Entertainment

A flight plan quickly emerges when the escaped cons of Prison Break turn the series into The Fugitive times eight.

Tonight's fast-paced second-season return has all the makings of a runaway hit. Again stretching credulity at times, it's nonetheless gripping, gut-wrenching and free to be full of bold new detours and destinations. Trading cellblocks for the country at large is quite a departure, with North Texas serving as the show's seasonlong playground and stand-in for whatever cities and states the script requires.

For starters, we're mostly still in "Illinois," with a side trip to "Blackfoot, Mont." Next Monday's second episode briefly puts "St. Louis" in play, courtesy of downtown Dallas' Union Station and the Southern Methodist University campus.

Wisely, Prison Break begins with a one-minute, 26-second "Previously on ... " segment that recaptures some of the essentials from season one. Also included is a helpful rundown of each escapee's previous offenses.

It's woven into the story in tandem with an immediate introduction of FBI agent Alexander Mahone, a new dogged pursuer played with wound-tight precision by Invasion refugee William Fichtner.

For those not yet able to tell the players without a scorecard, here's the newly dubbed "Fox River 8" in a nutshell:

Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller): eight years for armed robbery.

Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell): wrongly sentenced to die for murdering the president's brother until younger brother Michael sprung him.

Benjamin Miles "C-Note" Franklin (Rockmond Dunbar): eight years for possession of stolen goods.

John Abruzzi (Peter Stormare): crime family don sentenced to life without parole for conspiracy to commit murder.

Fernando Sucre (Amaury Nolasco): five years for aggravated robbery.

Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell (Robert Knepper): life for six counts of kidnapping, rape and first-degree murder.

David "Tweener" Apolskis (Dallas native Lane Garrison): five years for grand larceny.

Charles "Haywire" Patoshik (Silas Weir Mitchell): 60 years for second-degree murder.

Last season's finale left Haywire, Tweener and T-Bag in solo flights while the five other fugitives stayed together. The chase is still on, but it's suddenly morphed from night to day as Prison Break resumes action.

A gaggle of guards led by sadistic Capt. Brad Bellick (Wade Williams) is pursuing its prey through the woods and toward an oncoming freight train. These scenes were filmed in late June in Rockwall, where actors ran at full speed in blistering heat. The sequence is well-staged, with the train eventually serving as a shield between the cons and their former captors.

Meanwhile, demented, tongue-brandishing T-Bag still has a more pressing problem. He's bleeding like crazy while carrying the severed hand he lost via an ax-swinging Abruzzi. Not to give away too much, but let's give T-Bag a hand early in next Monday's chapter. How it's reattached is truly blood-curdling, with Mr. Knepper again a standout as a despot who's still capable of a twisted act of compassion after he's been made whole again.

Tonight's episode also has a jolt. Without further elaboration, a regular character from last season is killed. Missing from the mix is Patricia Wettig as newly sworn U.S. president Caroline Reynolds. Her future participation in Prison Break largely depends on the fate of ABC's new Brothers & Sisters series, in which Ms. Wettig will co-star this fall.

Fox River Penitentiary warden Henry Pope (Stacy Keach) returns in the first two episodes, and may be a recurring character beyond that. If not, look for next Monday to be his smashing, rage-filled goodbye.

Mr. Fichtner's taut Agent Mahone looks more than capable of being Prison Break's answer to The Fugitive's dogged Lt. Philip Gerard. He sets the table early by drawing a straight line between his prey and Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Boothe.

"In 140 years, the fundamental mind of the escaped man has not changed," he tells the media. "The escaped man is still human, he is still afraid and he will stop at nothing in his attempt at flight." In the process, paranoia inevitably leads to psychosis, he says.

Mahone may be deeply troubled himself. Early evidence includes pill-popping from a hollowed-out pen and an oddly reflective look at his reflection in a birdbath. These ticks add to Mahone's mystery, although his deductive powers are suspect, too.

It's more than a bit much to swallow when Mahone quickly surmises that Michael Scofield's extraordinarily complex torso tattoo was sketched out on the walls of his high-rise apartment. He then concludes that Scofield must have thrown those very plans out his window.

"I want divers down in the river," Mahone commands. And, sure enough, they find the pictures and documents he needs to deduce that Scofield's future, out-of-prison plans also are cryptically detailed on his tattoo. So it's "only a matter of time" before the tattoo's clues prove to be the fugitives' undoing. Or so we're told.

That's a major leap of faith for viewers, who otherwise are treated to a more firmly grounded collection of intriguing subplots that split up both the cons and their pursuers.

Newfound freedom already is giving Scofield and Burrows the opportunity to be a give-and-take brother act while they scheme their way toward what could be a $5 million cache buried in Utah by dying cellmate Charles Westmoreland (Muse Watson).

The brothers' respective new aliases, Phineas McClintock and Archie Ryan, are cause to make even the all-business Scofield smile for a second or two. It's a welcome sight.

Freed from last season's shackles, Prison Break can run wild in any direction it chooses. This also opens the door to a wealth of new characters, including a college coed who next week agrees to share a ride to Utah with duplicitous, pickpocketing Tweener.

North Texas, in turn, will be pocketing millions in extra revenue for housing, feeding, clothing and otherwise accommodating Prison Break for the series' 22-episode second season. So far, they seem to be in good hands with the y'all state.

E-mail ebark@dallasnews.com

It's always helpful to know your criminals – especially since they (or the actors playing them) may be spotted around town. Here's a background check on Prison Break's major players and their possible futures.

Michael Scofield (played by Wentworth Miller): Once a clean-cut engineer, the now heavily tattooed Michael held up a bank to land in the same prison as his brother Lincoln (wrongly convicted of murder) and help him escape. After several complications, his plan worked; the brothers and several hangers-on are on the run. His goal is to protect his brother – and to check on a $5 million stash buried in Utah.

Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell): A government conspiracy led Michael's brother to take the fall for the murder of Terrence Steadman, the vice president's brother, who turns out not to be dead. Has a son, LJ, who was set up for the murders of his mom and stepdad. Oh, and what about Dad? After disappearing decades ago, the guy showed up to watch Lincoln's execution, overturned at the last minute.

John Abruzzi (Peter Stormare): Former mob boss who called the shots behind bars, his beef with fellow inmate T-Bag culminated in Abruzzi chopping his hand off in a barn after the escape. Now free, he's out to settle an old mob score.

Benjamin "C-Note" Franklin (Rockmond Dunbar): The former Army man wants to reconnect with his wife and child in Mexico.

Fernando Sucre (Amaury Nolasco): A trustworthy convict, everything he does is for the love of his life, Maricruz. But she may have moved on without him – with his cousin, Hector. Look for Sucre to head to New York to try to win back his girl.

Dr. Sara Tancredi (Sarah Wayne Callies): Once a drug abuser, the governor's daughter cleaned up and became a prison doc. Has a crush on Michael; helped the gang escape. She was last seen unconscious in her apartment, overdosed on morphine.

David "Tweener" Apolskis (Dallas' Lane Garrison): Young punk who ratted about the escape plan to the prison bosses, only to end up escaping with them. Left on the side of the road, he got away in a horse trailer bound for St. Louis.

Charles "Haywire" Patoshik (Silas Weir Mitchell): Once a math genius, he went crazy and allegedly shot his parents. Was last seen after the escape on a "borrowed" bicycle and helmet, pedaling off into the night.

Darla Atlas