With only three hours of Alcatraz left this season, “Webb Porter” was short on answers. While we didn’t learn anything new, Rebecca and Soto figured out a bit more of the mystery. Despite reassurances from people involved with the show, I’m concerned too many questions remain to be answered for the two-hour finale next Monday.
While the episode on its surface and by title was about Webb Porter, it was more about Lucy. And, to a lesser extent, her relationship with Hauser. They were falling in love back in 1960, which explains Hauser’s determination to keep her alive. What happened after that remains unknown. Presumably, she jumped forward at some point like the 63s, while he lived his life normally over the last five decades.
We have previously seen Lucy working to rehabilitate prisoners. With Webb Porter, it was clear, unlike the warden and deputy warden, that she truly believed that she could help the prisoners and make them better men. She took the time to figure out Porter’s problem and developed a therapy to help him.
She used music therapy to resolve his tinnitus and found out that he was a natural with the violin. It calmed him and allowed him to move back into the general population of the prison. But, something went wrong. Her therapy must not have fully rehabilitated him or someone else reversed her progress, since he jumped in time and started killing again.
Did Lucy become the warden’s new toy? Did he corrupt her therapy somehow? We learned last week that the warden was responsible for Dr. Beauregard turning Clarence Montgomery into a killer. How does that fit into what Lucy was doing?
My biggest complaint about Alcatraz is with Rebecca’s lack of perseverance and to a lesser degree Soto. She is basically a non-entity in the story beyond being the hired gun to track down the 63s. How can she go into work every day and not question what is happening? Why hasn’t she confronted Hauser and forced him to reveal everything he knows? It just exasperates me to no end.
We, the viewers, know more than they do, yet they don’t seem to mind. They found out about the collidial silver in the blood by accident, but just accepted Hauser’s explanation without any further questions. Rebecca mentioned that the 63s were put back in prison, but wasn’t she curious about where and how they would be kept since they didn’t really exist?
Finally, Rebecca and Diego found out that Lucy was one of the 63s. If this doesn’t cause them to unload on Hauser for answers then there is no hope for them. Then, I’d say if there is a second season, get a new cop and sidekick for the mission. Characters with … well … character and unrelenting determination to solve this mystery.
Fingers crossed that their next interaction with Hauser is full of fireworks, rather than just meekness. Maybe now that Lucy has been awakened with Porter’s blood, Hauser will be ready to give some answers.
From the previews, Rebecca is going to have a showdown with her grandfather and it looks like we will find out what the keys open. What other questions do you hope to have answered in the finale? I don’t expect to find out how or why the prisoners have been coming back, but at least clues in the right direction would be good.
Clacked by Carla Day 
on Mar 20, 2012 @ 06:08 EST5EDT
