| Self Help | |
| Season 2, Episode 4 | |
| Airdate: | April 1, 2012 |
| Writer(s): | Jameal Turner & Nick Santora |
| Director: | Bryan Spicer |
| Previous: | Cruz Control |
| Next: | I Smell Emmy |
'Self Help is the fourth episode of season 2, and the 18th overall.
In this episode the Breakout Kings are on the trail of a self-help guru with a cunning plan, pretending to have never broken out at all.
Plot[]
Huntsville Minimal Security Prison: Ronnie Markham is beaten up by a fellow inmate and not for the first time, but prison administration is apathetic. Not long after, the warden gets a letter with a white powder, saying "Now you're dead". Soon a group of investigators in white hazmat suits arrive, examining f this was an anthrax attack. Ronny takes a package and disappears in a storage room, opening it and revealing a white suit that looks exactly like a hazmat suit. He puts it on, crawls through the vent in order to get out of the sealed wing, and finally walks out of the prison in his disguise.
When the Breakout Kings arrive at the office, Ray tells them Markham is a self-proclaimed self help guru who's five months in a ten months sentence for violating provisions of federal label laws. He's a street kid who made a name for himself, creating a self-help business. Lloyd takes a look at Markham's work and declares it's nonsense. When they visit Markham's place of business, Lloyd can't help himself and creates a scene, so they don't learn anything.
Meanwhile, Ronnie visits Ken, a previous client who turned his life around thanks to Ronnie. He tells him he got an early release and asks him to drive him to a few places since he has some things to do. He first goes to the apartment of a childhood friend of his, Mo, looking for something. When Mo interrupt shim, Ronnie stabs him and asks him where it is. Mo confesses he doesn't know, telling Ronnie the others have it and that he was just along for the ride for the money. Ronnie stabs him in the neck, killing him.
The Breakout Kings go to Huntsville prison next. Eric and Lloyd talk to the inmate who beat up Ronnie and find out Ronnie deliberately provoked him. Ray and Shea find the receipt for a painter suit, looking identical to the hazmat suit, deducing he ordered it and just walked out. Jules then calls to tell them about the death of Mo,
At the crime scene, Lloyd deduces from the stab wounds that this was a personal killing and that Ronnie is angry. Since the apartment is trashed, it is clear that Ronnie was looking for something, but since Mo isn't well off, they conclude it isn't about money. Lloyd theorizes this has something to do with blackmail. They then find out that Mo used to work for Ronnie, but was fired a few days before Ronnie surrendered to the police.
In order to find out what is going on with Ronnie's business, the team wants to talk to the accountant. Shea (after getting some lessons from Lloyd about appearing less like a criminal) goes undercover and learns from the accountant that Mo was fired along with two other men, Curtis and Gerald.
Meanwhile Ronnie has killed Gerald and has looked through his house, not finding anything. When Ken calls out to him, telling him he has another appointment soon, he tells him to come in. When Ken comes in, Ronnie threatens him with a gun he found. He tells Ken that he's a ex-con in a house with a dead body and his fingerprints on the door, so Ken should do what Ronnie says. If Ken does everything he asks for, they'll go back and wipe the prints, so that everything will be fine.
After the body is found, Lloyd reiterates his blackmail theory, emphasizing that this seems to be very personal and important to Ronnie. The Breakout Kings attempt to find Curtis but come up empty. However, when they find out Curtis is very close to his niece Naomi, Erica points out that children are a weakness and that Ronnie might use her to get to Curtis. But they are too late - Ronnie, along with Ken, has already kidnapped Naomi. But since someone saw her getting dragged into a car and remembered the license plates, they are now onto Ken.
When they talk to Ken's ex-wife, she's sure that he has left his criminal ways behind. They also learn that Ken has a kidney malfunction and has to go dialysis treatments - which he has missed this day. If he doesn't het his treatment, he will die soon. This causes Lloyd to think that Ken is a victim in this too.
Ronnie calls Curtis on Naomi's phone, and they agree to exchange Naomi against the incriminating tape that Curtis has. When Curtis arrives, Ronnie holds Curtis at gun point. Since things are escalating, Ken frees Naomi and helps her escape out of a window. Meanwhile, the team has managed to track Curtis' phone and come across Naomi as she is running away. However, by the time they arrive at the house, both Curtis and Ken are dead and Ronnie is gone.
When Naomi can't tell them anything about Ronnie, didn't ever see or hear him, Lloyd realizes that Ronnie made sure no one ever saw him, because he plans to break back into prison. Since he has a history of hiding after experiencing abuse, he will claim he was just hiding. So he has just a few months left before he will leave prison as a free man, with no one able to incriminate him.
The team arrives just too late: Ronnie has manged to mail himself into prison and claims he was hiding in the crawlspace above the closet the whole day. However, unbeknownst to him Ken has managed to copy the tape before Ronnie killed him. The tape shows Ronnie bragging about a murder he committed so now the team can arrest him.
Back at the office, Ray tells the team that they won't get a month off their sentence since they got Ronnie for murder, not for his break-out. To make up for it, he lets them go for the night. Lloyd and Julienne go to a bar to celebrate that Margolis, who killed Julienne's cousin, didn't get out on parole. Julienne thanks him for his advice, which has always worked, and kisses him. Shea goes to the library, looking at books about business, and Erica spends the night with Pete. Ray, on the other hand, stays at the office. He looks at a post card he got that morning which says "Miss You. Love, Damien."