Brad Bellick

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 "smart ass", Bellick goes to great lengths to harass Michael or investigate his actions.[3][4] 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" where 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.

In a later episode, 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.[5] Bellick becomes increasingly curious about what Michael is up to 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. In "The Rat", he is able to sabotage Michael's efforts to postpone his brother's execution by tampering with the electric chair, and in the episode "J-Cat", Bellick uses Tweener to infiltrate the P.I. 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 are 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 can tell anyone, however, he is 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.

Bellick continues to be a prominent character in the second season, but as his character adapts to the new format of the show he no longer only antagonizes Michael. With the main protagonists on the run and the plot shifting away from the prison, Bellick's central plotline becomes hunting the escapees in hopes of gaining reward money for their capture. In the premiere episode of the season, taking place in the morning after the escape, Bellick leads a manhunt of correctional officers in pursuit of the convicts. He is unsuccessful, however, and is soon called off the pursuit in favor of Special Agent Alexander Mahone and his team of FBI agents. In the next episode "Otis", a DOC conduct review board makes the decision to fire Bellick after his corruption is revealed. He prepares to commit suicide, but reconsiders after his mother informs him of the reward money for the escapees capture. He forms an unlikely alliance with former CO Roy Geary and becomes a bounty hunter. The next eleven episodes follow Bellick and Geary in their pursuit of the fugitives. Upon learning of the five million dollars Westmoreland buried in Utah, they set out to retrieve the money. They successfully track down Michael and his brother Lincoln Burrows by following Nika, but Bellick's stupidity allows him to be outwitted by the brothers in the next episode "First Down", in which Bellick's character plays a central role.

Bellick and Geary are absent for the next three episodes. They eventually re-appear in "Dead Fall", where they are able to surmise that T-Bag is in possession of Westmoreland's money. As T-Bag's subplot separates from the main plotline (which includes the protagonists fighting against the conspiracy) he begins to share scenes with Bellick and Geary in the next three episodes. After capturing T-bag in ”Rendezvous”, Bellick and Geary proceed to torture him to make him reveal the location of the money. In Bolshoi Booze, they discover a key hidden in his sock. The key leads them to a locker containing the five million dollars, but in one of the episode's twist endings Geary betrays Bellick, hitting him in the head with a meat tenderiser and steals the money. As Bellick recovers in the hospital in the next episode, he learns that T-Bag has killed Geary and taken back the money. Furthermore, Bellick himself becomes a suspect to Geary's murder, as T-bag manages to frame him. In the episode "Disconnect", Bellick appears in scenes with a female Kansas detective. After unsuccessfully trying to prove his innocence, Bellick is arrested for Geary's murder at the end of the episode. At the end of the fall finale, Bellick reluctantly accepts a deal of 25 years to avoid the death penalty and is sent to Fox River to begin serving his sentence. His last scene of the episode shows him in his cell in Gen Pop.

The character spends the next two episodes behind bars. As an inmate of Fox River, Bellick attempts to stay out of trouble but is bullied by the other inmates; in the episode "John Doe", an inmate called Banks forces Bellick to bring him his dessert after meals. Bellick does this, but Banks demands more from Bellick who subsequently attacks him and his entourage with a makeshift blackjack. He immediately is feared and respected by the other inmates because it appears that Banks is high up in the prison food chain. It is revealed in the episode ”The Message” that Banks and his crew have got their revenge on Bellick, because he has been brutally beaten overnight, he is also warned that there are many more beat downs to come. Bellick is deemed to be of some value to Agent Mahone, who secures his release from Fox River. Mahone, who is under blackmail by the sinister Company to ensure the deaths of the Fox River Eight, decides to use Bellick as his under-cover operative, without any paper-trail to connect him to Mahone. Bellick thus returns to his earlier subplot as a fugitive hunter. He immediately shows his worth by tracking down escapee Haywire in "Chicago." After being absent for one episode, Bellick then re-appears in "Wash" where he is assigned by Mahone to track down Sucre, which he does in the next episode. Learning that T-Bag still has the money, Bellick forces Sucre to help him track it down. Their plotline also intersects with Michael's in the penultimate episode "Fin Del Camino", as he also seeks to capture T-Bag. Bellick is later shot in the leg by T-Bag and then captured by Panama police. T-Bag again frames him for a murder, this time a Panamanian prostitute. In the season finale, Bellick is sent to the prison Penitenciaría Federal de Sona. In the last scene of the season, he is discovered by Michael at Sona prison, battered, and lying on the floor, under a bigger inmate.

In Sona prison Bellick now finds himself on the lowest rung of prison society, forced to wear nothing but his underwear 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, Bellick'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 chicken foot 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. When Sammy overthrows Lechero, T-Bag tells Bellick to chicken foot Sammy and in exchange he will be allowed to join the escape team. When Bellick discovers 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 get 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.

In season 4, Bellick's character continues his redemption arc, and he now serves as an almost completely loyal ally to the protagonists. It is revealed in the first episode of season 4 that Sucre, T-Bag and Bellick have all broken out of Sona during a riot which led to the prison burning down.[6] Later in the episode, Sucre and Bellick are both arrested when they arrive in Chicago. As Michael and Lincoln makes a deal with Homeland Security agent Don Self, Bellick and Sucre are recruited into Self's covert "A-Team" to bring down The Company. In the season's first eight episodes, Bellick has only a minor role, but provides crucial help in obtaining The Company's Scylla cards.[6][7] He is often teamed up with Sucre, and the friendship the two developed while being in Sona is often referred to. In the ninth episode, Greatness Achieved, the character comes full circle. While digging their way to Scylla and trying to build a passage through a water conduct, the beam they are using to hold the pipe up breaks. Bellick, having stated earlier in the episode that his life has lacked purpose, decides to sacrifice himself to save the mission by climbing into the pipe and pulling the cylinder into place, trapping himself inside. He subsequently drowns.[8] In "The Legend", his memory is honored by many of the other characters. 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).