S01E17: 'J-Cat'

Light summary | Full summary

Note: The light summary of this article provides only gentle teasers as to what happens in this episode, and is suitable for reading before viewing. The full summary serves as a more detailed recap of the episode.










Light Summary: As Michael struggles to remember missing pieces of the prison schematics, Warden Pope places him in solitary when he refuses to name names.

















































Full Summary: This week, nothing seems to be going to plan for Michael and his team of would-be escapes. With the section of his tattoo detailing the alternative escape route completely burned off, Michael is struggling to remember the blueprints for the psychiatric ward. Without them, they won’t be able to navigate the complicated network of pipes under the ward to get to the infirmary.

However, his attempts to sketch them from memory is not going well. “It’s like trying to take a test you studied for ten years ago”, he tells an enquiring Sucre brusquely. As the other aspiring escapees voice their concerns as well, it seems that Michael is finally losing his cool. And they soon discover that they have an even more pressing problem – the work in the guards’ room is almost finished, and Bellick has arranged for professional carpet fitters to come in the next day. The inmates exchange worried looks on hearing this: how can they possibly hide the big hole in the floor in time?

Michael suggests that they patch it up with a large piece of plywood and a thin layer of fastsetting concrete: “On the night we’ll be able to smash our way through with a sledgehammer.” It should only take a couple of hours to do, but before they can get down to it, Bellick marches Tweener in to join the PI crew so that he can spy on Michael.

Work is put on hold while they get him out of the way, and then abandoned altogether when an officer comes in to move them out to the yard, and escort Michael to Pope’s office.

Further trouble awaits him – Sara has reported her suspicions that the burn which obliterated his tattoo was caused by an officer, based on the scrap of guard’s uniform she pulled out of his back. Pope takes the issue of abuse very seriously, and asks him what happened. “This is not about sticking to the inmates’ code anymore,” Pope warns, “this is
about officer misconduct”. He offers Michael a straight choice: he can either tell Pope who hurt him, or he’ll be sent to solitary. Of course, the truth will blow the escape plan wide open, so Michael is dragged off to solitary, kicking and screaming. He is placed in a cell near Lincoln, who is still reeling from learning that his execution date has been rescheduled for a couple of weeks hence. The brothers exchange a few words through the drains on the floor, but Michael seems very despondent and Lincoln is clearly worried about him.

Meanwhile, the other potential escapees are concerned that Michael has not returned from Pope’s office – especially since he was going to sneak out of his cell after dark to finish the hole in the guards’ room. C-Note tells Sucre that their only option is for him to go instead. Sucre is horrified, as if he is caught he’ll get ten years added to his sentence, but the other cons point out that he is the only one who can get out of his cell after dark.

Unfortunately, once he’s patched up the hole, the only way back to his cell is via the drain in the centre of the yard. Can he possibly make it without the armed guards in the towers spotting him?

Back in solitary, Lincoln is trying to bolster Michael’s spirits, as his attempts to remember the network of pipes are not coming to anything. Lincoln tells his brother to have faith, but Michael is on the verge of tears as replies, “I put my blood into this, and it’s coming apart.” He stands up and, repeating this, begins punching the wall over and over. When a guard arrives to see what’s going on, Michael is sitting staring blankly the floor, drooling slightly, with his hands in his lap. Sara is desperately worried and arranges for him to be given psychiatric care. Has Michael gone over the edge?

Outside the prison, Nick realises that Agent Quinn might have information that will lead them to the other conspirators. He sends LJ to retrieve his phone, and in the dry well where Quinn met his end, the teen also finds Quinn has scrawled Agent Kellerman’s name on the wall, along with that of his alias. LJ uses these to track him down, and sets off with a gun to confront his mother’s killer...