One of the most popular characters from the series Prison Break is Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell, played by Robert Knepper. He starred in the first season and proved to be one of Fox River State Penitentiary's most manipulative, sadistic inmates with violent behavior. He is the primary antagonist throughout the series against protagonist Michael Scofield and his group of escapees.
T-Bag is a character with disquieting charm and an even more ruthless demeanor while conducting his crimes and having disturbing relationships with other prisoners. His character progresses immensely through the five seasons, showing an overall cunning survivor. As much of the character of T-Bag is founded upon a resume of crimes from murder to manipulation, his character also raises a level of sympathy whereby he undergoes harsh prison realities.
Warning: This article contains significant spoilers for Prison Break.
This finds resolution in the series finale when he makes it back to Fox River, closing the loop on this tumultuous arc. It is, arguably, to fans one of the biggest points in question to be answered within Prison Break: will T-Bag die or not? Since it points out two big themes: redemption and the consequences. Although he doesn't die, his arc is still interesting. This is the exact way Prison Break threads the story surrounding its characters in a complicated way.
What happens to T-Bag at the end of Prison Break?
In the movie Prison Break: The Final Break, T-Bag is transferred to a prison close to Sara. He assists General Krantz with some contraband, but the General declines to pay. Lincoln offers T-Bag $5,000 to ring in a fire alarm as part of Sara's escape plan, while T-Bag insists on $100,000 in return. The money transfer is postponed, and T-Bag reveals the plot to the warden in return.
But of course, this is all part of Michael's plan, and T-Bag ends up in solitary confinement. In Breakout Kings, T-Bag breaks out of prison to settle the score for how his mother has been treated and murders one of the guards with his sharpened prosthetic hand. He is captured once more and is termed a "broken machine" by Dr. Lloyd Lowery.
In Prison Break: Season 5, a mysterious sponsor breaks T-Bag out of Fox River and sends him a photo that shows Michael is alive and living in Yemen. He gets a robotic hand and tracks Sara to warn her about mercenaries. Suspecting Paul Kellerman to be the villainous Poseidon, he finds out it's Sara's husband, Jacob. Michael enlists T-Bag to kill Jacob in exchange for his freedom.
After the initial reluctance, he agrees after Whip is killed by A&W. In revenge, T-Bag kills A&W and ends up back in Fox River, where he brutally assaults Jacob, his new cellmate, as the inmates cheer.
Prison Break: Is Whip T Bag's son?
Yes, Whip, whose real name is David Martin, turns out to be T-Bag's son in Prison Break. This was revealed in Season 5, wherein T-Bag is played by Robert Knepper and Whip by Augustus Prew, as Michael Scofield sends him to Chicago to execute a mission.
During the bitter fight, T-Bag reveals that he is indeed Whip's father—a result of a very short affair with a waitress in West Virginia back in the early 1990s. This adds another spin to the characterization of T-Bag's character: family-bound in this case, when otherwise characterizing his history as a villain.
Whip is established as a resourceful young man who shares some of the skills of his father, about which Michael had read. Whip's plot, sadly, escalates to a no-holds-barred ending: being shot to death by A&W, one of the season's villains, with T-Bag as a witness.
In an act of vengeance, as he is consumed by grief and anger, he kills A&W for murdering his son. The series closes with T-Bag ending back up in Fox River State Penitentiary, where he catches up with Jacob; all become full circle for his character arc, which is riddled with themes of vengeance and paternal bond.
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