Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't yet watched the season premiere of Prison Break's revival.
For tonight's highly anticipated premiere, Fox's Prison Break could have stepped into its revival storyline any number of ways, considering one of its main characters needed to come back from what certainly looked like an inescapable death back in the last finale. Wisely, creator Paul Scheuring decided to turn this most intriguing aspect of the new season into a slow burn reveal, with both viewers and characters learning little from this limited reintroduction to Wentworth Miller's...Michael Scofield? Speaking with CinemaBlend, here's what actress Sarah Wayne Callies told me when I asked if Sara actually believes Michael is still alive.
Well I mean, would you? He is [crafty], but he's also, as far as she knows, a loving and a loyal man, not a deadbeat dad. Not somebody who would leave her high and dry and pregnant, alone, just having broken out of prison. I think when she first sees that photo, to be honest --- because we were there, you know, we had a funeral, we buried him --- I think her first concern is Lincoln's being taken in by somebody who's dangerous. It's T-Bag. This is not a great guy. And this could send him down a rabbit hole that could end him. I think her first concern is for this brother-in-law that she loves so much, that's fallen out of her life because he's just kind of spiraling out of control. I think that that's her first concern.
I can't imagine what it would be like to find out that the love of my life is still alive, seven years after I'd bid that painful farewell, so it's easy to understand that the first instinct is denial, followed quickly by a substitution of focus, combined with projecting. Of course she's going to call hogwash on Lincoln for bringing that picture to her without any other form of proof. Sara knows that Linc is not exactly famous for hanging out with the most honest and reputable people, her current self notwithstanding.
As well, both of them know that Michael isn't a total monster, and in Sara's mind, only the most heinous of human beings could be capable of ditching a woman with child. But while Linc will just blindly dive into the conspiratorial belief system that comes along with mysterious photos in large envelopes, Sara doesn't feel quite so comfortable.
Sara doesn't yet know the outcome of Linc and C-Note's trip to a Yemen prison to reconnect with Michael (a.k.a. Kaniel Outis), but the concept of Michael's survival will certainly be bouncing around in her head as she talks to her son and her new husband and is forced to rethink everything that's happened in the last seven years of her life. For any fans hoping to see the reconnection of a lifetime if and when Sara and Michael see each other again, Sarah Wayne Callies laughed as she hinted at how things will play out.
To me that's the first question: 'Where the hell have you been? And why have I been raising a son that's never seen your face?' Yeah, this is not a candy, champagne and roses reunion. And look, I think it also throws into question: Did he ever love me? Was this all collateral damage to some other large plot that I was just a little pawn in. Because if he loved me, why didn't he stay with me? Why would you go?
Michael's return to the world of Prison Break has different levels of interest, as we need to learn how in the world he survived that "shocking" form of sacrificing himself for Sara's escape, as well as what happened with the negative medical diagnosis he was dealing with. That's just covers the "hows," too, since we also need to then work on why he would leave behind the people he's closest to, especially when one of them was pregnant. Then it's onto why it took this long for him to get back in touch with anybody, and what led him to Yemen, and so on and so on. And those answers will come...one day. Hopefully in a way that doesn't continue to disrupt Sara's life, too.
If you're stumped as far as all things Michael-related are concerned, you're definitely not alone. Find out more pieces of the puzzle every Tuesday night on Fox at 9:00 p.m. ET. And while you're waiting, get a tattoo of everything that's coming to TV by checking out our midseason premiere guide and our summer TV schedule.
