You can make it fail if you enable server-side prepare:

$dbh = DBI->connect(
  "DBI:mysql:database=test;host=localhost;mysql_server_prepare=1"
);
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Then, try to prepare some invalid SQL. I used $sth->prepare("? WHEE") and got this:

DBD::mysql::db prepare failed: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '? WHEE' at line 1 at test.pl line 9.
prepare failed at test.pl line 11.