Review:  Alcatraz – Season 1, Episode 3, “Kit Nelson”

Air date: Monday, January 23, 2012 at 9/8c on FOX

Rating: ★★★★★

From his police scanner, Doc Soto (Jorge Garcia) picks up on an important clue from listening to the reports of a missing child: a Chrysanthemum has been left behind on the child’s bed.  Doc, the Alcatraz human search engine, immediately recognizes it as the signature of Kit Nelson (Michael Eklund), a child murderer and one of the 256 time travelling Alcatraz prisoners.  Will team Alcatraz team be able to sort through clues from both the past and present to save an 11-year-old boy within a 48-hour timeframe?

In this week’s Alcatraz, Garcia gets the spotlight as Doc appears more committed than usual to saving Dylan (William Jackson Shadley), the abducted child.  Garcia characterizes well the challenging emotional state his character is in without over doing it. Doc near photographic memory of the 256 prisoners’ cases allows him to outline Nelson’s modus operandi and set a timeline during which he and his partner Rebecca (Sarah Jones) must solve the case.

Doc (Jorge Garcia) is determined to save the life of an abducted child in "Kit Nelson."

Lucy Banerjee (Parminder Nagra) remains in a coma and her condition causes team Alcatraz to be edgy.  The enigmatic Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill) is troubled by Lucy’s condition and the reminders of her absence (her cardigan, her glasses, etc) cause him to have a world-class temper tantrum that speaks volumes about the closeness of their relationship. But that anguish doesn’t keep Hauser from openly dismissing Doc, nor does it stop him from cancelling Dylan’s Amber alert. Hauser is a man focused on results and keeping the Alcatraz secret on the down low.

These exchanges push Rebecca to step in like a lioness to demand respect for her and Doc (which I love!). Jones is fabulous as Rebecca and her handling of guns, handcuffs, tone and stance makes her believable as a tough and seasoned detective. Yet Rebecca is sensitive enough to understand geek civilians turned crime murder investigators might struggle to cope with the brutality of the crimes they witness. I really like how protective she is of Doc.

We’re also reminded that Alcatraz was no ‘Cupcake Camp’ for inmates when guards look the other way when Nelson is viciously beaten by others. The prison pecking order of who’s on the lowest end of the totem pole comes into play here: “robbers, murderers, rapists and child killers,” according to Rebecca’s grandfather Tommy Madsen (David Hoflin). At this point, it’s safe to say Madsen is being positioned as a critical piece of the larger Alcatraz puzzle. He continues to show his expertise in the prison’s ways when he makes yet another visit to the infirmary to donate blood.  I’d love to know why Dr. Beauregard (Leon Rippy) is collecting so much blood. Rippy is fantastic at making us see how much he enjoys the more morbid aspects of his work.

“Kit Nelson” brings out a more flushed out backstory of the criminal and Nelson is someone who is willing to go to great lengths to get weird kicks from re-living his very first crime.  An unresolved family situation leads him to deal with Warden Edwin James (Jonny Coyne) who has an interesting paternalistic approach in dealing with his prison’s inmates.  His concern for his inmates’ well being is greatly contrasted with his ‘tough love’ attitude when he forces an ailing Nelson to walk back to the infirmary without his wheelchair. In the two episodes where James has been featured prominently, he appears to have a strong sense of duty and strives to enforce right from wrong. Coyne plays James as more of a sinister person rather than a caring one.

Michael Eklund plays Kit Nelson, a criminal who yearns to relive the first crime he committed.

The interrogation methods James employs fascinate me and one scene in particular is the marquee moment of the episode. With Nelson in solitary,  James tries to extract information while Nelson basically shakes in excitement as he finally reveals the monstrous details about his first killing that led to his murderous addiction. The scene is flawlessly executed by both Coyne and Eklund.

With J.J. Abrams being one of the executive producers, I expect to see some numbers repetitively mentioned and to be important in the story. He hasn’t disappointed me.  So far, Alcatraz inmates’ stories start in 1960. Tommy Madsen’s inmate number is AZ-2002, while Sylvane’s number is ZA-2004, making me wonder if they are intended as a tribute to Fred Toye’s 2002 Lost which is also connected to the Lost TV series which first aired in 2004. In this week’s episode, the attention given to a particular number  – the age of the child who was being abducted – connects the victim with an Alcatraz team member who endured something similar at that same age.  All right, I’ll stop now!  I don’t want to get number–intense but you get the drift.  I guess we’ll have to wait a little longer to see if they have any meaning here too.

Doc's determination pays off as he manages to track down Nelson and the missing boy.

Ultimately, Doc’s perseverance pays off and after visiting five diners, he manages to track Dylan and Nelson down. As he waits for Rebecca to show up – I still wonder why didn’t she call for police back up – he is frantic in trying to stop Nelson from leaving with Dylan. When he can’t be discreet anymore, Doc focuses his attention on the kid, urging him not to give up. It provides Dylan a certain sense of empowerment that ultimately works to his benefit in the end.

Alcatraz excels in using dialogue and sound to focus our attention on clues or to immerse viewers in the moment. Sounds of a clock ticking are particularly effective in the bomb shelter scenes to remind us of the investigation’s time sensitive nature.  The technique of asking critical questions out loud – instead of voiceovers – remains a valuable way of focusing viewers on the right details, clarifying how the plotline is advancing.

The connecting of points between the dialogue, setting and objects eventually circles us back to Doc, whose actions and stress throughout the episode all make sense in the end when we learn he was also a  victim of an abduction crime.  The slow reveal makes it a nice twist especially because the acting and dialogue lead us to believe something else is happening.  However, I feel some of the clues and leads are identified too quickly such as the fishing pole conversation, leading Rebecca and Doc to the Lafayette recreation area.

Hauser (Sam Neill) doesn't hesitate to shoot to kill a missing prisoner.

It was interesting to see how cherry pie and sheer determination can bring down a criminal but the large mystery of what happened at Alcatraz on March 21, 1963 remains fairly evasive.  As the episode ends, I am left with some questions. Why does Emerson come out from the woods? Was he already there and if so, why? Why doesn’t Rebecca shoot Nelson? Is she afraid? Will Lucy remain the same when she wakes up or will this cause her to change and revisit her participation in this project? I can’t wait to see what happens. And what is the story with Dr. Beauregard who has not aged a day from the 1960s? The way he closes the episode is great, dancing with a cigarette hanging from his lips. It brings humor to a fairly dark episode.

Based on next week’s “Cal Sweeney,” it looks like the Alcatraz secret may be exposed. Will Hauser be able to keep it hushed? I’m betting he’ll do anything in his power to contain it.

Tune in to Alcatraz Mondays at 9/8c only on FOX.

For all things Alcatraz, visit the show’s official site at http://www.fox.com/alcatraz/

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