This week’s episode might have been the most ridiculous yet.

1. Michael led three other prisoners through a maze of active, alert guards and no one was seen.
2. In order to have a shot, he had to count on the fact that neither T-Bag nor Bellick would give him up quickly.
3. T-Bag happened to fall and find Whistler’s bird book.
4. McGrady’s papa “took a chance” and happened to find the gang clinging to a buoy in the middle of the ocean.

It was obvious something was up when Michael decided to let Luchero, T-Bag and Bellick get a head start on the escape. When he wasn’t moving, it became clear that he was using the trio as a distraction to make his real escape, and that point was punctuated when he said, “This is the plan.” In a series of maneuvers that would have made Solid Snake proud, Michael successfully navigated a crapload of random-walking Sona soldiers to get to the fence, where he punched through the hole and entered the jungle. For a guy that usually plans everything down to the last detail, this was quite the departure, but he had to improvise with this escape and he proved that he could.

Burying the cans of oxygen at the beach was a nice twist, though how they successfully ended up at the buoy remains a mystery. Dimwit Whistler is dumb enough to lose his bird book, the same book that holds the key to his freedom, but he’s smart enough to pull the ol’ fall-down-during-the-escape-and-pretend-to-twist-your-ankle trick on Michael.

At the beach, the guards didn’t bother to look for footprints (of course), but the dogs found the buried cooler and it looked for a moment that papa and the gang would eventually have a run in with the coast guard, but that encounter never happened.

Once T-Bag and Bellick got caught, I began to wonder how they would continue to be involved in the story if Brothers Scofield were free. That question was answered when T-Bag just happened to fall next to (and retrieve) Whistler’s aforementioned bird book. That’ll be the leverage he needs to stay involved. It doesn’t hurt that Sucre looks like he’ll soon be a resident of Sona as well.

Next week’s episode is the season finale, and it looks like next season may revolve around Michael trying to break Sucre and T-Bag (with the bird book) out of Sona. Michael will feel responsible for Sucre’s situation and he isn’t going to let him rot in prison. Plus, he’ll probably have more incentive if Susan still holds LJ and Sofia hostage. Bellick will probably make it, though it might be time for the writers to kill him off. I don’t know anyone who is clamoring for more Bellick right now. I’d like the show to push off into a new direction, but I don’t see how that’s possible. But “Prison Break” has surprised me before, so only time will tell.