Episode Report Card Tippi Blevins: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Finally, the Finale
By Tippi Blevins | Season 1 | Episode 13 | Aired on 03.26.2012
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.5,000,000 things happened in this episode. It's difficult to judge yet if they were interesting or relevant. Some of them may have actually happened in the previous episode. It's hard to sort things out when they insist on showing two episodes in one night. Time compression is hell on Alcatraz inmates and recappers alike.
1960: Warden James and some unknown scientist give Tommy back his blood, having added silver and other mysterious things to it. He survives the process and the Warden takes him on a nice day out and about Nob Hill. This isn't out of the kindness of his heart, mind you, but because Dr. Scientist is testing out how well Tommy can be tracked by the silver in his blood. Even with 1960 technology, they can pinpoint his exact locations. We also get some of the backstory on "Ghost" from the previous episode, who earned his nickname by being declared officially dead during a failed escape attempt. (The island kept pulling him back. Sounds familiar.) Tommy, realizing he's hopelessly under the Warden's thumb, shoos brother Ray from Alcatraz.
2012: Looking for protection, Ghost checks himself into a mental institution. Tommy kidnaps a doctor and coerces her to get him inside. Ghost decides to kill himself rather than hand over the key. Before Tommy can search him for it, Rebecca and the team show up. There's a pretty awesome car chase that ends with Rebecca catching Tommy. Her victory is brief, though, because then he stabs her in the gut. Meanwhile, Doc has found the key, but he chooses to stay with Rebecca in the hospital rather than find out what's beyond that secret door. It's a good thing, too, because it's kind of a letdown. Hauser finds clunky old computers, a tracking map and Dr. Scientist. He's groggy, but otherwise fine, and definitely not the mutated mole-man this recapper was hoping for.
Other stuff: Hauser is desperate to get Lucy to safety, fearing she'll be tracked/killed. There's some kind of military tie-in to the whole thing. Pipsqueak Harlan is somehow at the heart of everything and the Warden (or somebody) is really pissed at him. Oh and Rebecca maybe sort of dies at the end. Stay tuned for the full weecap.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!It's a sunny day in San Francisco when Rebecca finds herself lying in the street, hands clutched to a bloody wound in her abdomen while the husk of a flipped car burns behind her. She's in agony, but all I can think is, "That top she's wearing is a very pretty shade of blue." And such a nice change from her Peter Pan outfits.
Let's go back in time 36 hours earlier to when Rebecca meets her former boss at Ray's bar. She's wearing the same shirt. That's a long time to wear a shirt. Anyway, she wants to know about her partner. She thinks his murderer knew him. Her old boss admits that her partner was being investigated by Internal Affairs. He was getting "suspicious payments" from none other than Broadway Mutual.
Meanwhile, that Ghost guy from the last episode is trying to get himself checked into a psychiatric hospital. The lady at the desk ignores him until he holds up his insurance card from Broadway Mutual. His name is Joseph Limerick. That is a great name. "I'm an Alcatraz inmate from 1963," he says. "There are some bad, bad people chasing me and I need a quiet place to lay low." Yeah, like using his insurance card from where he's employed by those people won't get him found out. As he gets settled into his room, his takes some time to study his ill-gotten key.
1960. Joe Limerick sits huddled in his cell, wrapped in a blanket and blowing into his hands for warmth. Tommy Madsen in the next cell whispers to him. "Hey, Joe, is it true you tried to escape?" he asks. "I did," Joe says. "The riptide kept tossing me back." Tommy says he heard that the warden filled out a death certificate for Joe and declared him officially dead. "Guess that makes you a ghost." Now Warden James comes with two guards to take Tommy to the infirmary. They strap him down. Tommy's afraid they're taking more blood from him, but Warden James says they're giving it back to him. A new guy -- silver-haired with birdlike features -- hooks up an IV with a bottle of Tommy's blood. He inserts the needle into Tommy's wrist. "What have you done to it?" Tommy asks. "Lots," the new doctor says. Tommy shakes and strains as the blood transfuses back into his body. He says he can taste metal. Warden James watches with perhaps some discomfort.
Present day. Tommy breaks into a house through the back door. (Seriously, folks, don't have windows near your locks.) It's night and the house is quiet except for a TV on low volume. Tommy finds a man snoozing in the living room and smacks him in the face. He aims a gun at the man. "Where's your wife?" he asks. "Not here," the man says. The man's little girl sees this scary scene and quietly flees from the house. Tommy tells the man to text his wife. Cue the intro. This may be the last time we have to hear it!