In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
The episode opens with a man going into a boy's bedroom and kidnapping him while he sleeps. In his comic book store, Diego "Doc" Soto hears a report on his police scanner saying the kidnapper left a white chrysanthemum on the boy's bed. He knows right away that the kidnapper must be Kit Nelson, one of the missing Alcatraz inmates. For some reason, Hauser spends most of the episode kind of pissed with Soto, or at least looking down on him, and wants him off the team. Rebecca has to plead Doc's case while tracking down Nelson. If Nelson's pattern holds true, then he'll keep his victim alive for the weekend and return his corpse home on Sunday night. Hauser's plan involves calling off the Amber Alert and just catching Nelson after the deed is done. Doc is quite horrified by this, of course, and takes it upon himself to save the boy.
He knows from his research that Nelson takes his victims out for what seem like fun times. They go fishing, playing miniature golf and eating cherry pie at diners. Doc follows the pie crumbs and winds up at the same diner as Nelson and his young victim. He calls Rebecca but Nelson manages to get away with the boy. Doc and Rebecca go through Nelson's prison property, which includes a very expensive brand of cigarettes. They're like, "How does a prisoner afford these?" They follow the money trail (to be explained in the Weecap) and end up at an old bomb shelter. The kidnap victim, a boy named Dylan, makes a run for it. Just when it looks like Nelson is going to catch him, Hauser shows up and shoots Nelson dead. Guess Hauser's conscience finally stirred.
Along the way, we get flashbacks to why Nelson committed these crimes. He got his start killing his little brother out of jealousy and has been recreating the same crime over and over. There's also some hint that Doc himself was kidnapped by someone in his youth. At the end, Hauser brings Nelson's corpse to the Hole in the Woods. He's to be examined by Dr. Beauregard -- the same Dr. Beauregard who worked in the Alcatraz infirmary. Also? Like Lucy, he hasn't aged a day in almost 50 years. Stay tuned for the full Weecap.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!It's night in Walnut Creek, California. A man walks through a suburban neighborhood, a white flower in one hand. He walks up to a house, unlocks the door with a key. He coughs in kind of a pointed way that I thought was going to figure into the episode, but it doesn't. (I think, anyway.) He takes off his jacket and tosses it aside. He turns off a lamp in the living room, then goes into a bedroom where two boys are sleeping. He smiles affectionately at them, then pulls the blanket up on the younger boy. He sits near the older boy's bed, takes a comic book from his hand and gently touches the boy's face. The touch goes bad as the man clamps his hand over the boy's mouth. The boy is instantly awake, trying to scream. "Scream and I'll kill your brother," the man whispers, a tear rolling down his cheek.
Alcatraz, 1960. The man, who looks like Ethan Hawke and Liam Neeson somehow had a baby together, is about to get jumped in the rec yard. Other inmates crowd around him, calling him a child killer. The guards pretend not to see as the other inmates give him a brutal beating. Deputy Tiller watches from the top of the stairs for a while. "Just get him inside before they kill him," he says to a guard. But, you know, no rush or anything.
Doc's Comics, present day. Diego "Doc" Soto sits at a drafting table in the back of his shop, drawing out his adventures in the episode. In comics form, he looks like Penn Jillette and he has not edited out the man-boobs. His nerdy little shop worker comes into the room, going on about how Doc has the best life ever. In the background, Doc has a police scanner program on his laptop. He hears a report about an 11-year-old boy going missing. The mother found a flower on his bed in the morning. Doc springs into action, grabs a folder from his file cabinet and hightails it out of there.
Hospital. Lucy's still in a coma. Rebecca offers some encouraging words to Hauser, but he doesn't seem very encouraged. Doc calls them into the hallway to tell them about the missing boy and the chrysanthemum on his bed and how an Alcatraz inmate did the same thing in 1958. "Since some of those guys are, y'know, back, I think -- I mean -- I know it's him," Doc says. "Kit Nelson, AZ246, who stole the kid from his bed." Hauser frowns at him and asks, "Where'd you hear about this?" Focusing on the wrong thing, dude. "I heard it on my police scanner," Doc admits. "You have a police scanner?" Rebecca asks, displaying more surprise than she has about anything else up to this point. "Not the point!" Doc reminds them. Thank you. Apparently, nobody else has done their research on the inmates, because Doc has to tell them that Nelson steals the kids on a Friday then brings their bodies back home on Sunday night. "If we don't find this kid in 48 hours, he's gonna be dead." Cue Hauser's terrible voice-over. Alcatraz!
While Rebecca drives them to the crime scene, Doc catches her up on all things Kit Nelson. His parents are dead and his brother died of scarlet fever at the age of 11. "Huh, 11... same age as our victim," Rebecca points out for us.
At the victim's house, the boy's mother shows Doc and Rebecca around his bedroom. The white chrysanthemum is still on his bed. "Dylan wouldn't run away, he's a good kid," the mom says. Rebecca shows her Kit Nelson's mugshot, but the mom says it's some guy named Warren who works at the hardware store. She says he came around looking for work. The mom starts panicking when she realizes someone she trusted may have taken her son. All Rebecca will say is that the man is a suspect in another case. Rebecca asks Dylan's little brother if he saw anything. He admits he pretended to be asleep because he was scared. He feels pretty bad about it, so Rebecca tells him he helped her a lot. Which he didn't, but no reason to make the kid feel any worse.
Nelson and Dylan show up at a lakeside boat rental. Dylan is terrified but trying to put on a brave face. "Remember the rules," Nelson whispers to him. Nelson rents a boat and buys a bucket of bait. Dylan looks like he's about to scream for help, but Nelson grabs the back of his neck, silencing him.
Alcatraz infirmary, 1960. Nelson looks like Frankenstein's monster after that fight. Dr. Beauregard gives him some aspirin. "You got anything stronger?" Nelson asks. "How about a cigarette?" Dr. Beau asks, holding out a pack. Nelson gives a disdainful look at Dr. Beau's cigarettes and says, "Not my brand." Dr. Beau says he has young kids. "So if you're looking for something 'stronger,' you're crap out of luck." And yet he politely offered the man cigarettes? Anyway, the doctor leaves and the inmate in the bed to Nelson's starts laughing. "You don't want to mess with Dr. Beauregard, or you'll end up on this side of the screen." Two orderlies are taking what looks like a lot of blood from the man. When they finish up, they pull aside the screen. It's Tommy Madsen. Madsen wonders why Nelson hates kids so much. Nelson grumbles because he thought that, as a murderer, he'd be a little higher up in the hierarchy, so Madsen sets him straight: "It's robbers, murderers, rapists and (big gap) child killers." Even the murderers won't count him as one of their own.
At the hardware store, Doc and Rebecca talk to the owner and learn that Kit Nelson stole the real Warren's uniform. The owner says he also stole some fishing poles and that there is, somewhat conveniently, only one place where people go fishing nearby.
Also kind of strangely convenient? Even though it's the weekend, Nelson and Dylan appear to be the only people on the lake. After pretending to fish for a while, Nelson orders Dylan into the water. When the kid hesitates, Nelson throws him in and then jumps in after him. "Now I want you to hold me under for as long as you can," Nelson says. "I can't -- you're bigger than me," Dylan says. "Just do it! And don't let me up!" Dylan, his teeth chattering, finally shoves Nelson's head under water. After a few seconds, Nelson pops back up and says, "Your turn."
Rebecca and Doc arrive at the lake some time after Nelson and Dylan have left. The rental guy told them that the two were wet when they left. Rebecca thinks out loud. "They went swimming? So he wants someone to play with?" Doc says a witness in 1958 saw Nelson playing miniature golf with one of his victims. They figure that Nelson is letting his victims pick fun things to do before they die. Doc looks sick at that. "You okay?" Rebecca asks. Of course he's not okay! He's a normal human being unlike the rest of you lot! Anyway, he pretends like he's fine and off they go looking for clues.
1960. Warden James visits Nelson in the infirmary with a wheelchair and takes him for a little ride through the prison. After he's wheeled Nelson a good distance from the infirmary, he brings up the reason for their meeting. Nelson's father wants to visit him. At hearing this, Nelson looks panicked. He doesn't want to see his father. In fact, his father's not even on his list of approved visitors. Warden James magnanimously volunteers to amend the list, saying they both served two tours in the war. After that, he makes Nelson get out of the chair, then wheels it away, making Nelson hobble all the way back to the infirmary on his own.
Alca-Hub. Hauser's on the phone, telling someone to cancel the AMBER Alert on Dylan. Whoever is on the other end must mention Lucy, because Hauser gets all flustered and shouts that she's still in the hospital. He throws down the phone. He touches Lucy's jacket and glasses still on her desk. This seems to calm him down a bit until he suddenly knocks her chair aside. He either loves Lucy or hates furniture.
Rebecca and Doc talk to Dylan's mom about his hobbies. He likes comic books and cartoons. He doesn't care anything for fishing or other outdoorsy things. Doc starts having a minor freakout as he realizes he's read the clues wrong. He starts going on about cherry pie until Rebecca asks him to wait outside. As Doc makes his way out front, he sees all the cops leaving. They tell him about the alert being canceled. Hauser drives up just in time for Doc to confront him. "You did this? You canceled the AMBER Alert?" he asks. "Yeah, I did, for the greater good," Hauser says. He plans to just wait until Kit Nelson shows back up with the kid on Sunday night. You know, when the kid is already dead. Hauser doesn't want Nelson's picture getting out to the media. Doc blows up on him. "It's complicated," Hauser sighs. "No, it's simple!" Doc shouts. "I know this because I'm a human being!" By now Rebecca has joined them and tells Doc to calm down. He storms off down the street. "He's just not cut out for this job," Hauser says. Because he's not a soulless robot, you mean? Rebecca tries to walk off the job in a show of support, but Hauser snits that she'll never find her grandfather now. She points out there's more at stake than that and stomps off so he can stand there all alone, looking ridiculous in his wayfarer sunglasses.
Doc begins his hunt for some good cherry pie. He stops in a diner, asks around. Nelson hasn't been there. Rebecca calls him from the Alcatraz storeroom and gets his voicemail. She grabs Nelson's belongings just as Hauser shows up. She basically tells him that the box is meaningless without Doc there to interpret its contents. Also, someone please give this woman a barrette or something before she gets whiplash from repeatedly flipping the hair out of her eyes. Hauser finally relents and tells her to go get Doc back.
He's currently on his nth diner. It's night and raining and he's working on at least his second round of pie. By some stroke of luck, Nelson and Dylan walk into the very same diner. What if he'd skipped the diner route entirely and picked up a pie at the grocery store? Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee. Rebecca calls just as Doc realizes his quarry is right there and he tries to tell her what's going on without being obvious. He's super obvious, but it's pretty endearing. Rebecca gets his meaning and tells him she's on her way.
Visiting day, 1960. Mr. Nelson gets a look at his son's disfigured face and says, "I'm glad to see they're treating you like you deserve." He tells his son that his mother has died and left him a dried chrysanthemum. He accuses his son of killing his little brother one weekend while they were alone and blaming it on scarlet fever. "But that's not what happened, is it? You hated your brother because he was different than you. He loved life. Swimming in lakes, miniature golf, cherry pie." The whole time, Kit is sitting there, looking dead in the eyes and quite chillingly creepy. Papa Nelson goes on: "But your plan backfired, didn't it? Your mama ignored you even more." He wants a confession out of his son, but he sticks to the scarlet fever story.
Diner. As Nelson and Dylan get up to leave, Doc tries to stall them. He drops his plate on the floor, he tries to make some small talk, but eventually Nelson and Dylan make their way out the front door. Doc chases after them. He gives up all pretenses and says, "Let him go." Dylan looks up at him with big, hopeful eyes. The kid's a good actor. "Dylan, don't give up," Doc says. Rebecca drives up and comes at Nelson with a gun, but he grabs Dylan and jabs a pistol into his neck. Rebecca backs off and Nelson drives off with Dylan. "I just got that kid killed, didn't I?" Doc asks. Rebecca glares at him, but she seems angrier at the situation than at Doc himself.
Alcatraz, present day. Doc grabs the box of Kit Nelson's belongings and heads to his old cell. Rebecca scampers after him. Doc digs into the box and comes up with a bunch of pricey Ottoman cigarettes. "Only Al Capone or Machine Gun Kelly could afford these," Doc says. "So how does a guy like Nelson get the money to buy them?" Rebecca asks. This leads them to a bunch of old records where Doc finds a check to Nelson from a cement company, which leads them to finding out he worked there, which leads them to finding out they used to build bomb shelters. Doc taps at the computer for a bit and pulls up the locations for bomb shelters in all the cities where Nelson committed his crimes, including one in Walnut Creek.
The house is long gone, but the shelter is still there in the woods. All that's visible is a hatch poking up from some ferns. Inside, Nelson and Dylan play checkers. Not surprisingly, Nelson does not play well with others. He flashes back to 1960. Tiller and some guards shove him into the hole and shut the door on him. It's windowless and dark and Nelson freaks right the hell out. Behind him, someone lights a match. It's Warden James. "This conversation's four matches long, son." He uses the brief promise of light to interrogate Nelson. Nelson cowers in the dark instead of, say, attacking James. First match: Warden James describes the hobby of phillumeny. Second match: He wants to know what Nelson did to his brother. "Your father would like to know the truth." Third match: Warden James has two children. He has no sympathy for Nelson. Fourth match: Nelson finally confesses to killing his brother. He trembles at the memory of it. He strangled his brother in the family bomb shelter. "That's when I knew... that I had to do it again." Bonus match: He put his mother's favorite flower on her bed. Warden James decides to leave Nelson in the hole anyway, tossing him the matches on the way out. "Make 'em last."
In the present day, Nelson still has those matches. While Nelson is distracted, Dylan sneakily takes off his shoe and throws it at the overhead light, smashing the bulb and plunging the room into darkness. For a kid who doesn't like outdoorsy things, he's got quite the pitching arm on him. He runs from the shelter into the rainy woods. Nelson chases after him.
Rebecca and Doc drive up just as Dylan screams for help. Nelson grabs Dylan. Rebecca catches up and aims her gun at Nelson. "Don't move!" Nelson's all cocky about her not shooting him, so Hauser shows up out of nowhere and shoots him instead. Nelson drops to the ground, dead. Doc calls Dylan over and gives him a big hug. Rebecca looks pretty shocked by the whole thing, probably because Hauser did the decent thing.
Alcatraz storeroom. Hauser joins Rebecca and Doc as they shelve Nelson's belongings. Hauser goes on about "arrested development" and how some traumatic event gets some people stuck at the age they were when the trauma occurred. It sounds like he's talking about Nelson at first, but he looks to Doc. "You were, what, 11?" Doc stares at him. Hauser says he "allows" Doc to help out because of his Alcatraz expertise. "But I need the adult Soto, not the 11-year-old," he says. Did Doc do anything immature in this episode? He got emotional and thank goodness he did, because otherwise the show would be ridiculously and boringly low-key. When Hauser leaves, Doc starts to tell Rebecca about what happened to him when he was 11, but he's too choked up. "It's okay, Doc," she says. "Whatever it is, I bet you've got a pretty good origin story yourself."
Doc visits Dylan and brings him some comic books. When Dylan admits he's still afraid, Doc tells him that something similar happened to him when he was about Dylan's age. "It wasn't easy, but I got away, too," Doc says. "And once that happens, once you know that you can do that, it sort of gives you a super power." Aw. You keep on being 11 in your head if it makes you this awesome, Doc!
Hole in the Woods. Hauser carries Nelson's body over his shoulder. There's a guard standing by the elevator doors and he doesn't offer to help. I'd like to think it's because he's secretly hoping Hauser will herniate a disc. Jack Sylvane and Ernest Cobb watch from their cells. Hauser brings the body to a small lab and flops him onto a table. Dr. Beau is there, looking exactly the same as he did in 1960. "I may need your help with something, depending on how things turn," Hauser says. "It's for a friend of mine." With that, he leaves, while Dr. Beau turns up some music and gets to work.
Tippi Blevins disappeared from prison fifty years ago and then mysteriously reappeared to write about this show. Email her at b_tippi@yahoo.com, or find her on Twitter.