TV Review: ALCATRAZ - Sonny Burnett 1.9

For me “Sonny Burnett” was the better of the two episodes on the night, or maybe they were on a par, your thoughts? Either way I really enjoyed the episode, although it was the usual procedural chase the prisoner around San Francisco catch him and return him to Alcatraz, I thought this one was better than usual. What was better for me was the fact that “Sonny Burnett” posed more of a threat than previous prisoners and a whole lot more answers, or clues were given to the actual main plot as well as opening up some more questions.

Sonny Burnett was a kid when sentenced to his stretch in Alcatraz, he was a kidnapper who held wealthy people for ransom but would always return them unharmed following payment of the money. That money was $100,000 which he hid in a field and told his last victim Helen (14 at the time) where the money was, he went to Alcatraz and she stole the money, although it was technically stolen anyway so could she really steal it? Anyway Sonny returned to exact a bit of revenge on Helen, kidnapping her husband and killing him, before kidnapping her daughter and burring her alive in the same field where his hid his loot.

It wasn’t so much the front running plot of “Sonny Burnett” that was interesting the episode really opened up with stories in relation to Ray Archer, Tommy Madsen, Lucy, Dr Beauregard, Hauser and has given us some fresh questions or maybe ideas as to where the story could go from here. It would seem that like Person of Interest Alcatraz is going to deliver the mystery just at the right point in the season, I just hope to many people haven’t been forced into switching off already.

It was good to see how Sonny Burnett turned from wimpy kid into menacing inmate who was prepared to take on the toughest guy in the prison firstly beating one of his right hand men before going on to gouge out the guys eyes. This earned Sonny not only the respect of fellow prisoners but also Deputy Tiller who it would seem has some what of an agenda with the prisoners, turning them into men if you will. Like I said in “The Ames Brothers” review Tiller and Warden James clearly don’t see eye to eye and it’ll be interesting to see if Tillers ideas in 1963 have something to do with the prisoners coming back, maybe training them to be of more use in the modern day or something like that.

The Ray Archer / Tommy Madsen story line is clearly going to be very central to the plot of Alcatraz along with that of Rebecca Madsen. We have already seen that Hauser has made it his business to have Rebecca in his team even against her uncle Ray’s wishes, we know Hauser tried to recruit Ray years ago and Hauser also has people watching him,
a move which Rebecca really doesn’t seem to mind. She wants to catch Tommy Madsen but not for the reason that he’s her grandfather, she wants justice for her partner who Tommy killed in the “Pilot” episode.

Dr Beauregard gave us a little insight this week that he may not be as up on things as we first thought, he told Hauser that he only took the prisoners blood, he doesn’t know what happened with it following that. He has discovered that some of the prisoners have been injected with colloidal silver which seems to make them heal faster than a normal person would. A little theory of my own, could it be some sort of age preserving drug and that’s why the prisoners have not aged a day since 1963. Beauregard has told Hauser that if a prisoner has the same blood type as Lucy then she could be injected with this to in order to make her heal quicker. Lucy is another character who will seemingly become
a lot more central to the plot.

Nine episodes in and three to go, Alcatraz has certainly heated up in way of backing plot especially in this two hour Ames Brothers, Sonny Burnett special and I’m really looking forward to seeing the next few episodes, weather we will get all the answers we need by then or are left on a cliff hanger for a second season we’ll have to see.