A young boy named Billy paints a large red "V" on the side of a squad vehicle.  Troopers race toward the child and Donovan gives chase, followed, reluctantly, by Tyler.  They're victorious in the fight, and given shelter by a teenaged girl named Annie.

Annie's mother orders them out, but her daughter won't allow that to happen, insisting, instead, that the two men rest and be fed.

At the Club Creole, everyone is worried about Robin, who appears to be missing.  They're also concerned about Elizabeth, and believe that Diana will be even more anxious to get her if she discovers that the Starchild is now an adult.

After their meal, Donovan and Tyler leave the house, only to be surrounded by armed Visitors.  It seems that Annie's mother made a phone call from the other room.

Diana is demanding that Bates turn the Starchild over to her so that she may be returned to her rightful family.  Nathan laughs this off, stating that there's no way he would ever turn an innocent child over to her.

"Nathan," she says pointedly, "imagine how you would feel is you never got to see your family again."

A shirtless Kyle Bates is playing a game of two man volleyball with Vanik.  A vehicle pulls up in front of the main building and they note the arrival of "new blood" in the form of Donovan and Tyler.

Eventually we learn that this is a concentration camp, with a wide strip of sand serving as a moat-like enclosure.  In another section, a man named Isaac is telling Robin Maxwell that she'll probably never see her daughter again, a statement which truly hurts the girl.

Isaac, thoroughly depressed over their situation, and quite obviously filled with a defeatist attitude, says that there's only one way out, and begins walking towards the sand.  Robin stops him, explaining that such an act is suicide.  At that moment she spots Donovan and runs over to him.  They embrace warmly, and Tyler approaches.

There's a scream from Kyle, and they whirl around to see Isaac walking across the sand.  He almost makes it to the woods on the other side, when the "fin" of the Crivit breaks the surface, and races across it in a shark-like manner.  Before Isaac can do anything, the creature pulls him under the sand.

Diana discovers that Kyle is a captive of Colonel Hoya's concentration camp, and is delighted at the fact that now she has something to trade for the return of Elizabeth.

Elizabeth is playing the piano at Club Creole, when a Visitor approaches and notices the mark of Zon on her hand.  It begins to pulsate, and she leaves in fear without any of her friends noticing.

Julie comes in a few minutes later, and is furious that Elias allowed her to play the piano in public.

"How's anybody gonna figure out who she is?" he ask innocently.

"Willie did."

Donovan tells Tyler that he's going to need a distraction.  A moment later, Ham starts a verbal argument with Kyle which turns physical rather quickly when he discovers that the younger man's last name is Bates.  They're zapped by a guard's stunner, and forced apart.

Hoya approaches them, stating, "I will not tolerate violence in my camp."  Guards take them away.

A frightened Elizabeth huddles in the shadows of the Club Creole's rear exit.  She spots a pair of dobermans and starts to approach them, when the Visitor from inside the club finds her.  He grabs her wrist, but she manages to break loose and move back into the alley.  Concentrating she mentally snaps the collars of the dogs.  They're unleashed and pounce on the back of the Visitor.

In the prison camp "sweat box", Tyler and Kyle argue about Nathan's involvement with the Visitors.  Before it goes on too long, however, the door opens and a guard ushers them out.

Kyle is taken away, while Ham approaches Donovan and Billy.  Using the volleyball net, pole, and wire, they're putting an escape plan into effect.  They stop, however, when a vehicle pulls up to the main building, and Diana steps out of it.

Kyle is brought to her, and Diana smiles in response.  "Hello Kyle, I'm a friend of your father's."

Nathan Bates gets a phone call from Kyle, who is sarcastically ingratiating.  Diana, taking full advantage of her current power play, gets on the other end, saying, "I'll be at your office tomorrow at noon.  Either you'll have the Starchild, or I'll have Kyle."

From the barracks, Robin, Ham, and others, in order to create a distraction, begin to sing "America the Beautiful."  Their voices drown out the sound of Donovan, who is running, pole in hand and dragging a long wire.  He uses the pole to vault over the sand, landing just several inches away from the Crivit's domain.  The pole teeters backwards and Billy catches it before it makes any noise.  Then he runs off with it before a guard is able to spot him.

Donovan ties the wire to a tree and gives a tug.  Ham is on the other end of the wire, which is anchored to a beam on the balcony of their barracks.  Robin glides across the wire, over the sand, and is caught by Donovan.  She's followed by another prisoner.

Julie comforts Elizabeth in the secret chamber of Club Creole, when Nathan's men begin to search the premises.  Elias goes to "help" them, and finds out what they want.  Naturally, they're after the Starchild, but their attempts are fruitless.

Everybody but Kyle, Vanik, and Tyler have escaped, with Ham noting that "Kyle can take care of himself."

In Hoya's office, Diana is trying to convince Kyle to cooperate with her.  They embrace passionately, but she happens to glance out the window and sees Vanik swinging across the wire.  Pushing Kyle away from her, she goes to alert the guards.

Just as the guards arrive, Ham and Billy swing off to safety.  A guards snaps the wire, and they fall to the sand.  A moment later, the Crivit begins moving towards them.  Donovan pushes Robin and the others onward, and begins running onto the sand.  At the last possible moment, they make it to safety.

Furious, Diana lashes out at Hoya, shoving him into the sand, where he is destroyed by the Crivit.  Meanwhile, Kyle assaults a guard and manages to escape from the camp.

Robin starts climbing a steep side of the road, but as she reaches the top, she sees a group of Visitors approaching her.  Attempting to go back the way she came, Robin slips, tumbles, hits her head against a rock and is knocked unconscious.

Elsewhere, Donovan and Ham meet up with Annie, who takes Billy under her wing and explains that they're going up to the mountains, where the toxin is still in effect.

As Annie and Billy depart, Donovan informs Tyler that he's not going back to L.A. until he finds Sean.  Ham disagrees, believing that Julie might be able to find something out through Bates.

The episode essentially ends here, although there are three additional sequences.  One is a shuttle chase made up entirely of stock footage (much of which was seen in the first episode); the second has Nathan meeting Elizabeth without realizing who she is; and the third has Kyle go to Science Frontiers to actually see the "Emperor" of Los Angeles for himself.
 
 

High praise should be paid to director Ray Austin and writer David Braff, although the latter is rather unhappy about the episode as aired.

"I think 'Breakout' is one of the best episodes of TV I've written," Braff says, "but what happened was that the director did such an abominable job.  He never got the prison camp down, and they wound up holding the episode, not airing it and reshooting some stuff explaining how everyone got where they did.  Then, later, when the show was in summer reruns, they aired it.  It was supposed to have been the third episode, and would have brought everyone together.  But I had a great time writing it and trying to get it produced."

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