| Where in the World is Carmen Vega | |
| Season 1, Episode 13 | |
 | |
| Airdate: | May 30, 2011 |
| Writer(s): | Matt Olmstead and Michael Gilvary |
| Director: | Guy Ferland |
| Previous: | There are Rules |
| Next: | An Unjust Death |
Where in the World is Carmen Vega is the thirteenth and final episode of the first season of Breakout Kings, which aired May 30th, 2011. In this episode Carmen Vega, the ruthless queen pin of a drug cartel, pulls off a violent and deadly escape while attending the funeral of her slain son. Her plan, get the family business back in order and hand over the keys to the kingdom to the heir apparent, her son Cesar. Carmen will stop at nothing, including killing a member of her team and even her own family, to put Cesar on the throne. The Breakout Kings seem to be one step behind Carmen at every turn and they smell a rat. Is there an informant within the team? Not only do the Breakout Kings need to catch Carmen to their month off, they also need Carmen to give up the location of where Shea’s girlfriend is being held hostage to save her life. Find the rat, catch Carmen and save a loved one, the Breakout Kings have their work cut out for them. In the end, they realize they really are a team and there’s no going back.
Plot[]
In a locker room at Edgecome Female Penitentiary, female prisoners strip down, heading to and returning from the showers. A female guards struts down the line, reaching Carmen Vega, who's holding court to fellow inmates, talking about their past experiences with men. The guard tells Carmen that the Warden wants to see her. Carmen stops talking, upset that she was rudely interrupted, and tells the guard to hold on a minute, she only gets a shower three times a week so the Warden can wait. The guard, slightly frustrated, tells her that her son was found dead in a dumpster.
Carmen sits across from the Warden, devastated and contrite. She pleads with him to let her attend the funeral. The Warden tells her he's sorry, but can't let her go. She continues to plead, and tells him that he was her oldest son, but only 22, with his whole life ahead of him. "To oversee your drug trade?" he asks. She insists it was her husband's business, not hers. She drops to her knees and begs the Warden to let her see her son before he's put in the ground forever.
At the funeral, mourners arrive in dark suits and dresses. Before entering the church, they all get searched by D.O.C. OFFICERS and pass through a metal detector. Another D.O.C. van pulls up and two more officers emerge with Carmen in an orange jumper and a 4-piece. She looks up at the church, her eyes raw from crying.
Cesar, Carmen's younger son, turns to see his mother approaching the church and runs towards her. The guards intervene, making it clear that there will be absolutely no physical contact. They step away from each other, and Cesar points toward the open casket, which one of the officers is respectfully examining. Carmen walks up the aisle and arrives at the lifeless body of her eldest son, Sebastian. She breaks down and struggles against her waist chain, desperate to touch him. She looks to the office near the casket with pleading eyes, asking him to free her. He sees the absurdity in this and unlocks one of her bracelets. Carmen reaches into the casket and takes Sebastian's boyish face in her hand. She trembles with grief, doubling over the casket, her body wracked with sobs. As she leans over and kisses him farewell, she uses her free hand to tear open the satin liner of the coffin and grabs a 9mm handgun stashed inside. Carmen spins around and shoots the two closest D.O.C. Officers, point blank.
The other three officers reach for their weapons, but are seized by five mourners in the front row (Carmen's foot soldiers), who overpower them, take their guns and shoot them. Mourners start screaming while Cesar looks on, shocked. T.T., Carmen's "chief lieutenant," unlocks Carmen's 4-piece. Carmen waves her gun in the air at the crowd and tells them if anybody talks to the cops, she'll kill their entire families. Knowing that she's serious, they avert their glances. T.T. and her other crew members lead Carmen out of the church, through the back.
At the office, Shea is staring at Carmen's mug shot, stunned. He turns towards the rest of the team and tells them that he and Carmen used to do "business" together. Charlie opens her file and starts briefing Lloyd and Erica on her criminal history: she was doing 20 years for federal position of coke. Shea interrupts him, telling Charlie that he has it. Shea tells them that Carmen claimed the coke belonged to her husband Amaury, who had been killed by a rival gang a couple weeks earlier. But that's the story she sold to the Feds. Carmen wasn't the innocent wife she pretended to be. She had her husband murdered because he was fooling around behind her back. She called the shots and pulled the triggers. Shea tells the team that she's the meanest, most vicious person he has ever met. Shea continues to tell that that one night, after she tried hitting on Shea and he wasn't interested, their business relationship ended. Charlie tells Shea that he's running point on the case. Shea knows a lot of the people close to her and will have to keep a low profile, though. Ray throws him a bag of clothes.
Shea is changing in the bathroom when his phone rings. It's his girlfriend, Vanessa , crying. She's sitting in a chair with a gun to her head. Carmen's crew has her. Vanessa tells Shea that Carmen knows he's working with the Marshals and if he helps them catch her, she's dead. Shea, furious, tells Vanessa to put whoever is there on the line, but before she can get any words out, someone in the room slaps her, takes the phone away and disconnects the call.
At an after hours club, now serving as Carmen's "safe house," Cesar ends a call and crosses the barren room to where Carmen is sitting, newly made up & dressed up. He tells her that the message was delivered to Shea. Carmen looks at a wall where photos are arranged in a hierarchy. At the top are mostly black gang members, while closer to the bottom is Carmen's crew. Carmen points to the photo of Sebastian and furiously asks why they're all the way at the bottom. Cesar tells her that while Sebastian was in charge, they lost a lot of territory, but Carmen won't settle for any excuses. She's still angry that Sebastian couldn't keep up the payments to the prison guards. She points to the top of the "pyramid" and tells her crew to find "Flow-Flow", the leader at the top. Cesar turns to T.T. and tells him to get a move on it. T.T. stares at Cesar, resentful of the little punk for jumping to the top of the food chain like this. He hesitates, but Carmen nods at him and he moves. A man named Buntz, wearing a worn business suit, ss brought in by two of Carmen's men. He's a little nervous and confused, and is carrying a leather samples case. Carmen graciously welcomes him and leads him over to a chair to wait for her. Cesar leans close to Carmen and tells his mother that her men don't respect him. Carmen tells him that they'll be his men soon enough.
Ray, Charlie, and Shea arrive at the funeral home, now a crime scene. Shea is in the back seat on his cell phone, and watching Ray and Charlie talking to some cops. Shea, on the phone with his friend Damani, tells him to do whatever he can to find Vanessa and wondering how the hell Carmen knew he was working with the Marshals. Shea ends his call in a hurry as Charlie and Ray return to the SUV. Charlie and Ray ask him if he has any leads and Shea lies and tells them that roosters have apparently changed because he doesn't have anything yet. They seem to accept this, for the moment.
Flow-Flow leans back in his chair at a strip club, getting a lap dance. Suddenly, there's a ruckus up front people scream and scatter as Carmen's crew storms in the front, gunning down the club security. Jade, the stripper giving Flow-Flow a lap dance, screams and dives under the table. Flow-Flow and his crew whip out handguns to return fire, but Carmen's crew sprays them with bullets. Flow-Flow, now on the floor, reaches for his fallen gun, but Carmen steps on his hand and points her gun right at him. He looks up at her, pleading and telling her he didn't kill her son. She looks at him and tells him no kidding. She did. Carmen pulls the trigger.
Charlie, Ray, Shea, Lloyd, and Erica enter the strip club, which is now crawling with officers. Eight distraught strippers sit at the bar, all in bathrobes. Ray tells the cons to start asking around to see if they can find anything out. Shea's phone rings. Damani tells Shea that he's skipping town. He doesn't want to wind up dead like Flow-Flow. Shea tries to talk some sense into him, but it's too late. Damani hangs up.
Lloyd stands in front of the eight distraught strippers asking for any information about "the dead guy." Jade apprehensively raises her hand. Lloyd nods and motions her forward. The walk over to a corner and he clutches her bathrobe at the navel. Lloyd notices, looks, does a quick exhale, and then pries his eyes away from her cleavage. Jade tells Lloyd what she heard.
Moments later, Lloyd is standing around the rest of the team, who are all in shock. Charlie can't believe that Carmen had her own son wacked, but Erica tells them it created the perfect opportunity to plan an escape. The team looks at Shea for any leads or ideas, but he doesn't have any. Ray and Charlie walk over to Shea and guide him away from the Lloyd and Erica telling him that if he's thinking of past loyalties and not helping the Marshals, he's getting shipped back to Sing Sing. Shea, almost forced to say something, tells Charlie and Ray that if Flow-Flow was involved with Sebastian, business-wise, only one person could've brokered that deal: The Mayor.
The team enters the bullpen where Julianne tells them that all local airports and docks have been notified and are on alert. Lloyd, Shea and Erica sit. Shea is stone-faced. He checks the display of his phone, but no calls. Erica studies him, finally getting a little suspicious. Ray enters with The Mayor and points to the interrogation room. Shea asks Ray if he can have first go at interrogating and Ray agrees. Shea heads toward the Interrogation Room and Charlie and Ray go over to Julianne's desk and turn on the intercom. Erica looks at Lloyd, now really suspicious and asks why Shea, who wanted to remain low-profile on this case, is now volunteering for the interview.
Shea walks into the interrogation room. Shea tells The Mayor, who's surprised to see him, that if they don't find Carmen, things are going to get ugly. Shea leans in and whispers that Carmen has his girlfriend captive. Ray and Charlie, listening at Julianne's desk, can't hear him. The Mayor says he can't help Shea, he has to worry about himself. Ray and Charlie, frustrated by the whispering, enter the interrogation room looking for an update. The Mayor tells that he wants Witness Protection before he tells them anything. They tell him that unless he flips on every one he knows, they can't do that. So he can either take his chances on the streets or be put into protective custody until Carmen is caught. The Mayor agrees and Charlie and Ray tell Shea to leave the room.
Shea is pacing back and forth in the coffee nook. His phone rings and he picks up to hear Vanessa, petrified, on the other line. She tells him, with guns pointed at her, that Carmen's crew believes that Shea is helping the Marshals. Shea assures her, and them, that he's not. The phone goes dead and Erica and Lloyd walk into the nook, suspicious. Erica tells him that he either tells them what he's up to, or they tell Charlie. Shea studies them then finally tells them that Vanessa has been kidnapped. He tells them he's been trying to work some side angles and asks them to cover for him. Erica steps forward and tells Shea that if he tries to escape to save Vanessa, they all go back to maximum security, sentences doubled. Shea reassures them that he won't escape.
Back in the interrogation room, The Mayor tells Charlie and Ray that Carmen is positioning her other son, Cesar, to take over. He tells them that Cesar's father, Jose Rodriguez, who isn't in the game may be willing to help.
Carmen stands in front of a somewhat defiant Cesar back at the safehouse. She caresses his face and tells him that she's going to see his father. He tells her to leave his father out of it, but Carmen softly kisses him and reassures him that she's just going there to talk. As she walks out, she looks over at the nervous salesman, who's beginning to get out of his chair. Carmen tells him just a little while longer and he sits back down. He clearly doesn't have a choice.
At the bullpen, the cons sit at their desks quietly. Ray and Lloyd walk out with The Mayor and head over to the elevator where two other Marshals wait. They escort The Mayor into the elevator and leave. Meanwhile Julianne, at her desk, is attempting to track down the correct Jose Rodriguez. Outside, the Marshals are pulling out when a car pulls up and starts firing rounds. Ray and Charlie draw their weapons and run outside while the rest of the team heads to the window. Charlie and Ray run outside to find The Mayor and both Marshals shot dead.
Ray pushes Shea through the door in the interrogation room and asks if he's been feeding Carmen information. Shea swears that he hasn't, but Ray doesn't want to believe him. He takes Shea's phone and leaves.
Lloyd and Erica stand at the window as Senior Director/U.S. Marshal Mike Colburn screams at Charlie from inside his office. They are going back and forth, discussing whether or not they should tell Ray and Charlie what they know. Erica, still unsure if Shea will try to run or not, tells Lloyd that she doesn't plan on going back to maximum security any time soon.
Charlie is finally able to get a word in with Colburn. Colburn tells him that he needs to get up to speed on the case and Charlie hands over the files.
Charlie enters the interrogation room. Ray tells him that he found calls from Damani Johnson and a cell phone that used a scrambling device. Shea tells them that those were calls from his sources on the street. They tell him the know he isn't telling them everything, and he insists he wants to do everything he can to find Carmen. They step outside and argue about whether or not to tell Colburn that they think Shea is hiding something. Ray is against it. Julianne interrupts: she found the Jose Rodriguez they're looking for.
Jose Rodriguez, still in his chef uniform, fishes for his keys in front of his apartment door. He opens the door and goes inside to find Carmen sitting on his couch, waiting for him. Jose, surprised, quickly shuts the door, leaving the keys in the lock. Carmen tells him not to interfere with Cesar and his future. Jose, who doesn't approve of Carmen's "line of work" and the future she has in store for their son. He wants him to have a future, not go to an early grave. She asks Jose to promise he won't interfere, and hands him a drink. He says he can't promise. She kisses him, distracting him from the knife she's pulling out of her boot.
Moments later, Ray and Erica are entering Jose's apartment building. Ray is trying to get information about Shea from Erica, but she's not giving him anything. Erica notices the key still in the lock and Ray takes out his gun and opens the door to find Jose face down in a pool of blood. Erica notices a bloody hand print on the windowsill. They missed her.
Back at the office, Charlie gets off the phone with Ray and glares at Shea. "She snuck out the back. Almost like she knew we were coming."
Colburn emerges from Charlie's office asking for any updates, and Charlie tells him that they almost had her. Colburn angrily goes back inside the office and Shea suddenly gets suspicious and tells Charlie that maybe he should be eying Colburn. Colburn set up the pick-up for The Mayor and knew they were going to see Jose. Julianne walks over to Charlie and quietly tells him that Colburn has been working two phones this entire time, one which he keeps under the desk. Lloyd adds out that he's been tugging at his collar nonstop. Shea tells Charlie that La Santa has someone on the inside and it isn't him. Charlie tells Shea he hasn't heard that nickname for Carmen yet and Shea tells him that's because only her inner circle calls her that. Charlie looks to Colburn and enters the office. He asks him if he's heard anything on La Santa. A beat, then Colburn says it's not his job to inform Charlie about Carmen. Charlie walks out of his office, closes the door, and tells Julianne to call Ray and then have Internal Affairs send somebody over.
Colburn emerges from Charlie's office, jacket in hand, and tells the team that he has to take care of a few things. Charlie steps between him, telling him to wait because someone from Internal Affairs is on their way. Shea gets in Colburn's face asking him how long he's been working for Carmen. Charlie pushes Shea away and Colburn draws his gun. Charlie instantly draws his and points it at Colburn telling him to calm down. Colburn reveals, with great regret and sorrow, that he has been forced into working with Carmen. Charlie tells him he can make it right, but it's too late; Colburn puts the gun to his mouth and pulls the trigger.
The team watches as Colburn gets wheeled away by the EMTs. Ray checks in with Julianne, who says that Colburn wiped the memory on his cell phone so it will take a while to retrieve the information they need. Erica gets up and walks towards the nook while Shea, Lloyd, and Julianne watch.
Carmen is sitting down with Buntz while he explains the features of the mask he's showing her. Carmen tells him that she'll take it, gets up and walks towards Cesar. He asks when he'll see her again and she tells him when things quiet down. She kisses him on the mouth and tells him to take care of the salesman.
Erica is in the nook, on the phone with her ex telling him to have her daughter call her when she's home from school. Lloyd and Shea walk in and she tells them that she's not waiting for a phone call like the one Shea got.
The cons reenter the bullpen where Julianne and Ray are going through the feedback on Colburn's phone, and have a list of all his texts. Ray's reads out the text "Pawe a go." Charlie reads out another one, "we'll be at Choppy's." Shea's cell phone rings and Shea tells Ray not to answer.
Charlie brings Shea into the interrogation room and tells him not to blow it. Shea finally tells Charlie the truth: Carmen has Vanessa. Charlie, shocked, convinces Shea that they won't be able to save Vanessa unless they find Carmen. Shea tells him that Choppy's was an old after hours spot in Queens.
Buntz is being zipped up in a body bag back at the safe house. Before Cesar and the rest of the crew can leave, Ray and Charlie are at the door, guns pointed. The crew begins to shoot, but Charlie and Ray quickly shoot back, killing T.T. and another gangster. Cesar stands there, defeated.
Ray and Charlie question Cesar, who refuses to say anything. Shea gets in his face and has to be dragged away. Lloyd finds a filter in one of the boxes and Ray tells him to take a photo and send it to Julianne. Meanwhile, Erica is going through the texts, making sure she doesn't see any references to her or her daughter. Charlie shows Cesar pictures from his father's crime scene, describing how Carmen killed him, and asks Cesar, once again, where is mother is going. He just tells him that she's gone. Ray gets a call from Julianne who tells him that Buntz was a salesman for Northstar Nautical Supplies. Erica realizes that P-A-W-E stands for Port Authority Watch Engineer. Carmen's sailing back to Colombia.
The team arrives at the port where authorities have already been searching for Carmen but have found nothing. Ray gets a call from Julianne who tells him that the filter Lloyd sent her a picture of is actually a carbon dioxide scrubber used in case of lack of air.
Charlie, Ray, Lloyd, Shea, and Erica walk along with the police in charge of the K9 unit searching shipping containers. The dog begins to bark like crazy. They open the container to find Carmen. With their guns drawn, Charlie and Ray tell her to step out. They cuff her and she looks at Shea and smiles. Shea tries to go after her, but Charlie stops him. Ray and Charlie haul her to the SUV. She looks back at Erica and Lloyd and tells them that she's heard a lot about them, being sure to say their names out loud. They stop dead in their tracks. "This train's headed for a cliff, Lloyd. Why are we still on it?" Erica asks.
Carmen sits in the interrogation room in chains. Shea insists that she tell him where she's keeping Vanessa. She mocks him, talking about how he used to be the big man with connections and now he has nothing. Shea tells her that he doesn't have his people in the streets anymore, but he still has friends in prison. Either she tells him what he wants to know, or Cesar is going to get skinned alive in prison.
Outside the interrogation room, the rest of the team sits with Cesar, who's listening in on all of this.
"Cesar is dead to me" Carmen says. Cesar stares at the intercom box, near tears. He tells Charlie he'll take him to Vanessa.
Erica is pacing back and forth in the bathroom on her cell phone. She tells her daughter, on the other line, to be ready in case she comes by. Lloyd comes in and she tells him that she's not going to sit around and wait while Carmen puts a bullseye on her daughter. They argue, Lloyd says he's not going back to maximum security. Erika suggests he run with her. Julianne enters the bathroom and says, "If two members of this task force tried to run, Charlie and Ray would find them. No matter what. And I'd have to help them. Your little girl would be older than you are nowv by the time you got out. And you'd never get to be a professor again and prove everybody wrong. You work with the U.S.Marshals. They'll protect you. Don't run."
Julianne turns and walks out while Lloyd and Erica share a look.
Ray carries two pitchers of beer over to a table at Turro's , where Erica, Lloyd, Julianne, and Shea sit silently. The door opens and Charlie walks in with a shaken up Vanessa. Shea leaps out of his chair and embraces Vanessa. Charlie sits down and tells Lloyd and Erica that they're going to put their families and Shea's in Witness Security safehouses for two weeks while they do a risk assessment. Carmen's being sent to a "supermax" in Colorado, she will have no contact with anyone. The team looks at each other, and they all start to smile. Julianne raises her glass for a cheers. They all clink their glasses together.
Cast[]
Main Cast
- Laz Alonso as Charlie DuChamp
- Domenick Lombardozzi as Ray Zancanelli
- Brooke Nevin as Julianne Simms
- Jimmi Simpson as Lloyd Lowery
- Malcolm Goodwin as Shea Daniels
- Serinda Swan as Erica Reed
Guest Cast
- Lauren Velez as Carmen Vega
- Manny Montana as Cesar
- Lee Oliveira as T.T.
- Tattiawna Jones as Vanessa
- Jim McAleese as Buntz
- Derek Webster as U.S. Marshal Colburn
- Brooks Darnell as Flow-Flow
- Virna Kim as Jade
- Eugene Clark as The Mayor
- Tim Sell as Jose Rodriguez
Production Notes[]
The Queen's Church location was actually filmed at an Anglican church in Toronto's west end. For the required fighting and gunfire, the Breakout Kings creatives respectfully opted to show very little blood; the majority of the gunfire consisted of dust capsules and full loads of blanks in the guns to achieve vibrant muzzle flashes.
A custom-designed plate was built and attached to the 9mm gun that Carmen pulled from the casket. This plate was made of rare earth magnets, which given their extraordinary strength, ensured that the gun would stay securely in place.
The scenes at Carmen's hideout were filmed at an after hours bar/club on the cusp of Toronto's little Italy neighborhood. For the scene in which T.T. was shot, the SPFX crew rigged a blood bag to the actor's back; when the bullet hit him, the bag was wirelessly exploded and the blood was free to smear down the wall.
Members of the Props Department used WWII gas masks, a sleep apnea mask, and a glass spice jar to construct the air-filtration unit Carmen "bought" from Buntz.
For the scene in which the mayor and the two U.S. Marshals were shot, their car windshield was rigged with a breakaway glass. This windshield had two layers of a safety shield film secured in place. The film is strong enough to stop a .38 bullet at point-blank range, but as always when gunfire is involved, tension was high on set leading up to the successful halt of the first bullet.
Without question, everyone involved with this episode agreed that the strip club scenes were the most exciting, due to all of the pyrotechnics. SPFX Coordinator Jim McGillivary described this day as being "one big, highly choreographed dance of explosives", and rightfully so; rubber glass bullets, exploding quark balls, and "Round Roccos" (explosives sandwiched between ceiling tile discs), shot debris in every direction, while spark effects (simulating electrical shortages), added color and blasts of light to the dark environment. Dust, black powder, Plasticine, and Vaseline capsules were also used. The Vaseline bullets were shot at the many mirrored columns to imitate broken glass, as the mirrors themselves, made of breakaway glass by the SPFX Department, were found to be too strong to shatter when shot with hard Plasticine bullets.
On the day of the strip club shoot, the entire crew wore completely black attire in order to disappear into the background of the scenes. Not only was this location a real strip club, but many of the strippers were also real strippers from the club.
Music Featured[]
Song: "Shake Shake"
Artist: Envy
Album: Piranha 3D Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Song: "Sunday In New York "
Artist: Bobby Darin
Album: Hello Dolly To Goodbye Charlie
Trivia[]
The title of this episode (Where in the World is Carmen Vega) closely resembles the title of the video game Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (with Sandiego being replaced with Vega). Each level of the video game is about the player (a private detective) that must track down (pursuit) the whereabouts of some criminal who is on the run (from the authorities) with a stolen item.