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Author: Szecsi Darius Cristian Lupeni, May 2017 Coordinator: Ursu Cristina

LUCRARE DE ACORDARE A
COMPETENELOR LINGVISTICE
Prison Break
Table of contents

0. Prcis

0.1.Argument

1.Introduction

1.1. Cast and characters

2. Series overview

2.1. Season 1

2.2. Season 2

2.3. Season 3

2.4. Season 4

3. Production

3.1. Music

4. Reception

4.1. Ratings

4.2. Awards and nominations

5. Conclusions

6.Webography
1. Prcis

The first chapter introduces the reader in the Prison break


universe where it presents the cast and the main characters but also
important aspects of the series.
The second chapter summarizes the action of the fourth
seasons. Due to a political conspiracy, Lincoln Burrows is sent to jail and
sentenced to death for a crime he didn't commit and his only hope is his
genius brother Michael Scotfield, who begins his rescuing mission by
purposely get himself sent to the same prison in order to break the both of
them out, from the inside out.. In the second season Michael, Lincoln and six
other convicts, including pickpocket Tweener and the mentally unstable
Haywire, have eventually escaped from Fox River. and the second season
follows a vast manhunt trying to catch up the group. Dubbed the Fox River
Eight, the group is separated and members are on their individual way,
occasionally meeting up to help each other. They fight to run away from the
police while avoiding The Company - a mysterious group who attempts to
end their lives by all means. In the third season the two brothers are hunted
down and eventually Michael is recaptured and sent to a hellish Panamanian
jail - Penitenciara Federal de Sona for multiple crimes including bank
robbery, prison escape and murder, where he is going to meet real killers and
craziers. The third season follows Michael attempting to survive harsh fights
inside jail while finding way to break out from Sona with several other
inmates. The fourth and final installment of Prison Break including 24
episodes in which Michael hunts for Gretchen and Whistler in Los Angeles
to avenge Sara's death but finds that she successfully managed to escape and
is still alive. Through Bruce Bennett, the two reunite while in Panama,
Sucre, Bellick and T-Bag escape from Sona after a riot. Seeing that the sole
way they will truly be free, Michael and Lincoln avow to find Sara and bring
down The Company.
The third chapter its about production (music), the theme
music of Prison break and the incidental music.
The last chapter its about reception where i talk about ratings,
awards and nominations of the serial.

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1.1. Argument

I have been seeing so many advertisements for this show and I


decided to check it out and it's surprisingly good! The acting is well done
and everything else. The show is about a guy named Lincoln (Dominic
Purcell) who gets arrested and framed for a crime that he didn't commit and
now his brother, Michael (Wennworth Miller) installs himself in prison for
one reason, to get his brother out of jail!
An engineer gets himself incarcerated so he can spring his
death-row brother (framed for a crime he didn't commit) in this taut drama.
Michael's success is followed by he and his fellow escapees on the lam in
Season 2 and back in prison, this time in Panama, in Season 3. In Season 4,
the crew, back in the U.S., chase the nefarious Company. And a Season 5
revival picks up after Michael's apparent death, with Sara and Lincoln
teaming up to investigate clues that point to his still being alive.

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1. Introduction

Prison Break is an American television serial drama created


by Paul Scheuring, that was broadcast on Fox for four seasons from 2005 to
2009, and a fifth season in 2017. The series revolves around two brothers,
one of whom has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit, and
the other who devises an elaborate plan to help his brother escape prison and
clear his name.

The series was originally turned down by Fox in 2003, which


was concerned about the long-term prospects of such a series. Following the
popularity of serialized prime time television series Lost and 24, Fox
decided to back production in 2004. The first season received generally
positive reviews, and performed well in the ratings. The first season was
originally planned for a 13-episode run, but was extended to include an extra
nine episodes due to its popularity.

Prison Break was nominated for several industry awards,


including the 2005 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series Drama
and the 2006 People's Choice Award for Favorite New TV Drama, which it
won. In the United States, all four seasons have been released on DVD and
released on Blu-ray internationally.

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1.1. Cast and characters

Dominic Purcell as Lincoln Burrows (seasons 15): Lincoln is


a high school drop-out and a convicted felon, who is wrongfully accused of
and charged with the murder of Terence Steadman, the brother of the Vice
President of the United States. Purcell was cast three days before the start of
production and consequently, he was the last actor to join the original cast.

Wentworth Miller as Michael Scofield (seasons 15): Michael


is Lincoln's brother and worked as a structural engineer before devoting full-
time to his brother's case. In order to save his brother's life, Michael creates
an elaborate plan to help his brother escape from prison.

Robin Tunney as Veronica Donovan (seasons 12): Veronica is


Michael and Lincoln's childhood friend who decides to review Lincoln's
case at Michael's insistence. She becomes Lincoln's lawyer and appears as a
major character in the first season.

Peter Stormare as John Abruzzi (seasons 12): Due to his role


as the leader of a Chicago mafia, Abruzzi became a prominent figure at Fox
River State Penitentiary. He agrees to provide an escape jet plane for
Michael in exchange for the location of the eyewitness to his crimes, Otto
Fibonacci.

Amaury Nolasco as Fernando Sucre (seasons 15): Sucre


develops a friendship with Michael during time at Fox River State
Penitentiary, where he was his cell-mate.

Marshall Allman as "L. J." Burrows Jr. (seasons 14): L. J. is


the teenage son of Lincoln Burrows and is greatly affected by his father's
death sentence. He is forced into hiding after he becomes the target of the
people who want Lincoln dead.

Wade Williams as Brad Bellick (seasons 14): Bellick is


introduced as the captain of Fox River's correctional officers.

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Sarah Wayne Callies as Sara Tancredi (seasons 12, 45):
Sara is the prison doctor at Fox River and the daughter of Governor Frank
Tancredi, who is linked into the plot that brings Lincoln to Fox River. She
takes a liking to Michael and eventually aids his escape. She ultimately joins
them on the run.

Paul Adelstein as Paul Kellerman (seasons 12, 45):


Kellerman was introduced as a Secret Service agent working for the Vice
President to make sure that the execution of Lincoln Burrows goes smoothly.
He appears as a major character in the first and second seasons.

Robert Knepper as Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell (seasons 15):


T-Bag appears in all four seasons of the series as a cunning, violent, and
manipulative psychopath, consistently underestimated by those around him.
T-Bag will stop at nothing to get what he wants and lets nothing stand in his
way.

Rockmond Dunbar as Benjamin Miles "C-Note"


Franklin (seasons 12, 45): Desperate for his family, C-Note blackmails
Michael at Fox River to join his escape team. He appears in the series as a
major character in the first and second seasons.

William Fichtner as Alexander Mahone (seasons 24):


Introduced as an FBI agent in the second season, Mahone's assignment was
to locate the fugitives. Mahone is intellectually matched with Michael and
his background unfolds as the series progresses.

Chris Vance as James Whistler (seasons 34): Whistler is


incarcerated in Sona for the murder of the Mayor's son and appears as a
major character in the third season. He also stars in the first episode of the
fourth season.

Danay Garcia as Sofia Lugo (seasons 34): Sofia was


introduced in the third season as Whistler's girlfriend. At the beginning of
the fourth season, she begins dating Lincoln Burrows.

Michael Rapaport as Donald Self (season 4): Introduced in the


fourth season, Self is a Department of Homeland Security special agent who
teams up with the gang to take down The Company.

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2.1. Season 1

The opening scene of the


series shows Michael's final preparation
of his plan to infiltrate Fox River; the
tattooist is applying the finishing touches
to Michael's tattoo. In order to get into
Fox River, Michael staged an armed bank
robbery; in which he attempted to steal
over half a million dollars from the
downtown Chicago branch of United
Savings Bank, pled no contest at his trial,
and requested that he be sent to the Level 1 prison facility nearest to his
Chicago home to serve his time. That facility was Fox River. Michael began
his sentence on April 11, exactly a month before Lincoln was set to be
executed.

Once in Fox River, he


scrutinized every detail regarding the
prison and its inhabitants. Given
Michael's educational background,
inmates and correctional officers alike
focused a great deal of attention on
Michael and were very interested in
what Michael was all about; they would
often wonder why a man of Michael's
credentials would have thrown such a privileged life away to end up in a
state penitentiary. What was even more intriguing were his habits, as he was
often seen conversing discreetly with his brother, Lincoln, both during
Prison Industry time and Chapel time; and the fact that he tended to execute
a highly defined stare around Fox River's boundaries immediately from the
point he got incarcerated as well as being called personally on command by
the prison's warden, Henry Pope.

Michael put his plan into action while overcoming various


obstacles. He began by having specific objectives he must accomplish in
order to build an escape route out of the prison. One the way, Michael
needed to recruit a number of people to aid in the escape: his cellmate

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Fernando Sucre to help him dig, mob henchman John Abruzzi to get him on
Prison Industries and provide air transport once they escaped, and Charles
Westmoreland, who he believed to be "D.B. Cooper" and can help finance
their lives as fugitives with his hidden $1.5 million dollars in cash (later
revealed to be actually $5 million dollars).

Michael also had to feign type 1 diabetes, which gave him daily
access to the infirmary (the escapees' exit point from the prison) and allow
him to build a relationship with Doctor Sara Tancredi, who happens to be the
daughter of Frank Tancredi, the Governor of Illinois. After agreeing to help
Warden Pope finish his Taj Mahal replica in his office, Michael also forms a
friendship with Pope.

However, not everything


went according to plan. More
people join the escape team than
Michael had speculated. This,
coupled with other obstacles
Michael faces, forces him to
reformulate the plan time and time
again. These obstacles begin when
two of Michael's toes were cut off
by Abruzzi, a mafia boss who
wants to extract the location of mob informant Otto Fibonacci from Michael.
When Michael refused to divulge the information or crack for Abruzzi, he
struck a deal: Abruzzi would supply an escape plane in exchange for
Fibonacci's address. In addition to this, a portion of a section of Michael's
tattooed blueprint on his back is burned off and lost after coming into
contact with a steaming hot piece of metal as he hid from a guard ,
compromising the plan, and eventually landing him in Solitary Confinement
for a period of time (when he refused to disclose information as to how he
received the burn), dealing a severe blow to his motivation and morale. He
later stages "brief insanity" to gain access to the penitentiary's Psych Ward
premises to gain contact with one of its insane inhabitants gifted with
photographic memory, in order to re-acquire the portion of the tattooed
blueprint. These, however, are only a few setbacks he faced in his attempt to
break his brother out of prison, and so Michael's cool facade also began to
wear off.

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Michael's relationships with
Warden Pope and Sara deepened
over time, but he eventually (and
regretfully - demonstrated when he
threatened the warden in his office)
manipulated both of them in the end
to save his brother's life; most
prominently with Sara, who was
part of Michael's secondary plan.
When his original plan failed,
Michael pleaded Sara to talk to her father. Also, he later relied on their
relationship as, when he fails to steal the key to the infirmary from her and
she finds out about his motive for being in the infirmary, Michael revealed
his escape plan and asked Sara to leave the infirmary door unlocked on the
night of the escape. Sara decides to help Michael and does so and, with the
aid of an unlocked infirmary door, Michael finally succeeded in helping his
brother escape from Fox River, through the window of the infirmary and
escaped over the walls of Fox River with his brother in the nick of time, but
also aided in the escape of six other prisoners. However, Michael and the
others were left stranded at the airfield after the plane took off before their
arrival.

2.2. Season 2

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The story continues to follow
Michael, his brother and other escapees as
they try to evade the authorities pursuing
them. Away from the prison, the level of
intricacy of Michael's plan is demonstrated
once again; prior to his incarceration at Fox
River, Michael prepared an alternate escape
route outside the prison in the even that he
and his brother fail to board Abruzzi's
getaway plane. This becomes useful as
Michael leads his brother, Sucre, C-Note, and Abruzzi to his hidden cache in
Oswego and obtains a fresh change of clothes. Furthermore, Michael
retrieves a backpack which contained money, a mobile phone, pre-paid
phone cards, and fake passports. Michael and Lincoln travel together, after
the fugitives separate to accomplish each of their individual goals.

Unfortunately for Michael, an


FBI Agent named Alexander Mahone had
realized that Scofield was the mastermind of
the operation, and is intrigued by Michael's
meticulous intellect. Mahone becomes
Michael's nemesis. In short order, Mahone
discovers the meanings of three of his
tattoos, and almost catches him at the
graveyard when he discovers the meaning of
"Ripe Chance Woods". Later, Michael and
Lincoln plan to stage another minor prison-break to liberate and retrieve L.J.
Burrows from the Cook County Courthouse before the teenager's hearing; in
which he is on trial for the double murder of Lisa and Adrian Rix. Their plan
is foiled after Agent Mahone deciphered their code to LJ. In addition to their
failure, Lincoln takes a bullet which forced them to go the home of Nika
Volek. After retrieving their car, Michael and Lincoln set off the explosives
that Michael had previously installed in their car in an attempt to fool the
authorities that they are dead.

Mahone continues to track Michael's process, as the two leave


Illinois to go to Utah, Michael and Lincoln having decided to head to
Tooele, Utah in order to find and retrieve Westmoreland's hidden money.
After escaping from Brad Bellick and Roy Geary and leaving Nika on the

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side of a road, Michael and Lincoln reach Tooele, Utah. There, they are
subsequently reunited with four of the other escapees: Sucre, C-Note, T-Bag
and Tweener, who join them.

It is here Michael and Lincoln


separate for the first time, when
Lincoln decides to find and go after
his son, LJ, who has been suddenly
released from prison. After some time,
Michael, Sucre, T-Bag and C-Note
finally locate Westmoreland's money.
Although Michael and Sucre had
planned to trick their comrades, it is T-
Bag who ends up with the money after he fooled them. Nevertheless,
Michael, even after failing to retrieve the money, continues to execute his
plan to meet with the people smuggling coyote at the 'Bolshoi Booze'
location. Prior to leaving for 'Bolshoi Booze', Michael saves Sucre's life after
he falls into the river.

Aware of Mahone's diligence and knowledge of his plan,


Michael makes an ultimatum with Mahone by using the information he
found out about Oscar Shales as leverage; if Mahone lets he and his family
disappear, he will keep the secret about Shales safe. Despite this, Mahone
continues to get closer to Michael as he locates the rendezvous point
between him and Sara in New Mexico. Michael meets up with Sara at the
location which he encoded in his messages to her inside the origami cranes.
Sara is reluctant to escape to Panama with him. They are found and pursued
by Mahone but Michael later traps Mahone inside an abandoned factory.
After Sara leaves Michael thinking she had declined his invitation to
Panama (the fact was that Paul Kellerman had captured her), Michael,
unaware, moves forward with his plan and goes to meet the coyote, who has
the location of an escape plane to Mexico. There, Michael is reunited with
Lincoln, Sucre and his father, Aldo Burrows.

As his past actions begin to take a toll on him, Michael goes to


a church where he makes a confession about his wrongdoings. In his
confession, Michael mentions a man who he saw bled to death. This relates
to a story that Michael later tells. In a flashback sequence, it is revealed that
this man was his foster father, who was killed by Aldo, his biological father.

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Michael reunites with Sucre, Lincoln and his father at the "Bolshoi Booze"
location, after a problematic meeting with the coyote. As they head to the
location of the escape plane, Aldo attempts to explain to Michael. However,
Mahone is able to follow the family and Aldo is killed by Mahone after
being after wounded by him in a gunfight. Before Aldo died in Michael's
arms, he told Lincoln and Michael that he loved them and to find Sara who
he believes may save Lincoln. Michael and Lincoln decide not to go to
Panama, and decide to confront "The Company" and the conspiracy, and bid
farewell to Sucre, who alights the getaway plane to Mexico. Later, while
attempting to call Sara, their car is hit by Mahone and the brothers are
recaptured.

The brothers are


apprehended by Border Patrol
agents before Mahone can kill
them. Later, Michael and Lincoln
are aided in their escape by
Kellerman, who turns against The
Company in an act of self-
preservation. Kellerman helps
them escape by arranging for an escape route (deceiving Agent William Kim
and Mahone into thinking that he will create and opportunity to kill them
without attracting attention), then shooting Mahone and running off with
them. Kellerman, Michael and Lincoln teamed up to take down President
Caroline Reynolds, who had each of their lives ruined. Kellerman takes
them to Steadman, the man Lincoln is accused of murdering. Steadman's
suicide forces Michael, Lincoln and Kellerman to find Sara since she holds
the key to unlocking information that can expose the conspiracy. After Sara
joins them, Michael, Lincoln and Kellerman head to Chicago, where Sara's
father has hidden the information. On the way, Michael and Sara express
their feelings for each other: Sara tells Michael that she has fallen in love
with him, and Michael reveals that he feels the same.

With the help of the former Fox River Warden Pope, Michael
and Sara succeed in getting the USB flash drive in Frank's private locker.
After leaving Kellerman behind, Lincoln, Michael and Sara soon found that
the recorded conversation on the USB drive could not be used as evidence
due to its modified time-stamp. They decide to blackmail Reynolds instead.
When this also fails, Michael and Lincoln are forced to escape to Panama

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but are forced to leave Sara behind after she is arrested. Upon discovering
that T-Bag is in Panama City, Michael decides to go and capture him, which
he successfully does. However, when Michael returns to his boat with
Westmoreland's money to find Lincoln missing, he receives a call from
Mahone, who demands the boat and the money in exchange for Lincoln's
life. Michael outsmarts Magone and escapes with Lincoln. At his new boat,
Michael and Lincoln are reunited with Sara, who tells them that Lincoln has
been exonerated after Kellerman's testimony.

Their happiness is short-lived when Kim arrives and threatens


to kill Lincoln and take Michael to Penitenciara Federal de Sona (Sona
Federal Penitentiary), which causes Sara to shoot him. As the three flee from
the scene with the police pursuing them, Michael and Sara separate from
Lincoln and end up surrounded in a small isolated shack. After expressing
their love for each other, they leave the shack. Unbeknownst to Sara,
Michael confesses to Kim's killing and is arrested in her place. Michael is
then imprisoned at Sona.

Michael is the fifth member of the Fox River Eight to be taken


down by the authorities, and the second member not to die upon
interception.

2.3. Season 3

In the season premiere, Michael witnesses a brutal duel


between inmates, the usual manner of settling disputes at Sona. He
unintentionally makes an enemy of one of the most influential and powerful
inmates at Sona, a drug lord named Lechero. He is soon informed by
Lincoln that The Company needs him to break somebody out of Sona

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(James Whistler), and that they have taken
Sara and LJ hostage to ensure his cooperation.
He began to look for Whistler, only to find
that he has a bounty on his head: whoever kills
him can receive exoneration from the mayor
of Panama City. As a result, Whistler had gone
into hiding in the sewers. Michael eventually
found him, but Mahone locates Whistler as
well and attempts to kill him for the bounty;
however Michael successfully persuaded
Lechero to remove the bounty on his head after he assists him by restoring
water to the prison, with help from the young inmate Luis "McGrady"
Gallego.

The Company gives Michael a one week ultimatum for


breaking out Whistler. With seven days to bust Whistler out of prison,
Michael tried to take matters into his own hands and turns his attention to
obtaining the use of Lechero's cell phone, which he is able to accomplish by
blackmailing T-Bag about his past pedophilic activities. After T-Bag gets
Michael the phone, Michael uses it to contact Sara and receive a coded
message about her location. He relays this information to Linc, who
unsuccessfully attempts to rescue Sara and LJ. Sara was then brutally killed
as a result, but her death was still unknown to Michael.

Michael then purposely uses a piece of jewelery to short out the


power, causing Lechero to call on Michael's engineering skills to fix it.
Michael restores power to the prison and also manages to restore power to a
previously broken electric fence. It is revealed that Michael fixed the fence
so that the electricity will superheat a chemical that Sucre (who was hired as
the new grave digger) sprays on it, as the heated chemical is able to melt
steel.

Michael spies on the Sona's guards. One is blinded by the sun at


3 p.m. - where there would be a glare which causes one of the guards to look
over to the other side; the other sometimes watches sports on a television in
the guard tower. Michael is seen by the second one, due to the lens glare.
After a small raid takes place, the prisoners are rounded up in the yard.
Captain Hurtado questions Michael to the point that he unholsters his pistol
and puts it to Michael's head. Hurtado is about to shoot Michael but Whistler

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manages to intervene on Michael's
behalf and takes responsibility of the
incident, claiming that he was watching
the birds pictured in his book.

Michael is desperate about


the vigilance of the guards when
Mahone helps him; he talks about a
coffee cup he managed to have in the prison. As the guards are drinking
walking from their respective guard posts, both are drinking from the same
style coffee cups. Michael surmised and concluded that if the trio can get to
the cup and drug one of the guard's coffee, they could have that guard. As
the escape plan continues Michael finally learns of Sara's death, which has a
devastating impact on him. In a moment of weakness he seems to challenge
Whistler to a death duel but Michael reveals this to be only a diversion for
the escape. The escape ultimately fails.

When the Company decided to rescue Whistler


themselves, by storming Sona, Michael foils their plans and
their attempt to rescue Whistler, but he was suspected of
such an operation. He is held responsible for both escape
attempts and was escorted out of Sona and kept in solitary,
being interrogated. He eventually relented and told them
about Whistler, who then revealed that Gretchen Morgan is
in charge of the operation. Later Michael finds out the
officers that were with Gretchen have been killed. Michael
and Whistler are returned to Sona. It was then when they
turned to a new escape plan, with the help of Lechero, and that is through an
underground tunnel.

Later in the tunnels with Mahone, Whistler and Lechero, he


says they need braces to hold up the escape tunnel. Then, when part of the
tunnel is about to fall, Michael puts a little piece of metal in to hold it up.
Their escape plan was jeopardized with Sammy taking over Sona prison and
investigating their escape, but Sammy was killed after the tunnel fell upon
him. It is then revealed that Michael killed Sammy by taking out that little
metal piece. McGrady joined the team in the escape. Later Michael,
Whistler, Mahone, and McGrady escape from Sona, with Lechero, T-Bag

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and Bellick caught in the escape. This now marks him as the only member of
the Fox River Eight to continuously elude authorities.

Michael successfully tricks


Gretchen into giving LJ and Sofia Lugo
back safely. When a shootout begins out a
museum in Panama, Michael grabs the gun
from Linc's car and has Gretchen in his
sights, but she escapes when police start to
shoot at her. Later on outside the hospital,
LJ gave him the same origami rose that
Michael had given to Sara on her birthday. Fuelled by revenge, he bids
farewell to his family as he goes on a solo mission to hunt down Gretchen.

In the end, Michael was seen driving along the Panamanian


coast, on his way to take action against Gretchen and The Company.

2.4. Season 4

The season starts off approximately three weeks later, with


Michael back in the U.S. Michael has tracked down Gretchen and Whistler
to Los Angeles and is waiting to intercept Whistler and Gretchen while
they're on a mission; preparing to avenge Sara's death. However, as he has
Gretchen and Whistler at gunpoint, and is about to shoot Gretchen, she
reveals to him that she had lied about killing Sara: Michael finds out Sara
may still be alive. Unsure whether or not to believe her, Michael contacts
Lincoln and then Bruce Bennett by phone. Michael asks Lincoln what he
actually saw that night in the garage with the head in the box. He also finds

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out that Sona was burnt down a few
days ago and that Sucre, T-Bag and
Bellick escaped. After that he heads off
to a meeting with Mahone and
Whistler and finds out Whistler is a
freelancer working with the
Department of Homeland Security in
order to obtain Scylla. Whistler is then
assassinated by Wyatt Mathewson; a
hired assassin. Michael flees and calls Bruce wondering if Sara is still alive
but is then apprehended by the LAPD.

Michael is then taken to


DHS Headquarters where he meets
Agent Donald "Don" Self, an DHS
Agent who was working with Aldo and
Whistler to obtain Scylla. Self then
tells Michael that in Panama his
brother has been arrested. Self tells
Lincoln and Michael that they can
either bring down The Company by
helping Self find and get Scylla (which is said to be a key card that stores
every bit of information about The Company - essentially their "little black
book") or go to jail - and that both of them face major time. They refuse and
both of the brothers are bailed out by Bruce. Bruce then takes Lincoln and
Michael to a house where they find Sara. Michael and she joyfully reunite.
Later on, Michael gives back the rose he made for Sara in Fox River.

Wyatt eventually hunts them down and locates them, and tries
to assassinate them at Sara's safe house. Wyatt opens fire at Lincoln with
Michael and Sara in the house. They all escape, realizing The Company will
not stop until they're all dead. Michael and everyone decide to take Self's
offer, and so Michael phones Self and tells him they're in. They are joined by
Mahone, Sucre and Bellick in their mission. To blend in with the crowds,
Michael gets his tattoos removed via laser surgery.

Throughout the season, Michael was seen to be experiencing health


problems, getting nosebleeds and suddenly clutching his head in pain, and
passing out. He hides these from Lincoln and Sara until he experiences a

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bloody nose that he could not hide
from Lincoln. Michael tells his brother
"It's not a big deal." and Lincoln replies
it was a big deal when he was thirteen.
Michael's condition is one his mother
also shared. During his mother's
childhood, she also had frequent
nosebleeds that stopped after a few
months, but reappeared when she was
older, shortly before she died at the age of 31 of a brain aneurysm. Michael
was experiencing nosebleeds for the first time since he was 13 and is about
to turn 31. Eventually, Michael is no longer able to hide his sickness as he
collapses in the warehouse. Sara takes Michael to the hospital where the
doctors diagnoses him with a hypothalamic hamartoma - he is revealed to
have a tumor on his temporal lobe, and Michael is advised that surgery is
required right away or else he might die.

Unwilling to go into surgery until they get Scylla, Michael


receives temporary treatment from Sara and goes onwards with their plans to
break into The Company. Although the group eventually succeeds in getting
Scylla, Self betrays them and takes it for himself to try and sell it. Michael,
however, had taken a small piece of Scylla and Self needs that piece to make
Scylla complete. Self goes back to find Michael and shoots the warehouse
and a gas tanker to try and force them out. Fortunately, Lincoln was not in
the warehouse at the time, and upon discovering Self's car outside, he finds
Self at the top of a building and knocks him unconscious. They bring Self in
and are about to get Scylla when Gretchen holds the group at gunpoint,
allowing Self and herself to escape. Everyone except Mahone head to the
hotel Self and Gretchen are staying at. Michael tampers with the ladder
outside so that when Self tries to escape, it comes loose and Self falls to the
ground. Michael takes this opportunity to grab Scylla from an unconscious
Self, but as he is running away his nose starts to bleed profusely. He begins
losing his balance and blacks out, falling to the ground. Self then catches up
and takes back Scylla. As he is preparing to shoot Michael, Company agents
appear and start shooting at Self. Self jumps into Gretchen's van and they
escape. The Company agents lift an unconscious Michael into their van and
drive away, with Lincoln running after them.

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Michael is then found in a
hospital bed, connected to many
machines. A hand rests on his, and it is
revealed that this is General Jonathan
Krantz. Lincoln visits The Company
HQ and asks General Krantz to allow
him to see his brother. The General
leads Lincoln to Michael, assuring him
that Michael is under the best medical
care and that The Company's technology is years ahead of those currently
provided to the general public. He also tells Lincoln that the only way they
will operate and save Michael is if Lincoln brings Scylla back. In addition,
General Krantz gives Lincoln a folder labelled "TOMBSTONE II", telling
him that it is "added incentive." With Mahone arrested by FBI agent's Agent
Felicia Lang and Agent Mark Wheeler, it was now up to Lincoln, Sucre, and
Sara to retrieve Scylla from Self and Gretchen and to save Michael.

With Sara by his side, Michael wakes up disoriented and weak.


He asks her which hospital he is in, but Sara merely assures him he does not
need to worry about it and that there are good doctors here to treat him.
While Lincoln and Sucre go after Scylla, Sara stays with Michael and
watches over him while he undergoes surgery with help from The Company.
However, the procedure that the Company doctors use on Michael is nothing
like anything Sara has seen before. General Krantz tells her that while the
procedure is experimental, it has been used once before on a patient who
ended up living a long and happy life. Because of the surgery, all of
Michael's senses become active at the same time, causing him to have his
life flash before his eyes. He suddenly sees himself back in his old cell at
Fox River, with Westmoreland greeting him. While conversing with
Westmoreland and trying to figure out the truth behind Scylla in his
subconscious, the Michael in surgery is dying and begins to flatline. The
Company doctor injects an unknown serum into Michael as Sara panics and
rushes to Michael's side, telling him not to give up. After finally realizing
what Scylla really is and hearing Sara's voice, Michael wakes up.

Later on, Michael tells Sara that he had a dream about Scylla,
and he explains that Scylla is not actually The Company's little black book,
but knowledge regarding a chemical combination that can produce energy
equivalent to that of the sun's. Lincoln visits Michael shortly after, who is

21
shocked to find out that Lincoln is willing to work with The Company to
retrieve Scylla. He attempts to convince Lincoln to stop what he is doing and
that The Company cannot be trusted, but Lincoln gives Michael the
"TOMBSTONE II" folder and reveals to him that their mother used to work
for The Company before she died, and that he is just "following the family
business."

Michael and Sara are seen exiting a pizza restaurant when a


Company assassin tries to kill them. They escape. They then bribe a truck
driver to let them hitchhike with him, fearing police. He calls Lincoln and,
on the phone, Lincoln says he will stop at nothing to get Scylla. Michael
replies saying he will stop at nothing to stop Lincoln from succeeding in
getting Scylla and reveals that their mother; Christina Rose Scofield, is
alive. An undercover cop/Company agent stops the truck and searches for
Michael and Sara. He pretends he does not see anything and he murders the
truck driver, telling Christina that he has them. Michael and Sara try to call
Lincoln, but they lose the signal and the back lifter is stuck so they smash a
vending machine to open the lift and they escape with the guy chasing after
them. Michael kills him and takes a note from him asking who sent him. The
guy's last words were, "Not Krantz." He then dies.

Michael and Sara stay at one of Sara's old friend, Deb, with
whom she went to med school, who is out of town. Michael and Sara check
the note they took from their abductor, which they do not understand.
Michael texts Lincoln to meet up with him, but instead Mahone comes.
Mahone asks if Michael can explain his plan against The Company and
Michael refuses to, since Mahone is working with The Company. Michael
learns that Christina ordered their abductor to bring them to her, but not kill
them. This provides greater incentive to Michael to want to take down The
Company. They head to Rockwell Avenue, where they find a car, gun,
money,a cellphone and directions to a location they need to go. They head to
an airport and check through a flight log list for the initials VS; they
discover the name Vincent Sandisky. They abduct Sandisky and a car chase
ensues. They are captured and Christina orders Michael and Sara to be
killed. They are about to be executed, until the Company agents are killed by
Lincoln, Mahone, and Self. Lincoln advises Michael to leave, but he refuses.
Lincoln takes Sandisky with him as a hostage. Michael and Sara however,
took Sandisky's cellphone which reveals he and Christina used to be lovers.

22
Michael called Lincoln and informed him that
Sandisky knew everything. Lincoln advised him to leave
Miami, but Michael still refused. Michael called Christina
and wanted to meet with her to make an arrangement if he
got Scylla. She agreed, and, along with her men, headed to
the warehouse where Michael and Sara were. They search
the warehouse and Michael put baggies filled with
chemicals inside Christina's SUV and put the air
conditioning on, setting it to full. When Christina and her
men returned to the car, she started it and when the heat hit
the bags, the chemicals evaporated, suffocating the
occupants. Michael and Sara took this opportunity to abduct Christina and
tie her up and put her in the trunk. When
she regained consciousness, and she
revealed to Michael that Lincoln is not his
br other. His real parents, who were
Company agents, were killed. Aldo
adopted Lincoln when he was three (the
writer of the episode, Karyn Uscher,
revealed on the episode audio
commentary that this is a lie - Lincoln
really is Michael's biological brother).
She never loved Lincoln like she loved Michael. Michael said Lincoln was a
brother more than she was a mother: She left, he stayed, he fed him, kept
him off the streets and k ept him in school. Christina did not want Michael to
keep saving Lincoln. Michael demanded to know where Lincoln is, and she
did not answer until Michael attempted to torture her. She revealed the
location at an Energy Conference. Michael left, leaving Sara to watch
Christina. Michael met Lincoln at the Energy Conference where the Indian
Prime Minister's son, Navee Banjeeran, is assassinated by Christina's men.
Lincoln and Michael reunited, whereby Michael revealed to Lincoln that
Christina set them up. The police then pursued them. Shortly after, it is
revealed to Michael that Sara was pregnant with Michael's child.

Michael is forced to save Lincoln from the clutches of his


mother, or save Sara from the clutches of The Company. He managed to
save both and hands Scylla to Kellerman. Michael is forced to try to kill his
mother, but, running out of bullets, Sara shoots Christina saving Michael.

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In the epilogue of the series set years later, Michael's friends
and family visit a memorial to Michael on a beach somewhere in Panama.

The events leading up to this


are clarified in "The Final Break," where,
after Sara, his new wife, was arrested on
their wedding day by FBI Agent Todd
Wheatley for the murder of Christina,
Michael, seeing Sara would soon end up
dead from either the vengeful COs (for
having left the door open for Michael
earlier at Fox River) or the imprisoned
General Krantz's bounty of $100,000 on Sara's head, and after learning she
was poisoned and nearly killed, decides he must break her out, and
constructed a plan to do so, once again enlisting Lincoln, Sucre and
Mahone's help. Michael faced another government conspiracy - this one
centered on him as the FBI and other law enforcement officials, unhappy
with Michael and his allies' exoneration, hoped to get any evidence to
incriminate and re-imprison Michael. Despite Mahone being pressured to
report Michael's activities on the escape in exchange for reinstatement to the
FBI, Michael kept the plan going, and he and Lincoln enlisted the aid of T-
Bag in the escape. When Michael had Mahone, who was purposely
misleading the agents, deliberately divulged Michael's plot to parachute into
the prison and rescue Sara, Michael's trust in him eventually leads to
Michael giving Mahone a piece of paper and a DVD which he says to give
to Sara, in the event of his death. With Wheatley and the other armed
officers distracted with the dummy parachute plan, Michael snuck out from
under Wheatley's car and ran into the prison, where he finally met Sara.
Having figured T-Bag would reveal the plan, Michael and Sara escaped
through the underground passageway beneath the administrative building,
though it is at the last door, which is electronically locked, they discover a
roadblock.

24
Knowing that this was a
possibility from the beginning, Michael
asked Sara to run as soon as the door opens
and leave him behind, since the only way
to open the door is to manually cause a
power surge that will certainly kill him - it
is revealed that Michael planned to
sacrifice himself in order to allow Sara to
escape from prison. Sara refused to leave if Michael cannot go with her, but
he emphasized that there was no other way, touching her stomach, where
their by aby was, he said "I am going with you". In one final act of sacrifice,
Michael caused the surge, and the fuse box exploded in a shower of sparks:
seemingly killing Michael. Sara then ran out, with Lincoln, Sucre, and
Mahone waiting with a van just outside. Stunned, Sara was unable to
describe to Lincoln what just happened. Mahone revealed that he knew of
Michael's plan from a previous discussion, and simply told Lincoln "He's
gone." (Lincoln was prepared to run back into the prison to find Michael and
refused to believe he was dead). They got into the van and drove away, still
shocked over Michael's fate. In the end, Michael had indeed succeeded in
rescuing her; embarrassing and landing the government in a world of trouble
in the process.

25
Mahone finally gave Sara the
paper and the DVD which Michael left for
her. The paper was revealed to be a
medical exam which Michael recently
underwent; with bloodwork revealing that
the brain tumor was not removed (The
Company had only slowed it down) and it
had returned, and that his condition was
terminal. Finally, Lincoln and Sara sail out to sea, and view the DVD. It is a
prerecorded message in which Michael explained his motivation for
sacrificing himself; Michael said it would prevent him from having any
regrets. Micha el told Sara and Lincoln that he loves them, and asked them
to watch over each other and his child. The video, and the entire series,
culminates in Michael's final proclamation: that they are all, finally, "free."

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3.1. Music

The theme music of Prison Break and the incidental music of


each episode was composed by Ramin Djawadi. The score for the first two
seasons is featured in the Prison Break: Original Television Soundtrack,
which was released on August 28, 2007. Djawadi and Ferry
Corsten produced a remix of the theme music titled "Prison Break Theme
(Ferry Corsten Breakout Mix)" as a single, which was released by Fox
Music in 2006. In Europe, rapper Faf Larage's song "Pas le temps" is used
by television network M6 in France and by RTL-TVI in Belgium to replace
the show's original theme music in the title sequence, which generated
publicity and helped to localize the show.

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4.1. Ratings

The following seasonal rankings are based on a weighted


average total viewers per episode as recorded by Nielsen Media Research.
The recording period begins in late September (the start of the U.S. network
television season) and ends in late May.

4.2. Awards and nominations

Following a successful airing of the series' first thirteen


episodes, Prison Break was nominated for its first award, the 2005 People's
Choice Award for Favorite New TV Drama. The series won the award in
January 2006, beating other nominees in the same category, Commander in
Chief and Criminal Minds. In January 2006, the show had two nominations
at the 63rd Golden Globe Awards, which were Best Drama Television Series
and Best Actor in a Drama Television Series for Wentworth Miller's
performance. The show's lead actor, Wentworth Miller, received another
nomination for his performance in the first season at the 2005 Saturn
Awards for Best Actor on Television. Likewise, the series was nominated for
2005 Saturn Award for Best Network Television Series. At the
2006 Television Critics Association Awards, the show was nominated for
Best New Drama Series. Nominations for technical awards include the
2006 Eddie Award for Best Edited One-Hour Series for Commercial
Television (Mark Helfrich for the pilot episode), and the 2006 Primetime
Emmy award for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music (Ramin Djawadi). In
December 2006, Robert Knepper was nominated for the 2006 Satellite
Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or
Motion Picture Made for Television.

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5. Conclusions

I think the show took a ton of extra turns and twists and steps to
get where they were in the finale.
Even though I enjoyed watching the finale, there were so many
different twists and turns in it that it got old for me. At one point, we were
just waiting for the close. It felt like an over-hyped James Bond action flick.
Sometimes theres so much action that it is no longer exciting to see yet one
more explosion. Whoopee.
Michaels death almost seemed to suck the emotion out of me. It
distracted from the entire journey of these four years. It disappointed me
that after all that work and effort, his only real reward was his own death.
Does that mean hes truly escaped and is free now? I dont know.
For me, the image I cant get out of my head, when all is said and
done, is Lincoln putting the origami crane on Michaels tombstone. For me,
that sad and touching scene will probably be my memory of this whole
series.
At least my emotions were invoked one last time and they
managed to engage my imaginative depression one last time before closing
credits.

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Webography

http://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-
radio/788147/prison-break-recap-season-5-release-
michael-scofield

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_Break

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455275/

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