Alcatraz Open Thread

Did you watch Alcatraz last night? What did you think of it? Did you love it? I did! I LOVED IT. I love it more every week!

Here are the Top 5 things I loved about it (some minor spoilers):

1. I love Sarah Jones! I love her character, Det. Rebecca Madsen, soooooooooo much! I love that she is continually shown to be both a well-trained and very competent police officer, in both intellectual and physical ways. I have seen SO MANY police procedurals and/or law enforcement/special agent/spy films in which female agents are tough—until the precise moment in which they must be not-tough to give a male character the opportunity for some heroic rescuin'! Last night on Alcatraz, there was a scene in which Madsen was grabbed from behind, and it looked, ever so briefly, like Sam Neill (whose character name I can never remember and can't be arsed to look up—Ellison? Elliot? Emerson? Whatever.) was going to save her, but GUESS WHO SAVED HER? If you guessed that she saved herself by using recognizable self-defense techniques that a female cop would indeed probably know, give yourself 1,000 points!

Aside: Last night, Deeks mentioned via text that it's strange there aren't any gay characters on Alcatraz, given that it's set in San Francisco and all. I replied that perhaps Detective Madsen is a lesbian. I kind of think she is, but I don't have any reason to think that, aside from the fact that we (remarkably!) haven't had a scene of her at home in bed with her dude who's totally a sculptor or subjected to a sub-plot about her dead fiance. Maybe I just hope she is. Which I do. Because: 1. Come on already, Hollywood; and 2. The dearth of major gay characters in Lost always bothered me.

2. I love Jorge Garcia! I love his character, Dr. Diego Soto, soooooooooo much! I continue to dig how the character serves as the reminder that violence is real and ugly and difficult to process, and I like how he fancies the M.E. who wears the comic tees, and how she maybe kinda fancies him, too.

3. I love the score! I know I have said this before, but OMG Michael Giacchino your score is soooooooooo good!

4. I love the mystery! Also! I have a theory: It seems like Dr. Sangupta's very creepy work has something to do with rehabilitation, but it wasn't very successful, since all the 63s are picking up their criminal ways exactly where they left off. And I suspect that we may be heading toward a central commentary about the failures of hard incarceration and torture in rehabilitation, underlying the mystery about the time jumping. That would be very neat!

5. Everything else!