Dirt Nap
Michael's not sure how they find out, but as he and the others are continuing their construction on the tunnel, Sammy and his gang locate them and demand to be part of the team. Sammy tells Michael he'll be taking everything- the tunnel, the escape route, and the plan- and will make sure that Whistler gets out as well, but he guarantees a slow and painful death for Michael. It doesn't seem to faze him even though the other occupants of the underground tunnel appear to be worried about him. Michael points out the way to go and Sammy climbs. He pushes himself upward, towards the land on the other side, before there's a rumbling sound and the entire tunnel, hundreds of pounds of dirt, fall on top of him.
Lechero does his part to pick off the other members of Sammy's gang and Michael remains stone-faced. He let Sammy climb to his death; he watched him die, and still, Michael goes on like nothing had happened. They return upstairs, to their cells, and T-Bag informs him that Bellick is now part of the breakout team. Michael doesn't care; Michael doesn't care about much, these days. He sits in the corner of the cell, turning the cool metallic screw over and over in his hands as Alex enters and brings Whistler a cup of water and a rag to clean off his injuries. Michael conceals the screw in his hand and says nothing.
"You know, for all the times you wanted me to prove I was a fisherman," Whistler starts, turning to Michael who doesn't meet his eye. "I should have been asking if you were a real engineer. That could have been one of us buried down there."
"I'll do better next time," Michael deadpans.
Whistler stares back at him and there's a strong, surging tension between them. Alex, in order to diffuse the situation, states loudly, "I'm gonna go back down and try to salvage some of those braces."
Whistler, still glancing at Michael, says, "Yeah, I'll go with you."
He leaves the cell behind and Alex glances over at Michael, who has gone back to twisting and turning the screw over and over again in his palm. He and Alex think alike, Michael's realized, and it's the reason why he had been able to figure out Michael's every move weeks earlier, when he'd still been on the run. And when he looks at Alex, now, he knows that Alex knows Michael had removed the screw and allowed Sammy to die on purpose. But Alex, hardly one to judge, just looks back at Michael with a consonant understanding. He simply glances at the screw in Michael's hands and says, "Never gets any easier."
Michael's sure Alex is talking about the guilt and responsibility that comes with watching- and causing- someone's death, but even still, Sara consumes his thoughts. He's been an angry, vulnerable torrent of emotion since finding out about her death and he wonders if it will ever get easier, if he'll ever be himself again. Since her death, Michael had completely hardened, completely closed off. He's become all about breaking out of Sona, whatever the cost, because he wants nothing more than to find the person responsible for Sara's death and make them pay for what they did to her, for what they did to him. He's not the Michael everyone else is used to; he's an empty shell of himself, living a half life, with only one goal in mind- revenge.
Sara meant the world to him and when he lost her, he lost everything.
