‘Prison Break’ Goes Back Behind Bars

LOS ANGELES (TNA) – Michael Scofield, the illustrated man of “Prison Break,” is back behind bars.

On one level, says Wentworth Miller, the show’s leading man, it’s kind of “a bummer,” given the great lengths his character went through two seasons ago to spring himself and his brother from Fox River State Penitentiary.

Wentworth Miller

But at the same time, Miller adds, another prison stretch was probably inevitable. As he puts it: “I thought to myself, ‘It’s there in the title. So chances are things will come full circle.’”

In fact, one could argue this plot development is completely necessary. Otherwise, Miller wonders, “Was the name still relevant?”

Season three of the still-aptly titled “Prison Break” begins Monday, Sept. 17, at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.

And what a prison it is. The facility, a Panamanian hellhole called Sona, is a hive of scum and villainy that “makes Fox River look like Club Med,” Miller says. It’s so bad, in fact, that all authorities and guards have vacated the premises, leaving the inmates to establish their own twisted “Lord of the Flies”-type society.

The prison was inspired by the actual Carandiru Penitentiary in Sao Paulo, Brazil – the site of a violent inmate rebellion in 1992 that prompted an even bloodier response by Brazilian military police.

Meantime, this season Michael has been framed and is sent to Sona by The Company, the same group of government conspirators that originally put his brother Lincoln (played by Dominic Purcell) on death row. The reason for incarcerating Michael here at this time: The Company wants him to mastermind another “impossible” prison break, this time to free Whistler (Chris Vance), a mysterious inmate who is hiding within the prison’s sewer system.

One obvious problem, though, is that this time Michael has gone in without a meticulously plotted escape plan. Even his remarkable full-torso tattoo, which held the secrets of Fox River’s architectural layout, “is now useless,” Miller notes, “unless the character has more foresight than I gave him credit for.”

As a result, Miller says, “My character can no longer rely on just his wits, just his cleverness, just his planning. He has to be someone who can not only think on his feet, but also protect himself and those he loves with his fists. ‘Prison Break’ is a story of a white-collar intellectual who gets in touch with his darker side, his more violent side. And the question becomes, ‘How can he remain a good person while letting his darker impulses play out?’

“I still believe that Michael is a good man on a hero’s journey,” Miller continues. “But his hands are filthy. And the question becomes, ‘How far across the line can a good man go before you no longer can call him good?’ And that’s really rich, exciting territory for me to play.”

It’s a clever reversal from season one, where Michael is now behind bars and Lincoln is the one on the outside. But the writers on “Prison Break” also know better than to tinker too much with a successful formula, meaning many of the show’s major baddies are back, locked up in Sona right alongside Michael.

There’s Alex Mahone (played by William Fichtner), the renegade FBI agent who killed Michael’s father; there’s Brad Bellick (Wade Williams), the Fox River prison guard-turned-bounty hunter; and, of course, there’s Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell (Robert Knepper), the homicidal, one-handed pedophile.

“A show like ‘Prison Break’ is only as good as its antagonists,” Miller says. “Something I’ve said from the beginning: ‘You can’t have Michael without T-Bag; you can’t have T-Bag without Michael.’”

Somewhere along the way, though, T-Bag became an unlikely fan favorite. Rare indeed is a drama that turns a character so vile into an iconic anti-hero.

“Robert Knepper is an extraordinary actor and has really brought something unique to the show,” Miller marvels. “I think it’s a credit to him that, even a character who is a pedophile and a serial rapist, who is reprehensible without doubt, you still have moments where you care about him, moments where you find yourself, against your better judgment, sympathizing.”

Miller believes the series has endured and thrived, while a spate of other serialized dramas have emerged and since died off, because viewers are intrigued by prison life.

“I’ve always thought that the first hook is right there in the title,” he says. “We want to know what goes on over that wall. What happens when you put 200 of the most dangerous individuals in a confined space? That’s fascinating stuff there.

“And I think it’s a testament to the writers and the actors that we’ve managed to create a complex, fantastic universe with a lot of moving parts, a lot of different stories, all of them worth exploring. As far as this thing continuing on nine, 10 seasons like a ‘Friends’ or ‘CSI,’ I’m not sure we’ll go that far. But I do think we have at least another two or three seasons in us.”

Perhaps the adventures of Michael Scofield will last long enough that we’ll see his tattoo become a key plot element again. That tat is still there, after all, hidden away under long-sleeve shirts because Michael didn’t have time, Miller jokes, to “stop off at a Mexican clinic and get it lasered off.”

So maybe it’ll come back into play.

“I’d like to think that, after they’ve leapt this particular hurdle, if Michael and Lincoln manage to escape Sona in Panama with their lives, there may be one or two treasures still buried in that ’too,” Miller muses. “There could be one or two things that Michael can reference as far as allowing them to set up the rest of their lives.”

There’s only one catch: Unlike Michael, Wentworth Miller isn’t the mastermind on this roller-coaster ride. “It’s up to the writers,” he concedes.

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