Call Waiting is the third episode in Season 3. It follows Lincoln's rescue for Sara and LJ and Michael's plan of breaking out.
Plot[]
Sucre comes to Lincoln, looking for money. He refuses to help Linc look for Sara and LJ. Meanwhile, Michael finds that Lechero isn't interested in any kind of truce with him. Lincoln visits Michael and shows him today's photograph of Sara and LJ. Sara's pointing to the words "Santa Rita" on the paper they're holding up.
Linc tells Susan that Michael won't help with Whistler until he talks to Sara to make sure she's ok. Susan refuses, and Michael learns there's only one phone in Sona – and Lechero has it.
Mahone meets with his public defender and finds that he has a trial date – next year. And even if Michael testifies he set Mahone up, it won't wash – one inmate taking the fall for another is common. Realizing how trapped he is, Mahone begs for his medication. The attorney simply thinks he's a drug addict and abandons him. Mahone turns to the other addicts in the prison for a fix of something, anything. Before he can shoot up, Whistler, realizing Michael isn't entirely on his side, forges an uneasy alliance with Mahone.
Meanwhile, Whistler has an emotional reunion with Sofia at the visitor's cage. She says the book was taken by Scofield's brother. Putting the pieces together, he says it's okay that Lincoln has the book. She doesn't know what's important about the book, and Whistler won't tell, to her frustration. How can she help him if she doesn't know what's going on? As she signs out, she sees Lincoln's address, logged when he visited Michael.
Lechero finds that business on the outside seems slower than usual – his take is getting smaller – and his men are losing faith in him. But his cousin says everything's normal. Perhaps the problem is inside the prison?
Sucre tries to sell the gun he bought the other day, but the gun shop clerk is only willing to give him 1/3 of what he paid. He sells the gun, buys some tequila, and gets himself stinking drunk.
Michael blackmails T-Bag into helping him get Lechero's cell phone by threatening to reveal that T-Bag was a pedophile and rapist. T-Bag surreptitiously unplugs the charger, so Lechero has to leave it charging at an unexpected time. T-Bag sneaks the phone to Michael while Lechero is out, telling him he has less than 30 minutes to use it – or they're both dead. Linc strong-arms Susan into putting Sara on the phone right away. Sara, speaking in code, lets him know that "Santa Rita" means "Saint Rita" – the patron saint of lost causes. She's not in Santa Rita – she can see St. Rita from wherever she is. Michael, with T-Bag's distraction, just barely manages to get the phone back into the charger before Lechero returns – but not firmly enough. The charger light isn't on. Lechero knows something's up, and hits redial – and gets Linc. Linc cleverly doesn't speak, just hangs up. Lechero has the number researched.
Sofia catches up with Linc and finds he's helping break Whistler out of prison – and that he's being blackmailed into it. She's stunned; she thought Whistler was trying to get out legally, and that he's only a fisherman. Lincoln takes a cab to a monument of St. Rita, which is in the red light district. He finds where Sara and LJ are being held and charges in, but their guards spirit them away in a van.
Whistler tells Michael that he's in prison because he was running a charter boat. One day, he got a call demanding to know exactly where he took a naturalist of some sort who took water samples and measurements. He said he couldn't remember – but then government types started snooping around. And then a bar fight led to his incarceration in Sona. The people who are trying to get him out demand that as soon as they do, he show them where he took that guy. The book is his trip log – the only way he can retrace his steps.
Sammy suspects T-Bag of disloyalty to Lechero and tells T-Bag to watch his back. T-Bag responds by starting to poison Lechero's mind against his men.
Bellick gets himself some shoes, thanks to Stash, the prison's transgender barber. As he picks a comfy pair from Stash's stash, he spies Michael meeting with Mahone. Mahone forces Michael to admit he needs Whistler alive, to break him out of Sona. After the meeting, Michael begins to hatch a plan for the escape.
Susan calls Linc with a warning against him ever trying another rescue attempt. There's a blood-soaked box by the trash...
Critics[]
- "A strong episode. It keeps the plot moving pleasingly and logically without delving too far into Michael’s escape plans. The next few episodes are set up nicely by all the intrigue going on here."
- ―The TV Critic's Review