Prison Break -- how does this make sense?

Cafe Society
1

OK, I’ve been somehow sucked into watching Prison Break now that they’ve somehow morphed it into a low-rent Ocean’s 11 caper flick. But I’m bothered that the central MacGuffin makes even less sense than the usual object of infinite desire.

a. They somehow acquired a map to Scylla which is, I dunno, the key to bringing down the Company. It might be a computer system or just a bunch of dusty file folders – I apparently missed the episode where they explained that. But the whole twisted scavenger hunt aspect of Scylla makes no sense. What’s the origin of the maps in the bird books? Why not just encode the information on a flash drive? This isn’t the Century of the Fruitbat anymore. Why is there even a backdoor to Scylla through somebody’s office building? Well, it’s a caper, so I can get past all that. But…

b. The bad guys know the Scofield mob is coming. They’re even planning on moving Scylla (whatever the hell it is) to a new location. So our team’s under a deadline. But if the bad guys know our guys are on the way, why bother with microphones, mines, and alarm systems? Why not station a couple of squads of goons with heavy weapons in the Scylla anteroom for a couple of days? Or, given that Scylla is apparently activated by a set of six key cards, why don’t they, maybe, change the passwords?

c. Whatever the heck Scylla is, it’s apparently too big and delicate to move in a big hurry. So what are our heroes going to do when they finally get there? Spend a couple of days humping electronics through Teabag’s office? Log on and ftp all the goodies to the New York Times? What’s the payoff here?

I guess I’m frustrated by how little sense this all makes.

BTW, who’s paying for their little heist? They seem to have infinite funds for plane tickets, fake ids, GPS anklets, and heavy equipment. Do they have leftover cash from that trove they found in season II?

BTW, given that these guys are apparently still wanted fugitives, how come they are doing such a crappy job of disguising themselves? I mean, if you were Scofield, wouldn’t you at least stop shaving the head? Or grow a beard or put on a wig or * something?* instead of swaggering around looking like nothing so much as a bunch of ex-cons in bad clothes.

Explain all this to me.

2

It’s a Soap Opera, but for dudes.

3

a. This is just my guess, but I think a bird book would look less conspicuous than a flash drive. I don’t remember if they’ve explained who put the information in the bird book, but if the Company caught someone with the bird book, it would be easier to pretend that you don’t know anything about Scylla, and that the notes are just some random notes someone made, rather than if you were caught with a flash drive with password protection and diagrams and such.

b. They think that Scofield and everyone is dead. Agent Self made the fake recording of the black guy saying everyone was dead and called the head guy. The head guy thinks that they’re all dead but still wants to move Scylla as a precaution against other possible intruders.
Also, if you started questioning everything that didn’t make sense in Prison Break, you wouldn’t have time do watch the show. I just go along with the ridiculousness.

4

I pointed out in season 2 that Michael Schofield is drop dead gorgeous, his entire body is covered in tatoos, yet when he has escaped from prison and is on the run from the law, puts a cap on nobody knows it’s him. Best disguise since Clark Kent’s glasses.

It was then dubbed “The Magical Cap of Invisibility.”

5

Funny thing is, reading through the OP … okay, skimming through the OP, all I could think was: “Man, this sounds like Luke and Laura trying to find the left-handed boy.”

6

We usually wait until we have three or four episodes on the DVR and then watch them back to back…that way, you don’t have time to worry about silly things like plot holes and just let the action unfold.

There are “popcorn movies” that are simply mindless, but entertaining diversions, Most blockbusters fall into that category.

Not sure what you would call this…maybe “six pack of beer series”? Prison Break certainly make more sense if you are loaded when you watch it.

7

I thought Scylla was the name of the electronic device(s) they’re after, not the building. Like Roland says in the previouslies, if Scylla’s like a pizza, they’ve only got one slice (i.e., one card at the time).

8

Also, don’t forget that the actual blueprint was written in the bird book in invisible ink. So if someone was caught with it, they could say, “Look, I’ve just used this book to remember some names, numbers, and the way I’m going to pretend to be Cole Pfeiffer so I can infiltrate the Gate company. Nothing to do with Scylla at all. I certainly don’t know anything about any hatch in Cole’s office’s closet that leads to the building that houses Scylla…”

Ok, in all of the far-fetchedness that makes up Prison Break, what about the ten-foot diameter water main? So I’m Whistler (or the architect guy, or whoever drew the stuff in the bird book) and I’m making this plan to break into the Scylla building. I somehow found out about this convenient hatch in the closet of a conveniently empty office in the Gate company, and I spent however many months it took to set up the fake identity of this Cole Pfeiffer (or take out the real one and adopt his ID, whatever) so that I could command that office. I painstakingly worked out all the details of how to get to Scylla, and took the time to draw this nifty diagram in invisible ink in a bird book.

The path my plan takes to get to Scylla has to get through a friggin’ ten-foot diameter city water main! Um, ok, I’ll just mark that as “some kind of obstruction” on my map and move on.

What the fuck??? Every other part of the plan is worked out and diagrammed in detail, but you leave “find a way through ten-foot water pipe” as an exercise for the reader?

9

Will somebody please tell the tatoo guy to leave me alone? I’m getting annoyed.

10

Look, you classical six-headed monster thing, Michael Scofield got his whole-body tattoo removed in a single night. :smiley:

11

With nothing but a few aspirin to ease the pain.