the “bolshoi booze” or 32009 1045709 (upside-down) that’s on his arm, possibly a bank account number).
At some point during the escape Sara is overwhelmed by everything that's happened and all the people that have gotten hurt or died. (Possibly she blames herself for Pope getting hurt coz she didnt leave the infirmary unlocked or maybe she wasnt able to save Westmoreland who dies telling her Michael's a good guy, who knows.) But bottom line is she spirals out of control. There's a scene where she's in her car sobbing uncontrollably and the big shocker of the season finale is that she's fallen off the wagon and is using again.
