Intergalactic Comics: Prison Break: Resurrection

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Prison Break: Resurrection – “The Liar” Review

By: Jaclyn Cascio (@jaclynator)

Prison Break: Resurrection aired its third episode (of nine total) this week, aptly titled “The Liar.” We got a few answers, and even more questions, which just might be the essence of what makes a show great.

Last week, there was a lot happening, which ultimately seemed to lead to nothing really happening at all. It felt as if little plot progress was actually made. Luckily, this week, “The Liar” generally didn’t suffer that same downfall. We’ve had some questions about what Michael (Wentworth Miller) has been doing and why he has been doing it, and this episode gave us some potential answers. Whether we choose to believe them or not remains to be seen. (But that’s what a well written show should do, right?) Some connections were made between characters and stories, helping to get some of the pieces of the puzzle a little closer to their proper place. Most importantly, the name Poseidon was thrown around several times by multiple characters, giving us more focus within the mystery presented to us. Smartly, the ambiguous answers to some questions have led to more questions. You can almost feel the plot thickening throughout the episode. Who is Poseidon and how are all the characters going to be affected? We’ll have to keep watching to find out!

“The Liar” consisted mostly of moving toward the escape of Michael and company from Ogygia while making us question more thoroughly who Michael has become. Last week there wasn’t enough Michael Scofield, but this week we got plenty. (Thank goodness!) We received some (very vague) backstory and some real intention behind understanding Michael. The ultimate question of the season is really whether he is still the man we came to know in previous seasons. The writers made a point to ensure that several characters drove that idea home, in several different ways.

Ultimately, this even leads to the reason the title was so aptly given. Interestingly, Michael is the ultimate liar, but can we trust that the lies are for a good reason? Or, like Sara’s new husband postulated when comparing Michael’s action to game theory, might the lies be told just for the sake of lies? Is Michael lost in the makings of his lies and is it possible to lie too much, bringing about unforeseen consequences? This episode really dug into the idea with gusto, and it was actually kind of fun to watch these idea unfold!

Unfortunately, while progress was made with Michael’s part of the story, Lincoln (Dominic Purcell) was stuck making little progress yet again. He followed the cryptic message sent by his brother, leading toward acquiring passports for the two of them. Did anything really come out of it? Currently, it seems like none of the events of “The Liar” surrounding Lincoln and Sheba (Inbar Lavi) had any effect whatsoever on the overall story. Their entire portion of the episode could have been completely cut, and it doesn’t seem like it would have had any impact at all. The only accomplishment there was to establish some sort of relationship between Sheba and Lincoln. But while the story of Michael flourished during this episode, it felt like nothing of substance came from his brother’s side.

And while we know Michael, Lincoln, and Sara (Sarah Wayne Callies), with C-Note (Rockmond Dunbar) and T-Bag (Robert Knepper), as an audience we are still not afforded the opportunity to get to know the rest of the supporting cast. We know only the bare-bones basics about Michael’s cell mates, even his apparent partner, Whip (Augustus Prew). It makes it a little difficult to care about whether they escape when we don’t get the chance to really know them. It seems to be another unfortunate byproduct of a short season, so it’s understandable, even while frustrating.

Overall, episode three of Prison Break: Resurrection generally avoided making the same mistakes as the last two episodes. While we may never have the chance to know new characters in the way we have come to know those of previous seasons, we may have to accept it as an unavoidable pitfall of a nine episode season. Meanwhile, “The Liar” started to give us the things that really made the original show great – they acknowledge the mystery, answered questions, but weren’t afraid to give us more mystery. This is the art of keeping an audience hooked, and while there’s some kinks that need to be worked out in consistently delivering this kind of story, episode three might have actually been the most interesting of the season thus far!