Alcatraz: Pilot

Welcome back Lost or at least the show I hope can fill that empty gap in my life that Lost took away when it ended. There have been a few close contenders, but none have matched up to Lost. The closest shows would be Grimm, Once Upon a Time and Terra Nova. There is yet another show starting soon called The River that looks like it might be good, but that has yet to be seen.

Alcataz has officially begun and I'm all-in from the beginning this time. When Lost started, I did watch the premiere episode and even the second, but I had missed a couple after that and when I tried to come back to it, I was...lost. I didn't have a DVR then, but I do now, which will make sure I don't miss an episode. I'm hoping to blog after I watch each episode of Alcatraz and oh yes, there will be spoilers. So you are warned.

So, enough of the introduction. The season premiere of Alcatraz was actually two episodes, which for this post, I will only cover the one titled "Pilot." This episode starts off by stating that Alcatraz had closed on March 21st, 1963 due to rising costs. All the inmates were supposed to be transferred, but 302 men went missing and somehow they are starting to come back to the present.

The first inmate we are introduced to is Jack Sylvane (Jeffrey Pierce), a guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was first sent to prison for robbing a grocery store.

Really...oh, they sold stamps, so that's a federal offense. 

This lands Sylvane at Leavenworth prison, where he has some problems in the shower and ends up killing a guy, which results in a transfer to Alcatraz. Back to the present, Sylvane wakes up with a mission, a jacket, a key, money and a boat ticket. He goes after a guard E.B. Tiller (Jason Butler Harner) who was downright rotten to him, so Sylvane kills him in the present by stabbing him in the chest. After getting revenge, he goes and pays Barkley Flynn a visit and then takes a key from Flynn's safe.

Sylvane got what he wants, so he will let Flynn live, right? Nope.

While all the jumping around of Sylvane's story is happening, there is another story that revolves around our leading lady, Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones). We are introduced to her on the chase with her partner after some guy. In the process, they are running across roof tops.

Got to love roof top chases, that would be exactly how I'd try to escape.

Rebecca's partner goes to jump a gap and doesn't quite make it, so he is hanging on the ledge, which lets the criminal get away. Rebecca jumps the gap and makes it and tries to reach for her partner, but she can't and he falls to his death. Now 3 months later, she is partnerless and now finds the case of E.B. Tiller's death.  She notices a cracked photo at the scene and then Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill) shows up and he pulls rank and kicks her out. Madsen continues anyway and takes the picture. She is able to lift a fingerprint off the glass and finds out it belongs to Jack Sylvane, but his record is inaccessible. She then searches the web and finds a link that takes her to Dr. Diego Soto's (Jorge Garcia) book on Alcatraz.

Everybody loves Hugo.

With Dr. Soto and Madsen now working together, they hit up Alcatraz and find a restricted area in the barracks and find themselves gassed. Once the gas wears off and they finally pull themselves together, Hauser says, "Good, you're awake. Detective Madsen, welcome to Alcatraz."

What a perfect time for a commercial break.

So, after the introductions are made, the Detective and Doctor finally catch up to Sylvane as he is leaving Flynn's place. Sylvane gets away and then goes to find his wife. He finds that his wife has passed (cancer) and confronts his brother (Allan Sylvane) who had married her while Jack was in prison. Jack takes Allan (who is old) to his wife's (Sonya Sylvane) grave where he goes to forgive her. Rebecca shows up and tells him to put his gun down. Jack asks her to shoot him and she does not. Jack lifts the gun to take a shot and someone else takes the shot to stop Jack. Jack was just wounded and taken prisoner. As he is walking away in cuffs, he turns and tells Rebecca that she should have killed him.

Why should she have killed him? Is it because he has found peace or will he be forced to do something again?

Rebecca wants to find out all the facts on Jack, but Emerson tries to stop her and steer them toward the next person that comes back. Emerson states he has been waiting for these events to occur for a very very long time. Emerson then escorts them to a new area, where you see pictures of 46 guards and 256 prisoners, the ones who went missing. Emerson refers to them as the "63's." In this room, Rebecca finds an image of Tommy Madsen, who is not a guard like she was told and believed, he was an inmate. Tommy was also the person they were chasing earlier in the show when her partner died. Emerson gives Rebecca transfer orders to work for him and she chooses Dr. Soto as her partner. This scene then ends with Emerson saying, "We have to find who took them."

Who took them? How about we answer how they stayed so young? Did they take a dip in the Lazareth pit?

The show ends with Emerson taking Jack out into the woods (not on the island) to some type of bunker that was modeled after Alcatraz. As Emerson and Jack enter the holding area, Emerson says, "Welcome home Jack. You're not going to give me a hard time, are you? **Emerson headbutts Jack** E.B. Tiller was my friend. Take him to his cell. Not to worry Jack, you won't be lonesome long."

So far, I'm loving it. The show is freaking amazing. Well, at least what I've seen. I'm really enjoying the character development. Even though it seems like they are doing a "monster" of the week, which is nothing new. I find that the overarching story helps separate it from the rest and keeps my interest. I know I'm missing some details and facts, I did take notes during the show. I'll bring them up if they are relevant later.

Quotes

Soto: Aren't you kind of young to be a detective?
Madsen: Yeah, I get that a lot.
Soto: Bet you have a pretty cool origin story.
Madsen: I was raised by a cop. He'd bring his cases home. I'd read them before bed and put post-its where he should look. Actually helped him solve a few cases.
Soto: Nice.

Soto: Oh...my head. Where are we?
Madsen: Alcatraz.
Soto: They've done some redecorating.

Hauser: I run a special division in charge of criminals who hold a particular allure for our government.
Madsen: You know I don't believe a word of that, right?
Soto: So, you built the bat cave underneath Alcatraz, but why would you do that?

Madsen: What does that mean, he escaped?
Soto: No one ever escaped Alcatraz. Not to mention, the guy looks exactly the same. Which if you're keeping score at home, is impossible.

Hauser: Even if Jack Sylvane didn't know Flynn. Doesn't mean there weren't people that want him dead.
Madsen: So, you're implying that Sylvane is being used by someone. That he was told to do this?
Hauser: I don't think I was implying. I thought I was saying it.

Soto: Is anyone else's head exploding right now?

Hauser: We have to find who took them.

Facts

• March 21, 1963 Alcatraz closed
• 302 (256 prisoners and 46 guards) men missing
• Emerson was one of the two guards that found the island empty
• Emerson has a partner named Lucy Banerjee

Inmates

• Jack Sylvane (2024)
• Tommy Madsen (2002)

Guards

• Elisha Baylor Tiller
• Ray Archer
• Emerson Hauser