Alexander Mahone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Prison Break character | |
|---|---|
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| Alexander Mahone | |
| Role(s): | F.B.I. agent; Sona Prisoner |
| Current status: | Active |
| Family: | Cameron Mahone (son), Pam Mahone (ex-wife) |
| Appearances | |
| First appearance: | S2E01 |
| Season: | 2 |
| Portrayed by: | William Fichtner |
Alexander Mahone is a fictional character from the American television series Prison Break. He is played by William Fichtner. The character was introduced to the series in the premiere episode of the second season of the series. He plays a prominent role in the second season and has appeared in every episode so far.
Mahone was raised by his abusive father in Detroit after his mother left the family. When he was of age, Mahone joined the Army, where he then proceeded to join the United States Army Special Forces and fought in the Gulf War. Later, he became a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.[1] Mahone has been a Special Agent, specializing in manhunts for escaped prisoners for 14 years.[2] After the protagonist of the series, Michael Scofield (played by Wentworth Miller), successfully orchestrated the escape of eight prisoners from Fox River State Penitentiary, Mahone is assigned to spearhead the task force assembled to bring in the fugitives.
The character was described by Andy Dehnart from MSNBC as the "best new character" of the second season and "had the most potential as a character, and in particular as a foil to Michael Scofield".[3]
Contents |
[edit] Appearances
[edit] Season 2
Mahone is first seen preparing for the press conference concerning the eight escapees from Fox River State Penitentiary. After reviewing the information on the eight fugitives, he decides to concentrate his efforts on Michael Scofield, who had been identified as the mastermind behind the breakout, and orders his subordinates to find out everything about Michael. He quickly tracks the escapees to Oswego, Illinois towards the end of the season premiere, "Manhunt".
Mahone continues to follow the escapees in the next six episodes but his manhunt comes to a temporary halt when he is questioned for the deaths of the two fugitives he captured. In the eighth episode of the season, "Dead Fall", Mahone's motive behind his execution of Tweener (played by Lane Garrison) and his provocation of John Abruzzi's resistance to arrest, which led to his death, is revealed to be blackmail from Paul Kellerman (played by Paul Adelstein). From this episode onwards, Mahone appears or shares dialogue with Kellerman in the same scene in almost every episode. However, in the thirteenth episode of the season, "The Killing Box", Mahone is shot in the chest by Kellerman, who betrays him and Agent Kim (played by Reggie Lee). He survives and decides that he no longer wants to continue his manhunt in "John Doe". However, Mahone is forced to return to his job when his son is injured in a apparent car accident actually orchestrated by one of Kim's agents (coincidentally, the same agent who murdered Veronica Donovan). Before returning, however, he murders the agent who arranged the car accident and stuffs his body in his car trunk.
Returning to his F.B.I. field office in Chicago in the following episode, Mahone receives an update from other agents and quickly figures out that Michael and Lincoln's proclamation of innocence video was a way to contact Sara Tancredi (played by Sarah Wayne Callies) despite Michael, Lincoln and Kellerman's attempts to make him think they were going after President Reynolds. Although he deciphers their rendezvous location, the fugitives leave before he could reach them. Mahone is also informed by Agent Wheeler that Internal Affairs is investigating him. After Charles "Haywire" Patoshik murders a civilian, both Wheeler and Agent Kim pressure Mahone to catch him. Agent Kim, who fears Haywire has information on the conspiracy, asks Mahone to kill him. Mahone resorts to Brad Bellick, who helped him decipher Michael's code, to find Haywire, and uses his connections with "The Company" (presumably) to have Bellick released from Fox River upon a Habeas Corpus hearing. After Bellick chases Haywire up a grain mill, Mahone climbs the mill and talks Haywire into killing himself.
The next episode finds Mahone pursuing Benjamin Miles "C-Note" Franklin in Minnesota. Before beginning the pursuit, he contacts his son Cameron, who is still in the hospital, marking the first actual appearance of his son. C-Note narrowly evades Mahone, but later due to his daughter Dede's declining condition, C-Note contacts Mahone and offers to turn himself in, if his wife Kacee will be released from prison. In return, C-Note offers information on Michael. Mahone agrees, and is later seen placing a Get Well gift by Dede's bedside before escorting C-Note out of the hospital.
A better lead on Michael, however, is found by Kim in the next episode. Kim asks Mahone to kill C-Note, and Mahone tells C-Note that if he wants his family to be safe he has to use a package he will receive in his cell (this is later revealed to be a hangman's noose). Mahone finds out that Michael is in Chicago meeting an attorney general. He realizes that Lincoln is innocent, which is confirmed by Kim; however, Mahone is then shown heading for the hotel where Sara and the brothers are staying. Mahone then finds Sara in the hotel room, but the brothers had just left. Sara eventually manages to take his gun and escape, however, Mahone is then revealed to have staged the escape in order for Agent Lang to follow Sara to Michael.
After Sara is arrested outside a shipyard on her way to meet with Michael, Mahone agonizes for a week over Michael and Lincoln's location. He eventually figures out that the brothers are in Panama, but also figures out Wheeler is on the verge of arresting him. He confronts Wheeler and realizes he has no way out. Kim confronts Mahone, however, and says that he can save himself if he uses the captured Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell to capture Michael and Lincoln. Mahone is left with no choice but to go rogue and disappear to save himself from federal prosecution. Mahone then posts a message on Europeangoldfinch.net pretending to be Sucre, telling Michael that T-Bag is in Panama City.
Mahone arrives to the city, basically as a rogue agent, and secretly follows Michael in the crowd. Before he takes out his gun to shoot him, he is then tackled by Lincoln into a nearby building. Lincoln knocks the gun away and the two square off. Although Lincoln quickly gained the advantage, Mahone manages to overpower him and handcuff him. He gets Lincoln to call Michael, and asks Michael for his boat and Charles Westmoreland's money so that he can disappear. After a failed attempt at framing the brothers for the murder of Bill Kim, he escapes in the Christina Rose. However, during a stop at a dock, police discover the drugs planted by Michael, and Mahone is last seen entering the Sona Maximum Security Prison alongside Michael, the two men share a moments glance.
[edit] Characteristics
Alexander Mahone is depicted in the series as serious and intelligent. In his first appearance in the series, Mahone quickly proves his status as a capable adversary against Michael when he discovers the secret of his tattoos and profiles Michael's meticulous scheme while combing through his former apartment. His first step in cracking the code leads him to the location of Michael's supplies stockpile just moments after the fugitives have excavated it. This demonstrates Mahone's intellect, and his analysis and interpretation of his surroundings which is similar to Michael's. Craig Blanchard from the The San Diego Union-Tribune describes Michael as the "Brains of the Operation" and Mahone as his "'Arch nemesis', sort of his equal on the other side of the law".[4]
His thoroughness and excellent investigation skills allow him to extrapolate the fugitives' location. In the third episode of the second season, the protagonist remarks, "It's like he knows where we're going, what we're thinking."[5] The ability of Mahone to move from various locations in a short amount of time prompts Andy Dehnart from MSNBC to comment that the character "sometimes magically appeared wherever the convicts happened to be, apparently possessing the power of teleportation".[3]
The skill Mahone shows in his work is portrayed through his constant movement from his office to the field but is rarely featured in his home. It was not revealed until the ninth episode of the second season that Mahone had a family in Colorado. He is shown to be frustrated and agitated when Michael outwits him. In "First Down", after Michael tries to fool the authorities about his brother's and his deaths, Mahone refuses to believe it and shouts at his subordinates to keep searching for the two fugitives.
Mahone, like the other main characters in the series, is not a straightforward character and the character's history is revealed as the series progresses. According to the series' creator Paul Scheuring, the writers try to let all the characters in the show "inhabit a gray area".[6] Regarding the frequent intake of pills by Mahone, the series' executive producer and writer Matt Olmstead is quoted in the Chicago Tribune as saying:
Mahone has certain things in his past, as far as what he’s done in the service of his country, things he’s done around the world - he’s starting to hear footsteps from all of that. It doesn’t throw him off his game at all, but the sum total of his life does begin to present itself.[7]
Mahone's anxiety is especially evident when he reaches for his midazolam pills hidden inside his pen. In "Map 1213", when Mahone runs out of his pills, he is shown to be highly tense and easily agitated. In regards to the erratic behaviour of his character, Fichtner comments, "The more twisted the better! Who wants to play a straight-away FBI guy?" He further elaborates that the actions that Mahone takes are affected by "some of the things that Mahone has in the back of his closet — and in the back of his mind, the voices he is hearing about his own life".[8]
Dehnart from MSNBC observes that Mahone "as played by William Fichtner, always seemed to be on the edge of a nervous breakdown".[3] In "Unearthed", Mahone is unnerved when Michael finds out about the fugitive, Oscar Shales, who he had killed and buried. His paranoia about the murdered Oscar Shales buried in his yard leads him to excavate the site.
One of the major twist of the series was Mahone's decision to execute the captured Tweener in "Buried". This was followed by a meeting in the following episode between Mahone and one of the show's villains, Paul Kellerman. Although Mahone shows his reluctance to kill all the fugitives as ordered by Kellerman, he complies when Kellerman threatens to expose his secret about Oscar Shales. The comparison between the characters Michael Scofield and Alexander Mahone is explored further in "Rendezvous", where Mahone says to Michael, "There's one big difference between you and I, Michael. You just proved it. You can't kill. And that's what's gonna to take to stop me because I don't have the same reservations. I can't."[9] His willingness to commit murder in order to preserve his life and the life of his family is shown when Michael asks if he would kill two innocent men to "get his life back", and he replies, "Absolutely."[10]
[edit] Concept and creation
[edit] Character creation
The character of Alexander Mahone was not in the original plan of the Prison Break staff writers for the second season. The concept of the character began with a suggestion made by Peter Liguori, the Fox Broadcasting Company Entertainment president. After the writers approached the Fox network with their version of Prison Break's second season, it was well received but a suggestion was made by Liguori to include a fugitive pursuer who was "not corrupt"; a character who is "like the Tommy Lee Jones character in The Fugitive".[7]
Along with Paul Kellerman and Brad Bellick, Alexander Mahone became a fugitive hunter at the start of the second season. The writers however, were aware of the increasing amount of antagonists in the show which led to Olmstead's remark in an interview, "If there are too many people pursuing them, [the pursuers] are rendered inept because they’re not all catching our convicts, and you can only have so many close calls." Thus, the writers decided immediately that the character of Alexander Mahone was to be a "very formidable" nemesis for the protagonists and the "flip side of Michael Scofield".[7] In a press conference, Scheuring acknowledges the reference made between Mahone and Les Miserables's character, Inspector Javert, "He certainly is Javert to Michael's Valjean, but you can express it however you want. He's his nemesis."[6]
[edit] William Fichtner
The role of Alexander Mahone was not cast until a few days before the principal photography for the premiere episode of the second season was scheduled to start.[11] William Fichtner, who was previously involved with the television series Invasion, was approached with the scripts of the first two episodes of the second season. He subsequently joined the cast of Prison Break as F.B.I. Agent Alexander Mahone even though he did not intend to appear in another television series after working on Invasion in the previous year.[8] Fichtner admitted in an interview that he was initially uncertain about his character's background after reading the first two scripts but he was attracted to "the potential of who this guy is".[6] Furthermore in the same interview, Fichtner commented that he thought the scripts were "incredibly written" and that he was glad he accepted the part in the show.
Regarding William Fichtner's performance in his first Prison Break episode, Jeff Commings from the Arizona Daily Star comments that "William Fichtner is going to be the best actor on any show this season. He's brooding, sexy, enigmatic and a little scary as the FBI man waiting for the clan to cross state lines and make this a federal case. Add in the reliance on those pills he's hiding in that pen and I think I smell Emmy!"[12] Similarly, Brian Zoromski from IGN believes that the "strongest portions of 'Manhunt' deal with the introduction of a new character, an FBI agent named Alexander Mahone, played by the great character actor William Fichtner."[13]
[edit] References
- ^ Dialogue spoken by Kim Coates as Richard Sullivan, "Dead Fall", Prison Break season 2 episode 8.
- ^ "Otis", Prison Break season 2 episode 2.
- ^ a b c Dehnart, A, "'Prison Break' finds freedom outside of walls". MSNBC. December 6, 2006. Retrieved on December 25, 2006.
- ^ Blanchard, C, "Prison Break: August 28". The San Diego Union-Tribune. August 29, 2006. Retrieved on December 25, 2006.
- ^ Dialogue spoken by Wentworth Miller as Michael Scofield, "Scan", Prison Break season 2 episode 3.
- ^ a b c Goldman, E, "Prison Break: The Escapees Talk". IGN. August 18, 2006. Retrieved on December 24, 2006.
- ^ a b c Ryan, M, "Getting out was the easy part: Season 2 of 'Prison Break'". Chicago Tribune. August 18, 2006. Retrieved on December 24, 2006.
- ^ a b Murphy, M, "Prison Break's Back, and William Fichtner Is in Hot Pursuit". TV Guide. October 23, 2006. Retrieved on December 24, 2006.
- ^ Dialogue spoken by William Fichtner as Alexander Mahone, "Rendezvous", Prison Break season 2 episode 10.
- ^ Dialogue spoken by William Fichtner as Alexander Mahone, "The Killing Box", Prison Break season 2 episode 13.
- ^ Slezak, M, "Let's re-cast: William Fichtner joins 'Prison Break'". Entertainment Weekly. June 19, 2006. Retrieved on December 24, 2006.
- ^ Commings, J, "Ready... break!". Arizona Daily Star. August 22, 2006. Retrieved on December 25, 2006.
- ^ Zoromski, B, "Prison Break: 'Manhunt' Advance Review". IGN. August 18, 2006. Retrieved on December 25, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Official biography of Alexander Mahone at Fox.com
| Production: | Season 1 | Season 2 | Broadcasters | DVD releases | Mobisodes |
|---|---|
| Miscellaneous: | The Company | Fox River State Penitentiary | Tattoo |
| Tie-in websites: | Europeangoldfinch.net | Reynolds-Again.com |
| Characters | |
| Lists: | List of Prison Break characters | List of Prison Break minor characters |
| Main: | John Abruzzi | Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell | Brad Bellick | Lincoln Burrows | L. J. Burrows | Veronica Donovan Benjamin Miles "C-Note" Franklin | Paul Kellerman | Alexander Mahone | Michael Scofield | Fernando Sucre | Sara Tancredi |
