They stop in front of a headstone. Michael-the-child lays down the flowers, and everyone takes a moment of silence. And then Linc puts a white origami swan on top of the headstone and walks off. One by one, everyone touches the tombstone and walks off into the sunset. Seriously -- there is a beach, there is a sunset, there are Mahone and Sucre acting oddly huggy in the background. And there is the legend on the tombstone: MICHAEL J. SCOFIELD. 10.8.1974 -- 11.5.2005. Husband. Father. Brother, Uncle. Friend. Be the change you want to see in the world. The camera pulls close to the swan and that's our final image, of the fragile little bird letting us all know that no matter what, Lincoln and Michael will always be brothers.

And that's it -- an off-screen death for one of the series heroes, and a sort of "Michael Scofield died for your sins" vibe draped around the survivors. Mr. Sobell and I argued about this ending for half an hour -- he says "it wasn't earned" and I argued that I love epilogues and the only thing wrong was that this wasn't done Animal House or American Graffiti style. But here is how Prison Break ends -- four people with ordinary lives gathering to remember an extraordinary person and the extraordinary experiences they had because of him. I like it.

And now for the goopy stuff from your recapper, which you are free to skip ...

It's a novel experience to recap a show from beginning to end -- at least novel by the standards of American television -- and I am grateful to Sars for assigning me this show, and to Angel Cohn and Daniel Manu for giving me the opportunity to see it through to completion. I am also very grateful to all of you who read the recaps and posted in the forums. It has been a privilege to have such a smart and engaged audience. I really enjoyed this show, and I enjoyed having the job of examining each episode and looking at it over and over again. It was a great gig, and I thank everyone who was along for the ride.

Discuss the finale in the Prison Break forums!