Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

<img src="http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/7107/breakoutkings2.jpg" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us"/><br/>By <a target="_new" href="http://profile.imageshack.us/user/djariya">djariya</a> at 2011-03-20

Synopsis:



Episode 3 of 13

Promo:

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/y12xqexYloY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

He's Back!!

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

I hope he gets away, lol.

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

I read a story that Knepper only agreed to reprise the role if Matt Olmstead and Nick Santora promised not to kill him off.

Also, Robert Knepper says on his Twitter page that he will be doing Live Twitter commentary during the episode.

http://twitter.com/robert_knepper

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

That's good to know. I think at some point they have to let one of the escapees get away, otherwise the show won't have that "will they catch him?" suspense each episode. So far we've seen one escapee killed and one escapee sent back to prison, so it would be nice to see one get away. And since T-Bag is one of those villains that everyone seems to really like, despite what a bad guy he is, it seems fitting that he should be the one to get away.

And having escapees get away once in a while isn't such a bad thing. It helps keep the level of suspense up and sets the show up for some recurring villains.

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

You need to also read Nick Santora's Twitter feed. He posts alot of great information about this show and Prison Break.

http://twitter.com/NickSantora

Believe it or not, he actually says they wanted to do a 5th season of Prison Break, but FOX said No. :lol:

He also mentions possibly trying to get Jodi Lyn O'Keefe (Gretchen from PB) to do the show and she replied back saying she would love to do it.

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

I thought the last season of Prison Break was great. That being said, a 5th Season sounds like it would have been a bad idea, lol.

Not as great as seeing T-Bag again, but it would be pretty cool to have another Prison Break character on the show.

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

looking forward to seeing T-Bag again. :up:

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

Definitely the best episode yet, but obviously that's because of Robert Knepper's return as T-Bag. He really slipped right back into the role as though he never stopped playing the character. I like what they did with the story, because his escape wasn't at all about getting away, it was about getting revenge for his mother/aunt. The whole "keep a candle burning for me pretty" line, in hindsight, tells us that he never planned on getting away.

It's sort of a shame he got caught though, because I, along with many others I'm sure, would have liked to see him escape and return again at some point in the future. This definitely felt like it should have been a two-part episode though.

His escape was great.* I love that once again his hand was the key to his freedom; nice full circle sort of moment there. Not to mention it was pretty clever to conceal a weapon in his prosthetic.

It was cool that Ray and Lloyd sort of summed up T-Bag's history and some of the events of Prison Break. And they had some good moments with the humor of T-Bag's name as well.

:lol: All those knives in that guy's body was quite a sight. I'm actually surprised they let that guy die in the rock crusher, but after hearing what he did to T-Bag's I see why they let him die.

Lloyd: "He knows he's bad, but he thinks he can be good." That's really a great way to describe T-Bag and I think it's part of the reason we like him so much as a character. It's like, he tries to be good at times, but he knows he's bad and always reverts back to that, no matter what. And even this whole escape was all about getting revenge for his mother; T-Bag was sort of "in the right" in going after those that had harmed his family, but he wasn't above killing the innocent to do so, which is the walking contradiction that is T-Bag and why he is such a wonderfully complex character, despite being "born broke" as Lloyd put it.

Robert Knepper is really a tremendous actor and it's a shame the first time he was ever really in anything he hit is so far out of the park that he's unlikely to ever top it again. But he definitely captured T-Bag again here without it feeling like he was trying too hard. And if this is the last time we ever see T-Bag, that monologue at the end was a wonderful note to go out on, with the "No shit" brilliantly simple and effective.

And to give credit where credit is due, Jimmi Simpson more than held his own with Robert Knepper in that final scene and had a fine monologue himself.

---

*I highly doubt that the guard keeping an eye on the prisoner in the back of the transport vehicle would have the keys to unlock the prisoner's shackles. It just seems irresponsible. I also wondered if the vehicles are bulletproof and can be opened from the inside, although I suppose the latter could be explained from the impact of the crash. Minor nitpicks and really it doesn't matter since this is in the same universe as Prison Break, lol.

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

:thumbsup: Solid episode mainly for Knepper's return as T-Bag.

:lol: I had to laugh that FOX River would actually transport one of the most notorious killers from their prison to another facility just to replace his prosthetic hand. That was clever of T-Bag to mold his hand into a shank. Loved the shoutouts to Prison Break and the FOX River 8.

Question, How long does it take to fly from New York to Illinois? The timeline of the episode didn't really make sense. The team got the assignment from their headquarters in New York, transported Lloyd, Shea and Erica from the Prison and somehow managed to get to Illinois at the crime scene barely touched & then Indiana. And it was weird that they actually went back to New York and then traveled back to Ohio & Indiana again to hunt T-Bag. The case were solved in barely 1 day and 1/2.

I liked the reveal on what T-Bag's motives actually were.

The last scene with Lloyd confronting T-Bag was great. I thought Jimmi Simpson really held his own acting wise against Knepper.

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

My only complaint with this episode was the lame rocks music that appeared every time we cut back to T-Bag. We get it, he's a badass. I felt that actually took away from the power that Knepper was already emoting.

The final scene with Simpson was great. I was impressed that he was able to play off Knepper so well.

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

:lol: I guess Robert Knepper got lazy. 2 whopping Tweets during the entire hour. Apparently he's in Santa Fe, NM shooting a Pilot for NBC.

http://twitter.com/robert_knepper

Nick Santora, the co-creator of the show and writer of this episode, was fantastic. Great live commentary, tid bits and he answered a bunch of fan questions. He even answered 1 of my questions as well. :thumbsup: He seems like a cool guy.

http://twitter.com/NickSantora

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

LOVED the way they worked in T-Bag, so seamlessly blending a great character from a long-over show. Brilliant. This show is really growing on me quickly (but then again so did Terriers, Daybreak, ...).

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

I couldn't help but laugh a little at the casual way T-Bag dumped the drugged woman out of the moving car.

Great episode :up:

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

Loved it. Tbag is awesome. They are so good at writing his dialogue. :up:

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

I'm a Prison Break fan, so this was a lot of fun. Really enjoyed the Breakout Kings characters breaking down T-Bag and the events of Prison Break. Kind of interesting to, as the audience, be more in the know about a character than they are.

Enjoyed the episode a lot, though I still find most of the Breakout Kings characters to be....blah. I like Lloyd, but everyone else feels like a cardboard cut out.

I missed episode two. What happened to the original female con? And will T-Bag return? I thought he was set to be on the show for a handful of episodes?

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

The original female Con (Nicole Steinwedell) was recast with a new actress (Serinda Swan). The Pilot was shot last Spring for FOX, but they passed on the show. A&E bought it, but wanted a different, more edgier female character, so they wrote Philly out for episode 2 and introduced Erica.

Unfortunately Robert Knepper will only appear in 1 episode.

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

^ I doubt it will ever be brought up again, but the wrote out Philly by saying they caught her when she checked her bank account on the prison computer (which was shown in the pilot) and she's back to max security with her sentence doubled.

FYI, the new chick's background is that her dad was a bounty hunter, taught her everything he knew. He was killed buy 6 fugitives. She's suspected of killing 5 of them, but they could only convict on illegal weapon charges. She has a daughter she wants to get out in time to raise and anger issues.

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

I love t-Bag's character and I thought this episode was fantastic.

I'm not usually one for nitpicks but I did have a couple. Erica said guards carry a Glock 17 with 12 rounds. But a Glock 17 holds 17 rounds, not 12. Then at the end of the episode, she said she almost got a 22-caliber bullet to her head from T-Bag. Glock 17 is 9mm, not 22-caliber.

Feels weird nitpicking such a far-fetched show. Kinda like watching the coyote in the roadrunner cartoons go over a cliff and saying "aww give me a break, he would have died from that fall."

Really liking this show.

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

Maybe it's just me, but the new female con seems almost like a replacement for the "hunter" con that got bounced in the pilot for stashing a knife at the diner.

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

My favorite episode yet.

Loved the last scene and the tribute paid to Midnight Express.

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

The captioning department screwed up. Madison, Illinois is actually near St. Louis. I think it should have said "Matteson" which is between Joliet and Indiana.

Also, I'm not sure how much would be known about the way that T-Bag lost his hand.

Good episode though. I was also surprised they let that guy get killed in the rock crusher.

Also, did they say how T-Bag found out what those guys were doing to his mom? I thought he only had the two phone calls.

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

I'm assuming you either didn't watch Prison break, or really hated it the way you're picking apart this episode, lol.

Re: Breakout Kings -- "The Bag Man" -- 3/20/11
 

Actually, I loved Prison Break. I do live in Illinois, so I guess I'm sensitive about any mistakes in regards to our geography.