WRITER: Monica Macer DIRECTOR: Eric Laneuville
CAST: Wentworth Miller (Michael Scofield), Dominic Purcell (Lincoln Burrows), William Fichtner (Agent Mahone), Amaury Nolasco (Sucre), Rockmond Dunbar (C-Note), Robert Knepper (T-Bag), Lane Garrison (Tweener), Paul Adelstein (Agent Kellerman), Sarah Wayne Callies (Dr Sarah Tancredi), John Heard (Governor Tancredi), Reggie Lee (Bill Kim), Jason Davis (Agent Wheeler), Alexandra Lydon (Anna), Diana Scarwid (Jeanette Owens) & Silas Weir Mitchell (Haywire)
The fugitives converge on Tooele looking for Westmoreland's loot, and Michael deduces that the $5 million is buried under a garage... There's a strong whiff of deja vu throughout Subdivision, as the plot (all the con's digging up a floor) is essentially the same as last year's escape tunnel routine. It's an unfortunate similarity that C-Note is even forced to reference, but the episode just about gets away with it.
Subdivision requires suspension of disbelief in a few areas -- most obviously the ludicrous pin-pointing of buried treasure with a guess based on T-Bag's memory and tree growth! But it's leaps of logic like this that keep Prison Break unpredictable and amusingly self-deprecating.
Silas Weir Mitchell makes a very belated return as Haywire, another of the doofus criminals (alongside Tweener) who's had more luck evading capture than genius Michael! Haywire's scenes are mostly played for laughs (football helmet, bicycle, a messy food binge), although a moment of mistaken identity with a blind woman nearly turns nasty.
The Tancredi plot is developed nicely, becoming the only unpredictable plot-strand. Sarah receives another cryptic origami message from Michael, while her father realizes his daughter's new friend (Agent Kellerman) isn't who he says he is. Kellerman himself is distanced from the President, being forced to report his findings to Reggie Lee (Bill Kim; great). I'm not sure if this change is for the benefit of the show, or based on actor conflicts/committments (surely the reason Robin Tunney and Peter Stormare went), but it should be interesting nevertheless.
T-Bag (Knepper) finally gets a chance to shine on the show, by keeping a sexy middle-aged woman occupied while the gang dig up her garage floor, in scenes that fizz with sexual tension.
Meanwhile, Agent Mahone (Fichtner) slowly unravels the whereabouts of Westmoreland's stash by looking at the original D.B Cooper case, in scenes that reaffirm the lawman's amazing insight and crime-solving abilities. The ying-yang aspect to the show, between Michael and Mahone, is perhaps the most enjoyable aspect to season 2 at the moment.
Overall, Subdivision may lose points for just retooling a situation from last year, but the performances are excellent (Miller is particularly good here, especially when he loses Michael's trademark cool), it contains some memorable moments (T-Bag's shmoozing, Mahone's car chase, etc) and ends on a fantastic cliffhanger...
