Five the Hard Way 

Lincoln, Sucre, Sara and Roland follow a Scylla cardholder to Las Vegas, where Roland has his device commandeered after he gets caught gambling.

Director:

Garry A. Brown

Writers:

Paul Scheuring (created by) (as Paul T. Scheuring), Christian W. Trokey (as Christian Trokey)

Stars:

Dominic Purcell, Wentworth Miller, Michael Rapaport

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Dominic Purcell	...	Lincoln 'Linc' Burrows
Wentworth Miller	...	Michael Scofield
Michael Rapaport	...	Don Self
Amaury Nolasco	...	Fernando Sucre
Wade Williams	...	Brad Bellick
Robert Knepper	...	Theodore 'T-Bag' Bagwell
Jodi Lyn O'Keefe	...	Gretchen Morgan
Sarah Wayne Callies	...	Sara Tancredi
William Fichtner	...	Alexander 'Alex' Mahone
Cress Williams	...	Wyatt
Leon Russom	...	General Jonathan Krantz
James Hiroyuki Liao	...	Roland Glenn
Shannon Lucio	...	Trishanne
Jude Ciccolella	...	Howard Scuderi
Dameon Clarke	...	Andrew Blauner

Storyline

Gretchen tortures T-Bag and asks about the Bird's Guide and Scylla. Meanwhile, the Agrishow executive Howard Scuderi travels with his wife and the fifth card to Las Vegas. General Krantz calls Wyatt and tells him that Don Self is the head of the snake that is threatening The Company, and he asks the killer to eliminate Self, simulating an accident. Trishanne calls Bellick and says that she has information about T-Bag, and requests the promised reward. Michael stays with Bellick and Mahone to chase T-Bag while the rest of the group travels to Las Vegas. Bellick calls Michael and tells him that Trishanne is requesting more money, and when he goes with Mahone to meet the receptionist, they are captured by T-Bag; however, Mahone escapes from the van. Michael is forced by T-Bag to work with the Bird's Guide, but the hidden Gretchen sees the GPS monitor around the ankle of Bellick. When Mahone arrives in the apartment tracking the equipment, he finds it empty and the monitors on the table; ...

---

Plot Keywords:

gay | torture | undressing | bare chested male | swimming pool | 

---

Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

---

Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 October 2008 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Original Film, Adelstein-Parouse Productions, 20th Century Fox Television

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

[All trivia items for this title are spoilers.]

---

Goofs

We are told in the fourth season that Michael and Lincoln's mother died of a brain aneurysm but in the first season when asked about his family medical history, Lincoln tells Sarah that his mother had liver cancer. Never said that she died of cancer, only that it was part of her mother's medical history.

---

Connections

References MacGyver (1985)

---

Soundtracks

Main Titles
Composed by Ramin Djawadi

User Reviews

This would be fantastic were it not for the fact that...

I was trying to decide what to choose for my 50th comment/review (the official term has changed back and forth around the time of writing), considering choosing one of my favorite movies. Then this episode came on and after having watched it I needed to vent my frustration.

Some may wonder why I torture myself watching episodes which I find bad. The answer is simple: I have a principle of finishing what I started and I also refuse to surrender to an episode / a movie by switching channel / walking out.

OK, this appears to be a fantastic episode because it's taut, full of good twists, action, suspense and laughs. Also, most of the actors bring their A game for their roles, the winner being Jodi Lyn O'Keefe as Gretchen: her character seemed so bland and unimaginative in the third season, but given a chance to portray someone willing to resort to anything to stay alive, she truly *rules* (not coming up with a fancy term would do her performance justice).

So what's the problem? Prison Break had me from the first episode of season 1. The problem is the *fact* that the show was supposed to last only 13 episodes with a pre-planned ending, but when the initial ones proved a bigger success than anticipated, Fox decided to throw the ending away and expand Prison Break to a full season. And then renew it. And renew it. Kinda like The X Files - it was also a Fox show that was dragged on for longer that it had material to sustain the narrative (and that's just the "mythology" episodes - some of the stand-alone ones were recycled). In the case of both series the decisions came to money: why kill a cash cow when you can underestimate your audience's intelligence and throw all credibility out of the window?

The problem is that this is no longer Prison Break. All the plot lines in the initial episodes were dropped because they had nowhere to go (remember, 13 episodes?) and replaced with a vague, sub-standard conspiracy plot line that was clearly made up as the show went on, with no pre-planned ending whatsoever. And now we are in the death rattle of the show. Seasons 2 and 3 at least dealt with a prison break - here there is none. Why the hell is this show still called Prison Break?

To go into the inconsistencies, illogicalities and contradictions of the show would take more time than I am willing to spend. Because of those things, there is no reason to care about the characters or where the plot is going. There is no reason to invest emotionally or intellectually in the show. This show should have stayed its planned course. The viewers disappeared during the fourth season, proving that Fox underestimated their intelligence. Ha!