Trouble is inevitable in the prison, with a race riot imminent. Michael has problems retrieving a screw from the bleachers. Veronica receives a security tape that shows Lincoln shooting Terrence Steadman.

Michael gets more of the tools and people he needs, but someone very high up has taken notice and started wondering what he's up to.

Michael gains a necessary piece of information to effect his escape, but can he keep the Warden from kicking him out?

Veronica, Nick and LJ must go into hiding, while Bellick unwittingly provides Westmoreland's motivation to aid the escape.

Michael hands over an address to Falzone, allowing work to resume on the tunnel. Meanwhile, the VP enlists the help of a dangerous specialist.

The escape is about to go through when the team hits a stainless steel snag, while Veronica is just a moment too late to get all the information she needs to prove Lincoln's innocence.

With the pipe to the infirmary replaced and Lincoln's life hanging in the balance, Michael must rethink his plan to escape and save his brother's life. A fellow inmate may hold the key to preventing Lincoln's execution.

Michael's plan to escape has failed. While Lincoln is strapped to the electric chair, he sees an oddly familiar face in the crowd. Is there one last hope to save Lincoln's life, or has his journey reached an end?

Flashbacks provide exposition on how the inmates arrived at Fox River Penitentiary from The Company's framing of Lincoln to the creation of Michael's plan to save his brother's life.

Having burned his shoulder, Michael's tattoo that showed the path through psych ward is now incomplete. With another inmate intimidated into snitching about the escape plans, Michael Scofield must use his wits to find a new way out of Fox River.

Improvising a new plan, Michael seeks out an acquaintance who may hold the key to his escape plan. In gen pop, the other members of the P.I. crew learn that the guards are auctioning Michael's cell to the highest bidder. Lincoln and Sucre devise a scheme to get Michael returned to gen pop. Veronica informs Lincoln that L.J will be tried for his mother's murder, and Lincoln desires to see his son.

After the crash Kellerman tries to suffocate Lincoln, but he is saved in the last moment by a stranger. Sucre leaves solitary confinement and Michael tells to his partners that he has completed the map, but he needs the key to the infirmary. Abruzzi is back to Fox River, apparently converted into a religious man. Warden Pope sends Captain Bellick to find Lincoln before notifying the authorities. Nick tries to convince Veronica that they are losing time checking the calls of Quinn's cell phone. Michael kisses Sara and asks her to wait for him. Tweener is in trouble with Avocado and he castrates the abuser. Lincoln sees that the stranger is actually his father, and he explains that he worked for the powerful Company and Lincoln is a victim of a big plot against him. He had leaked information of EcoField and they used Lincoln to force him to show up. Michaels asks for help from Nika. Veronica finds many calls from Montana on Quinn's phone. The Vice-President tells her brother that he is alive just because of her, and he replies that he does not understand how they have not killed her yet. Abruzzi meets T-Bag and asks him to forget everything, and they make a truce. Nika seeks out Sara and tells her about her life and how Michael helped her, but she actually steals Sara's key. A guy sees the Mustang in a junkyard where Aldo and Lincoln are hidden, but Kellerman bugs the conversation and goes to the spot. However, the police arrive and Captain Bellick arrests Lincoln, saving him from Kellerman. Sara seeks her key and recalls her meeting with Nika Volek; she calls maintenance service to replace the lock. Nick works for Abruzzi. Michael invites David and he betrays the plan to Captain Bellick. Lincoln is back to Fox River under 24 hours surveillance.

Westmoreland uses Bellick to plug a hole in the escape plan, which forces Michael to move up the breakout timetable. A fearful Tweener pledges his loyalty to Michael and in return may get out of jail for free; Michael feels that he has no choice but to involve Sara in the plan and must betray his father figure; and Veronica finds her life in jeopardy from her closest ally, who has a surprising connection to a Fox River inmate.

The team start the escape from the hole in Scofield's cell.

As the escape continues, lives are lost and Pope and Bellick do everything in their power to capture the convicts.

In Cutback, Montana, Kellerman lures the police and Michael and Lincoln abduct the cameraman Greg of Fox News and succeed in escaping from the siege. Michael and Lincoln decide to tape a message to be released in the Breaking News. Mahone is back in Chicago and analyzing the message; he interrogates Greg and he tells that he had overheard Michael tell that they should cover 460 miles in six hours. Mahone deduces that they intend to meet President Caroline in Denver. Wheeler discusses with Mahone and yells that the Internal Affairs department asked him to follow all moves of Mahone. Bellick is badly wounded in the infirmary of Fox River. Sucre befriends an old passenger in a bus to Ixtapa; however the driver asks him to leave the bus in a small town and Sucre robs the Volkswagen of the old man. In Algoma, Winsconsin, Haywire befriends a young couple and the girl has bruises on her arm; she tells that her abusive drunken father beat her.

Sara meets Michael and Lincoln in a train station in Evansville, Indiana; when she sees Kellerman with them, she becomes disturbed and upset. Kellerman tells that she has a key of a private cigar club in Chicago. Caroline calls Kellerman and he tells that he is heading to Chicago by train, and she promises his life back, inclusive the chief of staff position. T-Bag tells Susan that they are passing through an "adjustment period" in their lives; when she tells him that she will have a guest called Patty Wallace, T-Bag welcomes Patty with a magnificent family brunch and uses the strong father figure to discipline Zack, seducing the guest with his charm and attitude. Wheeler is reporting the actions of Mahone to the FBI Headquarter and they find that Haywire killed a man in Algoma, Wisconsin. Mahone visits Bellick in River Fox, releases him using a habeas-corpus to make his dirty work, and gives a car, a pistol and an FBI badge to the despicable man. Bellick chases and traps Haywire, and waits for Mahone. In Benson, Minnesota, C-Note and Dede are leaving a snack bar when an addicted thief announces a heist. When Kellerman sees a road block on the train, he realizes that he was betrayed.

C-note has jumped with the noose around his neck, but is saved by jailers; he has Mahone told he'll still do it. At a Chicago hotel, president Caroline Reynolds is expected for a speech. Michael sends the real Cooper Green away and agrees a meeting point with Linc and Sarah. Mahone enters Sarah's room and only pretends to fail looking under the bed to trap her, she pretends the brothers left her. In Mexico, T-bag finds Bellick is waiting at the luggage conveyor and must get his from the service side, but the laborer he knocks down falls onto it, so he must run. Lincoln surprises his old mate Derrick Sweeney and calls a favor: three tickets on a freighter for Panama. Kellerman is in position to shoot the fiendish president, but when she's in his sight Michael gets arrested just after shaking her hand, and is interrogated by Kim who demands to be left alone with him, to ask where Linc is, then tries literally to beat it out of him; the president barges in and sends Kim out just when he was about to shoot Michael; he tells her the tape is a delicate conversation she had with her brother after his 'death', and he still has copies at twenty locations. Fernando sees on TV T-bag is in Mexico and was videotaped trying to steal, so he deduces the $5,000,000 must be around and tells Maricruz he'll be right back; at his return only Bellick is there, armed and cuffs Sucre, in order to collect the reward, so Fernando offers to share the $5,000,000 by finding T-bag. Sarah guesses right Mahone is on an addictive drug. Caroline calls Linc, who plays the tape which proves her brother was alive on the isle of Terrence and hated conspiring with her Linc's faked conviction; Michael tells her about his suicide and dares her to make a decision: let him walk and sign a pardon for both brothers the very day, on live TV; Kim fails to stop him being released and walking out. When the phone rings, Sarah surprises Mahone and escapes- actually he arranged this and has her followed. Kim talks to a grim man in power; Reynolds announces on TV she has a malignant cancer and resigns immediately.