Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Michael Scofield deliberately robs a bank to enter Fox River, where his brother Lincoln Burrows is awaiting execution for a murder he says he did not commit. Michael's full-body tattoo encodes the prison's layout, but the route depends on people with their own reasons to cooperate: cellmate Fernando Sucre, mobster John Abruzzi, C-Note, Charles Westmoreland and the dangerous Theodore Bagwell. Prison doctor Sara Tancredi becomes part of the plan through Michael's visits to the infirmary, while lawyer Veronica Donovan and her partner Nick Savrinn challenge Lincoln's case outside.
The escape takes shape through the prison's work detail and hidden passages, and each new recruit brings a risk. A riot exposes the route, Lincoln's execution is delayed, and Michael must replace a failed path through the infirmary after a pipe has been repaired. The brothers' father reveals that Lincoln's conviction is tied to the Company, a powerful group that framed him. Veronica and Nick trace the false report that implicated Lincoln to Washington, then follow evidence to Terrence Steadman, the supposedly murdered man whose death sent Lincoln to death row.
When Bellick discovers the tunnel, Michael forces Warden Pope to transfer Lincoln to the infirmary, then leads the escape party through the underground route and over Fox River's walls. Eight inmates make it out, though the group is already fractured and hunted by the authorities. Lincoln is free of the execution chamber but remains legally a fugitive; Michael's plan has saved his brother without clearing his name. In Montana, Veronica finds Steadman alive, giving Lincoln's allies direct evidence of the conspiracy as the brothers' flight begins.