Catch a ‘Break’: Fox’s ‘Prison Break’ makes much-anticipated return

You’d think there are only so many times one could break out of prison. For Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows, though, it’s practically become a way of life, and after seven years, the brothers are back for another improbable escape. The limited event series, “Prison Break: Resurrection,” premieres the first of its nine episodes Tuesday, April 4, on Fox.

Dominic Purcell (“John Doe”) and Wentworth Miller (“Resident Evil: Afterlife,” 2010) are both back for this revival series, playing Lincoln and Michael, respectively, as are Sarah Wayne Callies (“The Walking Dead”), Amaury Nolasco (“Telenovela”), Robert Knepper (“Heroes”) and Rockmond Dunbar (“Soul Food”).

But wait, you may say, how is it possible that Miller is back? Didn’t Michael die in the then-series finale in 2009? The short answer is yes ... and no. The longer answer is at the time, when it seemed that “Prison Break” had been locked down for good, everyone was operating on the assumption Michael was, indeed, dead. The fiercely loyal brother of Lincoln had finally succumbed to hypothalamic hamartoma, as diagnosed by Sara (Callies).

It was a tragic end for, arguably, the series’s most beloved character, but as then-executive producer Matt Olmstead said in 2009 following the finale, it made sense for Michael to die.

“It started as a discussion with Wentworth around season 2,” Olmstead told Entertainment Weekly. “He brought up a good point: His character’s hands are as dirty as anyone’s. If you look at the initial act that he committed — robbing a bank to get into prison to break his brother out — there were ramifications to that; a lot of people got hurt. Not by them, but when they rattled the cage of the company that was after them, the body count started to pile up. Michael was aware of this, and we’ve addressed his guilt throughout the show.”

“But at a certain point, it felt nobler to have the character die so that others could live,” he continued. “It just felt a little weird for us to have Michael and Sara holding hands on the beach walking away — though that would be gratifying in the moment. Knowing that there was pretty much a scorched path behind them in terms of what happened, [having him die] balanced the books for us. He also paid the ultimate sacrifice and, in doing so, everyone else close to him was able to live, including his child.”

We get to meet Michael’s child, Mike Jr., in “Resurrection.” Christian Michael Cooper (“When Calls the Heart”) plays the progeny, and delivers one of the most obvious bits of foreshadowing in the trailer. “What was my father like? My real father,” he asks his mom. “He was like a storm,” a choked-up Sara replies, “appearing suddenly out of a clear blue sky, and then disappears just as quickly.” Little Mike, ever hopeful, says: “The storms, they can come back. Can’t they?”

It’s established fairly quickly in the new series that Michael is alive and incarcerated in Yemen. Lincoln gets some information from T-Bone (Knepper) to that effect, and immediately begins to formulate a plan. But don’t assume that these nine episodes will all be about escaping prison.

“With this season, each character has, to a greater or lesser extent, tried to get away from themselves. They’ve tried to be a better person, a different wife or a different brother,” Callies said in a Q&A after a private screening last month. “In a way, this is a season about not being able to escape. We try, we fuss, we fight and wrestle with that soul, but at the end of the day there is something in you that is essential. I think that’s important, too, because they’re all trying to find a way to a better version of themselves.”

“We’re going to have escape and we’re going to have action and adventure and twists and all that, but at the core of it is a story of relationships,” series creator and season 5’s showrunner Paul Scheuring said in the same Q&A period. “Wentworth and Sarah’s relationship was nipped in the bud at the end of season 4. It was unrealized, especially because his child was born, so there’s a lot of unfinished business in that relationship. In a lot of ways, that’s the core runner through this series — that motivation to make that relationship right.”

How — or if — that relationship and many of the other relationships are made right remains to be seen. Questions also linger about whether this will actually be it for “Prison Break,” or if it will pull a “24,” a series that spawned a kind of spinoff (“24: Legacy”) following the success of the 12-episode limited event series “24: Live Another Day” starring Kiefer Sutherland (“Designated Survivor”) in 2014.

“[W]e did our best to give you a satisfying end, but if our ratings are high enough, who knows what’s next?” tweeted the official Twitter account for the writers of this season of “Prison Break.”

Before questions about what’s next can be answered, the new season has to premiere. “Prison Break: Resurrection” debuts Tuesday, April 4, on Fox.

Dominic Purcell as seen in “Prison Break: Resurrection”