S01.E09: The Lie of the Truth

[formerlyfreedom]

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Tracy has good news for Kyle. Mike and Iris spend a peaceful day at the cabin, unaware of the trouble escalating back in town.

Dropping Sunday, January 2, 2021.

[wlk68]

Episode Summary: Tracy has good news for Kyle. Mike and Iris spend a peaceful day at the cabin, unaware of the trouble escalating back in town.

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Holy crap, the fit really hit the shan in this one.  

 

[mledawn]

Yeah, this went off in town while Mike and Iris play house. 

I just kept laughing as Kyle and Ian tried to find a way out of the PRISON. I mean, there's no way out BY DESIGN.

[dwmarch]

In the first scene the SWAT team took down a biker pad but it doesn't look like the same one from last week. But they did say they had reports of gunfire and a big pool of blood in the driveway. Not sure what was going on there. Did some other bikers come along to clean up? Or did Mike call them in?

I was wondering why the inmates weren't fighting amongst themselves but then we had a scene calling out that scores were being settled. I also liked that there were some inmates just milling about in the yard, waiting for things to settle down.

That one old guard with the bitchy wife seems to be a one-man army. He's the only one who held off a crowd coming at him.

I don't think the show rolls like this but was this all a long con by the Russian dude to break out of jail? Up to and including Iris keeping Mike off the board by playing the role of wounded bird?

[mledawn]

24 minutes ago, dwmarch said:

I don't think the show rolls like this but was this all a long con by the Russian dude to break out of jail? Up to and including Iris keeping Mike off the board by playing the role of wounded bird?

The preview after the episode would not seem to support that but preview monkeys are notorious for being devious.

[jabRI]

I didn't see the previews, but agree this could all be a long con on Iris' part.  The more she talks the less I trust her.

[formerlyfreedom]

I’m glad I read in here before watching because DAMN. That was….a lot. 

I don’t think this is a complete long con by Iris - so much would have had to gone just SO. But I could see Milo setting it up to distract Mike for sure. 

I am also not too upset that prison guard Ed was told “I told you so” at the end. For the purpose of this series, many of the prison guards seem to definitely be ‘there but for the grace of God go I’.

[jabRI]

It reminds me of that old psych class experiment, where people were randomly assigned to be prisoners or guards, and they acted the role as given.

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[wlk68]

Based on events in this episode it looks like Iris and Mike are getting closer. Iris may have a case of white knight syndrome while Mike seems to be more ... pragmatic.

I REALLY don't want to see them hook up. I hope their relationship stays platonic.  

[jabRI]

1 hour ago, wlk68 said:

I REALLY don't want to see them hook up. I hope their relationship stays platonic.  

I can't put my finger on it, but I don't like Iris.  I know she had a rough past, etc., just something about her feels really off.  Maybe she's just an inexperienced actress, but how she projects herself is really bad.  Especially next to Renner, they could be in different buildings.

[Ottis]

This show's narrative is so screwed up, I don't know if it can be saved.

Look, decide what you are about. Either:

1) Focus on Mike, his family and their roles within a rough town, with the prisons, the drug dealers and shady others part of the backdrop, or

2) Focus on the role of the prisons in the town and show us the people who work in them, their lives and their families, and the complex issues around being in prison or having to guard prisoners.

Because this episode was basically an hour of prison break porn, and *I didn't care what happened to anyone.* Well, I did wonder if Mike's mom would get caught up in it. But mostly I was bored because the entire prison could empty, killing every guard in the way, and rampage through the town and it wouldn't matter because I am not invested in anyone aside from Mike and his family.

Once Kyle was shown to be alive, there was pretty much no danger to him. Nor his mom. And of course Mike is, for some reason, putting up with Iris when he knows she has to be a long con from Milos.

I assume the narrative point of the break was to get Milos out. Fair enough. But that could have been done without an hour of pointless violence. 

Do you know who the only character I have cared about on this show? That guy who burned down the trailer and killed the mom and kid. Because he definitely did the crime and was a criminal, but he was also a druggie who didn't mean to do it and seemed to feel real remorse afterward, as he realized that because of his thoughtless action, two people were dead and everyone in town wanted to kill him. That was some Breaking Badish "things went downhill quickly" stuff, and that was interesting, and sad for all involved.

I like Renner. This show is well done generally. But come on, give us a narrative that draws us in and makes us care about what we are seeing on the screen.

 

Edited January 6, 2022 by Ottis

[Chaos Theory]

I think the only thing the show is really missing is a clear focus.  It has all the ingredients to make a really good crime drama (good cast,  good story,  good writing). It just lacks a clear focus to make it all jell.   I love the idea of a community where the only real occupation is incarceration.   A place where you are either the incarcerated or the ones who incarcerate and the line between the two is paper thin.   The only one keeping everything in check is a guy with no clear loyalties.  It is an interesting concept…..but this season has been too messy for my taste.

i did really like this episode though because I have been seeing it coming for awhile now.   The prison population actually exploding against the guards.   If you watch any prison docuseries like “Lockup” and such it is made perfectly clear that if the inmates ever actually put aside their own differences they could pretty easily at least take over a prison.  Which is what is happening here.  

As for Milo.  I think he is just taking advantage of the situation.  Like Mike he is able to read what is going on an he likely saw this coming and positioned himself to be in the right place so he could offer “assistance” and it looks like he might have been someone who actually made it out of the prison because he doesn’t give a shit about prison politics.

As for Iris.  I am not sure if she is a con isn’t pawn that Milo through in front of Mike because all the other tricks didn’t work or if she is playing him.  Not sure which one I prefer.

 

[BeckyThatcher]

Michael Scofield would be so annoyed that no one (prisoners and guards) studied the architect’s plans. 

[raven]

Does Kyle's wife not know how to speak?  Or does the show just want to give Dianne Wiest more and more monologues?  I was extremely annoyed with her spilling all of Kyle's wife's info. (see, I don't even remember her name because she doesn't get any lines).    Presumably she lives in a nice house thanks to dead husband's salary and pension, yet the disdain she has for her children even carries over to her work - the scene in the first episode where one of the women prisoners approached her and she snapped at her that she would never ask Mitch for a favor.  

It was kind of interesting to see the contrast between prison guard's Ed's attitude of "lock them all down; they're all guilty" and Wiest's character's shocked disbelief that the female prisoner might, actually, have intentionally had sex with the guard and killed him. 

I think that Milo just took advantage of the situation.  I still can't believe that Iris is part of a long con - what we saw her go through was too awful - but she could be playing on Mike's sympathies because, in her mind, what else does she have?  This is why I hope the relationship stays platonic; there are just too many issues.  I agree the actress is not up to the rest of them.   

I love Mike's cabin.

[Orbert]

I loved the contrast between Mike and Iris at the cabin, finally getting a few moments' peace, and the absolute hell breaking loose at the prison.  So often we see Mike rushing from point to point trying to fix everything, trying to keep everyone calm, and of course the one day he decides to just take a day and chill, all hell breaks loose.  Not that he could've done a thing to prevent it or help once it started, but it was still pretty funny to think about, and I'm pretty sure the juxtaposition was intentional.