Brad Bellick

Bradley "Brad" Bellick is a fictional character from the American television series, Prison Break. He is portrayed by Wade Williams. As one of the principal characters of Prison Break, he has been featured in all four seasons of the series. The character was introduced in the series' pilot as Captain Brad Bellick, the leader of the correctional officers at Fox River State Penitentiary. Originally, he was the main antagonist of Michael Scofield and the escape team. In the second season, the character's role changes as the main plot moves away from the prison setting, which allows him to remain as one of the main characters in the series. While not as intelligent as Scofield or Agent Mahone, he has shown himself to be highly cunning, and in Season 2 was able to track down several of the Fox River escapees and travel across America on a low budget. In season three, he also is in Sona prison in Panama. In season four, Bellick became a member of Scofield's team dedicated to locating Scylla, but sacrificed his life to protect their mission.

Background

Bellick has wanted to be a correctional officer his entire life. He was employed at Fox River shortly after graduating high school and has been there ever since. Due to his belief that punishment is the primary purpose of prison and not rehabilitation, he and Warden Henry Pope (played by Stacy Keach) do not always agree on several issues. Nevertheless, Warden Pope continues to give him more responsibility with the intention of having Bellick succeed him as warden when he retires. Bellick has a history of corruption and inmate abuse, and as described by his ex-colleague, Bellick is as "crooked as scoliosis", referring to his corruption as a guard at Fox River. Upon the incarceration of John Abruzzi (Peter Stormare), who was a mobster prior to his inprisonment, Bellick arranged a deal with him that in exchange for monthly payments, Abruzzi would have control of Prison Industries (PI). Additionally, it is revealed in the flashback episode, "Brother's Keeper", that Bellick is a recovering substance abuser and is infatuated with Sara Tancredi (Sarah Wayne Callies), the prison doctor. Bellick is about 40 years old, judging from his own words in "The Killing Box".

Appearances

Season 1

In the pilot episode of the show, Bellick forms an immediate dislike of the newly arrived inmate Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller). Believing that he is a "smartass", Bellick goes to great lengths to harass Michael or investigate his actions. Throughout the first season, Bellick serves as Michael’s primary antagonist inside the prison, and constantly attempts to give him trouble at every chance he gets. Learning in the episode "Allen”, that Michael has earned the favor of Warden Pope, Bellick is strengthened in his dislike of Michael and later arranges for a mentally unstable inmate called Haywire to become Scofield’s cellmate. As the season unfolds, Bellick’s relationship with Warden Pope becomes somewhat strained as well; following a major riot in "Riots, Drills and the Devil", Bellick disagrees with Pope’s lenient methods and earns his boss’ ire after Bellick disrespects Pope in front of the Governor, Frank Tancredi. The character shows his first hint of humanity, however, in "The Old Head" were he is devastated over the death of a guard that was murdered in the riots. When Charles Westmoreland (Muse Watson), who knows who the murderer is, is too afraid to reveal it, Bellick is outraged and strangles Westmoreland’s cat as revenge. Later, due to her visit to Fox River and her connection with Michael, Bellick goes to search for Nika Volek (Holly Valance) and finds her at a club he frequents. After finding out about Michael's deal with Nika, Bellick attempts to find the credit card she smuggled in but fails to find it and has to settle with trying to agitate Michael by insulting Nika.

Bellick becomes increasingly curious about what Michael is up as the season progresses. After he fails to find out anything further, Bellick approaches the inmate Tweener in the episode "Odd Man Out" and forces him to become an informant. Bellick role continues to revolve around Michael and his possible activities in the second half of the season, as Bellick uses Tweener to infiltrate the PI crew to spy on Michael and the others and report back any information that he discovers. When Tweener fails to come up with anything Bellick deems as useful, he punishes Tweener by transferring him to a cell with a known rapist and ignores his pleas for help. On the day of the breakout team's escape, Bellick is informed by Tweener that Michael and the rest of the P.I. crew were planning an escape, causing Bellick to discover the hole dug by Michael Scofield and the P.I. crew during their initial escape attempt. Before he could tell anyone, however, he was attacked, tied and gagged by Westmoreland, who is a member of the escape team, though Westmoreland received an injury during the struggle that proved fatal in the end. Bellick is trapped in the tunnels under the guard's room and has to witness the escape; after he is found in the season finale, Bellick swears revenge on the escapees and set out to catch them along with a team of other correctional officers.

Season 2

Bellick hunted the escapees into the morning of the next day, but was then called off the pursuit, in favor of Special Agent Alexander Mahone and the FBI. Shortly afterwards, a DOC conduct review board made the decision to fire Bellick after his corruption was revealed. He considered suicide, but reconsidered after he heard the announcement of reward money for the escapees capture. He forms an unlikely alliance with former CO Roy Geary and becomes a bounty hunter. Upon learning of the five million dollars Westmoreland buried in Utah, they later set out to retrieve the money.

The next eleven episodes follow Bellick and Geary in their pursuit of the fugitives. Although they manage to capture Michael and Lincoln Burrows, and later T-Bag, they are eventually outwitted. Upon finding Westmoreland’s money, Geary betrays Bellick but is then killed by T-Bag. At the end of the fall finale, Bellick ends up being framed for the murder and is sent to Fox River to begin serving his sentence.

As an inmate of Fox River, Bellick is bullied by the other inmates in the episode ”John Doe”, and is revealed in the episode ”The Message” to have been brutally beaten as well. However, Bellick is deemed to be of some value to Agent Mahone, who secures his release from Fox River. Working as Mahone’s under-cover operative, Bellick tracks down escapees Haywire and Sucre. Learning that T-Bag still had the money, Bellick forced Sucre to help him track it down. In the final episodes of the season, Bellick is shot in the leg by T-Bag and then captured by Panama police. T-Bag again framed him for a murder, this time a Panamanian prostitute, and Bellick is sent to the prison Sona. In the final scene of the season, he is discovered by Michael at Sona prison, battered, and lying on the floor, under a bigger inmate.

Season 3

In Sona prison Bellick now finds himself on the lowest rung of prison society, forced to wear nothing but a diaper at all times and given the job to clean the prison's bathrooms and sewers. He eventually rises in the prison hierarchy, however, by informing Lechero, the ruler of the prison, of the mysterious Whistler’s whereabouts. Convinced that Michael is planning another escape, Bellick then tries to force his way onto it. When this fails, he attempts to get Michael into trouble with Lechero. The plot backfires when Michael deflects Bellick’s accusations, and Bellick ends up being scalded with hot coffée by Lechero as punishment for the ”bad information”.

Following the abuse, Belick’s character begins to show a more sympathetic side. In the episode "Interference", he tries to help the new outcast by giving him food. In the episode "Vamonos", he is deeply disturbed by the news of Sara’s death, causing him to question his past actions. In the Episode "Boxed In" he is ordered to clean some vomit by one of Sammy's newly recruited goons. When he refuses the goon calls him to a chickenfoot fight but Bellick defeats him by wrapping his hands in rags soaked in Acetone. When his adversary's senses are irritated because of the fumes, Bellick beats him to death. He consequently becomes very proud and popular in Sona and says he is Delta Force. However, when Sammy overthrows Lechero T-Bag tells Bellick to chickenfoot Sammy and in exchange he will be allowed to join the escape team. However there is no more Acetone and Bellick is rapidly beaten by Sammy who was on the point of breaking his neck when he is called in by one of the goons. Despite his defeat he still joins the escape team. In ”Hell or High Water”, Bellick, T-Bag and Lechero are all tricked by Michael and gets arrested by the guards while Michael and the rest of the team escape to safety. Following T-Bag’s murder of Lechero and ascent to ruler of Sona in the episode ”The Art of the Deal”, a despairing Bellick is seen slumped down in defeat. The season ends with Bellick never getting out of Sona, sitting against a wall.

Season 4

Sucre, T-Bag and Bellick have all broken out of Sona during a riot which led to the prison burning down. While the prisoners were escaping, Sucre was trampled by other prisoners, leading to Bellick rescuing him. After Sucre and Bellick sneak back into the United States, Bellick's mother picks them up, and the two go to find Sucre's daughter. At the hospital, they are quickly picked up and taken back into US custody. Don Self and Michael Scofield recruit Bellick and Sucre into Self's covert "A-Team" to bring down the company. Joined by Lincoln, Mahone, Sara, and a hacker/identity thief named Roland Glenn, Bellick assist the "A-Team" in getting the Scylla cards.

A water conduct was blocking their way to Scylla, so Bellick and Lincoln had to stop the water flow temporarily so the "A-Team" could place a pipe through as a passage. As they were lifting it through, the beam they were using to hold the pipe up broke, so Bellick got in the water conduct and lifted the pipe up so the others could get to Scylla, and subsequently drowns. Under pressure from the team, especially Sucre, Self reluctantly sends his body to his mother, and Mahone lays a police badge on his body, which Bellick got at a police benefit earlier in the season.

Bellick is the fifth main character to be killed off in the series (after Veronica Donovan, John Abruzzi, Norman "Lechero" St. John, and James Whistler).

Personality and Character Transformation

In Seasons one and two Bellick was mean spirited and obnoxious. However after being put into Sona, his character softened. Wade Williams, who plays Bellick, has mentioned that "Like all guys with a big ego, Bellick probably has very low self-esteem". His tough guy act is little more than a facade and the slightest bit of real threat will quickly turn him into a quivering coward. When he felt secure behind his position as Captain of Fox River's correctional officers, however, Bellick made it a frequent habit to harass, intimidate and even threaten the lives of others. But in season 3, Bellick finally begins to learn and grow from the bully he has been in season 1 and 2. As the lowest part of the Sona pecking order, he goes through hell as all other inmates spit on him. This experience seems to change him.

In "Orientacion" the first episode of the third season , Bellick befriends another prisoner who is also an outcast. Later the man attempts to escape because he is afraid of starving to death, because the other prisoners won't give him food. As he runs across "No man's land" he is shot dead, and Bellick is seen screaming in considerable emotional agony. In season 3's last episode "The Art of the Deal", he was scared and visibly shaken as he watched T-Bag smother Lechero with a pillow. When T-Bag asked him to help him rescue the wounded Lechero, who was being beaten up by an angry mob of prisoners he initially refused saying that "he could go to hell." Bellick was later seen slumped up against a wall.

In season 4, the character became more benevolent, actually taking Fernando Sucre along with him after Sona burned down. Bellick still retains some of his previous personality traits. He is extremely pessimistic, and is always voicing doubts about how they are going to be able to get the information they need to bring the Company down. He has even considered abandoning the rest of the group and fleeing to Mexico, only offering to bring Sucre along because "it would be nice to have someone who can speak the language." However, in a more recent episode "Eagles and Angels," Bellick saves Lincoln's life when he was held at gunpoint by a Company Body Guard. Bellick stabs the man in the side with a screw driver, allowing Lincoln to escape and kill the assailant. Lincoln thanks Bellick for the rescue at the end of the episode, while Bellick seems to be shaken from the experience. In a later episode Bellick dies, while saving the mission to get Scylla. Lincoln and Bellick were trying to bridge a pipe across a main water conduit, but it was too heavy. Bellick heaved the pipe into position, refusing Lincoln's pleas to save himself. The pipe was hauled into place, sealing Bellick inside as the water pressure resumed. He subsequently drowned. In the following episode several main characters reminisce and mourn Bellick, including T-Bag, Sarah, and Sucre. T-Bag, still masquerading as Cole Pfeiffer, actually delivers an indirect eulogy for Bellick, coining the phrase 'the captivity of negativity', citing the time Bellick spent inside of Fox River as a correctional officer. This may suggest that Brad's transformation of character may have had to do with the effects of his surroundings, from being an officer dealing with criminals, until his time as a rogue on a mission with the protagonists. In the episode The Legend, Sucre reveals that during his time in Sona, Bellick not only befriended him before the destruction of the prison and the escape, but actually saved his life. Sucre says that when T-Bag ordered the burning of the prison,the mob of prisoners nearly trampled him to death, in their mad frenzy to escape. Bellick at great personal risk to himself dragged him to safety.

Portrayal by Wade Williams

Following the character's death the show's creators said that the Bellick character was only originally intended to be in the first season of the show but because of the stellar portrayal by actor Wade Williams, the character was written into the following seasons and became an integral part of the cast.

External links

• Captain Brad Bellick's biography at Fox.com