#MurderTrending

Content Warning: The source material includes descriptions of abduction, torture, murder, and graphic violence, as well as sexual references, objectification, and harassment.

Cameras symbolize control: the all-seeing power of the Postman. The cameras on Alcatraz 2.0 “are always watching” (29). The Postman uses cameras to manipulate what other viewers see and do not see on the island.

Cameras turn the inmates into actors in the Postman’s “scripts,” playing out the roles he assigns to them for millions to watch. The cameras also represent the fans’ obsessive viewing. App users observe the inmates 24-7, and the inmates never know who is watching or when. They are rarely unobserved and never alone. Fans get pleasure from watching without being seen in return. The Postman’s cameras go beyond surveillance and into the realm of voyeurism. Fans take pleasure in secretly watching and sexually objectifying inmates—Dee hates the idea of “pervs” watching her in the bathroom—and viewing their graphic deaths.

To Dee and the other inmates, the cameras bring “fear and pain and death” (241). Nyles cautions Dee that “nothing bad ever happens on Alcatraz two-point-oh without a camera close by” (38). At the same time, the cameras prove to be the Postman’s undoing.