Alcatraz Investigates A Child Killer

Credit: Zap2It

Jorge Garcia as ‘Doc’ in ‘Alcatraz’

Alcatraz focuses on child killer

The third hour of Alcatraz made zero headway on the startling cliffhanger from last week — that is, why Lucy (Parminder Nagra) was seen in flashbacks as a shrink in Alcatraz. File that one away in the unanswered questions cabinet — you Lost fans are familiar, we’re sure.

This week’s episode focused on Kit Nelson (Michael Eklund), a “child killer” who was beaten by his fellow prisoners in Alcatraz, as the lowest of the low on the criminal totem pole. Also, he was shunned by his war hero father, who believed he killed his brother as a child. Spoiler alert: it turned out that he did, indeed, choke his brother to death, fueled by jealousy of his brother’s zest for life. He had watched his brother die at his hands. “That’s when I knew that I had to do it again,” he ‘fessed up to the match-obsessed Alcatraz warden.

And do it again, he did, with a particular M.O. — he kidnapped a child on a Friday, leaving a chrysanthemum behind as a measure of condolence for his victims’ families, and returned the child’s lifeless body on Sundays.

Cut to present day, when Nelson continued his pattern with a child named Dylan, who he stole from his bed. Hearing the information on the police scanner, Doc (Jorge Garcia) summoned Rebecca (Sarah Jones) and Hauser (Sam Neill). They follow the clues from present day and 1963 — which, admittedly, were a more contrived this week — and ultimately returned the child home after Hauser put a bullet in Nelson’s head.

More importantly, a mild temper tantrum from Doc prompted Hauser to reveal that he believes Doc is in a state of “arrested development” — perpetually stuck at age 11 after some sort of traumatic experience we’re sure to investigate further in future episodes. (We’re a little skeptical on this, given the part where he’s a fully functioning adult, and we’d cut him some slack for not knowing exactly how to handle kidnappers and murderers in his third week on the job.)

When Hauser brought Nelson’s body to Alcatraz II, there was a disconcerting scene in which the prison doctor laid out the body and turned up the music. We also got the impression that should Lucy die, Hauser will also bring her body to the doctor. Is he able to revive fallen ’63s?

Into the unanswered question file it goes.

Weigh in, Alcatraz fans. Did you enjoy this week’s episodes? What do you wish they’d change? Have you developed any theories as to Lucy or the prison doctor yet? Drop us a line in the comments below and let’s chat!

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