Blackrock holes?

[Yimnam]

There is a bit of logical holes in part four imo.



 

Spoiler

Why does prison at the end of the world where electrity dies often has any electrical locks? Even if you have emergency power, it still can go off someday. You never know how long bllizard will last, even naturally. It's like ticking bomb.

If most cells were old and had mechanical locks, how could they manage to escape when power went off? What does lack of power even change in this situation? This place is a fortress. I understood that Mathis and his bros ran from a bus but there had to be some kind of riot before he came there as Jace was surprised he's already there. It was told he was released so I suppose he was going home when he escaped to get his son. I guess he catched Mack on his way back and wasn't there when it happened. Someone did the job for him. How hard is it to keep people locked in cells where they don't even need to go out for pee? Especially when two worst psychos who could do this were locked or far away. Even if you need to let them out for hospital or something it's not like you let them all out. Even if whole prison had only three guards they would manage keeping eye on one unarmed, cuffed psycho. That one is not something completelly illogical, it could happen, but I'm curious how exactly could it happen.

How does Jace manage to hack their system anytime when they almost break it while aurora happens pretty rare and hacker is useles without electricity? 

And why the heck would you let out pilot if you get shot if he dies? Warden was much less usefull and Mathis almost killed him himself. And they wanted to have not one but two corpses of usefull people? I guess for this one answer is just that they were morons but still.

And most of all if ground phone calls everywhere at the same time how did it happen that Mathis didn't listen to all calls from warden's office?

 

[Veskaida]

I think the thread's title might make more sense as "Blackrock Plot Holes", since 'Blackrock Holes' makes it sound like you're discussing the mine, or maybe some bug/exploit lol.

We don't really have any information about how the Blackrock prisoners broke out of prison, aside from some anecdotes from the warden. But even pre-electric locks prison breaks or riots were possible, so my guess is this is what occurred. Perhaps the aurora helped this, hurt this, or simply added to the chaos. Prisons, or really any security-minded location aren't impervious, but it is just a matter of how much time/effort will it take to breach them (e.g. robbing a bank).

I think the implication with the layout of structures in Blackrock is that the prison is meant to be powered by the hydroelectric dam right beside it, and the power goes to the nearby substation and then up the high voltage pylons back to the prison. Provided this river gave a constantly supply of electricity year-round and was well maintained, it's not unreasonable to think this could have supplied most/all of the prison's electrical needs. It could also be possible that the prison had e.g. backup generators, in the case of an emergency like this (which may be why they were trying to transport prisoners out through Milton at around the time of the First Flare), but that these backup generators were also ineffective during The Aurora.

Regarding letting Will run around in the wilderness with wild animals and frostbite, I think Mathias explains this later on in Part 4 of Wintermute:

Spoiler

Mathias decided that he would rather 'rule over Great Bear Island like kings', than try and return to the mainland. So Will's value to him as a pilot was respected for this reason in Episodes 2-3, but not in Episode 4 (or at least not 'all' of Episode 4).

We don't really know much about the landlines on GBI and how they work, but from what 

Spoiler

Molly

says in Episode 3, it seems they are functional: at least some of the time.

[Yimnam]

We do know a bit about landline.

Spoiler

When Astrid asked how does she know where and when to call she said that they call everywhere so she just calls and wait. So Jayce would call to warden office and other places all the time to catch Mackenzie. There is no way Mathis wouldn't answer or listen or at least notice how they talk to eachother and sabotage it.

And about pilot worth.

Spoiler

Mathis said that later. After Will survived there twice. It's not that he didn't want him alive from start. And those morons let him out risking his death without his permission. If he would die warden wouldn't be a problem for them anymore. 
If warden would die it was something Mathis who killed him. He would be angry and probably punish them, but he's crazy not stupid. And letting pilot out to die is fully on them and I doubt they would survive his anger.

 

[Veskaida]

Yea, I agree @Yimnam I think that's a reasonable explanation and not a plothole. Basically all other electrical technology in TLD either doesn't work, or only works in a glitchy state during Auroras, so I think it's pretty reasonable for Mathis and his gang to not catch on that landlines are actually working.