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Alcatraz -- Season 1
#01 "Pilot"#08 "The Ames Bros."
#02 "Ernest Cobb"#09 "Sonny Burnett"
#03 "Kit Nelson"#10 "Clarence Montgomery"
#04 "Cal Sweeney"#11 "Webb Porter"
#05 "Guy Hastings"#12 "Garrett Stillman"
#06 "Paxton Petty"#13 "Tommy Madsen"
#07 "Johnny McKee"
"Johnny McKee"
JohnnyMcKeeEpisode
Season
Episode

07
Airdate
February 20, 2012
Running time
44:02
Production code
2J5054
Written by
Directed by
Co-starring
Michael Antonakos - Club Manager
Dawn Chubai - Newscaster
Alex Corr - Guy
Colin Foo - Proprietor
Patrick Gaites - Train Operator
Biski Gugushe - Supervisor
Byron Noble - Chester Grindle
Kerry Van Der Griend - Guard
Troy Young - Thug
Yee Jee Tso - Asian Guy
Minh Ly - Asian Guy #2
Owen Kwong - Asian Guy #3
Howard Lai - Asian Guy #4
Bernadette Saquibal - Girl

Episode images

"Johnny McKee" is the seventh episode of season 1, and overall the fourth produced hour of Alcatraz. It originally aired on February 20, 2012.

Synopsis[]

1960[]

1x07 cullen
Michael Cullen and Johnny McKee discussing Grindle's murder.

In the Alcatraz Recreation Yard in 1960, Johnny McKee is summoned by Mikey Cullen, a high-profile criminal and a "bully" with a gang in Alcatraz. Cullen threatened McKee with death, and demanded that he murder Grindle, the librarian, who was selling knives and slowing down Cullen's own knife business. With no choice, McKee accepted.

1x07 library
McKee with Grindle.

At the Alcatraz Library, McKee bought a plastic knife off Grindle, paying with a Desire magazine. As banter, McKee asked Grindle whether he would be attending move night. Despite that Grindle preferred to read, he changed his mind and told McKee he would be there after he heard that the movie was Born Reckless, starring Mamie Van Doren.

1x07 cells
McKee talking to Jack Sylvane.

During a conversation with Jack Sylvane, who occupied the cell next door to his, McKee told Sylvane about his girlfriend, Virginia Winters, and that she was the only one who understood him. When Sylvane asked, however, McKee didn't tell him what happened to her. During a conversation regarding one of McKee's books, McKee prepared his poison for Movie night.

1x07 memories
McKee, Sengupta and James in the infirmary.

McKee was one of the patients Dr. Sengupta wished to remove memories from, and thus arranged, with Edwin James, a one hour appointent with McKee in the infirmary. However, as McKee simply replied to Sengupta's questions with sexual banter, James became angry and ordered a guard to take McKee away. Sengupta told him he sould be more forthcoming the next time she saw her.

1x07 film
The inmates watching Born Reckless.

At the chapel, the prisoners were seated for movie night, and McKee informed Cullen that he planned to poison Grindle at the end of the movie. Edwin James then made a speech regarding how movies which featured good triumphing over evil was not for the inmates at Alcatraz. The show, Born Reckless, began, during which McKee decided against poisoning Grindle and poisoned the bully Cullen instead, just like he had done to all the bullies in his high school class. Due to the fact that McKee and Grindle had similar hobbies, such as reading, they both remained friends.

1x07 memory
McKee admitting what he did to Winters.

During his second meeting with Sengupta, McKee admitted that although he loved Ginny Winters, she also was a bully who lured him into a trap. After a "date," Winters allegedly began talking McKee's clothes off, although McKee shortly realised it was another way for the football team in his class to bully him. While they were laughing and throwing fire crackers at McKee, a cherry bomb exploded in his groin, taking his testicles with it. After this encounter, McKee sought revenge, and burnt Winters' face in acid.

2012[]

1x07 ward
Hauser and Beauregard in New Alcatraz.

At the New Alcatraz hospital ward, Dr. Beauregard and Emerson Hauser began discussing Lucille Sengupta's coma. According to Beauregard, due to Sengupta being in a deep sleep, his science, which included Electroshock, Dramatic Memory Therapy and Acupuncture, yielded no results. Beauregard, aware of Hauser's love of Sengupta, suggested that he read to her, as it may give her an excuse to "surface" from her dreams. Whilst making this suggestion, Beauregard hinted that the current world was not a reality for the 63's (including Sengupta and himself), rather it is an dreamlike state. After Beaureguard handed Hauser "The Carpetbaggers" by Harold Robbins, Hauser left and told Beauregard to call him when he had a "tangible treatment to discuss."

1x07 bar
McKee poisoning drinks in a bar.

Meanwhile, Johnny Mckee, who has resurfaced in 2012, applied for a job in a nightclub, and became a bartender. When a group of customers made fun of him, he poisoned their drinks. McKee watched as the customers choked and died and then left as the commotion got bigger.

1x07 match
Soto calling Madsen.

While Diego Soto was playing a game(Starcraft 2) in the Underground Alcatraz Base, a viral video of the deaths at the nightclub appeared, and the computer found a match for the bartender in the video as Alcatraz inmate Johnny McKee. Panicking, Soto called Rebecca Madsen.

Address
Madsen and Soto at the address.

As the Alcatraz Task Force arrived at the bar, Madsen was able to get an address used by McKee to apply for the bartender job. McKee, however, was busy applying for a new job at a hotel, as a pool boy. When Madsen and Soto arrived at Apartment 335 at 142 South Broadway Boulevard in the Richmond district, Soto realised that 142 was McKee's cell number in Alcatraz 50 years ago. Meanwhile, Soto realised that cell number 144, the cell next door, was Jack Sylvane's.

1x07 box
Soto and Madsen discussing the contents of McKee's box of possessions at Alcatraz.

Thinking Sylvane could have some information on McKee, Madsen asks Hauser, who had deleted the viral video off all internet sites, to bring Sylvane to them. Madsen and Soto also did research in McKee's life during Alcatraz and before, which revealed that he was a fan of Jules Verne, a journalist. Furthermore, within McKee's box of Alcatraz possessions, they saw a picture of a girl named Virginia Waters, whose right side of her face seemed to be burnt.

1x07 pool
McKee watches his dead victims.

After getting bullied by a customer at the pool, McKee poisoned the pool's water by adding a chemical into the filtration system, and began waiting for the effects to take place. As he laid out new towels, McKee watched dead bodies floating in the pool and left the hotel, satisfied.

1x07 sylvane
Madsen questioning Sylvane.

Hauser had Sylvane brought to Alcatraz for questioning, and Madsen convinced him to cooperate by giving him his old picture of Sonya Sylvane. Sylvane called McKee an oddball, who could not stop talking about fiction books. He also told Madsen about McKee's "killing jar," a jar McKee kept in his cell full of bugs which he poisoned with nightshade he collected on garden duty. Madsen also asked Sylvane about her grandfather, Tommy Madsen. Sylvane told her how he was always at the infirmary, giving blood, and that he told Sylvane about a place underneath the Solitary confinement cells.

1x07 scene
Hauser and Madsen discussing McKee's methods.

Soto learnt from Nikki, the SFPD coroner, that there was no trace of cyanide in the victims, but nightshade was a possibility. However, as Madsen and Hauser went to the pool, they learnt that the pool had not been poisoned by nightshade. Meanwhile in his old high school chemistry lab, McKee began preparing a mystery chemical, and tested it by killing a mouse.

1x07 school
Madsen and Hauser in McKee's old school.

As the Alcatraz Task Force visited a shop in Chinatown, Hauser, who spoke Cantonese, found out that Mr. Lee, the shopkeeper, obtained some nightshade for McKee and had his delivery boy send it to him. His address turned out to be McKee's old high school. As Madsen and Hauser cleared the area, they found that the mystery chemical McKee had used was Phosgene, which suffocated its victims.

1x07 train
McKee killing the driver and taking control of the train.

On an article which featured Jules Verne's vision of a high speed tunnel for electric trains, Hauser realised that McKee's next target was the metro tunnel between San Francisco and Oakland. On the train, McKee disguised himself as an employee, and made it into the driver's cab, for an "engineering check." He then poisoned the driver, and halted the train to a stop.

1x07 vent
The passengers slowly suffocating.

After seeing a train stopping abruptly on Lucy's computer, Hauser and Madsen immediately opted to take a maintenance car to the train, which they were sure was being poisoned by McKee. Meanwhile, McKee took out a tank, and began feeding Phosgene though the ventilation on the drivers door into the cab, where the passengers slowly began to suffocate.

1x07 fight
Madsen and McKee fighting.

Hauser and Madsen arrived at the train in a maintenance car and freed some of the passengers by breaking the glass. Seeing McKee run, Madsen chased after him, and managed to fight him onto the electric third rail, where he was electrocuted, though not killed.

1x07 dream2
Sylvane and Hauser.

As Hauser arrived back at New Alcatraz, Beauregard informed him that Jack Sylvane wanted to talk to him. Sylvane returned the picture of Sonya Sylvane, claiming it was useless looking at it and dreaming of a life he was never going to have. Although Hauser stated that nothing had changed for Sylvane, apart from the unknown passing of 50 years, Sylvane told him he doesn't dream anymore.

1x07 book
Hauser reading to Lucy.

Hauser returned to Lucy's side, finally agreeing to read to her. When Hauser opened the book, however, he realised it was actually "The Metaphormoses of Ovid," and not "The Carpetbaggers." Beauregard left the ward, saying the book was a joke. Hauser opened the book and began to read.

Trivia[]

  • In the penultimate scene, four cells seem to be occupied in New Alcatraz. These are one belonging to Jack Sylvane,Ernest Cobb, and since Kit Nelson is dead, the remaining cells belong to Cal Sweeney, Paxton Petty, and Johnny McKee due to the fact Petty was not killed and Sweeney and McKee were not killed but knocked out.

Production notes[]

  • This episode, while being the seventh to air, was the fourth to be produced and shot. (Diego's Soul Patch)

Recurring Themes[]

References[]

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