In Review: ‘Alcatraz’ – “Guy Hastings”

The first guard from the island is now in the present. The episode opens with Guy in his old apartment (on Alcatraz), ripping up a piece of a wall to find some family photos, which leads to a flashback of Guy’s happy family life on the Rock. He leaves his wife and daughter to welcome in the new officers, among them Ray Archer, Rebecca Madsen’s future guardian. In the present, a current Alcatraz guard warns Guy to get out, and Guy gives him a punishing beating, then removes a gun from his same hidden niche. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Rebecca and Ray are having breakfast, which is interrupted by a call from Alger, and once expert Soto is in the mix, they know who Guy is, and now they have to find him.

Finding some blood in the secret cache, the trio learn Guy’s got a gun, and finding his grown up daughter is their best lead, but not before Soto reveals that Guy was said to have died in a chemical spill in 1963. Daughter Annie has only good memories of her father and owns his box, which Madsen and Soto take. In the past, greenhorn Archer is beaten on sight in the mess hall by Tommy Madsen, who whispers, “You shouldn’t have come here.” Back in the present, Ray goes to put some trash in his dumpster behind his bar when Guy reveals himself and knocks out his, now older, protege.

In the past, the Alcatraz doc stitches up Archer, and Guy vouches for the newbie, guaranteeing he can stay on the job. Back in the present, Rebecca gets a call from Ray’s bartender that he is missing and his apartment phone is busy. In his apartment, Ray is badgered by Guy to tell him where Tommy is, and Ray says he only knows him as Guy did, but a picture of young Ray and Tommy confirms to the former guard that they’ve known one another for some time. Guy then demands to be taken to Tommy’s son, which is a lie of Ray’s to get him to stop looking at a picture of Rebecca. After they leave, our trio of heroes arrive, finding that Ray has left his watch as a clue for Rebecca. The half way point in the episode comes when Madsen asks, “Why are the people who took the ’63′s after my grandfather?” To which Alger responds, “I don’t know.”

This is a big Ray Archer episode. It brings actor Robert Forster to the front, and I welcome it. He’s a fantastic actor and I love anything he does. It seems “Uncle” Ray has got his own secrets as well, and some are revealed to other characters, while the final minutes of the show are not. This is also the tightest script in the series yet, as this was the first episode with no miraculous A = B, so B = C moment to move things forward. This is probably because two of the show’s creators wrote the episode, Steven Lilien & Bryan Wynbrandt. There’s also a nice side trip to “the room” on the left. I’m disappointed that Soto hasn’t tried to break into there yet; the man’s an expert at clues, and computers, so why wouldn’t he get that door open on his own? The reveal between two of the B characters was good, and I hope to see this play out later, but not rushed out. The script can’t be the sole reason this was a solid episode; director Charles Beeson should also get some kudos for an emotional and tense episode. This was a good episode, and pushing this storyline back to the front would ruin it for me. Every five, or so, episodes would be a good time to return to the family plotline.

This episode had two good teases: A nice, edited, version of what happened to Guy on the night he “died” and Guy’s ultimate fate. “You’re a casualty in this. You don’t deserve what happened to you,” was a wonderful pair of lines that are wildly open to speculation. And, don’t forget the now-changed relationship between two of the A characters. Where will this take them? Your guess is as good as mine. Next week: Boom!

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