Sara Tancredi
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| Prison Break character | |
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| Sara Tancredi | |
| Role(s) | Prison doctor |
| Current status | Active |
| First appearance | Pilot (1x01) |
| Season | 1, 2 |
| Portrayed by | Sarah Wayne Callies |
Dr. Sara Tancredi is a fictional character from the American television series, Prison Break. She is played by Sarah Wayne Callies. As one of the main characters in the series, the character has appeared in almost every episode. Her main role in the first season of the series was as a prison doctor and the love interest of the protagonist, Michael Scofield (played by Wentworth Miller). As the season progresses, Sara's role expands with her increased involvement in the main plot. In the second season, the evolution of the character of Sara further increases her role as one of the show's main characters.
Raised in Chicago, Sara Tancredi's ambitions to be a doctor began when she was very young. While at Northwestern University, she was introduced to the works of Mahatma Gandhi and decided to become a humanitarian, which later influenced her decision to work at Fox River State Penitentiary.[1] Another factor which contributed to her occupational choice was her past morphine addiction which was revealed in a flashback episode of the first season, "Brother's Keeper". At 29 years old, Dr. Sara Tancredi was one of the few doctors working at Fox River. Her chosen occupation became a constant source of stress for her father. Sara is the only child of the Governor of Illinois, Frank Tancredi (played by John Heard). Due to her father's hectic political career and vastly differing beliefs, Sara did not have a close relationship with her father. In episode "Buried", it was revealed that her mother has already died.
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[edit] Appearances
In the first season, Sara is mostly featured in scenes with Michael Scofield, while in the second season, Sara has mainly appeared in scenes with Frank Tancredi, Paul Kellerman or by herself. Thus far, she has appeared in every episode in the series except for second season episodes, "Otis" and "John Doe". After the death of Robin Tunney's character, Veronica Donovan, Sara Tancredi became the only remaining principal female character.
[edit] Season 1
From their first meeting in the pilot episode, Sara had sensed that Michael was different from the other prisoners. After she checked his academic record, she was surprised that he had graduated with a master's degree. In "Allen", she notices his nervousness as she tests for his glucose count to confirm his diabetes. However, she dismisses it after his test passed.
In Michael's subsequent visits to the infirmary, Sara carefully deflects all his attempts to charm her. When she was required to conduct a medical check-up for Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell), she discovers from Katie that Lincoln is Michael's brother. After a riot broke out in episode "Riots, Drills and the Devil", Sara was temporarily trapped by herself at sick-bay with the prisoners planning to rape her. Michael eventually rescues her using the cross space up on the ceiling. He claims that he knew his way around because of his previous assignation to clean out the toxic mold for PI (Prison Industry). Sara later finds out that he lied to her which further encourages her to try to figure out what would possess him to rob a bank and end up in prison. She searches for clues about Michael's background, and though she knows that something is utterly suspicious, she can't stop herself from being attracted to him.
Sara becomes jealous though and distances herself from Michael when she discovers he had a conjugal visit from his "wife" in episode "And Then There Were 7". However, she continues to help Michael in subsequent episodes despite their relationship. On Lincoln Burrows' execution day in episode "The Rat", Sara went to her father to ask him to review Lincoln's case after Michael pleaded with her. Her relationship with Michael deepens and they ultimately share a kiss in the infirmary in episode "The Key". However, after she discovers that Michael had stolen the keys from her, Sara distances herself yet again from him. After Michael tells Sara about his planned escape in "Tonight", Sara is confronted with the decision whether she should help Michael or not. Eventually, Sara returns to Fox River at night and unlocks the infirmary door. Horribly distressed at what she had done, Sara injects herself with morphine which she took from the infirmary. Suspected for being an accessory to the escape, the police officers charge into her apartment with an emergency warrant and finds her to be nearly dead from a drug overdose.
[edit] Season 2
In the season premiere, "Manhunt", Sara finally awakens in the hospital after having a series of flashbacks of Michael. She is suspected of aiding and abetting the eight fugitives' escape from Fox River. Towards the end of the episode, Sara finds an origami swan in her purse, which held a message left by Michael - "There's a plan to make all of this right".
After her arrest from the hospital in the episode "Scan", which further strains the relationship between her father and herself, Sara becomes the target of "The Company". Posing as Lance, a homosexual addict at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, Agent Kellerman (Paul Adelstein) attempts to befriend Sara to find out the whereabouts of Michael. Michael's phone call to Sara in "First Down" prompts Sara to take notice of the origami swans Michael continues to send her.
Her apologies to her father and her father's subsequent visit in the following episode resurrects their relationship. Sara eventually learns that Kellerman is not to be trusted when her father recognizes him as a Secret Service agent while he was in Washington, D.C.. However, her father's act to save her compromises his nomination for the vice presidency. When Sara goes to her father's residence to find him in the episode "Buried", she sees him hanging in an apparent suicide. Although she insists to the authorities that her father was murdered, they remain skeptical. As she leaves, she finds a mysterious gold key lying under her purse, which had fallen out of her father's pocket. Unbeknownst to Sara, this key may help to prove Lincoln's innocence, which is revealed in a subsequent episode.
The next three episodes follows Sara as she overcomes several obstacles to meet Michael at a rendezvous point. After escaping from two agent sent by "The Company" to kill her (one in her apartment and another who attempted to kill her in a drive-by shooting), Sara borrows another woman's identity and decodes Michael's message as "Rendezvous Sundown Hotel" and meets Michael at Gila, New Mexico in the episode "Rendezvous". However, their reunion was short-lived after Kellerman and Agent Mahone (William Fichtner) found out about their rendezvous point. When Michael asks her to come with him to Panama, Sara is disappointed by his plan. After leaving a note, she goes to her car, where she then changes her mind about leaving but is confronted by Kellerman.
Kellerman proceeds to torture Sara in the episode, "Bolshoi Booze", in an effort to obtain information about a USB drive he thinks her father gave her. When Sara denies having any knowledge of it, Kellerman decides to drown Sara in a tub. However, she escapes in the following episode but hurts herself in the process. After Michael and Lincoln are captured by Mahone in "The Killing Box", Sara changes her appearance by shortening her hair and throws her wallet with her IDs away.
Two episodes later, Sara returns in "The Message", and has travelled from New Mexico to Missouri. She deciphers a coded message from Michael reunites with him in Evansville, Indiana in the following episode, "Chicago". Together with Michael, Lincoln and Kellerman, Sara travels to Chicago where her father has hid the audio file of a recorded conversation between Caroline Reynolds and Terrence Steadman that can help prove Lincoln's innocence. On the train to Chicago, Sara admits to Michael that she has fallen in love with him and, later in the episode, Michael admits he has fallen in love with her . Michael and Sara eventually retrieves the evidence (an audio file) with the help of Henry Pope in "Bad Blood".
After leaving Kellerman by himself, Sara, Michael and Lincoln attempt to find Cooper Green in the following episode, who may help them admitting the evidence they found into court. When Sara goes to visit her father's grave, she meets Bruce, who reveals that he did not betray her or her father, as Sara thought that Bruce had sent the shooter in "Dead Fall". Bruce proves himself by helping her find Cooper Green. When Green informs them that the audio file is not legally valid to be used as evidence, Michael and Lincoln decide to use it to bargain with Reynolds for a presidential pardon. After they leave, Sara is captured by Mahone in her hotel room. However, she manages to escape and receives a call from Michael, who tells her that they have succeeded in blackmailing Reynolds and to meet them at a warehouse.
Unfortunately for Sara, however, she realizes she is being tailed by the FBI before she gets to the shipyard where Michael and Lincoln are departing for Panama. Unwilling to lead them to the brothers, she steps out of her car and surrenders. Sara's attorney advises her to take a plea bargain which would see her sent to prison for 12 years, but just as Sara is about to plead guilty, Kellerman comes forward to testify on her behalf.
[edit] Characteristics
In the television series, the character is described as "tall, slender, brown hair, brown eyes."[2] The character's biography on the show's official site describes Sara as someone who wanted to be more than a "traditional doctor" and to follow a "more humanitarian path".[1] Similarly, the actress portraying the character comments that, "At a certain point, in her past, she's worked with Doctors without Borders, worked in the Third World, and I think it gave her a different sense of the value of life and the potential of medicine in ways that resonated with her, for First World applications in a prison population."[3]
Sara is shown in the series as a compassionate doctor who cared about her patients, while treating each one of them with the same cordiality and respect. In the episode "The Rat", Sara's father questions her motive for helping Lincoln Burrows, to which she replies, "It's my job to advocate for [my patients]."[4] Sarah Wayne Callies, who portrays Sara Tancredi, remarks that the character "feels a certain level of responsibility to these guys. Partly because who her father is... she's the kind of person who would rather take a stand and sleep well at night than have a peaceful family."[3]
In the second season, Sara becomes part of the conspiracy plot of the show after her involvement in Michael and Lincoln's escape, and her father's later pursuit of information concerning Lincoln's case. She is continuously chased by covert agents after the death of her father in "Buried". Sara later confides in Michael in episode "Chicago" that the two things keeping her going are her feelings for him and that she wants to seek justice for her father's death. The character is described by Jay Bobbin from Zap2it.com as "gutsy",[5] while TV Guide's Maya Schechter remarks that Sara is "one tough cookie".[6] Regarding her character's change in the second season, Callies says, "She's just someone who has really rushed at life and absorbed experience with real enthusiasm. She's getting a lot more than she bargained for right now, and I certainly don't think she'll be the same person after this."[5]
[edit] Concept and creation
[edit] Character creation
Sara Tancredi was introduced to the series as the daughter of the Illinois governor and the prison doctor who the protagonist frequently visits to obtain his insulin shot. The background story of the character, revealed in the sixteenth episode of the first season, was not actually conceived along with the original conception of the series. Callies commented in an interview that it was the "very first inkling" that she had about the character's past. Also in the same interview, the actress mentioned that during the production of the series pilot, she had suggested to Prison Break creator Paul Scheuring that "it would be interesting to play her as a recovering alcoholic".[7]
The character's continuation as a major role in the second season was a "surprise" to Callies since the second season revolves around the lives of the eight fugitives outside the prison. The actress states that it is "some of the most creative storytelling for women on TV right now" and that she was given "lot of latitude in establishing a sense of who [the character] is".[5] As the characterization of Sara continues to develop, Scheuring describes the character as "one of [the series'] strongest components". Towards the end of the production of the second season of Prison Break, Callies' pregnancy was announced.[8] Although the pregnancy will not be incorporated into the show, the story will be written in such a way to account for Sara's disappearance when the actress takes her maternity leave. Paul Scheuring comments, "It actually fits into what we were already planning." He also says that there will be "explanations for why she wasn't in the first [batch] of episodes" of the third season.[9]
[edit] Portrayal
The character Sara Tancredi is portrayed by Sarah Wayne Callies who was the first actress the producers saw at the audition for the role.[10] Incidentally, Callies was also the first to become a principal cast member.[11]
[edit] Trivia
- A newspaper article about Sara Tancredi is visible and readable in the Pilot episode of the series (as one of the many that Michael tears off the walls of his apartment). The article gives Sara's middle name as "Wayne" (the same as that of the actress portraying her). It also says that she is the "second-eldest daughter of Frank Tancredi" (later retconned in the episode "Buried"). Since the article is only briefly seen and details are later contradicted by the character herself, the article cannot be definitively described as a canon.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Fox Broadcasting Company, Dr. Sara Tancredi's biography, Official site of Prison Break.
- ^ Dialogue spoken by Paul Adelstein as Paul Kellerman in "Disconnect", Prison Break season 2 episode 12.
- ^ a b Ryan, M, "In the Big House with the 'Prison Break' cast. Chicago Tribune. August 24, 2005. Retrieved on March 1, 2007.
- ^ Dialogue spoken by Sarah Wayne Callies as Sara Tancredi in "The Rat", Prison Break season 1 episode 14.
- ^ a b c Bobbin, J, "'Prison Break' Breaks More Rules". Zap2it.com. January 22, 2007. Retrieved on March 1, 2007.
- ^ Schechter, M, "November 20, 2006: Disconnect". TV Guide. November 21, 2006. Retrieved on March 1, 2007.
- ^ Mitovich, M. W., "Prison Break: Is the Doctor (Gulp) Out?", TV Guide. May 15, 2006. Retrieved on February 19, 2007.
- ^ Ausiello, M., "Exclusive! Prison Break Leading Lady Pregnant!", TV Guide. January 23, 2007. Retrieved on February 19, 2007.
- ^ Ausiello, M., "Ask Ausiello", TV Guide. January 31, 2007. Retrieved on February 19, 2007.
- ^ Prison Break DVD News, Season 2 Preview!. TV Guide. August 8, 2006. Retrieved on September 17, 2006.
- ^ Riots, Drills and the Devil (Part 1), Prison Break Season 1 DVD commentary, Paul Scheuring and cast.
[edit] External links
- Sara Tancredi's biography at Fox.com
- Mitovich, M. W., "Sarah Wayne Callies: Prison Break's Sara Is in Deep Water", TV Guide. November 20, 2006.
| Production: | Season 1 | Season 2 | Broadcasters | DVD releases | Mobisodes |
|---|---|
| Miscellaneous: | The Company | Escape plan | Europeangoldfinch.net | Fox River State Penitentiary | Reynolds-Again.com |
| 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 |
| Secondary: | List of minor characters |
