Episode Report Card Tippi Blevins: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Long, Long, Long Con
By Tippi Blevins | Season 1 | Episode 12 | Aired on 03.26.2012
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.The 1960 portion of the show has Warden James striking a deal with an English inmate named Garrett Stillman. Stillman loves games and planned all his crimes as if they were chess matches, moving the pieces and thinking several moves ahead. That's just why the Warden needs him to steal, forge and switch the parole board's ruling against Harlan. (He's the pipsqueak who outsmarted Cal Sweeney a while back so he could take over the contraband operation in the prison laundry.) The Warden wants Harlan off Alcatraz and, through a very complex series of machinations, he gets his way. Harlan is grateful for his freedom, though he clearly has no idea the price he'll be expected to pay some day.
In the present day, Stillman shows up and steals several armored trucks. They're just a decoy to keep the cops and the Alcatraz team off his back. In reality, he's stealing the third and final key to the mystery room beneath the lighthouse. He doesn't say outright who he's ultimately working for, but the implication is that it's the Warden. (Although if it's the Warden, why wouldn't he still have his own keys?) His "handler" is Tommy Madsen, who shows up to retrieve the key. He's too late, though, because some other inmate (nickname: Ghost) kills Stillman and absconds with the loot. Rebecca and the gang are always one step behind.
In other happenings, Lucy has rejoined the team, Harlan is a crazy old recluse who owns a billion-dollar bank, and time-travel (or whatever the hell it is) has bittersweet consequences. Stay tuned for the full weecap.
Click here for the finale recaplet.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!After being revived last week with special blood, Lucy starts things off this week by watching the recorded interviews of four inmates. All at the same time. Did the blood make her a really good multitasker or was she always like this? She's so into the interviews (particularly Ernest Cobb's creepy account) that Hauser startles her when he walks into the room. They're in the lab portion of the woodsy prison. He chastises her for not resting up like Dr. Beauregard wanted. Lucy wants to go with Hauser back to Alcatraz. When he hems and haws, she realizes that she still hasn't told the rest of the team the truth about her. She marches off to Dr. Beauregard to get his stamp approval, but he declines as he doesn't yet know all the potential side effects of her recent blood transfusion. Lucy decides she doesn't need his approval, after all.
Elsewhere in some San Francisco alleyway, a man eats his lunch in an armored car. Someone knocks on the door. He slides open a little window, scans the knocker's uniform badge and opens the door. He gets punched in the face with the butt of a shotgun. Two other men in creepy hoods join him and take the uniforms off the rest of the car's guards. One of the masked men turns off the car's GPS transmitter. The security guards -- sans uniforms but still alive -- are pushed out the back door as the car drives off.
Flashback. Alcatraz rec yard, 1960. The apparent ringleader from the previous scene sits on the steps, playing chess against himself. Warden James comes along and makes a move without being invited. Rude! The Warden waxes poetic about his favorite piece being the Knight, while our thief prefers the Bishop. "Bishop's about the end game, the long diagonal that lies in wait," he says, revealing much about himself. He has an English accent, not of the Hollywood chimney sweep variety. Deputy Tiller watches from the top steps, looking suspicious or perhaps slightly dyspeptic. Warden James invites his new thief friend to an upcoming parole board hearing on the island. He's confused by the invitation, but intrigued.
Present. Doc tidies up the desk ahead of Lucy's arrival. He's nervous because she's one of the '63s. He's like, "Nobody bothered to tell us," and Rebecca's all, "We never bothered to ask," which is just dumb. Stop being dumb. Hauser walks in with Lucy and Doc gives her an awkward, but sincere hug. Rebecca hands over a file of all the '63s they've caught. "I think we owe you an apology," Lucy begins. Hauser apparently doesn't like the "we" part of that and skedaddles while Lucy explains. "We thought it was best to keep things a secret, but it was a mistake to lie to you," she says. Doc wonders why there was never any mention of a female doctor on Alcatraz and Lucy explains it away as one of the Warden's secrets. She's visibly saddened. She'd believed she was there to help the inmates. Doc says she can help them now and asks her about what he calls the "time jump," going from 1963 to 2012. She says something about adapting quickly to modern technology, which I don't think is exactly what Doc meant, but whatever. She talks about Hauser without mentioning him by name, but about the sadness of realizing people you've loved living an entire lifetime without you. "You begin to realize that even though you're in their world, you're not of their world." The show has been in dire need of little human moments like this from the start.