Last night we were treated to a double dose of Alcatraz. Two back to back episodes aired which I will recap below. Since we have two episodes to recap, I’ll try and keep it short and to the point.
Our first episode introduces us to The Ames Brothers (played by Travis Aaron Wade and Graham Shields). These fraternal twins were famous for trying to break out of Alcatraz, but that was not actually the truth. The truth was that the brothers were looking for gold hidden under the trenches of Alcatraz during the Civil War. Throughout the flashbacks in the episode we see that the brothers have teamed up with a prison guard named Donovan (played by Frank Whaley) on a rather detailed scheme. It involved stealing a key from Warden James and duplicating it on kitchen duty involving the melting of a spoon, faking a drunken rant at church, being sent to the hole and beating the crap out of Donovan to ultimately “escape”. Unfortunately for the brothers, the key they stole was one of the secret keys we’ve been seeing in episodes past that opens the mysterious door. They have no way of opening the door to the gold and Warden, Tiller and Archer catch the brothers and send them back to lock up. The episode did end with Warden James opening the door the brothers were trying to open and revealing a large pile of gold bars saying “hello ladies”. It’s also worth noting that because Archer helped hunt these two down, Warden James rewarded him with a fake story that showcased Archer as preventing the greatest escape attempt ever from Alcatraz. Warden James has now added Archer into his circle of trust which he immediately told Tommy Madsen and assured Tommy that he was going to get to the bottom of what they were doing to him.
The excitement of this episode really lay with the return of the Ames Brothers and Donovan to present day. The entire hunt took place on Alcatraz and was super intense. Their mission once again was to try and find the hidden gold. At first they murdered one of Hauser’s lab experts and then took Doc hostage. When Madsen was looking for Doc she came across Donovan, who revealed himself to be an Alcatraz ranger who was attacked by the two brothers and got away. He ended up leading her right to the brothers, where Hauser showed up and got himself shot (he’s ok though) and one of the brothers was killed. It turned into a bit of a chase throughout the hallways, tunnels and rooms of Alcatraz, but Madsen ended up killing the other brother and Doc was freed. Donovan managed to get away and into the secret room with the help of some dynamite. Unfortunately for Donovan, the secret room was empty, the gold was long gone and he was captured by our heroes.
Donovan was taken to New Alcatraz by Hauser for interrogation with Dr. Beauregard at the end of the episode. We come to realize that Hauser has the exact same questions we all do. He wants to know if Warden James is coming back and if he is behind it all. He wants to know if he is the one willing to kill to get a hold of the keys. He also wants to know why everyone was interested in Tommy Madsen, and how much did Ray Archer know?
The second hour of Alcatraz focuses on returning inmate Sonny Burnett (played by Theo Rossi AKA Juice on Sons of Anarchy!). Back in 1960 Sonny coerced a 14 year old girl named Helen to be his kidnapping partner in crime. Eventually Helen (Wendy Crewson) escaped from Sonny and turned him in, which is why he was incarcerated in Alcatraz. Sonny was not a tough guy like others in Alcatraz so he thought he could buy himself protection with the ransom money he had hidden from past kidnappings. Unfortunately Helen had found the money and taken it which left Sonny without protection and beaten and stabbed by the jail yard bully. Through some advice from Tiller, Sonny started working out hardcore to turn himself into a bad guy and ended up flipping out on the bully and gouging out his eyes with his thumbs. Super gross!
At Alcatraz 2.0 Hauser is recovering from the gunshot he received in the previous episode while Dr. Beauregard explains to him that there is colloidal silver in the blood of the recovered Alcatraz inmates. Apparently the returning inmates have super healing strength and have no ailments or medical issues. He further explains that a transfusion of it could help Lucy recover, though none of the current inmates share her blood type. Elsewhere, Ray Archer tells Rebecca he’s being watched by Hauser’s men in case he comes into contact with Tommy Madsen. She suspects some personal motivation for why Tommy Madsen killed her partner that day, and wants to know if Ray knows more than he is letting on.
In Sonny’s present day, his plan is to go after everything important to his old “partner” Helen as revenge for her stealing his money. First he kidnaps her husband and saws off his head for Rebecca to find in a horse’s stable. Then he kidnaps her daughter and attempts to bury her alive. Luckily Sonny is captured and the daughter is dug up and saved. Sonny is taken to Alcatraz 2.0 where Dr. Beauregard attempts to use his blood to help Lucy. Dr. Beauregard explains to Hauser that although Sonny has the same blood type, he lacks the colloidal silver in his blood to help Lucy and that not every prisoner was “taken an interest in”. At Rebecca’s house we discover that Tommy Madsen is super sketchy and likes to secretly watch his granddaughter sleep.
AMANDA’S QUESTIONS: Why did the Warden (or whoever) put colloidal silver in the inmates blood? Will Tommy’s blood help save Lucy? Did Donovan answer any of Hauser’s questions? Why do only some inmates have the colloidal silver?
NEXT WEEK:
This episode airing next week was supposed to air last week but was pre-empted by NASCAR.
Clarence Montgomery (guest star Mahershala Ali), the only innocent man in Alcatraz, returns to present day, but is now committing crimes.
