Shutter Island

McPherson is angry with the marshals for venturing outside during the storm, which has officially been upgraded to a hurricane. Teddy and Chuck are soaking wet, so they change into orderly scrubs before meeting with Dr. Cawley. McPherson escorts the marshals to Cawley’s office, and the two inadvertently walk in on a tense meeting between Ashecliffe’s doctors. They are debating whether to continue on with testing psychotropic drugs on their worst patients; Cawley objects, citing studies that suggest the drugs could do long-term damage, but he is overruled by vote.

The talk then turns to the hurricane and fears that it could knock out power to the island. The doctors are particularly concerned about Ward C. Should the power go out and the back-up generator fail, the cell doors will open automatically and release the hospital’s most dangerous patients. Dr. Naehring argues that the patients should be tied to their beds for safety, but Cawley pushes back. If the island floods, he argues, “‘they’ll all die’” (162).

Over the course of the debate, Teddy realizes that the island currently holds sixty-six patients. He interrupts the doctors and explains he thinks the “67” in Rachel Solando’s first coded message refers to the island’s sixty-seventh patient.