It was the season finale of Alcatraz last night with two back-to-back episodes. Unfortunately there is still no news about a second season for the J.J. Abrams produced drama. The ratings have dipped even lower than the already cancelled Terra Nova, so things are not looking good. Last night’s finale definitely went out with a bang and they gave it all they got. After the cliffhanger ending, I am definitely on board for season two and keeping my fingers crossed.
The first hour starts with Lucy awake and alert, appearing to have made a full recovery from her gunshot wound. She is re-watching the captured 63s interviews over and over again, fixated on her shooter Ernest Cobb. She then talks to a hesitant Hauser about rejoining the team and heads back to The Rock. She comes clean to Madsen and Doc about being a 63 herself but doesn’t give them much insight on the jump she took to 2012.
Across the city we meet our prisoner of the week, Garrett Stillman (Greg Ellis). Stillman returns to present day to organize the heist of armoured trucks. He works with a team but after handing over the money to his accomplices, he takes the armored truck and leaves on his own. When he looks back he smirks while the other getaway van bursts into flames. Team Alcatraz arrives at the crime scene and starts to figure out that it’s the trucks Stillman wants, not the money being stolen from the trucks.
We learn from flashbacks that Warden James recruited Garrett Stillman to help get Harlan Simmons paroled as the Warden had some sort of special plan for him. Remember – we first met Harlan Simmons in the Cal Sweeney episode where Warden James took him to the secret door. Stillman sits in on the parole board hearing where Harlan gets denied after Deputy Warden Tiller tells the board about his contraband selling business. Simmons worked with Tiller to control Alcatraz’s black market but it seems as though Warden James wanted to break up this relationship and make money on his own. Warden James wants Stillman to change the parole report to approved instead of denied. Just when we think Deputy Warden Tiller is onto him and stops the whole switch from happening, we realize Stillman used Tiller as a pawn to switch the documents which results in Harlan getting paroled and leaving the island.
In present day Harlan Simmons became a billionaire who owns the bank that Stillman is trying to rob. Stillman’s mission was being organized by none other than Tommy Madsen (David Hoflin) and the plan was for him to steal the third key from Harlan’s vault. The third key is the one that opens the secret door hidden under Alcatraz. Stillman is successful but Soto dropped his cellphone in the getaway vehicle so they track him to Tommy Madsen’s hideout. Before they get there, Stillman is alone and opens the box with the key but someone he refers to as “Ghost” shows up, shoots him in the head, and steals the key. The team is too late but they discover Tommy Madsen is behind it all, which leads us to the second hour.
The first scene is Rebecca Madsen holding her side, bleeding in the middle of the street with a car flipped over behind her.
36 hours earlier…
“Ghost” who shot Garrett Stillman rushes into a psychiatric hospital claiming to be an Alcatraz inmate who traveled through time and is being chased by people who want to kill him. His real name is Joe Limerick and he had the cell next to Tommy Madsen on Alcatraz. His nickname was Ghost because the prison assumed he drowned after an escape attempt and wrote a death certificate for him. Ghost tells Tommy that he couldn’t get off the island because it kept pulling him back or something like that. Was it because of the riptide or is this taking a page from Lost where no one is able to leave the island? Anyway, Ghost gets locked up in the psych hospital and it’s confirmed he does have the key that Tommy Madsen is looking for.
Tommy breaks into a house and beats up a man and forces him to call his wife to tell her to come home. The man’s young daughter is seeing this all go down but ends up escaping the house to contact the police. The team is alerted that Tommy Madsen has been spotted so they head to the station to talk to the young girl. She positively IDs Tommy Madsens photo and gives the team her address but by the time they get there he is gone. There was a shootout between the husband and Madsen, who left with the Wife after he had been hit in the leg.
In flashbacks we see Tommy Madsen being taken from his cell to see Warden James and a male doctor (Matt Craven). Tommy asks if they are taking more blood saying he’s not sick but the new doctor tells him they are putting it back. As they put it back Tommy asks what they put in the blood and starts to scream and shake and yells that he can taste metal. When Tommy wakes up he is in a bed in Nob Hill, San Fancisco in 1960 and off of Alcatraz. Warden James enters the room with a tray of food and offers Tommy breakfast. Tommy’s confused but tells the Warden that whatever was done with the blood he survived and feels great. Warden tells Tommy he should be a nickel with the amount of silver flowing through his veins. Warden James says that Tommy has potential and they can do great things for each other and takes Tommy for a walk from San Francisco. He offers Tommy his most perfect day and asks what he would like. Tommy says he wants to visit his son but it doesn’t go very well when his son is startled by his father’s return and runs away. Madsen who is upset by what happened tells Warden what he wants. Tommy sits in an interview room at Alcatraz when Ray Archer comes in. Tommy tells Archer has to leave Alcatraz, and gives Archer adoption papers for his son Van (Rebecca’s father) as well as his termination papers courtesy of Warden James. Archer is not buying any of it so Tommy confesses to killing his wife saying “I killed her Ray – I waited for her to come home, I stuck the gun in her mouth, and I pulled the trigger. Kid got sprayed with her blood.” Archer tells Tommy he’ll never see his son again, then leaves.
Back to present day we discover the woman Tommy kidnapped works at the psychiatric hospital where Limerick went. He has her take him to Limerick’s room and searches for the third key. When Limerick shows up, Tommy chases him through the hospital until Limerick jumps out the window to his death. Rebecca and the team arrive just after this happens and she goes after Tommy on her own. Tommy hot wires a Dodge Charger and takes off and Rebecca takes a Ford Mustang from a civilian to chase him. Soto finds the third key on Limerick’s body but refuses to give it to Hauser until he finds Rebecca so they can all go together. Hauser pulls a gun on Soto but Lucy is there to stop him from doing something stupid.
There is a bit of an epic car chase through the streets of San Francisco with Tommy and Rebecca. It seemed to be more of a commercial for Ford than anything but it was still a great car chase. Rebecca manages to flip Tommy’s and hold him at gun point. While they talk, Tommy tells her that Harlan Simmons was paying Rebecca’s partner (who Tommy killed) to keep an eye on her and also mentions that Harlan broke a promise to Warden James. Tommy asks her if Ray ever told her how her how her parents really died which caught her off guard and confused her. Out of nowhere Tommy pulls out a knife and stabs Rebecca in the stomach. She goes down and Tommy takes her gun and takes off. Soto shows up seconds too late and takes her to the hospital. Ray shows up at the hospital and tells Hauser to leavet. Soto gives Hauser the third key and he tells Soto he can come if he wants to which Soto replies “whatever is behind that door, isn’t as important as this” AWWW!
Hauser and Lucy finally unlock the magic door. It’s some sort of tracking station for the inmates using the silver. In a flashback we see the new doctor who put the silver into Tommy is behind the door in 1960 testing out the system tracking Warden and Tommy through his day in San Francisco. The doctor had been watching Tommy since 1952 in Korea. Back to present day, Hauser and Lucy hear a noise in a back room and discover the doctor out of nowhere. He is sort of out of it and asks what year it is. When they tell him it’s 2012 he laughs?
At the hospital, the doctors are working on Rebecca but at the end of the episode she flatlines and the doctors agree there is nothing else they can do. Rebecca is…dead???
Will we ever find out what happens? I doubt Rebecca is actually really dead. What did you think of Season One? Do you want another season of Alcatraz?
