"Prison Break" Season 5 Episode 8 aired Tuesday night on FOX. The biggest reveal of the evening was that Michael's Yemen cellmate Whip is the biological son of the man who was once his arch enemy -- Theodore T-Bag Bagwell. This came out of nowhere and fans were taken by surprise.
Theodore Bagwell's history
T-Bag had a rough childhood which caused him to be a career criminal as an adult. In the original "Prison Break" Mr. Bagwell was incarcerated in Fox River with Michael Scofield and his brother Lincoln Burrows. T-Bag was a rapist and a murderer.
The other inmates considered him as a low life. When the first break out of prison took place, Bagwell got in on it. At one point he handcuffed himself to Michael and swallowed the key. Later, John Abruzzi chopped off T-Bag's hand.
At the end of season 4 of the original series, T-Bag was returned to prison when the others were exonerated. When "Prison Break" season 5 began, Theodore Bagwell had mysteriously been released. He was also sent to a physician, who performed surgery and provided him with a mechanical hand. The one million dollar procedure was paid for by an anonymous benefactor. T-Bag also received a letter with a picture of the supposedly dead Michael Scofield, making him the first person to be contacted from the Yemen prison.
The pieces of the puzzle come together for Bagwell and Whip
Michael had a cellmate he refers to as Whip, who escaped Yemen with him, and came to America. At the end of Tuesday's episode T-Bag and Whip had both been sent to the same location. Bagwell tells the young man about his past. He said he had spent the night with a woman he never saw again, because he was sent to prison.
He added that Michael noticed Whip's ability to thrive and survive and it reminded him of T-Bag.
Michael did some digging and found out that Whip is T-Bag's son. Bagwell gave the young man his real name and birth date, and handed him documents that would prove everything. He said Michael wondered if the young man was born with his skills or had learned them, then added that Whip was born with them because T-Bag is his father.
How Michael put it all together is a mystery.
There has been no reasoning or logic as to why Michael is being so kind to Theodore. First he shelled out a million dollars to pay for him to have a hand he can use, and planned a reunion with his long lost son. With only one more episode left, and no word on a season 6, much ground must be covered next week in order to have answers to so many questions. Perhaps Michael is only being kind to his once arch enemy because he is thinking of his own son.
