S04E05: 'Safe & Sound'

If Prison Break was a racehorse, surely the vet would be loading up the bullets by now. Equating a television programme with a wounded equine may appear extreme, but the once glorious show has hit a seemingly terminal decline and needs to be put out of its misery unless there's an imminent dramatic turnaround.

The whole hunt for Scylla scenario has become woefully predictable and repetitive. The location may be different for each card, but it seems you're guaranteed an encounter early on in the episode where the guys almost make a copy, perhaps reaching 80-90% before the card becomes out of reach. Cue a later, more complicated plot that features Scofield and his brooding mob just managing to copy the card with barely a second to spare. Yawn.

William Fichtner fortunately manages to partially hold the show together as Mahone, a man falling apart. The scene with the distraught cop and his grieving estranged wife in the cafe is strikingly effective, particularly as it foregrounds the tragedy of a good man being driven to bad things through an intense drive to do his job.

Elsewhere, The Company hitman Wyatt continues to bumble around ineffectively accompanied by that ridiculous chiming sound EVERY time he appears on screen. Surely that's worth a shot in the inevitable Prison Break Drinking Game? Down two shots for every time a mere image of Wyatt is accompanied by The Chime. You'll be slaughtered midway through the episode as Mahone is quick to show the photo of his intended prey to anyone in the vicinity.

The escape of the criminally underused Gretchen, one of contemporary television's most sadistic and sexy figures, at least gives Prison Break an outside chance of turning its painful limps into purposeful gallops once again.

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