This is the Alcatraz episode that I’ve been wanting to see! A little less of a procedural and much more on the mystery of why these people are appearing in 2012. Instead of a prisoner, we had the first appearance of a guard, Guy Hastings. Through his story, we found out about Rebecca’s grandfather and about where the 63s have been all this time.
Hastings was a guard at Alcatraz and was sent forward to track down Tommy Madsen, Rebecca’s grandfather. We last saw him in 2012 when he was running away from Rebecca and caused her partner to fall to his death from a building top. One of my complaints about the show until now is why haven’t they actively been looking for him?
It turns out that Madsen went rogue. Hastings was sent to track him down, but for what purpose? Unfortunately, we never found out the answer to that question. But, we did find out one big secret about Madsen and his good friend Ray Archer.
Tommy Madsen and Ray Archer
When Tommy got put away in Alcatraz, his good friend, Ray didn’t want him to be there alone and got a job as a prison guard. The shocker — they weren’t friends, but brothers! Rebecca found out that she has a living relative, her great uncle. But, Ray knew something funky was happening at Alcatraz. He knew about the blood and the long stints in the infirmary. Did he know what it was all about back then? How much does he know now?
Ray knows that 1963 Tommy is living in 2012. And, that he was or probably was staying at their old family home. Ray was willing to give up Tommy to Madsen, yet he turned his back on his brother when he showed up at the bar and told him to stay away. Then again, Ray turned down Hauser’s offer 16 years ago to help with the investigation.
This brings up several questions: How long have 63s been traveling forward in time? How long has Madsen been in the future and when did Ray find out about it? And, is Ray loyal to Tommy or has he turned his back on him?
What happened to the 63s?
When Hastings was holding Ray hostage at the old Madsen family home, he recounted what happened that last day in 1963. He said that since that day he hasn’t “been anywhere.” He kissed his daughter goodbye and sent her off to school. That night he was in the North Tower and “the fog took all the stars away.” He woke up in the infirmary and was informed that his family had died. He, along with the other guards, were told they were contaminated and couldn’t leave. And, that was it. “Then, it wasn’t 1963 anymore.” Wow.
What to make of this? Were they knocked out and then preserved somehow? And, then awoken or brought back to life when they were needed for a task? Was the blood taken from them used to preserve them throughout the years? Crazy! Whatever happened, it appears they were not conscious throughout the decades.
Now what?
Rebecca figured out that Madsen is the key to the investigation and that her involvement was not an accident. When she told Hauser, “You need me, more than I need you.” I cheered for her. The team dynamic will hopefully shift with Rebecca (and us) being let in on the whole truth. What does Hauser know? All of it! Though, I don’t expect it to all be revealed quickly.
Since Hastings wasn’t a prisoner, what happened to him? Will he help Hauser with the investigation or will he be put in a cell like the other 63s? Unless I missed something, we never saw what happened to him after Hauser took him to see his family from afar (which was a touching moment).
As Tommy said as he left the bar, “This isn’t over.” No, it isn’t, but what isn’t over is still a mystery.
Clacked by Carla Day 
on Feb 08, 2012 @ 04:23 EST5EDT
I love reading your posts. Because my English isn’t perfect and I only understand this series by reading your posts afterwards, so thank you!
But a question has been bothering me since this whole thing started. Hauser knew that the 63s would come, and he has authority over the rock and he has gadgets and the nerds in that room… So why not control the boats coming to and going from Alcatraz?! Why not set up a face-recognition software or something that alerts them before the 63s get to leave the island?!
I was also wondering what would happen to Hastings now–no scene of him being deposited in the new prison. But Hauser can’t let him go, certainly–he’s got to keep the whole thing a secret. Maybe they built new guard quarters wherever the new prison block is? But they basically have to hold the men as if they are prisoners.
I did notice that they cut way back on the subtitles this week–there were only one or two. Someone’s listening! Hooray!
I wasn’t that impressed with the revelation that her “uncle” was actually her uncle. Maybe that’s a big deal to the character, but to viewers, we’re just getting to know her, and didn’t know that much about her uncle to begin with. Honestly, I thought they were actually related anyway. Her backstory hasn’t been that important so far.
I always assumed they were unconscious or unaware for most of those years. Any technology that preserved their bodies exactly the way they were in 1963 probably involved them being in some kind of suspended animation, or jumping them directly from one day in ’63 to now.
So did Hastings help prove or disprove our theory about their experimenting with the blood of the prisoners that resulted in making them more violent? He did seem more violent in the modern day, although he didn’t kill anyone (did the park ranger get assaulted or murdered? I don’t remember). Since they weren’t doing experiments on the guards, as far as we know, does that hurt our theory? Or maybe he wasn’t as psychotically violent as the others have been, and it backs up that theory.
Finally, does the warden really seem like the kind of man they’d put in charge of a place like that? I’d think you’d want someone with military background, to keep order, rather than someone who supposedly has “refined” and “civilized” sensibilities, and philosophical theories about letting men have their dignity in the cafeteria. We know he’s a sadist, too, but I’m having trouble with the idea that he’d be picked to run such a place.