Alcatraz - "Paxton Petty" - Recaps

On March 21, 1963 three hundred and two inmates, guards, and staff vanished in the night and started to reappear today.

Paxton Petty’s episode, as quoted by Jorge Garcia, is “the episode where things blow up.” Paxton’s criminal persona shines, as a man who succumbed to the horrors of being a young soldier in the Korean War and in both the past and modern day was willing to let innocent people die with the placement of land mines selected in code from song lyrics attended to go of on United States Government property. The episode also lets us get in a little closer with Lucy and Hauser’s relationship, as Petty is a man Hauser brings to Alcatraz on the night he meets Lucy in a 1960’s flashback.

The Manchurian Candidate:
Although North Korea is not apart of Manchuria, it’s right next door. Some are familiar with the novel and films, “The Manchurian Candidate” where America solders were taken from North Korea to Manchuria, where they were brainwashed to believe they were saved by another soldier named Shaw…but truth becomes clearer, as Shaw was a sleeper agent of the KGB and that he actually assassinated much of the platoon, and additionally he becomes “activated” or “triggered” when he sees the Queen of Diamonds playing card.

It seems some of the plot elements may tie in here since we now have 3 members of 1960’s Alcatraz and at least one plus one, whom served in the North Korean war. Guy Hastings was in the Navy, Paxton Petty in the 15th infantry, Tommy Madsen was in the 45th infantry, and Tommy’s and Ray’s father also served. Curiously the 15th infantry is a “Parent Infantry” with lineage going back to The American Civil War…

Additionally Edwin James had mentioned in “Kit Nelson” that he had served two terms in ‘the war’, although I still believe that James is initially is from the Civil War Era, as stated in The Kit Nelson Recap, but also continue to believe this because of something Lucy said to him in this episode. -“When are you going to come into the 20th Century?!” -Possibly literally suggesting to the audience that James and/or Beauregard’s methods of interrogation are from the previous century…

-But also back to what James said about serving two terms in the war, he also said this in relation to speaking with Nelson, as he had sympathy for Nelson’s father wanting to come to visit, because he too was a father and served in the war . Additionally Kit Nelson once had a job with the C &C Cement Company, who built military bunkers. It makes me wonder if Kit’s father had something more to do with the death of Kit’s brother and his arrested development.

And thinking of the KGB, I had thought something was strange about the situation with Jack Sylvane and his wife. In The Pilot and Ernest Cobb Pt2 Recap, I had compared Jack Sylvane to rather well known Jacks in the Bad Robot universes, Jack Shepphard (LOST) and Jack Bristow (ALIAS)…Looking at CIA Agent Jack Bristow and “Alias”, the series is full of American verses Russian KGB (K-Directorate) conflicts and mildly deals with sleeper agents such as “Project Christmas” (various episodes), “The Covenant” (“Full Disclosure“), and SD-sleeper agent, Martin Shepard (“Reckoning“, “Color Blind“). Jack Bristow’s wife, and daughter Sydney Bristow’s mother, Irina DeRevko, was a Russian spy sent to America to marry Jack and kill several agents and steal state secrets. The series is partially about Sydney learning the truth of the past, as she has to come to terms that her mother is still alive and active agent. I found it curious that Jack Sylvane’s wife spoke with a foreign accent, possibly Russian or Ukrainian. (Note: If you haven’t had enough of Land Mines yet, check out Alias episode: Passage pt. 2)


The Theme of Tan and Sand:
The episode goes out of it’s way like all before it to have patterns and codes be repeated and shoved at us in the episode. One them is Sand and Tan. We first have the mention of “The Sandman” from Nikki’s shirt (which I enjoyed meeting Nikki. I hope she is a reoccurring character). “The Sandman” itself is long comic series descending from DC comics and comes from “The Golden Age” (1930’s) which originates from writer Wesley Dodds and later written and slightly reinvented by writer Neil Gammon.

From Wiki about Dodd’s Sandman,

"Attired in a green business suit, fedora, and gas mask, the Sandman used a gun emitting a sleeping gas to sedate criminals. He was originally one of the mystery men to appear in comic books and other types of adventure fiction in the 1930s but later developed into a proper superhero, acquiring sidekick Sandy, and founding the Justice Society of America."

Neil Gammon’s modern age version is about the never ending landscape of dreams. The idea of dreams may relate to being asleep--or not really in reality, and this could tie into a possible sleeper agent aspect of the series, or even perhaps something to do with time displacement. It turns out Petty painted his bombs so they could be well hidden. His second series dealt with one being planted in “Sunset”, or really Sunset Beach. Rebecca and Diego discover where Petty kept his mines, in an old mausoleum where tan/sandstone spry paint was also found, which pointed to the sand of the beach…But sadly, the most ironic thing relating to this was Rebecca’s friend in the bomb squad, Matthew Tanner, who saved Hauser's life by attempting to deactivate the land mine was killed even though he thought he deactivated the mine right.

The Theme of Frozen:
Some of us had been holding out for some kind of reference to cryogenics as one possible time preservation method, or part of a series of methods relating to the arrival of the 1963-ers in modern day. Cryogenics deals with freezing (or cold energy) technology to help preserve the human body. In J.J. Abrams written film, “Forever Young” the main character is preserved in a cryogenic chamber. Additionally the frozen chamber below LOST’s Orchid station may also relate to cryogenics and cold fusion as the Island floated and one can argue the Island preserves and reincarnates humanity through several timelines. (“What did one snow man say to another?” -”It’s a bloody snow globe”) Again cryogenics is used in Fringe with a Shapeshifter named Newton who comes to use a scientist’s cryogenically persevered head as his own.

But "Paxton Petty" gives hints of things relating to freezing, cold, or frozen. The first comes from Diego’s Soto’s comments about Captain America. "Someone's helping them..maybe unfreezing them. It was like when Captain America was captured in the Antarctic ice for like--"

Another one is in the form of a code word from Petty’s lyrics, the word “Snow”.

And again when Lucy was trying to walk Petty through his Korean War experience, using words like "cold" and "freezing mines".

But sometimes things that are cold are metaphors for death and or near death experiences. There was plenty of death looming in the episode. Thinking about sleeper agents and a novel I mentioned before, "The Star Rover", the concept may further extend itself in multiple identities over several centuries...


Mount Sutro: A man from Prussia.
Mount Sutro is featured as the missing Land Mine code word, “Twin Trees” that isn’t revealed until the end of the episode. I didn’t really know anything about Mount Sutro, but what I found on wikipedia was interesting.

Mount Sutro was named for the 24th and Jewish Mayer of San Francisco, Adolf Sutro. Sutro derived from form part of Germany, which at the time was one territory of Prussia. Prussia territories had comprised over The Kingdom of Germany, parts of Poland, and Russia for several centuries. I made mention because it may relate to speculation about Hauser (a German name) and his ring, that may relate to Rosicrucian groups descending from medieval times, same times of the beginnings of Prussian territories, when Lutheran beliefs started to branch off, but also relates to the pursuits of alchemist and beliefs in immortality and/or divine knowledge/technology.

Adolf Sutro may also mildly relate to Paxton Petty. He is well remembered for his laboring investments to buildings, monuments, and land projects of San Francisco, as he literally used dynamite in leading mining exhibitions to help expand his land and community projects. So the irony is that both of these men enjoyed blowing things up. One other interesting bit of information about Mount Sutro is that it was previously named Mount Parnassus, named for the Greek Man Kleopompus and already named Greek Mountain, but the Parnassus itself relates to dreams, imagination, and ultimately one’s perception of reality, as it is also a modern metaphor of the home of lititure, learning, and poetry.


Twin Trees - A Branch in Water:
Temporary Rebecca places Petty in a jail cell at the former Alcatraz. Petty asks desperately if any one can tell him what happened to him. Diego wants to tell him, but doesn’t know what to say and Rebecca says, “You have like 50 different theories, just tell him one.” -Diego gives an analogy to Petty about perception. He explains that one may look at a tree branch and the world around them starts filling up with water and they think that the branch is the whole truth of reality, but it isn’t. Implying that nothing is as it seems, which doesn’t really help Petty or the audience understand, only stating the obvious. However this branch analogy along with the code word for Mount Sutro, “Twin Tree” may be metaphoric to not only duel identity or the repeated actions from past to present, but may shed light onto something more macrocosmic of Generational-ism and perhaps creating alternate realities.

An Honorable Mention:
The Mausoleum of the Korean War Veterians memorial may be nod to Once Upon Time. Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, the creators of Once, are former Bad Robot alumni, both as writers and executive producers of both Lost and Felicity. A lot of the show itself references Lost and many Bad Robot actors guest star on the show. A Mausoleum is featured in the episode, “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter”.

"Sheriff Graham begins to remember his past life in the Enchanted Forest and Emma begins to consider if she's falling for Graham while the backstory of the Evil Queen's faithful Huntsman is revealed. At the conclusion of the episode, Graham ends his relationship with Regina and Emma gets into a scuffle with the Mayor. As Graham later tends to Emma's eye, Regina secretly returns to Storybrooke Cemetery and heads down a secret passage taking her underneath the Mills mausoleum, which bears a symbol on its exterior – the same symbol Graham saw in the book of fairytales when he went to see Henry. Regina enters the Queen's hidden vault and opens a cabinet containing the Huntsman's heart, which the Queen ripped out after learning that he failed to kill Snow White. Graham remembers his past life as the Huntsman after being kissed by Emma and is about to kiss her back but dies when Regina takes the heart and squeezes it so hard it crumbles to dust."  

Once Upon Time has a similar style of story telling a modern day tale informed by episodic flashbacks. Last Sunday's episode, "Skin Deep", guest stared Lost alumni Emili de Ravin as Bell...who was hidden in a secret ward-like-prison underneath Storybrooke's General Hospital.


The Facilitators:
Diego points out that there is always a Facilitator! He uses Superman villain Lex Luther (mad scientist and/or industrialist of advanced technology...and does anyone know if Luther is a pun for Lutheran??) as his primary example. Explaining how any of the materials the 1963-ers need is still available to them in the now. I think it’s beyond fair to say there is one, but really whom is behind it is still a big mystery.

Lucy is the character that I truly wonder about. She often times offers positive outlooks and goodwill. In the flashbacks we get a sense that what she feels is going on at Alcatraz is wrong, and the others' methods don’t produce positive results, but the fact that she cares about results at all still prompts questions of her overall motives. Even her presence there seems so out of place. A women doctor in 1960’s Alcatraz there to help the criminals? Many viewers have discussed when they think the facilitators originate and it seems like the easiest solution would be in the future (or even what we perceive as type of present) to the past and back again! --Even Lucy’s push to be kind and go to dinner with Hauser seems something unlikely of the times considering she is appears older than him in those scenes. It’s almost like she knew him already. Plus there is s shady duality with being kind, but then having no problem drugging someone and using shock therapy. Are those mints really mints? Additionally is knowing how to break codes generally the job of the average psychologist?? Could she be a type of agent herself? An agent of the future come to change history forever?

But the final scene is what really got to me. Hauser takes the dying Lucy from the hospital to the medical room of his revamped version of Alcatraz. He carries her to Beauregard and says, “You know her methods?” He musters a sort of yeah, and Hauser says, “Fix her”. --In the flashbacks we definitely get the feeling that Beauregard didn’t see eye to eye with Lucielle’s/Lucy’s methods or valued her as colleague, but clearly something has changed, because here he is with Hauser doing his bidding, but also what ever “secrets” in advanced(???) medicine she taught him (I thinking about what you thought about Kit Nelson, Josh!), he learned and apparently it beats the modern 2012 standards.

Until Next Time,
                          You got some Artz on you!