Prison Break Season 5 Episode 2 Review: Kaniel Outis

This Prison Break review contains spoilers.

Prison Break Season 5 Episode 2

“I wanna order a pizza.”

You know, I was ready to be much harsher on this episode than I was on the premiere but how can I hate anything with that line?

Alright, so this episode slowed things down a bit. That’s understandable. The premiere had to get a lot of pieces in place so now we get to explore it all. Problem is… about half of it isn’t exactly all that engaging. Let’s go from worst to best here, because much like the episode itself I’ll save the best for last. 

Sara’s plot did not work for me. I was never the biggest fan of her character (or her lack of chemistry with Michael) but I was ready to give her a chance this season. While the reintroduction of Kellermen was a nice surprise (I haven’t been following the casting announcements) their scenes feel way too much like the weaker parts of season one. The government plots just never did it for me. It was always about the brothers facing these seemingly insurmountable obstacles that made the show work for me. So yeah, I was never a huge Veronica fan in case you were wondering.

Maybe it’s just the fact Sara and Kellermen sit around talking for most of their scenes. Maybe it’s that Kellermen is being needlessly evasive about the whole thing. Come on, dude. Stop playing dumb. Unless there’s a bigger cover up going on here (which hey, there could be!) you actually thinking Michael did all those things is… pretty outlandish. You died and came back to life dude! 

There’s at least one good element to their scenes. Kellermen makes a 2deep4me comment related to Michael’s record being changed to Kaniel Outis, “That’s just a memory. The official record, history, says otherwise.” There’s some deep cut commentary right there, how memory can easily be altered by so called “facts” or the records. If this plot can be turned around into a bigger message about how our society views facts, that would be super timely and I would applaud them for it. As it stands, Sara’s plot didn’t really work until the very end which I’ll get to it in a bit.

Lincoln and C-Note’s plot was alright. Like the first episode it took awhile to get rolling. I know we’ve got to establish the political situation in the country but I would have much rather seen them talk about these things while trying to rescue the girls. Prison Break is good with action and high tension situations. Use those situations to drop in some exposition, not some long car ride scenes.

Thankfully when the action does get rolling for them it’s pretty great. I’m all for a good chase scene and when you have a dude riding in the back of a truck with a machine gun? I’m in for it. Plus the guy they saved tied in nicely with Michael’s plot. I’m sad Lincoln didn’t get as much to do in this episode and he seemed more reactionary to what was going on around him. That’s what Lincoln was like in season one but there was a reason for that. Here I hoped he’d be more proactive but he’s just following Michael’s plan. Let the guy make a few of his own decisions!

Michael though. Oh boy, Michael. This guy’s wacky plans were always the highlight of Prison Break so to see them back in full swing was a treat. Again, they take a little too long to get going but the second he asked for that gum? Boom, Prison Break is back in its zone! Getting drugs for an addict? Watching Queen on a cellphone? Ordering a pizza to get a flower delivered to your kid across the world? Michael Scofield can do it all!

Sara’s new man brings up an interesting idea about Michael, that his “dance of good and evil can become jumbled.” Is Michael just swept up in being a savior? Does he know how to live any other life since he had to break Lincoln out of prison? It’s a good route for the series to take and leaving some ambiguity would held make the eventual prison break all the more powerful.

We already seem to be on track for that with Michael buddying up to the “worst of the worst” prisoners. He’s friends with people who would kill other prisoners just for being gay? What’s up that? I’m sure, like always, Michael has a plan so I won’t call him a homophobe or anything like that. I will say it’s nice Prison Break is including some LGBT characters that aren’t T-Bag.

Speaking of, where was he this week? I would have much rather see him than Sara, that’s for sure.

While this episode doesn’t quite reach the heights of the premiere it still has enough classic Prison Break fun to keep you watching. Let’s just hope the next episode can get moving a little faster.