Back in the tattoo parlor where Michael’s plan first took shape, Sid, the artist, finishes filling in three boldly lettered words on Michael’s arm: “ENGLISH” “FITZ” “PERCY.”

In the present, Pope sits at his desk before two unexpected visitors, Agents Kellerman and Hale. They’ve come seeking answers about why Pope rejected Michael’s transfer request. Pope is firm on his position. The inmates of Fox River are his responsibility. He wouldn’t come into Kellerman or Hale’s house and tell them where to put their furniture. What that means is that, “unless Scofield’s done something I don’t know about, he’ll be staying at Fox River under my watch.” Kellerman replies softly that it has been their experience that everyone has done something that they don’t want people to know about. Kellerman slips Pope a file whose label reads “ TOLEDO,” “POPE, HENRY.” Pope says that his wife already knows about Toledo. Kellerman responds, “Does she really?” Pope’s face goes grim, as he opens the file. Inside is a black and white photo of a young man lying on a blood-soaked pavement. Kellerman says, “You’re a smart man, Warden. I’m sure if you look hard enough, you can find a reason why Scofield’s presence is no longer required at this correctional facility.”

Michael works on P.I., hunched over a long tube of PVC piping. He calls out to a nearby C.O. that he needs to grab more. The C.O. looks to the supply shed and nods his permission. Moments later, Lincoln breaks his shovel and he asks the guard to get a replacement. The guard again agrees. Abruzzi walks out of the work shed and announces, “We got a ripped fertilizer bag. You,” Abruzzi points to Sucre, “clean it up before the whole place starts smelling like San Juan.” Sucre does his best to ignore the dig to his homeland, and walks into the shed.

Now gathered in the privacy of the shed, the four men eye one another. Abruzzi asks Michael what this meeting is about. “These are the guys we’re breaking out with,” Michael explains. There’s immediate tension within the group. Abruzzi says there’s no way he’ll work with Lincoln. Lincoln gets in Abruzzi’s face, “Touch my brother, and I’ll break your face.” Abruzzi looks to Michael, then back to Lincoln, realizing for the first time that the two are brothers. Michael reminds the group that they don’t have time for bickering. “I’m already through the wall in my cell. And there’s corrosive working through the access pipe to the Infirmary, even as we speak.” He then reveals why he’s gathered the team right now. “We have a decision to make. English. Fitz. Or Percy? Way I see it, if were gonna pull this off, we need to take one of them out.” The guys think Michael is crazy but Michael insists that this is an integral part of the plan.

As Michael and Sucre return to their cell, a C.O. escorts Michael in, but pulls Sucre aside. Michael enters to find Pope, sitting and waiting. “Why do I have the feeling there’s more to you than meets the eye, Scofield?” Michael doesn’t answer, his attention focused on beads of water that drip from the toilet right near Pope. Pope reveals the reason for his visit. “You’re being transferred.” Panic seizes Michael. Michael begs Pope to wait three weeks for the transfer. Lincoln is his brother. That’s why he requested Fox River, to be close with him before the execution. But Pope’s hands are tied. “You’re up against much bigger fish than me. You ship out tomorrow.”

Alone in his office, Pope studies the folder labeled, “ TOLEDO.” He flips though the contents, stopping at an article whose headline reads, “Youth Found Dead.” Pope closes the file and reaches inside his desk drawer and pulls out a Bible.

Lincoln and Michael sit in the prison chapel. “I’m going into the walls tonight. See if I can access the roof.” But Lincoln doesn’t want to hear about it; he wants to talk about the transfer. “When were you going to tell me?” Lincoln asks. Michael tells Lincoln that he’s going to take care of it. But Lincoln has his doubts. “ I’d made my peace with what was coming. Then you show up and give me the one thing a man in here should never have. Hope.” Michael flashes back to the memory of him and his brother as kids. Young Michael does not know how they’ll manage after the death of their mother. Young Lincoln promises that he will always take care of Michael and tells his younger brother to “Have a little faith.” Back in the chapel, Michael looks at his brother and reminds him to “have a little faith” as well.

Veronica and Nick dissect the surveillance tape from the night of Terrence Steadman’s murder. Nick points out that there are multiple inconsistencies. First, Steadman’s eye line from the car is high, like he’s looking at the camera on purpose. Second, after he parks, Steadman doesn’t leave the car; it’s as if he’s waiting for someone. Then, after the shooting, the tape sees Lincoln walk around the car and then rummage around the glove box. Nick questions if the person who enters the passenger side of the car is even Lincoln, “He’s heading away from the car. And then this guy, who conveniently keeps his face hidden from the camera, comes back in. Why?" While they’re building leads, questions to ruin the credibility of the tape, they’ll need something more solid to go to a judge with. If Lincoln didn’t fire the gun, then someone with some serious skills doctored the tape. Nick says he knows someone who can analyze the tape.

In the mess hall, Abruzzi confronts Michael; the transfer rumor has spread. Michael insists that he’s not being transferred and that he’s taking care of everything and reminds Abruzzi to provide him with a key by the time Pope leaves work tonight. Satisfied, Abruzzi walks away and Michael takes a seat next to Westmoreland. “ I need to know if there’s any way to block a transfer order,” Michael tells him. Westmoreland says there are many ways he can do it but the quickest is to simply write up a motion claiming that the transfer violates his Constitutional rights. The courts by law have to hear the motion, and until then, Michael can’t be moved from Fox River.

Dr. Tancredi and another nurse walk outside the infirmary. When Sara mentions that the state is requiring a physical for Lincoln, the nurse asks Sara if she heard the gossip about Lincoln and Michael being brothers. Sara has heard nothing.

Bellick enters Pope’s office and hands him a handwritten motion. Pope asks what it is. Bellick replies gruffly, “ Scofield. He’s blocking the transfer.”

Michael tells Sucre that he filed the motion to block his transfer. Even if it gets denied, it’ll still take thirty days to process the paperwork. Sucre is excited by this triumph, but Michael quickly gets down to business; he wants to go back into the walls immediately. Sucre scoffs, “ Yo, in case you didn’t notice, the lights are all on, and you got a live studio audience, Fish. How’re you gonna get around that?” Michael smiles. “Don’t we have some laundry to do?”

Later, Sucre wrings out a shirt that he’s washed in the small sink in their cell. He hangs shirts on a makeshift laundry line that spans the width of the cell. The clothes, dangling off the line, obscures the back wall of the cell from any potential onlookers. Michael, safely concealed, disassembles the toilet.

Abruzzi , meanwhile, walks in a line of inmates to the yard. He turns and gives a signal nod to another inmate. The inmate moves towards a C.O. overseeing the line-up and punches him in the face. A pile of inmates and C.O.s flail about on the ground, Abruzzi stands by and sees the fallen inmate has snagged a pair of guard keys and is pressing the keys into a bar of soap. A gun shot comes down from a guard in a tower and Aburzzi ducks to the ground. Nearby is the piece of soap, the imprint of a key is on one side.

Michael pulls the toilet from the wall and asks Sucre if it’s safe to proceed. “You’re clear. Swim, Fish, swim!” Sucre smiles.

Michael crawls through the hole and into a narrow, but extensive service corridor. Metal catwalks and pipes sprawl in all directions. Michael gets his bearings by locating several ducts around him and then lifts up his shirt and compares them to a section of tattoo on his right abdomen. He traces a path with his finger, and then starts the timer on his watch. He walks a few steps, and then pushes his way up to the catwalk above him. He keeps climbing until he sees the roof access. Suddenly, the door at the end of the hallway opens, a maintenance man enters only feet away from Michael.

Sucre is starting to worry. He sticks his head in the toilet, hoping Michael can hear him, “Fish! You’re taking too long, bro!”

The maintenance man in the service corridor stops to take a smoke break. Above him, spread out from wall to wall and clinging to the pipes is Michael, face down. His muscles tremble from the exertion of holding himself up. He sweats heavily and a single drop makes its way down his nose. The sweat drips from his nose and narrowly misses the man’s boot. Having finished his cigarette, the maintenance man turns and leaves.

Michael, back in the cell, puts the toilet back together. Sucre is frantically telling him, “ This ain’t gonna fly, man. The Ricans, we got genetically higher blood pressure, you know that? ” Michael tells Sucre that he can make it to the roof, and the next part of the plan is “all about timing.”

Abruzzi checks his watch: 3:50 PM. His cellmate, Gus, expertly melts a plastic toothbrush with a book of matches, guiding the liquid plastic into the key mold imprinted on the bar of soap.

In an office crammed with computer equipment, monitors and electronic devices, Veronica and Nick consult with video analyst, Chaz Fink. Chaz marvels at the tape. “ The thing’s clean. No footprints. Usually, you peel the video back a few layers, anything bogus comes right off. Now you see it, now you don’t, right? But not this one. It’s laced. Ingrained.” Chaz plays the tape again. Something catches his interest and he replays the audio track. “The problem with your eyes is that they play tricks on you, but ears? Ears don’t lie. ” He focuses on the sound of the gunshot. As soon as it’s fired, the sound waves immediately die. “ Stripped down, those levels should dance. Room that size, would give you, BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM . One off of each wall, a split second after each other. On yours, the reverb’s bouncing at the same time.” What this means, he tells an anxious Veronica, is that the sound of the gunshot was not recorded in the parking garage. Veronica grows excited. If Chaz will testify to that fact, they’ll have enough to take to a judge. Chaz is leery. He won’t testify unless he can get his hands on the original tape.

Michael huddles over the model of the Taj Mahal. Pope questions Michael about his “allergies,” the ones he cited in his motion. Michael replies, “ Sinusitis, yeah. It’s actually not an allergy, it’s a bacterial infection. But the moist air from the river along the East Wall, it helps keeps me,” Michael takes a deep breath, “You know. Clear.” Pope has to admire Michael’s initiative. He’s been in Fox River so short a time, yet he’s already figured out how to work the system. Michael presses Pope to reveal why it was Pope wanted him transferred. But Pope brushes off his question, pointing out that it’s almost five o’clock and they should call it a day. Michael tells Pope that if he left now, the support beam he’s holding would give in and the whole model would collapse. Michael says he has to stay and hold it in place until the glue dries. Pope agrees that Michael can stay. When he’s done, he’s to check in with Pope’s assistant, Becky, and she’ll have a guard escort him back to his cell. The Pope thanks Michael for showing up to work on the model, in spite of the outstanding transfer request. Michael smirks, “You’re welcome.”

The minute Pope leaves, Michael releases his hold on the support structure. It doesn’t collapse at all . Michael moves to the door where he listens to make sure the coast is clear. Pope is gone, but C.O. Patterson remains behind, flirting with Becky. Michael smiles, then moves to the rear door of the Pope’s office. It’s still locked. He looks at the clock: 4:55 PM.

Abruzzi skates down a corridor, pushing a janitorial bin with mops and brooms hanging from the side.

Pope arrives home and walks into the kitchen to find his wife, Judy, pouring some iced tea. Pope goes to grab a glass, but Judy slaps his hand away. She tells him that the iced tea is for his guests who are waiting in the den. An apprehensive Pope walks into the den; Hale and Kellerman are waiting.

The clock in the warden’s office reads 5:05 PM. Michael hears the sound of a key unlocking the rear door. He quietly opens the door, removes the plastic key, and joins a line of inmates walking as they file through the hall outside Pope’s door.

Back in his den, Pope explains to Kellerman and Hale that there is nothing he can do to accelerate Michael’s transfer. He’s legally obligated to file Michael’s motion with the court, which could take up to two months to be processed. Kellerman, frustrated, paces the room. “ I was looking at the morgue photos of that boy back in Toledo, Will Clayton. Spitting image of his daddy. Apple fell real far away from the tree with that one, didn’t it? Fell off the tree and all over the pavement.” Pope is furious, but Kellerman continues to push. They know that Judy and Pope worked things out after his affair, but that Judy does not know about Will, Pope’s illegitimate child. The Pope demands they leave, but Kellerman faces him and demands that the warden lose Michael’s motion. Judy enters to ask the agents if they’re staying for dinner, but the agents instantly turn on the charm and politely excuse themselves. Kellerman thanks Judy for the iced tea and tells Pope, “You better do everything you can to hold onto this one.” Pope, beaten, nods his head.

As soon as Kellerman and Hale leave, Pope enters his personal study and shreds Michael’s motion to deny transfer.

A guard secures Lincoln’s wrist and ankle shackles are secured, then gives Sara the all-clear to enter. She’s non-plussed to be there to perform the ironic task of making sure Lincoln is healthy enough for the state to kill him. “This,” she says, “is not why I went to medical school.” As part of the physical, Sara asks about the medical history for Lincoln’s mother, father and siblings. Lincoln pauses. Sara asks, “Anyone besides Michael?” Lincoln turns to her, not sure what to answer. “ Fox River ’s like a small town, Mr. Burrows. People don’t have much to do here besides time and talk.” She asks curious about their relationship. “He’s been abandoned his whole life. Dad, mom, she died young. And now me.” Sara wonders aloud if that’s why Michael is here, to be near his brother before his death.

Pope sits alone in his study, going over the “ TOLEDO” file. He flips through pictures of Will. First, his elementary school pictures and then the police photos of his body sprawled on he pavement. Pope’s eyes well up with tears.

Michael files into gen pop with the other inmates and checks his tattoo: “ENGLISH,” “FITZ” “PERCY.” He then looks at his watch: 5:44PM. He enters his cell and the doors close behind him. “It’s time.” Sucre panics. “Count’s in fifteen minutes! What are you doing?” Michael says it’s better off if he keeps Sucre in the dark.

Pope prays in the empty prison chapel. The Reverend enters, “ Don’t normally find you here at this hour. Are you seeking His forgiveness, or advice?” Pope says he doesn’t know anymore and he opens up about Will. “He was a criminal, and an addict. But he was only eighteen years old. I should have kept him on the right path.” The Reverend is familiar with this bit of Pope’s past. He reminds Pope that the woman he had the affair with made her terms very clear. Pope could not be in his son’s life unless he would also be in the mother’s life. Pope knew that when he went back to Judy, it would mean he would never know his son. He ran away from his responsibility, but was grateful to be rid of it.

Veronica and Nick stand at the front desk of a records office. They urge a bitter clerk to let them see the original tape of the murder. She refuses. Veronica and Nick beg to see it, they’ll do whatever it takes to see that tape. The clerk furrows her brows and asks for the docket number. The clerk asks for the docket number from Veronica. The clerk sighs. “Come with me,” she says. They follow her to a small back room. The shelves and floor of the archive room are littered with soaked files, destroyed boxes and ruined papers. “Last night, pipe burst right upstairs. Flooded the place. Files from over a hundred cases, pretty much lost all of ‘em. Including yours.” Veronica finds it strange that the only room that flooded was that evidence room. The clerk responds that it was some kind of freak accident.

Sucre checks his watch, the doors slide open for the inmate count. Michael is not in the cell.

Michael works his way through the service corridors again and back up to the roof. He moves quickly up the side of the roof and barely avoids a roaming search light. He checks his watch. Count has started.

Bellick reads of the names on his check list. “Scofield, Sucre.” He walks up to the cell, and Sucre is standing alone. Bellick enters and briefly looks over the cell, but Michael is nowhere to be found. Bellick stares down Sucre, and then calls out to the floor, “We got a runner!”

The alarms sound and the flood lights lining the yard come to life. Guards swarm the cell block searching for Michael. Bellick presses Sucre for more information, to no avail. Patterson radios Bellick from Pope’s office, “ Call it off, Captain. I got Scofield right in here.” Bellick barks at Patterson to visually confirm Michael’s location. Patterson opens the door to Pope’s office, and finds the room empty. Patterson presses the button on the walkie-talke. “Captain, he’s gone.”

Michael crouches on the roof, watching the action unfold. Police squad cars race towards the prison. A line of cars race down both Percy Avenue and English Street. Then Michael turns around to face a third street. This street remains dark and quiet. Fitz Street. Michael smiles.

Pope rushes back into his office, demanding to know how an inmate vanished with a guard right outside. Bellick storms behind him. Michael’s head pokes out from behind the model of the Taj. “What’s going on?” Bellick charges Michael, grabbing him and throwing him against a wall. “What were you doing in here!?” Pope calls Bellick off, asking Michael, “You were in here the whole time?” Becky tells Pope she never Michael him leave and Patterson admits he must not have seen him behind the table. Bellick is furious at the notion that Michael may not be punished for missing count, but Pope wearily interjects that Michael is no longer Fox River’s problem. “ There was...an error in his paperwork. Looks like his transfer will be going through after all. ” Michael is crushed and tries to plead with the warden, but Bellick forces him out.

“Any chance you wanna write it off as a coincidence?” Nick asks Veronica as they walk back into her apartment building. Assuming someone was behind the sabotaging of the evidence tape, Veronica asks how anyone could have known they’d be coming for it even before they did. Nick figures it’s a good sign. When people start breaking the law, that means you’re on to something. They reach Veronica’s apartment and see the door is open. Nick enters slowly, Veronica right behind. Everything is intact, nothing appears to be stolen. Veronica notices the cabinet in the kitchen was left open and she frantically tears through a pile of towels and napkins. Their copy of the tape is gone. Someone stole it. Nick asks if she’s sure that’s where she left it. Veronica replies, “Yes. You were here…” She stops herself and gives Nick a suspicious glance.

The next day, cell doors open in gen pop for inmates to go to breakfast. Bellick swaggers up to Michael and Sucre’s cell, instructing Michael to wait in his cell until his ride comes. Sucre hops of his bunk, “It can’t end like this.” Bellick hollers for Sucre to clear out, but Sucre lingers. “Fitz. We were going take Fitz,” Michael says quietly. “And the cops? How long it takes them to respond? You got all the timing down?” Sucre asks. Michael nods. “Think we would’ve made it?” Sucre asks, but before he can answer, Bellick pulls him out. Michael the allen wrench. Before getting up to leave, he slips it under Sucre’s pillow and places an origami swan on his bunk.

Bellick walks a heavily shackled Michael down an outside corridor. Sara watches from the infirmary as he passes. Then they take a long walk past the yard, the eyes of all inmates following Michael’s departure. Westmoreland holds Marilyn. Sucre hangs on the fence. Abruzzi leans over and whispers to Gus, “ Call my wife. Tell her to get the kids. Tell her to get out of the country.” Bellick and Michael stop just long enough for Lincoln and Michael to hold a glance between them. Lincoln stands and Michael mouths, “I’m sorry,” to him. Pope watches from his office, he sits back in his chair as Michael shuffles out of the prison and out of his life.

Bellick hands Michael over to another C.O. who will escort Michael to the bus. As the gates of the prison sally port open, Pope barks out, “ What’s this prisoner doing out of his cell?” After the guard says he’s being transferred, Pope steps in. ”No, this must be some kind of a mistake. This prisoner filed a motion yesterday. He has a medical condition that precludes transfer. Sinusitis, isn’t it?” A quick but knowing look passes between Pope and Michael. Pope demands Michael be taken back and his recreational time taken away for missing prisoner count. Pope looks beyond the gates, Hale and Kellerman wait in their car.

When Pope returns home, he finds Judy waiting for him on their porch. Judy asks why he’s home early and if everything is okay. Pope sits down next to his wife and uncomfortably replies, “There’s someone I need to tell you about.”

Kellerman makes the unpleasant call to the Garlic Cutter. “The transfer didn’t go through. ” The Garlic Cutter has had it. She recommends a change of plans. Kellerman and Hale need to go after the cause of all of this, Lincoln. “After all,” she says, “the chair isn’t the only way to take a man’s life in prison.”