SPOILER ALERT: If you are, like me, a Prison Break virgin and haven’t seen the second season, don’t read ahead.
I lay awake in bed this morning, my mind contemplating the first six episodes of Prison Break: Season Two
It was while musing about that battle of wits that something came to me. Season Two has added some layers to the main theme of family. It is now also more directly about addiction/obsession.
For instance, Dr Sara Tancredi is battling with her morphine addiction; Abruzzi paid the ultimate price for putting his obsession with Fibonacci before his family; T-Bag gets in trouble for being unable to rise above his proclivities; and the list goes on.
With that in mind, early in Season Two we see addiction/obsession unveiled in Mahone’s actions. He has a need for some little pills he always carries around with him, and he is obsessed with an old case – that of a man named Oscar Shales.
Now, the thought that came to me this morning was that it would be very interesting if Mahone’s obsession with Oscar Shales had a family connection. Perhaps he had something to do with Mahone’s parents – perhaps he is Mahone’s father (in my best Vader impression “No, I am your father”). Like I said in the disclaimer, I am a Prison Break virgin, so this is all speculation, but it would make for a neat thematic tie-in.
There are a number of parent-child relationships in Prison Break. We have the complete abandonment of Michael and Lincoln by their father, the dysfunctional relationship between Dr Tancredi and her father, the Governor.
It would fit right in thematically if Mahone and Shales have some family connection. It would also be interesting if there was a link between Oscar Shales and the Company, or at least with Michael’s father, but now I’m entering the realm of pure speculation (“You are entering another dimension, a dimension not of rationality and logic, but of imagination. You’ve just crossed over into the Speculation Zone).
Anyway, I could be completely wrong, so I’ll just keep watching and see what unfolds over the course of the remaining episodes in Season Two.