Review:  Alcatraz – S1, E6, “Johnny McKee”

Air date: Monday, February 20, 2012 at 9/8c on FOX

Rating: ★★★★★

Another Alcatraz inmate surfaces in San Francisco.  This time, “Johnny Mckee“ (Adam Rothenberg), a dorky insect lover, Jules Verne fan and bully hater who poisons people in his spare time has returned. McKee’s angry passive aggressive ways quickly set him off on killing sprees which intensify by the day. Will Rebecca (Sara Jones) and Doc (Jorge Garcia) be able to determine his motivations in time to derail his grand scheme to poison the city?

Dr. Lucille Sengupta (Parminder Nagra) treated Alcatraz inmates during the 1960s.

The action begins in present day San Francisco as Dr. Beauregard (Leon Rippy) and Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill) discuss options to bring Lucy (Parminder Nagra) out of her coma. It was interesting to see the crude and often tactless Beauregard make an insightful, yet surprising, suggestion to Hauser about Lucy’s treatment.  I love how the Beauregard teases the permanently ‘on duty’ Hauser and his facial expressions always make me grin.

In the meantime, Doc has developed a cool program that searches the web for news about the 263 missing Alcatraz inmates, with the added bonus of face recognition technology. Garcia has embraced Doc’s computer geekness quite effectively and the high tech touch also adds a nice change how the Alcatraz team has been figuring out which inmates have re-surfaced.

Numbers continue to remain important in the storyline and 1960 keeps up popping as the starting point of the inmates’ back stories. Address numbers also help Rebecca and Doc figure out a critical connection that will help them in the long run. The Sylvane (Jeffrey Pierce) connection leads to a most interesting conversation between Rebecca and Sylvane which is heavily monitored and controlled by Emerson. Neill does a great job portraying a controlled gatekeeper of information and secrets. I also like how he conveys his character being slightly distraught due to Lucy’s condition in this episode. However, I would like to see his character more developed beyond the master puppeteer role.

Contrary to what some think, poison doesn’t always get the job done quietly.  The items salvaged from the inmates’ cells continue to reveal critical clues. In this episode, they lead Team Alcatraz to the place where McKee hides his poison-making supplies, and also unveils his terrifying plans for the subway. As the episode progresses, McKee’s killings are no longer small and intimate. They escalate to mass killings just like he did in the past.  Luckily, Doc and Rebecca figure out one of his weaknesses and use the information to close in on him.

Rebecca (Sarah Jones), "Doc" (Jorge Garcia) and Hauser (Sam Neill) follow the trail of McKee's poison-making supplies

As the action unfolds, two nice twists are revealed. We get the real story on McKee’s high school crush, and his handling of one of the prison’s big bullies.  Dialogue and flashbacks are cleverly used to unveil how the girl may not have been such an innocent victim after all. However, as the Alcatraz inmates’ personas become the focus of the storyline, Hauser, Madsen and Doc seem to become more one dimensional and formulaic as characters. It would be interesting to infuse the plot with more of their personal lives.

The theme of dreams is a recurrent one throughout this episode but its importance is most obvious when Sylvane confesses to Emerson he doesn’t dream anymore. The comment clearly touches a nerve for Emerson and throws me in a question frenzy:  Has time travel also stopped Lucy from dreaming? Does she consider her life hell because she can’t escape ‘reality’? Is her life perspective the same as Sylvane’s who seems to feel trapped in a level of hell from which he can’t emerge?

“Johnny McKee” is a well planned episode in which cues and outcomes are revealed in a circular fashion through the script and use of flashbacks. It also reflects a broader view of the world in which the characters move during the past and present, a welcomed change to the typical episode flow we’ve been seeing.  My favorite sequence of events occurs from the moment McKee gets a request from prison bully to kill off the prison librarian all the way to the final outcome. Rothenberg does a great job characterizing McKee by clearly showcasing his coldness and lack of hesitation when committing crimes. I love how he frivolously wraps up his towel duty as he shows his disdain for the people he poisons in the health club.  Rothenberg’s portrayal also makes apparent his character’s anger while making us sympathize with him. The scene where McKee sadly recounts to Sylvane the tale of his date with the most beautiful girl in his school is powerful as we commiserate with him even though it’s obvious there is more to the story than is shared.

In the end, it’s significant that Hauser finally gives in to least “tangible treatments” and agrees to read to Lucy. Can love or Emerson’s voice (or both) bring Lucy back to surface? I think we’re about to find out!

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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