'Prison Break': Westmoreland returns from the dead (sort of)

The brothers split up this week on Prison Break -- Michael spends a leisurely hour getting holes drilled in his skull and needles poked around his gray matter, while Linc takes a jaunt to the sea in search of Scylla. Plus, Mahone shows his smarts, Self shows his nerves, and T-Bag gets some dental work. Ick!

Sarah is shocked to discover that the Company provides medical services to mortal enemies. Why would The General and his minions want to cure Michael? She asks The General what the hell is going on, and he sneers a bit about devotion and such. He also tells her that this surgery was performed on one other patient  -- and she went on to live a long, happy life. Hmmm.

The Company rejects the gamma knife (and boy, is THAT going to make a couple of inexplicable commenters mad...) in favor of their own technology, which involves drilling holes in Michael's skull and poking around his brain. To make sure that they don't accidentally remove all those piano lessons he had as a child, he's awake and under local anesthetic the whole time. And because stimulating the brain makes your mind testy, Michael can count on some interesting visions.

Michael's brain takes him back to Fox River, where he encounters Westmoreland (yay!) and Westmoreland's cat (double yay!). Westmoreland tells Michael that he (Michael) is not dead, that he's got all the information he needs, and that everything is not as it appears.  (Westmoreland, alas, is still a corpse.) Those cryptic words, the reappearance of Michael's OCD wall, and a near-death event make Michael realize that Scylla holds information about a power source -- something that can make a solar battery that harnesses all the sun's energy. (Perhaps its even the power source itself -- I'm a little unclear on that.)

While Michael is undergoing surgery, Mahone is probably feeling like a drill to the skull would be an improvement for him -- he's on his way to incarceration with Wheeler and Lang. He quotes regulations at Wheeler to get a bathroom break, which Wheeler reluctantly grants. But no trying to escape! Mahone agrees -- but he said nothing about not stealing a pipe that he could later use to break a window and THEN make his escape!  Mahone runs, Lang follows, and she eventually tracks him -- but Mahone tells her he's as good as dead if he's incarcerated, so he's going to keep running, thanks. Lang fires -- but she can't bring herself to hit him, and she sends Wheeler in the wrong direction.

Meanwhile, Linc and Sucre try to find Scylla. Linc has a genial conversation with T-Bag, which ends up involving pliers and impromptu dental work and ick. T-Bag gives up the location of the meeting with the buyer, and Linc and Sucre take off. While they're on their way, Gretchen's sister calls and tells her that (1) she and Emily are safe, (2) T-Bag was taken away by people Gretchen realizes were Company goons, and (3) Gretchen can never see them again. Sadly, Gretchen does not take this opportunity to shoot Self in the face several times. Instead, she tells him that if the Company has T-Bag, they know where they are. Gretchen and Self scarper before Linc and Sucre arrive. Plus, there's someone else watching the location. Hmmm.

Linc uses Company resources to track the meeting with the buyer. The buyer checks out Scylla, then pulls out a gun. Whee! He wings Self, then runs with Scylla. Sucre and Linc catch Gretchen and Self and take them back to Company HQ. After they hear that Michael is OK, Sucre says he's out. He's tired of seeing --and almost becoming -- a dead body once or twice an episode. Bye, Sucre! We'll miss your (relative) sanity and your undeniable hotness! Take care! I hope you're not secretly evil!

Linc tells The General that he can get the info about the buyer/thief out of Gretchen, but The General tells him to put them on his team. Linc is NOT happy to learn he'll be working with his former mortal enemies, but come on -- hasn't he been watching this show? It's all about the strange bedfellows!

Linc talks to Michael, who wants to know when they're breaking out. Yeah, about that -- not happening. I'm working for the Company to get Scylla back, then we bugger off and open out surf shop. But Linc! Michael gasps. How could you! Eh, why not? Linc replies. After all -- mom worked here before she died. Poing!

Highlights, thoughts and odds and ends

• Hey, it's Denise Crosby -- Tasha Yar, to the geeks among us -- as the kindly female doctor!
• The General enjoys messing with Sarah's head. When she questions his motives for healing Michael, he says "Empathy, Sarah. It's the only thing that separates us from the beasts." Yeah, that.
• Later, The General questions Sarah's motives for being there: "Is it the cause you believe in, or the man? Are you an ideologue, or just a silly schoolgirl following the brooding boy who finally noticed her?" To be fair, Michael's one heck of a pretty brooding boy, and he'd be difficult NOT to follow...
• Of course, it's Sarah who brings Michael back when he flatlines. Ah, true love.
• Sarah asks if all this brain pokery will lead to memory loss. Not so he'd notice, says the doc. Yeah, I'm not sure that's good enough...
• I decide that Michael really MUST be a genius when he's able to recite the alphabet without singing it.
• T-Bag tries to leverage his knowledge of the meeting place to a financial payout or something. He should have known better than to try to bargain with an enraged Linc.
• Although, Linc wasn't really enraged, was he? He's more resigned than anything. It's like he's decided to hell with it, I'm going to settle into my role as a Company heavy and get it over with. Poor Linc...
• Linc discovers the perils of employment when The General tells him to put Gretchen and Self on his team. "You will work with a Bassett hound in a birthday hat if that's what I tell you to do. That's what being an employee means." Hey, Linc -- I recently went from full-time freelancing to working for The Man again. I feel your pain. However, you already know The Company has GREAT medical benefits, so you've got that to look forward to!
• Self brings up some "research" he did that suggests that Gretchen has some serious daddy issues. Gretchen is unimpressed: "Gee Don - you just cracked my whole Electra complex wide open." She also suggests that she's done her research on Self, but we don't get to learn his story yet.
• Sucre has a way with descriptions -- when he and Linc look for Gretchen and Self, Linc struggles to describe Self. "He looks like...  "Bozo the clown," Sucre sys. "Have you seen Bozo and Elvira?" Hee!

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