SPOILER ALERT: There are events and relationships contained herein that you shouldn’t read if you haven’t seen Prison Break Season One or Two.
In the very next episode after my prognostication about Shales and Mahone I realised I was woefully off target with the specifics of what I thought might be happening. Not completely wrong, in the sense that Shales DOES have a lot to do with Mahone’s family – but it is a very different connection to how I speculated.
It was a nice touch to have the Company blackmail Mahone and threaten his family. It provided an understandable reason for him to do what he did. It was a neat way of tying Mahone’s actions in with the theme of family, which runs throughout the opening two seasons of Prison Break.
Having a justifiable reason for Mahone’s immoral actions also makes for a much more interesting antagonist than if he was simply bad for bad’s sake. Rather than have an all-good hero competing against a totally evil villain, it is more interesting to have a protagonist and antagonist who are both flawed, who both compete for the same prize and who both have legitimate reasons for doing so.
We need to root for the protagonist, but we need to see some humanity in the antagonist. We need to empathise with the antagonist’s reason for going about his mission – we don’t have to want him to win, or think it is a better reason than the protagonist, but we should understand the antagonist’s desire to achieve his goal.
I’m currently working on a script for the Industry Insider Screenwriting Competition. To help me construct my story, I’m rereading sections of John Truby’s book The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller
In a previous blog post (Prison Break) I mentioned how Truby recommends giving the characters a different version of the same central problem. Let’s revisit the way that family relationships are used in the first two seasons to expand and flesh out the main theme of family and relationships.
Michael Scofield – Lincoln, LJ & Aldo Burrows
Michael and Lincoln were abandoned by their father, Aldo Burrows. He left them so that they wouldn’t be a target by The Company, but regardless of his reason, he let them down. Aldo is redeemed a little in the audience’s mind when we are shown a flashback showing him rescue Michael from a bad foster situation, and he does give his life to help the boys escape, but nothing he does can repair the damage his earlier abandonment has caused. Lincoln is determined not to make the same mistakes his father made with him, and risks his freedom to see his son, LJ, kept safe.
Alex Mahone – Pam Mahone & Cameron Mahone
Mahone is a driven, obsessive FBI agent who is tasked with bringing Michael and the other escapees down. He is willing to take the law into his own hands, but we see that he is being manipulated by The Company, and that he is working for them as a means of keeping his own family safe. The stakes are raised for Mahone when his son is injured in a car accident – and he realises more fully that The Company will stop at nothing to ensure he fulfils his mission.
Dr Sara Tancredi – Governor Tancredi
Sara and her father have a frosty relationship, not helped by Sara’s involvement in the escape. Sara’s persistence convinces Governor Tancredi to search more deeply but he is eliminated after he makes a startling discovery. The restoration in the relationship is cut short, and Sara has no one to turn to – no one, that is, but Michael.
Fernando Sucre – Maricruz
Sucre is driven by his desire to win back Maricruz’s affections. The stakes are raised for him in Season One when his nefarious cousin, Hector, interferes with Maricruz – Sucre’s girl. The stakes are further raised when Maricruz reveals she is pregnant with Sucre’s child. Sucre is willing to give up anything in order to be with Maricruz, but not all the characters are able to make that same decision.
John Abruzzi – Family
Abruzzi disappears from the picture early in Season Two. He could have escaped to Sicily and lived out his days with his family, but he chooses to put revenge above his family. Had he made a more moral choice, he would have had a much better end.
Benjamin Miles ‘C-Note’ Franklin – Kacee & Dede Franklin
Imprisoned after being discharged from the army, C-Note couldn’t bear to let his family know the truth and tricked them into believing his army unit was back in Iraq. When he escapes, he does all he can to reunite with his family, knowing that the FBI will be closely watching them. He is forced to watch as his wife is captured. The stakes are raised for him when his daughter’s illness flares up and he must choose between his freedom, or the health of his daughter. He is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice to ensure his family is safe, but fate intervenes offers him a fresh start, reunited with his family and a legitimately free man.
Theodore ‘T-Bag’ Bagwell – Susan Hollander
T-Bag is the nastiest of the nasty and the one that I was hoping would get justice. He is obsessed with finding a certain Susan Hollander – the woman instrumental in his incarceration. It seems that his interest in her is vengeance, but his actual motive is love, or at least a twisted perversion of love. T-Bag’s motivation in escaping is that he wants a chance at a real family with Susan Hollander. This is unexpected, and serves to humanise him – and it is a moving scene where he gives up his dream and lets her go. He is soon back to his old ways, however.
Agent Paul Kellerman – Kristine Kellerman
Kellerman is an efficient, cold-blooded killer who finds redemption at the end of Season Two through the love of his sister, Kristine. As with all who have sold their souls to The Company, he has distanced himself from his family so as not to make them a target. Because of his sister, he regains his honour, at least as far as the audience is concerned.
President Reynolds – Terrence Steadman
It was a great touch to have the piece of evidence that brings President Reynolds undone tying so directly with family. The secret tape Michael plays to her contains a dark family secret. She sought to destroy Michael’s family to assure her rise to power, yet it was her own family secret that brought her down.
The stakes are raised for many characters in a way that references the theme. For instance, Charles Westmoreland is adamant he will not help Michael escape, until Westmoreland finds out his daughter has been diagnosed with cancer. This gives him the incentive to escape and visit her before she dies.
It is important to note that there are variations on the theme. Each character isn’t dealing with the same problem. T-Bag’s obsession with Susan Hollander is very different from C-Notes concern for his family. The trick is ensuring each character deals with a different facet of a common theme.
If a TV show that spans twenty-two episodes has such a tight focus on theme, can a movie that spans 100 minutes afford to be less focused?