Alcatraz: Ernest Cobb

The second episode of Alcatraz "Ernest Cobb" was a part of the premiere and I thoroughly enjoyed it. After the first episode set me up, this one knocked me down. It was really this episode that sold me on the show. Not to discredit the first, but this episode introduced some new characters that I found be very interesting.

The opening scene introduces us to two new characters, the first is a new inmate named Ernest Cobb (Joe Egender) who is being taunted by the other inmates calling him fresh fish. As he is being moved through the prison, Tiller takes him to see the other new character, Warden Edwin James (Jonny Coyne), before he is put in his cell. During their conversation, the Warden states that Cobb had made a home made single shot to shoot a guard. Cobb insists that he shot the guard in the leg just to get a transfer. He wanted to come to Alcatraz for his very own private cell. The warden informs the guards to put Cobb in his private cell. Cobb sits down on his bed and then looks like he's at peace.

Could it be, he gets exactly what he wants without penalty?

He then hears an inmate next door, who is using a mirror to reach out and get a look at Cobb. The inmate next door begins talking and talking to Cobb. Cobb asks him to leave him alone, but the guy just won't shut up. About that time, Sylvane starts fighting with the the guards and they escort him to solitaire. Cobb sees this an instantly starts thinking of a way for himself to be put in solitaire, away from the noisy neighbor.

As we are brought back to present day, we find Cobb walking to an open field and setting up a picnic where he has a sandwich and soda. He digs back into the picnic basket and pulls out a scope and uses it to look down at a carnival. He is picking out his targets and during the process repeats "There are 47 slats in the picket fence. 4 7. 1 2 3 4. 1 2..."

What the hell is this ritual about? Did his house have a picket fence?

He ends up focusing his scope on a young couple who are about to get on the ferris wheel. Cobb pulls out the rest of his rifle and assemble it with a silencer. He starts his ritual again, using the lawn chair was a rest and fires shots on 2 and 7. He kills a man in the crowd and then the couple on the ferris wheel.

Rebecca and Soto show up at the carnival to see the after math and of course Cobb is long gone by this time. Soto is hung up on the dead bodies and starts to doubt if he can do this. Rebecca tells Soto, "Don't let your emotions cloud your judgement." Soto is still hung up on the dead bodies. Rebecca tries to get his attention, but Soto doesn't acknowledge her. Emerson asks Rebecca, "How's the new partner working out?"

Hahaha. Got to love Emerson and how he shows no compassion for the team.

Soto walks off and Rebecca follows. Soto again states that he isn't cut out for this, but Rebecca ignores that statement and asks him what rifle Cobb used. Soto informed her that it was a Winchester Model 70. They realize Cobb can pull a shot from 500 yards and they see an opening on a hill top where they think Cobb had taken the shots from. They walk up to the hill and find a shell casing from one of his shots. They glance to the left and realize they can see Alcatraz from this spot.

Now at the hidden bunker in the forest. Lucy sits down with Sylvane to see what he knows about Cobb. She tries to find out why they are both back. Jack insists that he doesn't know and wants to know who is watching him. Lucy then asks Jack about the key he had on him, when they caught him, does he know what it opens? Jack says he does not know.

Jack doesn't know jack.

Rebecca, Lucy and Dr. Soto are hot on the trial of Cobb and track down the location where he had purchases a Model 70 rifle. Rebecca knows the guy behind the counter (not in an old friend manner) and gives him a hard time. She then asks for the camera footage from the day Cobb was in, they see that he pulls an old styled hotel key out from his pocket and they use that to track him down. Once at the hotel, they get the key and head up to his room. Rebecca is first in the room and does a quick sweep. It was clear, so Dr. Soto and Lucy come in to help search the room. Lucy walks over towards the window and opens the curtain. Cobb is across the way and he shoots her.

Emerson shows up as they load Lucy into the ambulance. He seems quick to blame Rebecca and Soto.

Are Emerson and Lucy an item? They did talk about children.

Emerson goes to the bunker and questions Jack. He holds up a picture of Lucy and asks if she was a target. Jack says he did not know. Emerson says, "That's a shame, maybe Dr. Beauregard can jog your memory." Back at Alcatraz, Dr. Soto and Rebecca are reviewing a database of the 63's that Lucy had setup. Rebecca discovers a pattern in something that was supposed to be random, she sees that there is a 16 year old girl in all the shootings. Rebecca pulls Cobb's items and sets up his cell. She finds a rolled up magazine and lens and figures out that Cobb had created a home made scope and she sees that he could see the locations that he was intending too shoot from.

Back to the 60's, Cobb starts his day like the other inmates and when he is supposed to be standing, he is sitting on his bed. The guards demand he stands, but he just remains seated. This of course gets him thrown into solitary, just as he wanted. The warden comes to visit Cobb in solitaire, he congratulates him on getting exactly what he wanted with the smallest breach in the most public of places. The warden say, "You win son, fair and square." The warden starts to walk away, but then quickly turns around and says "Just one more thing. Open up. I believe you two fellas know each other." The warden had the talkative neighbor placed in the same cell as Cobb in solitary confinement.

I love this move by the warden. It sends a message of do not fool with me in my prison.

 Now in the present, Rebecca and Soto use the computer to remove buildings that were not there in the 60's.

Really, those are some amazing computer applications that they are using. I would like to meet the guy who wrote them. You got to love the TV super computer.

They find the possible buildings that Cobb would use and they are on their way to catch him. Emerson and Rebecca split up between two buildings. Emerson wants Cobb alive and when he ends up flanking him to distract him as Rebecca takes him down. Emerson shoots Cobb in his right hand so he doesn't shoot anymore.

Nice! Revenge for Lucy. 

As the episode ended before, Emerson takes Cobb to the bunker in the forest. As the guards walk Cobb to his cell, he and Jack Sylvane catch each others eyes. Cobb looks scared, maybe surprised, it is unclear.

As I stated earlier, this was an amazing episode for me. I enjoy almost any story that envolves a sniper. It is also very interesting to me that I actually like the warden in this series. In most movies, I end up hating the warden and sympathizing with the prisoner, but Alcatraz is setup in a manner that I do not have any sympathy for the inmates, at least not in Cobb's case. It is just an interesting dynamic between Warden James and Deputy Warden Tiller, when in Tiller vs Sylvane, you go with Sylvane and with James vs Cobb, you go with James. I'm kind of curious if those two dynamics will continue or if I will end up not liking the warden later on.

Quotes
Warden: Tell me. How do you pick'em? When they're all just little dots in your scope.
Cobb: Feeling.

Cobb: There are 47 slats in the picket fence. 4 7. 1 2 3 4. 1 2...

Employee: Hey. What's the new gig anyway?
Soto: I'm not supposed to talk about it.
Employee: Okay.
Soto: It's a task force.
Emplyee: Okay.
Soto: FBI mostly, some police, but I can't talk about it. I'm a civilian authority.
Employee: Sounds cool.
Soto: Oh, it's cool alright. It's super cool.

Employee: Whoa, hot chick. Don't look...don't look...don't look. You looked!
Soto: That's my partner...from the task force.
Employee: No way!
Rebecca: Way!

Emerson: You wanted children, go babysit.

Lucy: You know, Emerson. They aren't so bad.

Soto: Whoa. Call of Duty: Urban Warfare in 3D. I think I got a second amendment contact high.

Cobb: You eat alone.

Warden: What was that son, you need to speak up.

Cobb: alone, you eat alone.

Soto: Can I ask you something? Do you know how these guys are coming back and whos...you know...behind it. Casue I have some theories involving worm holes, but how's it you seem to just accept everything that's happening like its not the biggest thing every?

Lucy: How I feel about the what's happening, doesn't change the fact that it is happening.

Soto: Thanks, that helps a ton.

Emerson: Cobb is still out there and as long as he is, he will continue to kill and that is all you need to know.

Emerson: Right handed?

Rebecca: Yeah.

Emerson *shoots Cobb's right hand* No more shooting.

Facts

• Cobb spent more time in solitary confinement than any other inmate on record
• Soto questions what is in all the rooms that have doors with no handles and elevator with floors that need keys to access
• Rebecca and Soto discuss his book and how there wasn't much information on Tommy Madsen who was put in prison for murdering his wife
• Soto acknowledging that its weird to chase your grandfather
• The window Lucy opened had "I can see you" written is black marker
• The Platters - Great Pretender is playing in the background while Warden James eats lunch
• Cobb's sister was 16, when he went to visit his mother. Cobb was pushed away, which means that he is jealous of his sister getting all the attention
• Cobb was in a straight jacket toward the end in which most likely means he killed his talkative cell mate.
• Lucy shows up in 1960, she hasn't aged to the present day.

Inmates

• Jack Sylvane (2024)
• Tommy Madsen (2002)
• Ernest Cobb (2047)

Guards

• Elisha Baylor Tiller
• Ray Archer
• Emerson Hauser

Others (maybe considered guard)

• Lucy Banerjee

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