'Prison Break' S04E16: 'The Sunshine State'

It happened in dismal Day Six of 24, the woeful final scene of the recent Survivors finale and now it's the turn of Prison Break. It's always a sign of shark-jumping desperation when a long-lost family member of the central character is dragged out in a bid to engineer a shock revelation.

The appearance of Scofield's supposedly dead mother is perhaps one contrivance too far for the inconsistent show. The grand reveal was painstakingly teased throughout the episode, although to be fair to Wentworth Miller, he did turn in a nicely understated performance. It's just a pity that the original premise of Prison Break, revolving around two brothers unwittingly embroiled in a major conspiracy, has been totally undermined. Now that Scofield has been pronounced The Chosen One there's a real threat that it will send the show into freefall.

It's always fun to watch T-Bag and Gretchen in action, but there was far too much double-dealing going on in the plot to locate the Scylla buyer. At least the trip featured one nice moment between the (yet again) criminally underused Mahone and Lincoln Burrows, when the former cop returned to help the man whose father he killed. There's a growing bond between the pair that's strangely rather touching.

Prison Break returns to round off the season in the Spring, so this allows the writers plenty of time to figure out how to unravel the maternal mess they've got themselves into. What's the betting that The General is going to be unveiled as the brothers' real father?

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