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"On March 20, 1963, two cops - one middle-aged, one younger - pay a visit to the prison island of Alcatraz and discover that every last guard and prisoner - 302 men in total - has mysteriously vanished. In the present day, a dishevelled figure is found lurking in an Alcatraz cell by a tour group - mistaken for a homeless man, he&amp;#039;s quickly booted out. Perturbed by his surroundings, the man seems surprised to find a ticket back to the mainland in his jacket pocket. As he boards a boat and flicks through a guide book, we see that the man is former Alcatraz inmate Jack Sylvane - and he hasn&amp;#039;t aged a day since 1963... Going back further - to 1960 - we learn that Sylvan&amp;#039;s prison life was hell - he was tormented by ruthless associate warden Elijah Bailey &amp;#039;E.B.&amp;#039; Tiller and was cut off from his beloved wife for months on end. In the present, it&amp;#039;s been three months since her partner was killed in the line of duty and Detective Rebecca Madsen is determined to fly solo. She&amp;#039;s called to a homicide - the now-elderly E.B. Tiller has been brutally murdered.  Enigmatic government agent Emerson Hauser arrives on the scene and assumes control of the investigation, but Madsen is able to sneak a single print from the scene. Though the prints are identified as Jack Sylvane&amp;#039;s, access to his file is restricted...  Falling back on her secondary resource (Google - what else?), Madsen researches Sylvane and Tiller and stumbles across an Alcatraz &amp;#039;fan site&amp;#039; of sorts, run by one Dr. Diego Soto\u2026 Madsen finds Soto at some kind of nerd haven (it has comic books and built-in video game consoles) and he tells her that Sylvane was &amp;quot;one unlucky cat&amp;quot; - a World War II vet who robbed a grocery store and ended up in Alcatraz after killing an inmate who was getting &amp;quot;frisky&amp;quot; in the shower. What&amp;#039;s more, Sylvane&amp;#039;s been dead for over 30 years...   Finding a key in his jacket, Sylvane uses it to open a gym locker and finds a gun inside. When a gym worker discovers the armed Sylvane, the criminal knocks him out cold. Meanwhile, Madsen shoots the breeze with her &amp;#039;uncle&amp;#039; Ray Archer - a former Alcatraz guard turned bartender who raised her as a kid. Alcatraz nerd Soto is excited to meet Archer, but freezes up when Madsen mentions that her grandfather Tommy also worked at the island prison... Come sun up, Madsen and Soto take the first boat to Alcatraz and explore the former guards&amp;#039; barracks. But a gas canister soon puts pay to their investigation, rendering both unconscious.  Madsen wakes to find herself in a lab built beneath the prison, presided over by Emerson Hauser and his technician Lucy Banerjee. Hauser has a surprise for Madsen and Soto - security footage of the frail E.B. Tiller being stalked by a miraculously young Jack Sylvane... Receiving news of the assault on the gym worker, Hauser reluctantly allows Madsen and Soto to accompany him as his investigation continues - it&amp;#039;s never properly explained why he felt the need to gas them both in the first place. Back in 1960, Sylvane is released from another spell in solitary and is subjected to bizarre blood tests. A hidden prisoner - number &amp;#039;2002&amp;#039; - addresses Sylvane from behind a curtain and warns his fellow inmate that something terrible is coming...   And back to the present - the gym worker memorised the licence plate of the cab that Sylvane used to escape and soon the fugitive is intercepted by two cops, but shoots them both, killing one and seriously wounding the other.  Soon after, Sylvane breaks into the home of one Barclay Flynn, retrieving a mysterious key from his safe before mercilessly shooting Flynn in the head. Our heroes arrive on the scene, but Sylvane is able to give Madsen the slip. Soto has apparently been doing some on-the-move research - he&amp;#039;s learnt that Sylvane&amp;#039;s beloved wife Sonya remarried while he was locked away - not only that, but her new man was Sylvane&amp;#039;s brother Alan! Another trip back to 1960 - Jack Sylvane finally receives a visit from Sonya, but she&amp;#039;s emotionally exhausted and wants a divorce. Poor Jack can&amp;#039;t catch a break... In the present, the elderly Alan Sylvane is stunned to be reunited with his forever young bro - it&amp;#039;s revealed that Sonya tragically died of cancer four years prior. Having ditched Hauser, Madsen and Soto arrive on the scene sometime later - Jack has taken Alan and tied up his grown nephew Alan Jr. &amp;quot;He said he wanted to find his wife,&amp;quot; explains the terrified hostage.   A moody Jack pays his respects at to Sonya at a suitably gloomy graveyard, but Madsen tracks him down. Sylvane admits that he killed Tiller out of hate, but as for Flynn? &amp;quot;I only did what they told me,&amp;quot; he says... But before Madsen can get any more answers, Sylvane is shot by Hauser&amp;#039;s snipers and led away in cuffs. Madsen wants to know more about Barclay Flynn&amp;#039;s death, but Hauser warns her to worry about the next victim.... You see, Jack Sylvane was just the beginning - Hauser has known that the missing 302 men would return to Alcatraz for a very long time. We take one final trip to the past - back to 1963 and the day of the vanishing - it&amp;#039;s revealed that the young officer who came to Alcatraz was Hauser himself! Among Hauser&amp;#039;s list of inmates, Rebecca spots her grandfather Thomas Madsen - not a prison guard, but the mysterious prisoner &amp;#039;2002&amp;#039;. Not only that, but Thomas - unaged since 1963 - was the criminal responsible for the death of Madsen&amp;#039;s partner... Madsen wants answers and agrees to join Hauser&amp;#039;s operation, on the condition that Doc Soto is her new partner. But what of Jack Sylvane? He&amp;#039;s escorted to a high-tech holding facility by Hauser, who&amp;#039;s still sore over the death of his friend E.B. Tiller... Sylvane&amp;#039;s knocked to the floor as Hauser&amp;#039;s cranium meets his face - &amp;quot;Not to worry, Jack,&amp;quot; the agent tells his criminal quarry. &amp;quot;You won&amp;#039;t be lonesome long.&amp;quot;  Welcome to Alcatraz! \u2022 The Alcatraz pilot is a relatively solid introduction - it&amp;#039;s clearly aiming to be enough of a procedural to attract casual viewers, while still maintaining enough of a story arc - the disappearance of the inmates, Flynn&amp;#039;s murder, the key - to keep loyal fans interested. \u2022 Though the show&amp;#039;s been (incessantly) compared to former JJ Abrams series Lost, it actually comes off more like a less interesting Fringe - the icy blonde lead, with her eccentric but knowledgeable assistant and sour-faced boss. \u2022 Jorge Garcia is a charismatic as ever and Sam Neill has fun munching the scenery as Hauser, but the show&amp;#039;s lead Sarah Jones struggles with a flatly written role. \u2022 And in terms of supporting cast, well... there really isn&amp;#039;t one. Santiago Cabrera and Parminder Nagra are so badly underused here that they&amp;#039;re basically relegated to cameo appearances. \u2022 It&amp;#039;s also worth noting that this is a different version of the pilot than the one Digital Spy saw at the San Diego Comic-Con last year - and not all of the changes are for the better... \u2022 For example, cop Jimmy (Cabrera) was originally Madsen&amp;#039;s love interest, but now this element appears to have been excised. In its place, we have the cliched sub-plot of Madsen&amp;#039;s slain partner - do we really need another maverick TV cop looking to avenge their partner&amp;#039;s death? \u2022 The twist regarding Madsen&amp;#039;s grandfather also falls flat - it was enough in the original pilot that he was revealed as a crook rather than a prison guard, but now he&amp;#039;s responsible for the death of Madsen&amp;#039;s partner too. It stretches credibility far too far. \u2022 One final note - if Hauser was, say, 20 in 1963, wouldn&amp;#039;t that make him around 70 now?! Sam Neill is in fact a sprightly 65-year-old, but we refuse to believe that young Emerson was supposed to be a teenager... "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/alcatraz/review/a360494/alcatraz-pilot-recap/>