Alcatraz 1x07 Review

Johnny McKee

Johnny McKee is one of the more terrible killers we've seen on the show so far. He's also one of the best explored characters. He poisons with nightshade, and another really complicated concoction that I won't even attempt to remember.  His targets are people he views as bullies, but his victims are pretty much everyone who has the bad luck of coming into contact with the poison. He has a pretty interesting back story, and I like that his reason for killing him getting revenge for what was done to him and not just him being a crazy guy. 

Like I've been saying for a few weeks I'm not totally cool with them giving every single bad guy a reason to kill and be a baddie but I think it worked here. I was legitimately scared of McKee throughout the episode because he didn't seem crazy and I was happy that they confirmed that. I mean, he was crazy in that he's a homicidal maniac, but he is in full control of his facilities and knows exactly what he's doing. They did remark at one point that he didn't see it as murder because the people he killed were not good people, and that is crazy. But again, killing for revenge is a reason and most of the killers we've seen on the show haven't had a reason at all for killing innocents. 

We got a little more information on the main story, but I'm sure if it was actual information or just more confusion. Sylvane told Rebecca what we already knew. That he woke up in Alcatraz 50 years later. This added to McKee thinking the video on the phone was television is making me reconsider one of the main principles of my view on the show. This hole time I've felt like the people returning were acting too normal, and that had to be because of something that was done to them between places. I suppose that information could be implanted some how. I mean we know for a fact that some of the people returning have missions to retrieve the keys, and that all of this has to do with Madsen's blood. 

Lucy telling McKee in the past that she can get rid of his bad memories might have been an important clue. Since he is still killing in the present I think we can assume that didn't work, or at least that it didn't stop him from wanting revenge. If she wasn't lying to him about being able to remove the memories, maybe they can also implant memories and such. Maybe that's what was happening in that special room. They implanted a select few with memories and thoughts to make them want to find the keys. Everyone else was just collateral. I've thought that for a while now but there is a flaw in that theory. If most of the people we'll be seeing are virtually pointless to the main story then why are we wasting our time with them? McKee's story was great but after tonight will we need to remember him, or what he did? 

The return of Sylvane makes me a little more optimistic, but again he was in the pilot. If it does turn out that most of the people we'll be meeting are not important to the main arc and are just a "63 of the Week" then I'm not sure if the show can really last long term. I hope I'm wrong about all this and that each case is important in its own way. Only time will tell.