On March 21, 1963 three hundred and two inmates, guards, and staff vanished in the night and started to reappear today.
One thing that pays off being a Bad Robot/J.J. Abrams fan is that often one can find easter eggs, event/character parallels, and expanding conceptual ideas from work to work. Thinking about Jorge Garcia in his new role, as Dr. Diego Soto, is there still much charm, comedy, and warm-heartedness, as identified with his former LOST character Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, but yet he also now embodies some sophistication, intelligence, and great knowledge! Seeing Mr. Garcia this way is almost like being able to imagine whom Hurley might have been during the rest of his Island-protecting years. And it’s interesting that his Alcatraz character’s first name is Diego, which was the name of Hugo’s brother on LOST.
Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones) is sort of a hard character to hash out in this first episodes. She seems to be in the role of Fringe’s Blue Olivia, but with out the lack of social life, or rather public social identity. She doesn't seem to be hiding anything. In that sense she is a little more like Alias’ Sydney Bristow, but both of these other characters deal with a loss of a lover/ fiance from the start, where as for now, Madsen's personal life is kept in the dark to us, but seemingly I would imagine if there would be somebody in her life, it would now be at a price. She clearly cares about her job and family, but by the end of the episodes we come to contemplate her own identity, because what she believed about her families past involvement with Alcatraz was a lie, --and so begins her journey to rediscovering herself.
Ray Archer (Robert Forester) is Rebecca’s uncle. His role is kind of interesting since he will be the one that knows things about the family. Ultimately having a bar where people drink and discuss events in the city is an asset. I look forward to seeing of how Madsen is going to ever have go against her uncle, or if their will be moments where they don’t see eye to eye??
Speculation/Questions
What’s in a Name?
Once again, Bad Robot has this fun way of mix-matching names of characters and actors alike, or use a name as a reoccurring theme with in a work. Rebecca Madsen is particularly familiar. LOST fans my instantly remember Rebecca Madder who played Charlotte Staples Lewis. If there would be any parallels in characters here, it may lie in motivation, assertiveness, and tenacity. Other things to think about might be time travelling sickness and C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia.
Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill) might have borrowed half his name from actor Michael Emerson. Hauser is German for ‘houser’, which really probably means, ‘head of the house’. Clearly he is in charge of catching all of these 1963 criminals and makes sense to give him such a name. Additionally it might also mean he is ‘a father figure‘, the one who is suppose to take care of every one. Bad Robot works also have reoccurring themes about family (parents and children) and ‘going home’…
Ray Archer prompts me to think about LOST’s two very important Rays...Ray Shepphard and Ray Mullen. One helps his grandson Jack return to the Island, and the other tries help Kate, but ultimately turns her into the Edward Mars for money. But the name Ray itself is probably about hope…rays from the sun. Things that help one enlighten and learn truths. Archer at a glance makes me think of a hunter, direction, fixation, and things that might be associated with the optimistic Sagittarius. We put the name Ray with those ideas and we get something like ‘Light-Warrior’. Additionally Star Trek is now apart of Bad Robot works with the continuation of a new time line in the 2009 film. Star Trek is also something that has been referenced on Felicity, Lost, and Fringe. --I only recently embarked on Star Trek Enterprise. Not only is there heavy time travel issues about trying to ‘fix‘ history, but the main character’s name is Jonathan Archer.
Santiago Cabrera’s character’s name, Jimmy Dickens, may also reference a very well known English writer, Charles Dickens.
Of course this isn’t the first time we have seen Dickens referenced in Bad Robot /J.J. Abrams works either. Felicity had an episode, “Great Expectations” and Lost has nods to “Tale of Two Cities”, “The Christmas Carol”, “Our Mutual Friend”, and “Little Dorrit”.
And Fringe show runners also said that Peter’s situation with the machine is also like “A Christmas Carol” and “A Christmas Carol” flyer appears in the season one episode, “In Which We Meet Mr. Jones”.
Charles Dickens works are also known, not unlike Bad Robot’s, to have characters with “whimsical names”. To me names like Ray Archer and H.B. Tiller definitely fit the bill. Tiller--may be a pun for ‘being in control of the flow of things’, as a tiller is what helps control the speed on a boat.
One other character might also be Dickens-esque. Edwin James could refer to Dickens last unfinished mystery novel, “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”.
From Wikipedia:
"Though the novel is named after the character Edwin Drood, the story focuses on Drood's uncle, choirmaster John Jasper, who is in love with his pupil, Rosa Bud. Miss Bud is Drood's fiancée who has also caught the eye of the high-spirited and hot-tempered Neville Landless, who comes from Ceylon with his twin sister, Helena. Landless and Drood take an instant dislike to one another. Drood later disappears under mysterious circumstances. Dickens died before he could finish the mystery."The Ceylon aspect is also curious and could then mildly connect us to
Parminder Nagra’s character, Lucy Banerjee:
From Wikipedia: Banerjee:
Is a prevalent brahmin surname in the Bengal region of India...
Banerjee's are
Kulin Brahmins, who in the past were considered the highest caste in Bengal (along with Mukherjees, Chatterjees and Gangulis). They are descendents of the Bhattanarayana (originally from Uttar Pradesh) and members of the Sandilya gotra. During the Bengal renaissance and Young Bengal movement some of the people with Bandopadhyaya surname converted into Christianity and anglicized their name as Banerjee (or some into Bonnerjee).
"Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: Hindu (Brahman) name, the first element of which, Ban-, is a shortened form of the village name Bandoghat. The final element -jee is derived from jha (greatly reduced form of Sanskrit upadhyaya ‘teacher’); thus, Banerjee ‘teacher from the village of Bandoghat’. In Bengali names formed with -jee, the initial element is believed to indicate a village granted by Ballal Sen, a legendary ancient king of Bengal, to the ancestor of the person bearing the surname. A Sanskrit version of this name, Vandyopadhyaya, was coined later, from the elements vandya ‘venerable’ + upadhyaya ‘teacher’. "Ceylon is now Sri Lanka, an Island under India with great stories told about it. It's the first Asain Country to have a female ruler..it's curious since we have a Brittish-Indian actress, as one of our series regulars, as Sri Lanka was under British rule for about 110 years! -Additionally a famous Lost Experience Dharma video is also known as The Sri Lanka video.
Methodology of time travel/time preservation.
1: Starting from 2011 to ‘1963’.
Not necessarily, but likely. It probably would be easiest if the 1963-ers were working for 2011-ers.
a: Teleportation devise (time period/time line frequency)
b. Two way door/bridge system (black and white wholes or time bubble)
c. Suspended Animation (Cryonics/Cryogenic Chamber)
In some of these cases and/or if other time periods would be involved, then we may actually be dealing with two timelines….It could be that timeline a and b share the same history from 1963 back, until 2011 made a new branch off by going back. However, it might not matter. For instance, if in timeline a in 1963 all the inmates actually died, and then in 2011 someone goes back, saves them, and transports them to the present, the history between 1963 and 2011 may be no different since the inmates would not of had any future…the only catches would be if there are side effects from doing something like that, or if the prisoners/modern day characters are thought to go back to their timelines…I will be on the look out for side effects.
The First Two Episodes:
Despite if the science fiction aspect becomes a day to day appearance in Alcatraz, or just hints of it, I think it won’t matter. I already like all of the characters and to me this aspect matters more.
When the show was first announced and we had received a premise, the first films that came to mind where “The Jacket”, which is loosely based on the novel, “The Star Rover” by Jack London and Terry Gilliam’s “Twelve Monkeys”. All are about prisoners/criminals who time travel. In “The Jacket” however, main character Jack Starks, a former soldier in Desert Storm, gets set up in car shooting and he can’t remember if he committed the crime or not and is sent to a mental institution, instead of prison…but the doctors experiment with him, causing him to time travel to ‘the future’…"Twelve Monkeys" is similar, except we start in the future where a deadly virus has caused man to live under ground. Scientists use criminals by sending them back in time as agents to find out who was really behind the virus and change the future!
Going along with Abrams other works, such as Alias and Fringe, I have to wonder given the situation with Jack Sylvane, if some of these men weren’t mentally-ill, or set up to go to Alcatraz and between 1960-1963 became sleeper agents. Even Cobb's situation is curious as he rambles on with the number 47 (an Alias and Star Trek number) and how he eats dinner with Coyne’s character whom has a checkered table cloth, which is very similar to the one Cobb eats on before he takes his first 2011 victims.
There is also a character mentioned named Cobb in FRINGE episode, “Johari Window”.
PETER: Cobb? Who's Cobb?The whole episode deals with people who have become genetically disfigured due to a government scientific experiment gone wrong known as, “project elephant”.
WALTER: Edward Cobb was the scientist who dreamed up Project Elephant. He would be the only one with the imagination and the know-how.
Last Thoughts For Now:
Even though I read countless reviews and spoilers, I was still surprised with the episodes. The way in which Hauser “upgraded” part of Alcatraz to re catch the inmates was spectacular and much reminded me of Alias elevator in the Credit Daphine building and APO head quarters
Lucy then also turns out to be an interesting character, a scientist alongside the inmates and lover of Hauser, possibly young and old, but I myself don’t know which way it is?. If she comes from the 1960’s into the present, or if she came from the present, went into the past, and came back again? Will we eventually be dealing with time loops?? --But their relationship is interesting none the less!
I thought it was a wonderful 2 hrs and better than expected. Can’t wait for the third episode!
