The Phone – The episode begins 9 years in the past where it is revealed that The Man (Javier Godino) and Luba (Alexandra Masangkay) were once romantically involved. They were apparently involved with Branco (Oscar Foronda) who also happens to be Luba’s big brother. This connection most likely explains why The Man was immediately executed after his arrest.
Although John Dwyer (Cavan Clerkin) appears to be recovering remarkably, he soon learns that he and his friends are being blamed for Davide’s (Adria Escudero), which is something that delights Luba and wants people to continue believing.
Overrun with guilt from Davide’s death, Branco seeks penance from a priest. This only makes matters worse when the supposed priest suggests that Branco might have been the intended target. Branco immediately becomes suspicious when also claims to have seen Selma’s (Paulina Galvez) men shooting up the Brit’s cell before the explosion. By the time Branco checks the confessional booth, The Man is gone.
Clem’s (Sophie Lenglinger) discussion with her new roommate, Gemma (Aysha Daraaui), suggests that she is in no better condition, but the fact that she’s still alive means Selma needs/wants something from her. Their brief introduction doesn’t get much further thanks to Selma.
Shortly after this, Selma meets with Miguel (Alejandro Barrios) to stress the importance of Branco not discovering the truth behind the foiled assassination. He appears to get it and promises no more mistakes. Selma also very briefly meets with Cisco (Daniel Triana) to bestow the honor of Gomez’s (Abel Folk) blood donor upon him. He is clearly not as enthused about the discovery as her.
When Kai (Jojo Macari) interrogates Stu (Nico Mirallegro) about the drugs, it ultimately puts the entire group at odds. John jumps in once he learns about Stu having the phone which leads to Stu turning to Ryan (Corin Silva) for help. This segues into Kai telling Stu that he doesn’t understand why Stu always looks to Ryan because it was him who was shagging Sam (Holli Dempsey) while he was away traveling.
Selma attempts to comfort Branco at Davide’s funeral, only to discover there are no mourners. Branco claims he’s sent them all away so that he can clearly see where the knives aimed at his back are coming from. He eventually asks him to follow him somewhere. At the same time, Stu and his group debate the prospects of a successful escape while continuing their earlier bickering. This eventually leads to a physical confrontation between Stu and Ryan which is broken up by the arrival of Branco.
Once Branco begins interrogating Stu and his friends about Davide’s death, it doesn’t take him long to realize something doesn’t add up. After a bit more questioning and to Selma’s dismay, he learns about her hiring Hugo (Paul Forman) to sing at the party. By this time, Selma’s already correctly assumed he is on to her and takes off running. He goes after her and several gunshots can be heard in the distance.
As Selma and Branco take shots at each other, her fear eventually turns to anger and leads to her confessing everything. She also reveals that she did so because he betrayed her to the Americans in Florida. Despite appearing to be shocked by this discovery, he orders Luba to get more men. John is the first to take advantage of the left open cell door, but it isn’t long before the others join him. Things only continue to spiral out of control as the shootout rages on and more men join each side. Selma eventually gets away while The Man takes advantage of the pandemonium by attacking a Tower Guard (Eduardo Moratilla) and stealing his radio.
The Man will then use that radio to contact the Control Room Guard (Mundy Rieu) in an attempt to get him to shut down the minefield. The Tower Guard will eventually reawaken and interrupt him, which leads to a brief struggle that The Man wins. Due to the hysteria on the monitors, The Man will convince the Guard to shut down the minefield, which probably saves John’s life because he is just about to step into the field.
While shutting down the minefield, the guard was electrocuted and temporarily knocked out. He will eventually regain his faculties and reactive the field but not before a complete power outage across the prison makes the already out-of-control situation even crazier. By the time the electricity is reactivated, most of the inmates will be in the middle of the field, including John and Kai.
Despite their disputing, Ryan stops Stu from entering the minefield right before it’s reactivated. John will spend several minutes apologizing to Kai for being a horrible father and assuring him that he always cared about him, even when it appeared that he didn’t. Not long after John walks over a mine, the phone begins to ring. Stu tries to convince Kai to retrieve it and toss it to him. The Man doesn’t have better luck when he tries to convince two other escapees to help him escape through the tunnels. They practically tell him to go screw himself.
Feeling completely out of options, The Man drops to his knees and begins praying for God’s help while Stu continues to plead with Kai to get the phone. Kai does eventually retrieve the phone and throws it but not in Stu’s direction. It miraculously ends up in The Man’s hands. The episode ends with The Man approaching Ryan and Stu with an escape offer after overhearing their dispute about the phone. At the same time, Kai apparently activates a mine.
Stags Review
The Phone wasn’t an all-around horrible episode. It was far from great but I did like the fact that John was killed off. Nothing against the character or the actor portraying him, I just enjoy the violence as well as the internal conflict that it causes. I’m not so as much interested in the Sam dispute between Ryan and Stu but I can understand its importance. I was glad to learn that Branco and Selma’s beef is now in the open. I’m sure they will come to a compromise.
I would have liked to see more focus on Clem and Gomez, but I can’t complain too much because this episode was much shorter than the others. For that I am grateful. I’d give episode 4 a 5 out of 10.
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