As the number of viewers for the latest episode of Alcatraz dropped to five million in the US, down from an initial high of ten million for the pilot (suggesting moving it to Monday nights wasn’t a good idea), Fox published the official synopsis for the two hour series finale which suggests a cliffhanger ending rather than, as fans hoped, a definitive reveal…
What secret is the warden keeping, and just who is behind the 63's disappearance?
It doesn’t say “all will be revealed” as some claimed it might but it does give an interesting hint as to what will happen, the discovery beneath Alcatraz would seem to be related to the mystery door opened by the keys (the first of which we saw in episode one) especially in connection with the phrase “revealing doors are opened”, and the use of “lives hang in the balance as Rebecca will stop at nothing” makes it clear Tommy has a big part to play (that and of course the fact that the final episode is appropriately called “Tommy Madsen”).
The fact it doesn’t offer any hint of a definitive ending points to the likelihood that we will be told a key part of the story but not enough to give a proper answer as to just what is going on at Alcatraz, and with the series having now lost literally half its viewing audience and most experts believing the series will be cancelled it’s looking ever more likely the whole story will never be revealed.
So, just what will be revealed? UK viewers might want to skip the next four paragraphs as they deal with episodes not yet aired in Britain but for the rest of us here’s what is likely…
Is Lucy really a 63?
The one thing that recurs in Alcatraz is the 63’s blood, particularly that of Tommy Madsen, and so it makes sense that (given the write up and episode title) the final episode will reveal just what has been happening to the prisoners blood but just as with Abrams other series about a mysterious island (Lost) we won’t get a full answer because it will simply bring up more questions. Tommy Madsen clearly holds the key but we know the warden is hiding a secret of his own (other than the gold), something hinted at in episodes such as “the Ames brothers”. While fans will want to know how the warden had laser cut keys before the technology even existed, and exactly who is sending the 63’s through time (and how they are doing it) these answers are unlikely to be revealed in the finale.
Instead we are likely to find out what was put into the prisoners blood, that the warden isn’t actually the one behind it all, and that there is more to Lucy than we thought.
Why Lucy? Jack Sylvane said that he doesn’t dream anymore since he left Alcatraz, and the doctor said the 63’s heal very quickly and are abnormally healthy. Yet not only is Lucy not recovering as quickly as the 63’s but she still dreams, which begs the question is she really a 63 after all? The only way for a laser cut key to be in the wardens possession before the technology was invented is simple, someone had to make the key after 1963 and travel back in time for the warden to have it. Could that someone be Lucy?
It would be a gripping finale indeed if we found that Lucy isn’t a 63 as we suspect but is instead someone from the present who somehow went back in time, that Tommy Madsen had an evolutionary defect in his dna that was utilised to help the others survive time travel or even make it possible (maybe this is why Rebecca is so important?), that the warden is working for someone we already know of but never suspected and that what lies behind the locked door will turn what we thought we knew of the series on its head just as happened with Abrams Lost.
Fans look set for a mouth watering finale that will reveal some answers only to raise more questions, and a dramatic cliffhanger that as the screen fades to black will leave us open mouthed and praying to the tv gods that Fox don’t give up on the series.
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