What a difference an hour makes.
The first half of Alcatraz’s pilot was quite possibly the worst hour of television I’ve seen in recent memory. The second? ‘Ernest Cobb’ delivered everything that was hyped about the show and more. The difference between the two was quite simple; while the first hour tried to cram coolness down your throat like an over-processed highlight reel, the second hour was more subtle and provided some much needed depth.
Ernest Cobb is a squirrely, Giovanni Ribisi-looking guy with a touch of OCD and a whole hunk of crazy mommy issues which really helped in his penchant for sniping people. He ended up in Alcatraz by request, which of course strikes the Warden as odd.
While I brought him up, the Warden (Edwin James) looked at first to be a rip off of Warden Norton, but he turned out to be anything but that. This Warden is a great character who managed to make a memorable impact in a short time. He’ll be one to keep a close eye on as the show forges ahead.
Cobb’s ultimate goal once inside the walls of Alcatraz was solitary confinement. He seems to have a yearning to be left completely alone, probably a result of his issues with being given up by his mother and the rejection he felt when he tracked her down years later.
When Cobb shows up in the present day, he doesn’t seem to have the same tasks that Sylvane was given. In fact, his shootings seemed pretty random (while still maintaining his M.O.) with the exception being Lucy.
That’s right; big spoiler #1 is Lucy gets plugged by Cobb. She lives, but ends up in a coma with a 50/50 prognosis on waking up. This has a serious impact on Hauser and his relationship with Lucy becomes very intriguing. Hauser now ratchets up his intensity and wants Cobb caught even more.
Madsen tells Soto that Lucy being shot was not part of Cobb’s three shootings in three days pattern, but was simply a fluke. Two issues though, the first being big spoiler #2. At the end of the episode, Cobb is in a straightjacket on Alcatraz in 1963. The Warden informs him that he is bringing in a doctor to see if they can crack into his psyche. In walks what appears to be Lucy, looking just as young/old as she does in the present.
Is this the same woman? If so, then perhaps her being shot by Cobb wasn’t as random as they thought. Further proof to this is within Cobb’s M.O. His targets were all teenage girls (a product of seeing his 16 year old half-sister when he went to find his birth mom), but he hid that fact amongst his other victims to make all of the shootings appear random. Lucy may have been the real target and everyone else used to hide that fact.
After Cobb is apprehended, Hauser has a bit of business that makes me hate Sam Neil in this series a lot less. As he points a gun at Cobb while he’s on the ground, Hauser asks Madsen if he’s right handed. She says yes, so Hauser aims and fires a bullet right through his hand. “No more shooting,” he says oddly calm. It’s a pretty monumental moment for the team leader that cements he means business and has a weapon he isn’t afraid to use.
‘Ernest Cobb’ is a marked improvement from the first hour of Alcatraz and hopefully indicative of things to come. It featured solid writing, good direction, enough mystery to keep me interested, and enough reveals to keep me satisfied. Here’s hoping the first hour goes the way of the Star Wars Holiday Special and never sees the light of day ever again.
– James Zappie
