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Oz (1997)
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The Routine
We're introduced to the newest crop of inmates to enter Oz, including Miguel Alvarez (who is promptly stabbed in the chest while waiting to enter Oz), Tobias Beecher, a naive, pale and hopelessly out of place lawyer accused of killing a little girl while driving intoxicated, Donald Groves, a cannibal who ate his mother (he was saving his father for thanksgiving) and Kareem Said an outspoken and much-respected Muslim leader who tells the warden and McManus upon his arrival that "as of today, I run Oz." The prison pecking order is in full display and almost everyone has a group to belong to whether it be the Aryans, Muslims, Gangbangers, Wiseguys, Latinos etc. Hill tells us that although violence is everywhere, it's the endless, orderly routine that will kill you. The word routine is said an awful lot, in case we forgot what the title of the episode was. Beecher has the unfortunate luck of having Dino Ortolani as his 'sponsor' to help him get acclimated to prison life. Ortolani has a wee bit of a temperment, and even the charasmatic Said can't save him from ticking off .. well, just about everyone. Ortolani's old nemesis, new inmate Ryan O'Reilly, along with Jefferson Keene and Johnny Post, two members of the gangbangers, set fire to Ortolani. Meanwhile, Beecher learns that being Aryan inmate Vern Schillinger's 'prag' (ie. his bitch) can be a real pain in the ass...
Visits, Conjugal and Otherwise
Ortolani's still dead, and the Wiseguys ain't too impressed. For the record, neither is the warden, but I'll bet you a shiny new quarter that the Wiseguys are gonna get results before Glynn does. The investigator, Burrano, interviews Keene, Groves and Busmalis to find out what they know, but he figures that Ryan O'Reily is a pretty safe bet considering how conniving he is. 'Course, Ryan's always one step ahead, letting it be known to the Wiseguys that Post is the one who actually lit the match. In contrast to O'Reily's wheelings and dealings, Beecher's been in his bunk so long, his mattress has an indent of his ass. Diane Wittlesey, a guard in Em City, suggests that Beecher go to Sister Peter Marie and arrange a conjugal visit with his wife, Genevieve. Because apparently having your wife cook for you and have sex with you helps you forget you're in prison. *shrug* I'm game. He arranges the visit, but the affair seems to do more for him than it does for her. Maybe it's that swastika tattoo burned on his butt? Nah. Beecher's warm, fuzzy feeling lasts about 10 seconds for when he returns to Em City, Schillinger has found his family photos and is perusing them whilst taunting Beecher. Beecher tears the photos into pieces. Conjugal visits come up on the spending chopping block, sending the prisoners scrambling to get some last minute nookie. Governor Devlin thinks that getting rid of conjugal visits will save money. I think keeping big, strong, angry men happy is more important than $3M but then, what do I know? Keane doesn't just want a conjugal with his girlfriend Mavis, he wants to get married. So does she, even though he's going to be in Oz for life. Awww.. prison love. McManus can't seem to get the two hitched, but a few words from Said send Glynn practically vying to be the flower girl at Keane's wedding. McManus is not pleased-- but what else is new? Unfortunately for Keane, the marriage has to be by proxy since he can't leave the prison. His stand-in wife, Adebisi, isn't the beautiful, blushing bride you think he could be. Maybe a little lipstick? Hill confesses he loves pussy. Thanks, Hill! Mukada, having no luck convincing Alvarez to take responsibility for his baby, turns to Alvarez's grandfather who is also, conveniently enough, in Oz (so is Alvarez's dad, for the record, but his lack of a tongue makes him kind of a moot point. hehe.. a moot mute! I'm sorry. Really I am.) It seems to do the trick. C'mon, you just can't argue with grandpa. Schibetta's wife dies and just as you start to feel bad for the guy you see him cope with his feelings of loss by deciding to off Johnny Post. Lucky for O'Reily, loudmouth Post insists with his last breaths that Ortolani's death was all his doing. Real bright, Post. And the moral of the story? Love will always and forever, break your heart. My thoughts exactly, Hill...
God's Chillin'
That whole 'an eye for an eye' theory ain't working so good as the tension increases between the gangbangers and the wiseguys. Keane, despite his new-found faith, swears he will have revenge on O'Reily for selling Johhny Post out. Glynn warns Schibetta, Said and Keane to keep themselves and their followers out of trouble, or else the whole prison's going into lockdown. That whole little plan starts unravelling when Keane receives an unexpected (and definitely unwanted) "gift" from the wiseguys. Healy, O'Reily's C.O.-in-cahoots warns Keane to make sure no harm comes to Ryan. Ryan, meanwhile, is trying to get help with an appeal with a little help from ex-lawyer Tobias Beecher. While the chances of Beecher actually being able to get Ryan out of prison look pretty slim, the odds of the two of them getting high as a kite look very good indeed. Beecher continues to have problems with Schillinger, but is granted a little bit of good news in that he becomes Sister Pete's personal assistant. Her personal guidance doesn't seem to be working so well, but O'Reily's increased offers of drugs seem to melt away the blues like a charm. Schillinger doesn't approve, but that doesn't stop Beecher one bit. Both Keane and Groves look into matters of the spirit and new inmate, 16 year old Kenny Wangler tries his best to do so also, but opts instead for the life of a gangbanger. Keane tries to stay true to his new identity, but with his suspicions of his wife, Mavis's infidelity and his brother Billie still embracing a lifestyle which he deems immoral, he's got quite the challenge ahead. He forgives O'Reily for his ratting-out of Johnny and Ryan returns the favour by arranging for Keane to be taken to a make-shift gladiator ring against a couple of Latinos while the corrupt guards watch and videotape. Keane kills one of the Latinos, Martinez, in self-defense and the whole prison is put into lockdown. Governor Devlin brings in the feds to investigate the rash of murders. Alvarez's wife gives birth to a baby boy. He brags like a proud papa, but when his baby suddenly gets ill, he believes it is his pride that is to blame for the baby's sickness. He goes to father Mukada for help, but decides that praying isn't as effective to God as a good ol' fashioned disfiguring and he cuts his face and palms as sort of a trade-off to God. A "my looks for his health" sort of thing. Hill tells us God not only has the world in his hands, he has it by the balls, and I feel I am inclined to agree at times.
Capital P
Governor Devlin has reinstated the death penalty and luck Jefferson Keene is the first to try out the new law. The inmates buzz about Keene's death, but Keene himself isn't all that worked up. Sister Peter Marie is wholly against the death penalty and is fired when she decides to join the protestors gathering outside Oz. Her replacement is a disaster, and by the end of the episode she's got her old job back. Beecher feels it's his duty as a lawyer (albeit a disbarred one) to offer his services to Keene, but he rejects Beecher's offer. Keene's thinking is that if he dies now, having found Allah, there is a chance he may get into Heaven. If he returns to Em City, he feels he may return to his old ways. Keane donates a kidney to his ailing sister, and then is killed through lethal injection. The whole situation is very taxing on Said who faints due to high blood pressure. Dr. Nathan prescribes the drugs which will ultimately kill Keane, and this makes McManus upset, citing that "doctors are supposed to heal." All this talk of death must make McManus horny, for as Jefferson Keene is getting the needle stuck in his arm, McManus and Whittlesey are doin' it right up against them dirty prison walls. Meanwhile, life continues in Em City for many prisoners, including Ryan O'Reilly who, sick of taking orders from Joey D'angelo, arranges for him to "accidentally" get hurt in the kitchen, injuring him enough to put him out of commission for a while. Alvarez's self-imposed stigmata isn't enough to save his baby, and the plug is pulled after Alvarez sees how sick his child is. The death count just keeps on risin' as Richard L'Italien, a serial killer who confesses to killing over 30 women is also put to death through lethal injection.
Straight Life
Tim makes a concentrated effort to slow down drug traffic in Em City. When Nino turns down Tim's offer to help him get out of the business, Tim punishes him by transferring all his men into gen pop. Nino makes a deal with the gangsters. Poklewaldt hopes to avoid paying his debts to Adebisi by ratting him out to Glynn and McManus. Nino uncovers a secret that leads to Markstrom's death. A cloud of suspicion hangs overhead as Glynn orders a lockdown. A stir-crazy Miguel is calmed by podmate Groves and his acid-coated stamps, and eventually hallucinates visions of his dead son. Despite Tim's declaration of love, Diane ends their relationship when rumors begin to spread. Three-strikes lifer Scott Ross arrives mid-lockdown, renewing old ties with Vern and Diane. She accepts his offer to smuggle cigarettes in exchange for money after the commissioner bans double shifts for guards. Said is diagnosed with hypertension, but refuses to take medication for fear of losing his focus as a leader. Rebadow later puts the fear of God into him. McManus agrees to leave him be after Said drops a hint that a hack is responsible for the drugs coming to Em City. Nino orders Ryan to stop Healy's drug trafficking. Enlisting Poklewaldt's help, Ryan arranges for a deal between himself and Healy to be intercepted. Ryan gets sent to the Hole, tells the hacks Poklewaldt is responsible (and he gets Ryan's beating as a result), Healy is fired. Sister Pete forces Beecher to come to counseling after he shows up at work high. She and McManus arrange a visit between Beecher and his mother. Vern later dispatches an effeminate gay to give Beecher a makeover.
To Your Health
The subject of aging inmates is brought up at a staff meeting after Bob Rebadow is attacked by Kenny Wangler and has his care package stolen. The staff proposes creating a senior's cellblock for the aged but the commissioner turns the proposal down. Rebadow confesses to Groves that he wants to escape and he does. If by escape you mean fall down the stairs and end up back in the hospital bed where you started. Speaking of the elderly, the most senior Alvarez is found mumbling naked on his cell floor, suffering from Alzheimers. Sister Pete suggests that to have a better relationship with his grandfather Miguel Alvarez should assist his father, Eduardo Alvarez with taking care of his grandfather, Ricardo Alvarez, which he does. Got that? Good. Hill hates it when people say "At least you've got your health". So do I. Groves doesn't have his health. What he has is a toothache. The dentist isn't too thrilled about poking around in his infamous mouth, but Groves comes out feeling a whole lot better and, as an extra bonus, he and Scott Ross decide that maybe the tooth might be worth something to crime collectors. Beecher's humiliation continues as he is forced to perform in drag in the prison talent show. Everyone enjoys the performance except for Ryan and Sister Pete. Oh yeah, and I guess Beecher. His drug use is escalating and Sister Pete thinks it's because he thinks of himself as a victim and is allowing Schillinger to punish him. Pete arranges for Beecher to meet the mother of the girl he killed who starts out composed but ends up yelling at him while Beecher stares, stony-faced and stoned. Schillinger orders Beecher to don a shirt bearing a picture of the confederate flag and then walk through Em City. Beecher goes to Ryan for help and Ryan gives Beecher PCP. PCP + Beecher=crazy spinny camera graphics and also has the effect of making Beecher grow a spine. Toby takes a chair and throws it through Schillinger's pod, causing Schillinger to get glass in his eye and skin and prompting the majority of the inmates to chant "Beecher! Beecher!" whilst Toby goes apeshit. It's about damn time. While Beecher detoxes and thrashes in the hole, O'Reily and Schibetta have a little talk that gets Adebisi thrashing. Schibetta reassigns the cafeteria over to O'Reily, much to Adebisi's dismay. When the food staff refuse to work under O'Reily, he teams up with Adebisi with the promise that together, they can kill Schibetta by putting ground glass in his food, thereby one day inheriting his drug trade. Scariest. Partnership. Ever. Enter Jackson Vahue, NBA star extraordinaire. Hill wants to be his sponsor because he's Vahue's biggest fan, but he soon learns that Vahue is not the role model he thought him to be. Vahue won't do work detail, he doesn't care about class and he puts more stuff up his nose than a bored 5 year old with a box full of crayolas. Worst of all, he pressures 22-months straight Hill to take drugs too, sending him back into the spiral. The only person who should be taking drugs is the one refusing to, namely, Said. He doesn't take his meds for hypertension, even when Sister Pete begs him too. He wants his mind clear, which seems like a good plan considering new muslim inmate Huseni Mershah seems bent on making the Muslims a much more 'active' group. Read: violent. Said disapproves but doesn't make a big deal out of it. His heart tells him otherwise, however and when he has a heart attack, Mershaw says it is the will of Allah that he should die. Luckily for Said, the hacks must notice him because he gets rushed to the hospital. Hill offers to trade bodies with me. I politely decline.
Plan B
Said wakes up from his heart-attack with only one thought on his mind: Must. Find. Mershaw. Mershaw's prematurely spreading the word that Said told him to lead the Muslims in case of an emergency. Enter Said. Mershaw is cast out and no Muslim is to talk or look at him. Burn! Mershaw, after feebly trying to get back into the fold, settles for selling Said out instead. He goes to Glynn and McManus and tells them that Said is stockpiling weapons but McManus ain't buyin' what Mershaw's sellin'. Glynn's not so sure that Mershaw's lying so they have a shakedown. The result? Damn, there's a lot of pointy objects about! McManus is not pleased to say the least and orders that tv, gym and phone priveleges be revoked for one month. Alvarez mumbles "Gee, Dad, I hope I can still make it to the Prom." Make that 2 months. C'mon, McManus, funny's funny. The inmates learn Mershaw's to blame for the shakedown, and as he's transferred into gen pop, they all spit at him. Double burn! Mershaw takes their expectorating personally and offs himself in his cell. Sayonara, sellout. Said isn't pleased with the way the FBI investigations are going and he causes a little media ruckus. Glynn makes an order that no group may wear similar clothes, have prayer beads or any of the other knick knacks that make organized religion cool. Hey, Muslims, are your ears burning? 'Cause Glynn's talking about you. Said ain't gonna play Glynn's game and insists he doesn't need all the trimmings to be a true Muslim. Word. He organizes a protest in the cafeteria against the FBI ruling that the 5 deaths that have recently occured in Oz were all inmate-caused. The display catches the attention of one Donald Groves. Groves begins to idolize Said and decides the best way to show his devotion is to kill Glynn. Well, the boy always was a bit unorthodox. He accidentally kills a C.O. named Lawrence Smith instead and is sentenced to die. Remember what I said about Groves being a little unorthodox? Yeah, about that. He chooses to die by firing squad. Hunt, one of Smith's buddies wants to be one of the trigger-pullers and is allowed to, despite Glynn's reservations. Meanwhile, the other officers take their frustration out on the other inmates. Play nice, boys. One of the new officers brought in to help ease the tension leaves Said a little present in his laundry. It's a gun. Wouldn't a nice mint on a pillow have sufficed? Groves gets a visit from Smith's mother who is *waaaay* too forgiving, considering the circumstances. Groves is moved by her and asks Father Mukada to copy down his last words so that he can pass them on to Mrs. Smith. Mukada swears to do so but Groves' last words are made unintelligble by a faulty speaker. Seems not only is life a bitch in Oz, so is death. As for Hunt, shooting Groves didn't give him the peace of mind he thought it would. Hate to say "I told you so." Now, for the cultural portion of the program. Eugene Dobbins is a musician in Oz, of the cellist variety. He says his cello is lonely because it has no one to play with. Methinks this cello guy is a wee bit off his rocker. Hill likes him, though. He likes him a hell of a lot more than his "hero" Jackson Vahue who's snorting like there's no tomorrow. Sister Pete advises Hill to get another hero, and he does: himself. Hill arranges for a trumpet player to make Dobbins' cello less lonely and feels good... for about 3 minutes until Vahue's harrasses Dobbins and then later breaks his cello. Bastard. Well, that about does it for culture. Let's go see how Schibetta's doing. Hey, I guess Ryan's poisoning paid off because now Schibetta's bleeding from all his facial orifices (I'm not even going to speculate about non-facial ones). That'll teach Nino to call Ryan a stupid mick bastard. Adebisi and O'Reily let Said know that any business he had with Schibetta now belong to them. Said isn't exactly shaking in his khofi. Hey! It's Long Vern Silver! Schillinger's back in action, but one eye's temporarily out of commission. McManus can't decide whether to move Beecher or Schillinger out of Em City but Schillinger's sassmouth makes the decision for him. Bye Vern, enjoy Unit B. Beecher doesn't get the warm return he hoped for, as Schillinger's cronies taunt him. At least he smashed those ugly glasses of his in the hole. He asks McManus to move him around, but McManus rightly points out that he ain't no travel agent. Well, like I always say: If you can't get your way, kick someone in the nuts. Beecher does just that to Schillinger when they meet in the gym. But he doesn't stop there, my friends, oh no. There's a hit to the head with a weight, a slamming of the chest with a bench and then, le piece de resistance: He takes a poop right in his face. Oh yeah, baby. Long live CrazyBeecher!
A Game of Checkers
Hill notes that wars have been started over a game of checkers. Keep this subtle hint in mind, children, it's gonna rear it's ugly head a lot over the next hour. Schillinger's recovered from a face-full of crap, and he says it's made him a changed man. Most of us are content to go to church or volunteer, but hey Vern, whatever floats your boat. He mentions his kids came to see him and they were all hepped up on goofballs and they laughed at him. Schillinger wants to make his parole in 3 months so that he has a chance at saving them. Because a few hugs and kisses will make up for 17 years of hate, I'm sure. McManus relents, and passes the news on to Beecher, who ain't too pleased 'bout the whole thing, but says he'll try to make nice. Beecher becomes O'Reily's podmate (is it just me, or could we have avoided a lot of anger if this had happened a long time ago?) and O'Reily asks him to get his back if a riot breaks out. Not that one will, mind you, just *if* it happens. Yeah, right. McManus catches Diane giving cigarettes to Ross but he doesn't fire her. I guess there are benefits to sleeping with your boss. She tries to tell Ross her contraband days are over, but Ross makes it clear that he decides when it ends. Rebadow, for the record, is still old and scared. Said organizes the Muslims for the upcoming 'jihad' but in the end, it's *gasp* a game of CHECKERS that starts the whole damn thing. Who would've thunk it? Two inmates begin arguing about who moved whose pieces and the prison goes into instantanious chaos. Just add fire. Glynn, for his part, tries to calm months of pent up anger, sexual frustration and physical abuse by yelling into a bullhorn, but it just doesn't have the effect he was hoping for. Said organizes the prisoners and O'Reily, Ross, Adebisi and Alvarez join him as the "leaders" of the prison. All access is shut out and many of the C.O.'s are beaten and taken as hostages including Wittlesey, Hunt and Mukada (guess Miguel isn't the pal you thought he was, eh Ray?). In the fray of the riots, Dobbins is badly hurt and Hill guilt-trips Vahue into taking him past the gate so that he can get medical attention. Beecher is enjoying himself for once, and he's obviously digging being crazy. He tells Schillinger that he knows Vern's trying to stay out of trouble to get paroled, but he wonders aloud what would happen if, every time Vern was up for parole, he somehow got into a fight with his old roomie. Fiddle-dee-dee, what would Verny do? He also calls him 'prag' which makes me smile. I love a good role-reversal. McManus watches his vision for the perfect prison slip through his fingers. He wants to talk to the prisoners before Gov. Devlin sends in the SORT team and turns off their water and electricity. The inmates are hungry so McManus offers to bring them sandwiches. This way, he can also see the hostages. He sees that Mineo and Armstrong are doing particularly badly. He wants them to release the two, along with Wittlesey in exchange for himself. Adebisi points out that 3 for 1 is a bad trade. Who knew Adebisi could count? In the end, McManus is traded for Mineo and Armstrong, while Wittlesey remains. McManus tries to reason with Said, proposing that together, they could build a better prison. Said says that they don't need more prisons, bigger prisons, better prisons. They need better justice. Now what can McManus do about that? Yeah, what can you do, tough guy? McManus is stymied. The prison's heroin supply is getting awfully low all of a sudden (Adebisi, I'm looking in your direction) and the prisoners are beginning to fiend. Couple this with the constant fights that are breaking out among the seperate groups and Said realizes what we already know: It's the beginning of the end. The lights go out, the hostages are lined up and everyone runs for cover as the SORT team bulldozes and teargasses its way through Em City. Hill says everyone wants a place to rest their bones, even if it is in a place called 'Oz'. Personally, I'm looking for somewhere a little less on fire.
The Tip
So everyone's still talking about that wee little skermish that happened that kinda, sorta, destroyed Em City, making it look like my friend Greg's house after one of his legendary all-night parties. Long story short? After the smoke cleared, 2 officers (Nowakowski and Hunt) and 6 prisoners were dead and 34 wounded. Everyone's shoved into Gen. Pop except for the riot leaders who are put into solitary (which gives Adebisi ample on-screen touching-himself time, which i do *not* need to see). Gov. Devlin gets Alvah Case on the scene to help figure where to lay the blame for the whole ordeal. Not surprisingly, Devlin's hoping it'll all lie squarely on the shapely shoulders of the prisoners. In return, Devlin says he'll look kindly on Case for the job of Attorney General. Yeah, serving under the Devil. Now *there's* a reward. Alvah, who bears a striking resemblance to both the principal on 'Boston Public' and Uncle Phil on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, goes hot on the trail of why the riot occured. He talks to just about everyone including McManus (who's having a hard time defending Em City with that big bulletwound in his chest) and Said (who maintains there *was* no riot, just a struggle against injustice). Alvah ain't getting too far, but that's okay because he's got bigger fish to fry. Scott Ross is dead (and the peasants rejoice) but his death leaves a bad taste in his mouth (Ross'll do that). With all the bullets flying, Ross got shot in the head, heart and (cross your legs, guys) groin. Hmmm.. that ain't right. So Alvah's on the Case again (Ha ha! Will the humour never stop?), this time trying to figure out if Ross was offed. They trace the bullets in Ross to a SORT team member. After said SORT team member says he "misplaced" his coveted gun, Case realizes he's covering for someone, most likely a C.O. The prisoners aren't liking the cozy surroundings in their new crammed pods in Gen Pop. Wangler needs tits (nothing new there) and Beecher's taken to rhyming. Hey man, the crazier, the better I say. Beecher's new roommate, James Robson, is having trouble falling asleep and decides that a nice, soothing blowjob, courtesy of Beecher is in order. Uh... Robson? The prag-train's left the station, buddy. All you got left is CrazyBeecher and I wouldn't put my *finger* in his mouth, never mind my.. well, you know. Ah, Robson, you didn't listen, and now Beecher's bitten off the tip of your penis. Life's a bitch when you don't heed warnings, son. Case is still Scooby-Dooing it around Oz, questioning people about Ross. His conclusion: He wasn't well liked. Good detective work, Alvah, my man. Case figures out through various sources that Wittlesey is the most likely to have offed Ross. Schillinger doesn't sell Wittlesey out, even though he was close to Ross because he wants to make his parole and he makes it known that he wants Diane to put in the good word for him. I honestly can't think of one good word to describe Schillinger. Bald? Scary? The voice of the yellow M&M in the commercials? Okay, that's more than one word, but i had to stick that in there. Dobbins is dead. Hill is sad. Just so you know. Rebadow stops being old and scared enough to let Case in on the cigarettes deal that Wittlesey and Ross had going. O'Reily says that the two were always whispering to each other in corners. Beecher even stops being crazy long enough to tell Case from the Hole to check the bullets in McManus--they're from Said's gun, which he dropped and Ross picked up. Man, what is it about this place? Usually you can't find one person to confess that he saw something, now they're practically lining up like my Aunt Tessie at the county pie-eating contest. So now Case has got motive (Ross shot McManus), weapon (the gun from the SORT guy) and ability (she stupidly says she 'cradled Tim in her arms' which meant her arms must've not been tied behind her back the whole time). Confronted with the evidence, Diane all but confesses saying she "refuses to be anyone's victim". Word. Sisters doin' it for themselves. So, Diane's screwed, but Case's heart softens when he hears that Wittlesey's life and the life of her daughter will be ruined if he comes forward with his information. Case relents and reports that the riots were the fault of no one and and that measures will be taken to insure it'll never happen again (I'll believe that when I see it). Devlin's pissed that the prisoners aren't being charged, but he's always been an angry little midget. The Governor insists that this won't help Alvah's chances for becoming Attorney General, but Case informs him he has no intent of becoming Attorney General-- he wants to be Governor. Uh-oh! You got Uncle Phil mad, Governor! So, Diane keeps her job, and the riot leaders are let out of solitary. Because, in the end, Oz is all about the love. The love and the violence.
Ancient Tribes
Em City's back, Hill informs us, 10 months after the world ended. McManus has decided that maybe some changes are needed to make Em City function at a better level than complete and utter chaos, so he's decided to make everyone equal. Easier said than done. To start, he has declared 10 different groups residing within Oz: the Muslims, the gangsters, the Latinos, the Italians, The Irish, the Aryans, the bikers, the Christians, the gays and the festively named: Others. You know that this group is full of the kids that no one would play with at recess. Anywho, there will be four members of each group living in Em City and one of those four will attend a weekly meeting McManus will hold so that they get a say about what happens in Oz. Said does not attend the first meeting saying his absense will speak louder than his presense. Way to rain on Tim's parade *again* Said. My favourite new group, the Others (yeah, I'll admit, I was the kid who sat alone at recess) are having their very first spat. Hill says he doesn't belong there, because he was a bad-ass on the streets and the rest of the Others crew are certifiable. Hey, that's not true. Rebadow is a good guy who just talks to God and-- oh. Well, all Beecher did was poop on a man's face and then de-genitalize another-- yeesh. Well, what about the new guy, Agamemnon Busmalis, he says he's called The Mole and is digging his way out of Oz.. I think Hill might have a point here. McManus's first meeting tackles the issue of education. He wants to make all the prisoners real smart-like, and enlists the help of Jonathan Coushaine, a prisoner who used to be a high-school teacher (so prison must seem like a breeze to him). McManus especially wants Wangler and Poet to start coming to class so he bribes them with the promise of no more floor mopping and a forbidden conjugal visit (though, thankfully, the latter is not administered by McManus). The class is a disaster when Kenny freaks out because Coushaine asks him to read--which we learn, like speaking intelligently and being kind, is something Kenny cannot do. McManus attempts to teach him on his own, in the hopes that reading will be Kenny's Anti-Drug. Despite the meetings and the motivational speeches, the whole New-And-Improved-Spring-Fresh Em City thing ain't working out so good. O'Reily and Adebisi are still worrying about the Sicilians, because though Nino Schibetta is dead, his son, Peter Schibetta is very much alive. And as of this season, is very much in Oz. Ryan forms his very own welcome wagon and tells Peter that he knows who killed his dad, and promptly turns in Adebisi. Peter isn't as easily fooled as his father and is skeptical of Ryan and his apparant allegiance to the Italians. Peter also isn't as well liked as his father, at least not by Glynn who gives in to Peter's demand to give the kitchen back to the Sicilians, but only after he deems Peter to be a not-nice guy. Way to lay down the law, Leo. *Sigh* No more pirate jokes at Schillinger's expense, I'm afraid, as the bandages have come off and ol' Vern can see the world through both hate-filled eyes again. Otherwise, his life ain't great as his father comes to visit and tells him that his boys have run off again and he has no intention of finding the brats. Vern is understandably upset, but is angered further by Beecher's never-ending presense wherever he turns. Beecher vows that Vern will never leave Oz and Vern, ignoring that his parole hearing is mere days away, searches for a hit man. When it's clear nobody wants to kill the crazy man, Schillinger tells Wittlesey that he knows about what really happened in the riots and offers to pay Diane to pull a Scott Ross on Tobias Beecher. She agrees and Beecher is led out of his cell in the middle of the night. Next morning, everyone's abuzz about what's happened to Beecher and Vern's practically giddy. Diane reaffirms that Vern asked her to kill Beecher and that he was going to pay her $2000 and then asks him if he'd like to see the body. Now, she can't actually be called a liar because she does show him a body. And it is Beecher's body. Only problem is, it's still upright and breathing. And kinda ticked off that Vern was looking to get rid of him. Vern kisses parole goodbye, Beecher kisses his chances of ever getting along with Schillinger goodbye and I kiss my rabbit's foot that Schillinger's rather large thigh completely covers his naughty bits in the hole. During a routine prisoner address, Leo flips out on Alvarez for making a routine prisoner sex-joke. He orders Alvarez to come work for him in the office which means that Miguel just stands by the door for hours while Leo pretends not to see him. The job would be worse if it weren't for Leo's pretty secretary, Sarah. When Miguel mentions that he has to go meet his mom and sisters in the visiting room in 10 minutes, Leo tells him to clean the bathroom and then he can go. Needless to say, Alvarez doesn't make it, and I hate Leo. Depriving a man of mama-time? Not cool. Then he attacks Alvarez when he flirts with Sarah, and I'm starting to wish Leo'd been trapped in the riots. We learn that Glynn's sudden hatred of Alvarez is due to his daughter's recent rape by a group of Latinos. I know Leo's hurting but, still... The only thing that makes me angrier than the above scenario is O'Reily's hideous Season 2 Mullet. Yuck, the hockey hair thing just does *not* work on him. But that isn't Ryan's biggest concern: he's got a bleeding nipple. After much prodding and poking at Ryan's nipple (and I don't have to tell you that he's liking that), Dr. Nathan deduces that Ryan has breast cancer. Ryan doesn't believe her, equating breast cancer with her calling him homosexual or a woman, and tells her that she's wrong. Scream all you want, Ryan, but you might want to start yelling at that tumour in your chest. O'Reily refuses to get anything done about it, until Mukada talks to him in a leather jacket. The priest means business. Ryan relents after realizing he might die and he almost cries so, for a few minutes, I can almost forgive him the mullet. Almost.
Great Men
Hanlon overhears Miguel boast he knows Ardith's rapist. He tells Ray, Ray tells Glynn, and has to stop Glynn from beating the truth out of Miguel. Glynn later turns down Peter's offer to learn the truth in his own way. Rebadow agrees to join forces with Busmalis after he catches him digging a tunnel in their pod. Beecher and Hill argue over farts. McManus gives Diane the brush-off on her first day back in Em City. McManus gives Wangler a present after he makes strides in his reading ability, but Adebisi quashes any future progress. The Others vote Sister Pete sexiest woman in Oz, Beecher reveals she had a husband before becoming a nun. Pete visits solitary prisoner Giles after he's heard repeatedly babbling her name. The conversation turns violent before she gets any answers. Copies of Said's book arrive and he begins studying law. Hill learns the judge who sentenced him has been accused of taking bribes; he joins forces with Said to fight for a new trial. Hill berates his former public defender and begins to hope for an overturned verdict. He and Said meet with the prosecutor in his trial, Marilyn Crenshaw (Said's fiancée before he became a Muslim), she and Said share bitter words. Said and McManus clash over how much leeway he deserves for preparation. Against Gloria's wishes, the prison chooses to make Ryan have a lumpectomy, rather than the more expensive mastectomy. Ryan meets with wife Shannon and "slow" brother Cyril, breaks down in Gloria's arms, and takes the opportunity to breathe in the air of the outside world. After being beaten by black inmates on his first day back in gen pop, Vern kills Alexander Vogel, carving "Jew" on his chest and hanging him upside down from the gym. With the fear toward the Aryan Brotherhood regained, he tells Mark Mack his next target is Beecher. Shirley Bellinger, sentenced to die for killing her daughter (the first woman to be executed in that state since 1841), arrives at Oz.
Losing Your Appeal
Richie's day goes from bad (servicing Mark Mack) to worse (pushing an Aryan off the railing). Richie attempts to barter his way out by telling McManus that Mack and Schillinger killed Vogel. In the Hole, Aryan hack Metzger threatens his life if he doesn't confess to the murder, he does. Hill's appeal is denied, forcing him to accept life in Oz all over again. Wangler continues to act out in class. Impressed by Poet's talent, McManus works with Said to get Poet a publishing deal. Disappointed with Poet's use of advance money (drugs), Said informs him a group of writers are working to get him parole. At first sign of hair loss, Ryan shaves his head. Released back in Em City while still weak, he runs into dead ends and violence before Gloria recommends he spend the rest of his treatment in the infirmary. His flirtation deepens; she admits her attraction to him to Sister Pete. Her advice is to forget it. She responds to Ryan's kiss with a slap. Giles gives Pete a new word. Adebisi and Schibetta's feud grows, with Miguel caught in the middle. Guerra begins to question his leadership. Beecher gets a new podmate, Chris Keller, and jumps to his defense after he breaks Mack's nose. A meeting with Judge Grace Lema, who sentenced him for killing Kathy Rockwell (and also convened over Hill's recent hearing), brings Beecher new nightmares. Keller's attempt to comfort him is met with rejection, but a friendship blossoms the next day. Unbeknownst to Beecher, Keller is an old acquaintance of Schillinger, part of a plan to break Beecher's spirit. First step, get Beecher to fall in love with Keller. Shirley exposes herself to Kirk.
Family Bizness
Vern asks Said to defend him against conspiracy to commit murder charges. After Wangler picks a fight with Poet, McManus bans him from graduation. Wangler enlists Poet's help in writing a letter of apology to his mother. Poet gets parole and valedictorian. Devlin eliminates the GED program from the budge, planning to announce this after graduation; McManus spills the information while speaking during the ceremony. During a visit, Shirley comes on to Father Ray before breaking down in his arms. McManus asks Vern about the Ross murder. Heim informs Diane of Tim's belief that she's guilty; she confirms the truth to Tim, asking him to understand her decision and drop it. Hill learns Busmalis and Rebadow's secret, but keeps it in exchange for the two doing his laundry. Sick of blackmail, Glynn forces his brother Mark to confess a murder he committed under the eye of Schibetta's mob. Miguel and Adebisi poison Schibetta, while he recovers Glynn transfers Pancamo and the other Italians from the kitchen to the dress factory. Beecher and Keller wrestle. Beecher's growing attraction to him is derailed by the news that Genevieve committed suicide, and his grandmother asking him to not see the kids. Gen leaves him a note blaming him for her death. With Ray's help, Sister Pete realizes Giles' scattered words translate to the street corner where her husband was killed. He tells her he saw the murder, and says "Aim", before going into another rage. Lovesick Ryan pays Miguel to steal Gloria's stethoscope, and confesses his love to her via telephone. Pete and Tim's attempt to dissuade him only makes him more determined, he convinces Cyril to kill Gloria's husband.
Strange Bedfellows
To the shock of everyone (including their followers), Said represents Vern. McManus and Diane lie at the deposition. Said gives up, with Vern convinced he deliberately sabotaged the case. Diane and Shirley have a talk. Shirley later passes a note through the food to her secret (and unseen) pen pal, Adebisi. Burrano informs Schibetta he will be replaced if Adebisi isn't taken out. Pancamo and Schibetta try, leading to Adebisi raping the latter. Schibetta refuses to talk about it. Learning he's out as leader, he deliriously asks Burrano not to tell his father what happened. The inmates see Poet on TV, accepting an award. Fed up with Miguel, the Latinos welcome new arrival El Cid as leader. He immediately rejects Miguel for being too white. Jiggy Walker arrives in Em City, telling wild tales of being Devlin's cocaine dealer. Everyone assumes his guilt until Devlin produces evidence clearing him of any involvement. Walker goes to gen pop, Devlin feels nothing but glee that he finally faced an accusation he could honestly prove false. Hill, Giles cellmate before solitary, tells Pete the name of the toothpaste they both use: Aim. She deduces Ron Bebe, the man Giles was sent to solitary for killing, murdered her husband. Giles confirms, but doesn't know why Bebe killed him. Unable to get him out of solitary, Pete gives him the perfect present instead. Ryan tries to get pot for medicinal purposes, then tells Shannon he wants a divorce. Gloria bitterly confronts Ryan when she learns Cyril killed her husband, Cyril arrives in Oz (this time as a prisoner). Keller schemes to get Beecher back on the bottle, unsuccessfully at first. Beecher admits to Pete he has fallen in love. Keller convinces him to see his kids, when Beecher returns he finds Keller in the laundry room, drunk after learning of an ex-wife's remarriage. After mutual declarations of love, they kiss, hacks intervene, Keller takes a swing and goes to the Hole. A devastated Beecher begins drinking again.
Animal Farm
The morning after Keller goes to the Hole, Diane finds Beecher hung over in his pod. Sister Pete gives him a one-time break, sending him to the infirmary, where Vern taunts him further about his wife's suicide. Coushaine offers to help Ryan with his brother, unsuccessfully. Vern rapes Cyril. When Ryan finds out, he gets his brother sent to the Hole for protection. McManus refuses to let Cyril in Em City until Ryan confesses to planning Preston's murder. A new law requiring sex offenders to register passes around the same time former priest Robert Sipple finishes his sentence. Ray refuses to help Sipple, a child molester, despite Pete's requests to get him a job. After Coushaine's strenuous objection to the new law, Hill and Wangler speculate on his possible sex crime. Speaking with him face to face, he relents and makes a pointless attempt to help. Hill asks Vern and Miguel about ways to escape. In exchange for getting back in the kitchen, Ryan helps Adebisi understand Shirley's letter. She requests a visit for her birthday. When he arrives, she rejects him with a racial slur. Retreating into a haze of drugs, he begins pushing Pierce and Wangler away. Pancamo returns from the hospital. New arrivals Hoyt, Jarra, and Nappa make waves. Revenge on his mind after Schibetta's rape and move to the psych ward, Nappa takes control of the Italians and works with Burrano to begin random drug testing. Adebisi, naturally, tests positive; Pete warns him he'll go to the psych ward if he can't stop using. After Ryan tells him who caused the tests, Adebisi snaps and is only stopped from killing Nappa in broad daylight by Jarra. Jarra, a fellow African, tells him he is better than the rest. His words begin to sink in, causing hallucinations of tribal dancing. Hoyt gets a job at the post office and helps to raise money so Rebadow's grandson (diagnosed with leukemia) can go to Disneyworld. Every group (even Vern and El Cid!) contributes. McManus and the guards agree to match what the prisoners gave. The money is sent with Rebadow asking his mother to tell the family it was an anonymous donation, since they all think he's dead and never went to prison. New hack Rivera has an old gang tie to El Cid. El Cid tells Miguel the only way he will ever gain acceptance from him is to cut out Rivera's eyes. He later smuggles a scalpel into his pod. Unable to deal with her any longer, McManus transfers Diane to Unit B. Said tries to stop Beecher's alcohol abuse. To pop his self-righteous bubble, Beecher tells him Poet's coming back to Oz. Ironically, only former nemesis Wangler greets him warmly.
Escape from Oz
Metzger replaces Diane as Em City supervisor. The escape tunnel almost completed, Busmalis and Rebadow are forced to give their pod to Mark Mack and Hansel, who were watching them build. Mack gets to switch pods after showing his Nazi tattoo to Metzger. The tunnel collapses after Rebadow and Busmalis loosen the support beams, killing the two Aryans. Poet has to work in the morgue as punishment from McManus. Hill discusses possible escape plans with Poet, Wangler, and Coushaine. Sipple returns after being unable to find a home, Sister Pete convinces Glynn to let him stay in Oz at night. Ray hires him as an assistant; he helps with an anointing and meets with his victim before being (literally) crucified by Vern in the gym. An uncomfortable Gloria examines Shirley. Miguel cuts Rivera's eyes out, hiding in Ray's office and taking him hostage. The prison goes into lockdown. Rivera needs an immediate transfusion, but only Ryan has his rare blood type. Ryan agrees to give blood as long as Cyril's transferred to Em City. Ryan confesses to Preston's murder out of guilt, and a need to stay inside to protect Cyril. Miguel decides to commit suicide, but a vengeful SORT team barges in, beating him as he goes to solitary. Keller returns from the Hole, rejecting Beecher completely. As Operation Toby draws to a close, Metzger takes Beecher to the gym, where Keller and Vern wait. Keller tells Beecher he never loved him, he's been working with Vern all along. They proceed to break Beecher's arms and legs. A flicker of remorse appears on Keller's face during his first night alone in their pod. Em City is abuzz with the news and McManus begins to doubt Metzger. Nappa takes Adebisi's drug shipment. He decides to follow Jarra's ways. Adebisi becomes joyfully happy and finds inner peace, but appears completely unhinged to everyone else. Fed up, Wangler and Pierce agree to work for Nappa. In the kitchen, Wangler kills Jarra. Adebisi is blamed and sent to the psych ward, in a cell beside Peter Schibetta. Said surprises McManus by refusing to help Poet again. Devlin decides to pardon Said in honor of Ramadan, Said almost accepts, but turns it down after Arif expresses envy. He walks through Em City's gates to the cheers of every inmate. The season ends with Hill climbing inside a coffin, ready to be shipped out of Oz.
The Truth and Nothing But...
Oswald Maximum Security Penententiary is renamed Oswald State Correctional Facility: Level Four. To cut costs, Devlin brings in the Weigert Corporation to oversee medical matters. Gloria soon clashes with brusque Dr. Garvey, who cuts off Miguel's anti-depressants because he sees no need for solitary patients to be medicated. When Gloria tells him, she learns he's been having conversations with his (dead) grandfather. Ray learns from a visit that the hacks aren't feeding Miguel, but is sworn to secrecy. Carlo Ricardo, Malcolm Coyle, and Hamid Khan arrive. Coyle goes by Snake and befriends Wangler (who now wants to be known as Bricks). Poet now goes by Arnold and has given up on poetry. The other new face only appears on tv, Miss Sally of Miss Sally's Schoolyard, who captures viewers thanks to her ample mammary glands. Nappa warns Kenny against confiding in him, and only gains trust after subjecting him to a beatdown by Poet, Wangler, and assorted black inmates. News of Adebisi protecting Peter Schibetta in the psych ward gets to Pancamo and Nappa. Sister Pete and McManus, impressed with his progress, send Adebisi back to Em City. He apologizes to all those he hurt, Nappa puts him back in the kitchen to stop Wangler from being too cocky. Clayton Hughes, son of a guard killed in Oz decades ago, pressures old family friend Glynn to hire him as a guard. He wants a high-risk placement; Glynn puts him in the visitors' area. New guard Claire Howell rejects Diane's friendly overtures and asks McManus on a date. Ricardo gets a visit from his father and siblings, but his mother doesn't show up. Cyril's nightmares of rape and Hoyt's conflicts with Vern at the post office lead Ryan and Hoyt to join forces. Ryan manipulates Hoyt into losing his job and trying to kill Vern in the gym, but Hoyt's murder attempt results only in a trip to the Hole. Richie goes to death row for Vogel's murder. Fellow inmate Shirley wants to play peep show even after learning he's gay. He reluctantly agrees, and Shirley is very impressed with the results. Said plans to file a class action lawsuit against Oz, the state, and Devlin for the riot and Khan objects to his use of a Jewish lawyer. Meeting with relatives of the dead individually, Said is smitten with Tricia Ross, Scott Ross' sweet and teary half-sister. She refuses to join the lawsuit. Vern catches a glimpse of their handholding and plants seeds of doubt in Muslim heads. Metzger gains revenge on Busmalis by putting him in a chokehold and throwing him down a flight of stairs. Tim begins investigating his Nazi background, but Glynn still can't fire him. Beecher and Busmalis refuse to implicate him in their injuries. Beecher is released from the infirmary, with a cane and sharp, long fingernails. Keller wants to resume a relationship between them, meeting resistance and a command to rat on himself, Metzger and Schillinger. He finally agrees, going into protective custody, Vern goes to the Hole. Metzger takes Beecher into a secluded area to learn where Keller's going, Beecher acts out wildly, slashing Metzger's throat with his fingernails. He dies before he has the chance to summon help.
Napoleon's Boney Parts
Word of Metzger's death spreads. Tim hires old friend Sean Murphy as CO supervisor. After he sees a cafeteria brawl between Cyril and Robson, Tim institutes a boxing program for the prisoners. Vern makes Busmalis eat his food with a special salivary topping. Ryan loudly informs Gloria of his extra years in Oz. Coyle is transferred from the kitchen to the barbershop, where he makes a grisly confession (murdering an entire family) to Hill. After consulting Said, Hill learns of videotaped proof from Coyle, and informs Glynn. Coyle's charged with the crime, Hill goes into protective custody. After the filing of Said's wrongful death lawsuit, Diane fears the Ross shooting will be reexamined. Arif and Khan object to Said seeing Tricia for spiritual counseling, he later burns a photo of herself she gave him. McManus denies his request for food in his pod at night due to daily fasting is denied (unless he drops the lawsuit), so he begins a hunger strike. Claire physically attacks Tim after he comforts Diane over the loss of her mother. Clayton emotionally blackmails Glynn into moving him to Em City. Ricardo's family visits, minus a brother. Afterward, he almost kills Clayton before going to the Hole. Shirley's attorney excuses himself from her case after Devlin reduces the fees for court-appointed lawyers on murder cases. Schillinger learns from his father that one of his sons has been arrested, and horror of horrors, his lawyer is a Jewish woman. Keller asks to be sent back to Em City, but receives rejection from Beecher when he returns and an unseen assailant later stabs him in a storage room. Adebisi asks to be moved from the kitchen to the AIDS ward. Taking blood from a dying man, he pricks Nappa with the infected blood. Rebadow is diagnosed with diabetes. Still worried about Miguel, Gloria loses her job after a profanity-laden confrontation with Garvey. Ray's attempts to smuggle food for Miguel end when Miguel crazily lunges at him. Miguel gets a beating from Claire and another hack. Pete pitches a victim/offender program; Ray suggests Miguel and Officer Rivera as the first participants. Seeing visions of a beautiful woman beckoning to him, Miguel hangs himself.
Legs
Gloria saves Miguel's life after Claire saves him. Gloria decides to go to the press for an expose on shabby medical care. Devlin stops her by promising to loosen the purse strings, put Miguel back on medication, and reinstate her. Garvey is run out after being revealed as a former back alley abortionist. Miguel wakes up, wishing they'd let him die. Nikolai arrives, wanting to shake the hand of the man who killed Alexander Vogel. Busmalis tells him the man is Richie Hanlon. After a sparring match between Richie and mail-delivering Vern, Richie tells Shirley the back-story behind his confession to Vogel's murder. Shirley suggests he implicate Vern, that way both he doesn't die alone. McManus questions Coyle on his reasons for telling Hill. Hill testifies against Coyle. The prisoners watch the grisly video on the news; Wangler swears revenge on Hill. Said, Vern, an ailing Nappa, and Guerra (filling in for El Cid) convene on how to protect Hill, Nappa simply has Coyle murdered in his cell. Ricardo gets out of the Hole, only to clash with Hughes and Cudney after an unpleasant visit with his family. He's sent to the Hole yet again. Poet considers a return to writing, but won't approach Said with his work. After Zelman threatens a statewide hunger strike by Muslim prisoners, Glynn (over Tim's objection) grants Said's food request. Claire's attempt to apologize to McManus causes an ugly argument between them. She later takes her anger out on solitary prisoner Bevilaqua, and is fired. Sean is announced as the new CO supervisor. After Murphy cuts Ryan some slack over a cafeteria fight with Vern, the two men strike up a Black Irish kinship. Murphy gives him some boxing advice. The first fight, between Chucky "The Enforcer" Pancamo and "Throttlin" Steve Pasquin, ends with a quick victory for Pancamo. Cyril and Ryan get a visit from Aunt Brenda, she and Ryan have an ugly confrontation over Cyril boxing. Before the second fight (Cyril vs. Robson) Ryan chooses to pay hospital orderly (and Christian) Cudney to steal chloral hydrate. Cyril wins. During a visit, Rebadow's mother mentions she told the family the truth, he wasn't dead, and he'd been in prison all these years. She wants him to see his grandson, because the grandson is growing ill again, Rebadow refuses. After a brush with death due to missing dialysis, he changes his mind, meeting son and grandson for the first time. Busmalis solves his lunchroom problem by one-upping Vern in his own unique way. Nappa's tests come back showing he has HIV, he demands a retest and a meeting with Glynn, but still has to transfer to the AIDS ward. Pancamo is appointed new leader. McManus gets no help from a recovered Keller about who stabbed him. Released from the infirmary, he asks Pete about setting up a victim/offender program with himself and Beecher, but Beecher refuses. Keller pledges his support in any revenge plans against Schillinger. Beecher taunts him over whether or not he was the one responsible for the stabbing, and claims he killed Metzger. Andrew Schillinger arrives in Em City, mouthy to the Muslims and perfect prey for Beecher's revenge plans.
Unnatural Disasters
Schillinger learns Andrew has arrived in Em City. Glynn turns down his request to move Andrew to Vern's unit (B). At lunch, he sees his obviously high son and gets him sent to the Hole. Beecher, Keller, and Ryan begin their plan of revenge. After a staged fight between Beecher and Keller in drug counseling, Andrew befriends Beecher. Ryan cuts Andrew's drug supply off. Keller moves out of Beecher's pod, and Andrew moves in. Howell files a sexual harassment lawsuit. McManus feebly attempts to defend his actions, but the state settles and Claire gets her job back. An argument erupts between Said and his visiting sister after she tells him Tricia Ross contacted her. Said grants Poet permission to write again. Refusing to deny his feeling any longer, Said holds Tricia's hand, a gesture seen by Poet. Keller begins working his charm on Sister Pete; she later gets an eyeful of him and a visiting ex-wife. Pete asks Ray to stay away from Miguel's work in the victim/offender program. Miguel agrees to meet Officer Rivera, but his return to Em City has a condition, he has to give up the name of Ardith Glynn's rapist. Pete meets with Rivera and his wife Tina, convincing them to be a part of the program. Cyril tells Ryan he doesn't want to box anymore. El Cid forces Miguel to box, going up against Cramer. After fending off an inquisitive Cudney, Ryan drugs Miguel's water. He loses and faces teasing for being beaten by a homosexual. The prison goes into lockdown after the Christians try to stop viewing of Miss Sally. Hughes is transferred to the library after using a stun gun on El Cid. With the slight chance his case might be overturned on appeal, Richie and Shirley share a tender goodbye. The case is overturned; Richie goes back to Em City to serve the rest of his drug sentence. Nikolai greets him in the shower, slashing his throat and revealing he and Vogel were actually friends. Nappa confesses a lifetime of sins to Mukada. Adebisi makes a deal with Pancamo and El Cid to make him a partner, as long as he gets rid of Wangler. Wangler celebrates his 18th birthday, his joy is short-lived when his mother claims his wife is cheating on him and her boyfriend is abusing their son. He takes Pierce up on his offer to kill the wife and boyfriend by using outside friends.
U.S. Male
Taking advice from Cudney, Cyril doesn't want to box. Ryan convinces Cudney to change Cyril's mind by beating Cudney with a Bible. He later tries to speak to Gloria. Continuing a busy day, Ryan plays the next fighters, Wangler and Khan, against each other, but realizes drugging Wangler is pointless. Khan defeats Wangler within a few rounds. Poet reads his first new work in the cafeteria, an angry diatribe against Said. Tricia visits, complaining of harassing phone calls, Said warns the other Muslims to leave her alone. He later watches Ryan scrubbing a tattoo of his wife's name off his arm. While Wangler attends his wife's funeral, Adebisi and the Italians subdue and pour hot soup over Poet and Pierce. They both go to the hospital with severe burns. When Wangler returns, he has a new podmate: Adebisi. El Cid warns Miguel not to mention his name during the session with Rivera. Miguel and Rivera separately talk to Sister Pete in preparation for their meeting. Murphy encourages Tim to fight the sexual harassment settlement. Gloria won't testify for him until she speaks to Claire, Pete agrees to testify, his lawyer advises him against fighting. During a bittersweet moment with Diane, Tim reveals he's not going to fight, because of his treatment of women in the past. Uri Kosygin (the most brutal hitter in Little Odessa) arrives, frightening Hughes, Rebadow, Busmalis, and offending Nappa. Nikolai, his sponsor, worries that he's been sent to kill him. That he is a Jew and Uri is a Cossack only makes his fear worse. Busmalis decides to write a letter requesting Miss Sally visit Oz, Beecher wants a four way with Miss Sally and the puppets. Ricardo learns his father had a stroke. Determined to learn more about his father's death, Hughes tries to manhandle the killer's name out of Rebadow. Mukada stops him, but Hughes brushes off his attempts to help unless he can find the killer. Keller's manipulations begin to affect Sister Pete; her attention is further piqued after he gets a visit from his 2nd ex, Angelique. Beecher helps Andrew detox and clean up his life. Ryan, Keller, and Beecher flaunt their close friendship with Andrew in front of Vern. Andrew and Vern get into a fight during lunch, Andrew says his father's dead to him, and goes to the Hole. Vern has Lopresti put drugs in with his son, Andrew can't resist temptation, resulting in a fatal OD. As the news hits Em City, Keller and Ryan are pleased, only Beecher feels regret.
Cruel and Unusual Punishments
Cyril and Pancamo are scheduled for the next fight. When Cudney refuses to help Ryan get more drugs and plans to tell the warden, Ryan pays Kosygin to kill Cudney. Thanks to the drugged water, Pancamo loses. Nikolai, still afraid of Kosygin, unsuccessfully tries to manipulate Ryan into killing him, then tells Pancamo Kosygin drugged his water bottle. When McManus doesn't believe the claims, Ryan advises Pancamo to tell Kosygin that Nikolai ratted on him. Kosygin stabs him in the neck during a library visit, Nikolai goes to the infirmary, Kosygin goes to the Hole. Inmates debate Nooty and Pecker's sexual preference. After El Cid orders Ryan to stop selling drugs and give him whatever stuff he has on him, Ryan rats the Latinos out to Murphy. Only Miguel, who leaves the group seconds before, escapes arrest. Miguel asks for and looks at photos taken of Rivera immediately after the blinding. To stop her requests to end the counseling, Pete tells Tina Rivera about her husband's thoughts of suicide. A memoir-writing Nappa gets a new roommate, Nat Ginsberg, who immediately becomes his secretary. A few members of Em City's gay population get word of the autobiography to Pancamo, who makes plans to take care of the book and Nappa. Adebisi teaches and punishes Wangler through bondage; Wangler's attempts at parenting classes are equally frustrating. Sick of being teased by prisoners, Hughes considers joining S.O.R.T. The tension between Howell and Diane grows. Mukada gets a cold reception when he approaches Glynn about digging for info on Samuel Hughes's killer. Giles has a heart attack, Mukada visits him in the infirmary and coaxes out the name of the man who murdered Hughes. Vern grieves for his dead son. Beecher rejects Keller's romantic overtures yet again. Keller gets a visit from larger than life ex #3 (and 4), Bonnie. During his session with Pete, he makes a few ugly confessions about himself, and cops a feel in the name of picking lint. Beecher attempts to reconnect to religion by attending a Muslim study group. Said's acceptance of him is the final straw for the others, who banish Said and choose Khan as their new leader. Said moves into Beecher's pod, agreeing to help Beecher find Allah.
Secret Identities
Sister Pete has an erotic dream about Keller, who begins avoiding her as the next step in his plan. Beecher picks up on his scheme and confronts him. Miguel, Tina, and Eugene Rivera have the victim/offender session. Pete confronts Keller in his pod, they almost kiss, and he admits he only had interest in her so she could work on Beecher for him. Hurt and angry, she turns her back on him, confessing to Mukada that she's considering leaving the convent. The Latinos refuse to answer any drug questions, forced to stay in the Hole as a result. When Margarita visits to tell her brother she has to leave town for a new job, she can only write him a note. Tim leaves the note for Lopresti, who promptly throws it away. Clayton's mother stops by to see Leo. The other CO's throw a party for Clayton's birthday. Ray asks Diane's advice about the Hughes murder. During a confrontation with Ryan in the library, Clayton accidentally hits Diane on the head with his nightstick. After talking to Mukada, Glynn tells Clayton the name of his father's killer: Glynn himself. He blames his overzealous attitude and stupidity. In the locker room, Tim asks Diane to give their relationship another try. She declines, only to kiss him passionately after Claire makes a rude comment. Annoyed, Claire leaves. Nappa finishes his memoirs; Nat gets the only copy to Pancamo (who destroys it). After a celebratory dinner, Nat smothers Nappa with a pillow. Adebesi goes to Glynn, and eventually the local media, with claims that Tim sexually harassed Wangler. Tim is stung by Glynn's lack of trust in him. Wangler goes to gen pop. Tim visits Shirley, helping her choose her method of execution. Her choice is moot when a medical exam reveals she's pregnant. The latest bout (Khan vs. Cramer) is rife with racial tension. Adebisi manipulates the Muslims into hating Cramer for his skin color and Vern threatens Cramer. Cramer loses. Ryan stays out of it, believing any meddling will be bad luck (the winner has to fight Cyril next). Cyril's newfound love of fighting annoys those who get in his way. Said refuses Adebisi's offer to join forces and Vern decides to kill Said and Beecher. When Said instructs Beecher to forgive Keller and Schillinger, Beecher tells him he has to forgive Khan. He does, before demonstrating his faith to Allah in a very public way. Beecher forgives Keller, still rejecting his attempts at reconciliation. Keller asks Ryan to kill Said. Vern answers Beecher's pleas for forgiveness by trying to stab him. A huge Muslim/Aryan fight breaks out in the gym, Vern manages to stab Beecher, only to get stabbed by Keller. S.O.R.T. swarm in, the prison goes into lockdown, Keller, Khan, and Said go to solitary.
Out o' Time
The inmates and staff celebrate Christmas in their typically dark way. Said is bitten by a rat tossed into his cell. Rebadow gets a warning from God to be very afraid. Miguel is plagued by nightmares. The Riveras decide to end the victim/offender program. Pete urges Miguel to tell Glynn who raped his daughter. The Latinos return to Em City, Ricardo believing his sister will visit, increasingly upset when she doesn't. Afraid for his life, Miguel asks to go back to solitary immediately. El Cid chooses Ricardo to kill Miguel. Before he can, Miguel kills him in self-defense. Pete apologizes to Mukada for excluding him from Miguel's sessions. Miguel finally gives up the name of Ardith's rapist. Carlo Ricardo. Ricardo's sister returns to claim his body. Shirley's execution is stayed, but she wants to die, believing her unborn child has Satan for a father. Pete persuades Devlin to put Shirley into the state asylum. Devlin forces Glynn to end the latest lockdown, as a holiday gift to appease the public. Keller and Khan get out of solitary; Vern, Nikolai, and Beecher are released from the hospital. Poet and Pierce insult Said even while wrapped in bandages. Beecher lets Keller move back in with him. Diane and Claire get into a fistfight, when Tim accompanies them to the infirmary; he and Glynn get into a screaming match. Poet and Pierce are released with a few changes in skin pigmentation. Khan and Ryan talk Glynn out of indefinitely postponing the final boxing match (due to racial tension). Nikolai rats Ryan's water-spiking scheme out to Murphy. Using a backup plan, Ryan brings he and Cyril's father to Oz. He ridicules and hits Cyril. During the fight, Ryan shouts to his brother to think of their father. Cyril wins, but Khan is left with permanent brain damage. When Cyril learns Khan is even worse off than he is, he uses Ryan as a punching bag. Khan's wife files a lawsuit when the prison won't let her take him off life support. Said comforts her as she stands by Khan's bedside. The racial tension deepens, with self-segregation prevalent in both white and black Em City dwellers. Adebisi plays games with Clayton's mind. Clayton overhears Howell and Lopresti's racist remarks. Adebisi shrugs off warnings from Pancamo and El Cid that the tension will cut into their drug business. Vern attempts to gather white support, even extending a hand to old enemies and the Jewish Nikolai. As a show of authority, Murphy confiscates all dirty magazines. Worried after a warning from Adebisi, Hill has himself thrown into the Hole. Said fruitlessly tries to quell Adebisi and Arif's hate mongering, but they use Hill's trip to the Hole as a rallying cry. In fear of being in the middle of another riot, Diane tells Tim she'll either use her vacation time or quit. Glynn fires Clayton. Before he goes, he leaves a farewell present for Adebisi. As the New Year rolls through Em City, Beecher and Keller kiss, Said bunks with Arif, Nikolai toasts himself, and Adebisi finds a gun hidden under his blanket.
A Cock and Balls Story
Two weeks have passed. Glynn meets with blacks and whites separately, agreeing to end the lockdown as long as they stop the violence. Khan's wife wins her case to have Khan taken off life support; Said agrees to the family's request to say a prayer over the body. Unopposed by Said, Arif takes over as Muslim leader. Cyril's dreams of Preston Nathan and Khan take their toll on him. When Gloria won't agree to Pete's request that she and Preston's parents have a victim/offender meeting with the O'Reily brothers, Ryan cuts himself to speak to her personally. The latest (and very gory) suicide in solitary leads Murphy to suggest exercise time for the solitary prisoners. Bevilaqua learns Miguel killed his cousin, Ricardo. He begins correspondence with El Cid, agreeing to kill Miguel for him. During the next exercise session, Miguel taunts Bevilaqua with the knowledge that Bevilaqua raped Ardith Glynn, even though Miguel told Glynn otherwise. Seconds before Bevliaqua moves in to kill, Giles stabs him and Miguel. Bevilaqua dies, Miguel goes to the infirmary with a wound to the side. Giles only explanation to Sister Pete is anger over the two men telling so many lies. Vern receives an old photo of his two sons, Hank and Andrew. Mukada and Said persuade Beecher to locate Hank Schillinger so peace can be made between Beecher and Vern. Keller forbids it. Beecher gets a visit from his father, who agrees to look for Hank. When Keller finds out, the argument between them turns violent, sending Beecher to the Hole. Shirley returns to Oz after the mysterious death of her unborn baby. She meets Nat, who is on death row for killing Nappa and won't let her have her old cell back; Moses Deyell, who greets her warmly, and Mark Miles, who rejects her friendliness with a few hateful remarks. Devlin's political ads spur Busmalis to make a surprising admission. Devlin's campaign manager, Wendy, tells Glynn he might be a choice for lieutenant governor if he makes a higher profile for himself with the public. Tim's plans to propose to Diane are dashed when Pete tells him Diane isn't coming back. While on vacation in London, she began a conversation with a Buckingham Palace guard (on break), and agreed to marry him. Per Adebisi's request, Glynn forces Tim to allow Pierce, Poet, and Wangler back into Em City. New arrivals are Mobay, Galino, and Tarrant. Galino (in Oz for faulty building construction that killed 2 people) alienates sponsor Pancamo with his anti-mafia comments. Sponsor Jazz takes Tarrant's money. Mobay hits up sponsor Hill for information on the drug trade, makes a connection with Wangler, and gets a job as Glynn's secretary. The latter is the perfect cover for his real purpose in Oz, a narc. Seeing Galino use a cell phone, Nikolai manages to con the phone and charger from him. Adebisi and Ryan set a plan into motion that puts Hughes gun into Tarrant's hands. Wangler, Poet, and Pierce force Tarrant to offer Wangler his shoes. After a tearful visit with McManus, he is further terrorized by the three men on the basketball court. Ryan publicly warns McManus to transfer Tarrant out, then offers him drugs and vengeful advice. Adebisi puts the gun under Tarrant's pillow. When Wangler tries to take away his new pair of shoes, Tarrant pulls out the gun. He wounds three inmates, including Keller (who is dragged to safety by Beecher), kills Wangler, Pierce, a guard, and as the SORT team swarms in, himself.
Obituaries
Adebisi and Arif demand the firing or McManus; their united front disturbs Said. Poet mourns. El Cid knows Adebisi's secret. Wendy adds to the list of people who want McManus gone, putting political pressure on Glynn. Tim burns a letter from Diane. After a bizarre display at Officer Howard's memorial service, Glynn finally fires him. Beecher's attempts to check up on a hospitalized Keller are unsuccessful; he has more luck finding Hank Schillinger. After a payment by the Beecher family (without Vern's knowledge), Hank visits his overjoyed father. Hill fears his wife is slipping away from him. Mobay fears when Hill tries to remember where he has seen Mobay's girlfriend (secretly his partner) before. Mobay has a meeting with Adebisi. Said is proud of the positive changes in Tricia, but she is upset when he won't kiss her. The lawsuit against the state begins. Said is prepared to testify until he learns all prisoners must wear orange jumpsuits. He refuses to go. Beecher accuses Said of wanting this suit to fail, so he will continue to have a cause to rail against. Beecher then takes the stand in place of Said. Cramer learns he may have grounds for a retrial after a juror tells him another juror was homophobic and bullied the others into voting guilty. He asks Said to represent him; Said offers to think it over. With the curtains drawn, Moses sees the silhouettes of Shirley and a man having sex. The next day, Shirley roams death row as Galino paints her cell. She and Moses almost kiss before Miles calls for the guard. After Gloria convinces Preston's parents to participate in the victim/offender program, Pete makes Ryan agree to speak as well. Ryan re-injures his hand to see Gloria, with no luck. Thanks to Cyril, Ryan learns of Nikolai's cell phone. When Nikolai feigns innocence, Ryan unsuccessfully searches his pod. He then manipulates Galino into trying to take his phone back. Nikolai pays Hoyt to kill Galino. Ryan and Nikolai go into partnership over the phone. Busmalis details the plans of his latest escape tunnel to Alvarez. El Cid's depression deepens after Miguel survives yet another attempt on his life. During evening count Murphy notices Busmalis is missing. Going to his last work detail (the infirmary), he finds an escape tunnel. Meanwhile, Gloria checks beds and finds Miguel's empty.
The Bill of Wrongs
Glynn impresses Wendy and Devlin with his handling of the escape press conference. El Cid spills the secret of the gun after too much teasing from Adebisi. Adebisi goes to the Hole and Glynn has Hughes arrested. Pancamo makes a deal with newcomer Morales: kill El Cid quietly, and take over his part of the drug operation. Morales bullies Rebadow into doing the job, then convinces acting unit manager Murphy to move Rebadow and El Cid into a pod together. Busmalis is recaptured after appearing in front of Miss Sally's home, but Miguel is still free. Rebadow stabs El Cid in the neck, claiming self-defense as his reason. Adebisi and Said work together to get a black man in charge of Em City. Zelman, Said's sister, and Afsanna promise to support Glynn's election bid if he considers a person of color. As Mobay's first test, Pancamo, Morales, and Adebisi force him to sniff three lines of heroin. Sick, he goes to the Hole after a shakedown. Said's decision to represent Cramer meets with disapproval from Arif. Said throws himself into the case, barely noticing when his side wins the riot lawsuit. Tricia announces plans to move to California, but Said still can't tell her he loves her. To Said's amazement, Judge Kessler grants Cramer a new trial. Lopresti is revealed to be Shirley's late night visitor. Her ex, Zeke, has been born again and wants to bury her next to her daughter. When he visits, she goads him. He punches her after she reveals their daughter was the product of a rape by his father. Sister Pete, Hoyt, Murphy, and Adebisi separately reject Nik and Ryan's attempts to get rid of each other. Ryan and Cyril meet with Gloria and Preston's parents. The session degenerates into an ugly screaming match between Ryan and Gloria after he exposes her affair with McManus. The next day, news of Gloria being raped spreads through Em City. Keller returns to Oz via the hospital ward. Frightened and repentant after going to Hell while dead on the operating table, he asks Mukada to ask Pete to see him. She refuses, but allows Beecher to. Howell spoils their reunion. Thanks to Kirk, Vern learns Beecher is behind Hank's visits. In anticipation of Beecher destroying another of his sons, Vern pays Hank to kidnap Beecher's children.
Works of Mercy
Beecher horrifies his parents with a violent outburst during a briefing on his children's kidnapping. When Keller becomes a suspect, Beecher's passionate defense of him culminates in revealing he and Keller are lovers. He pays inmate Eli Zabitz to find out who kidnapped Holly and Gary. Beecher tries to comfort a returned to Em City Keller as his fear of Hell continues. Sister Pete rejects his pleas to meet with Keller. Gary's hand arrives at Oz's post office, rendering Beecher inconsolable. Thanks to a letter from Keller, Cardinal Abcott visits, counseling Sister Pete, and performing mass with Ray (he was responsible for sending Ray to Oz in the first place). After his second test involves a brutal beating by Pancamo, Mobay turns to drugs. The prisoners win the maximum settlement for their lawsuit, but the case could stay in appeals court for years. Frightened by a premonition, Rebadow warns Said to recuse himself from Cramer's case; after the lead detective admits evidence tampering, Said does. To his horror, Cramer manages an acquittal, leaving Oz a free man. Martin Querns is hired as unit manager, given free reign as long as he keeps the violence down. He makes a deal with Adebisi to ensure that low violence, agreeing to let drugs pass through Em City freely. Tim accepts Unit B when he can't have his old job back. Per request from Devlin, Glynn tries to quiet Clayton's public anti-Devlin diatribes. Clayton refuses, saying someone has to stop the evil governor. Nikolai's latest rejection of a partnership spurs Ryan to send Cyril on an unsuccessful "treasure hunt" for the phone. Gloria returns to work, wanting a meeting with Ryan as an attempt at closure. He claims responsibility for her rape; she physically attacks him. Later, Ryan confesses to Mukada that he had nothing to do with the rape, but lied because he knew she needed to go on with her life. Stung from being left behind, Rebadow shuns Busmalis when he returns to Em City. Shirley's impending execution brings back memories for Vern, Adebisi, and Kirk. Despite her opposition to the death penalty, Pete agrees to take care of Shirley's personal belongings. Shirley meets with the press. After their final prayer, a curious Mukada asks Shirley who fathered her unborn baby. She drops a strong hint in favor of the postman (Vern). Shirley spills her fling with Lopresti to Glynn, then shares goodbyes with stoic Moses and devastated Nat (Miles feigns sleep, but later asks Pete for Shirley's mirror). Surprisingly serene, she begins to panic only when sees the noose. Screaming and praying for forgiveness, Shirley Bellinger is hanged.
Gray Matter
Mobay/Basil is having a hard time keeping up the front of remembering to be Mobay and not Basil, especially since new inmate (and fellow cop) Bruno Gergan knows who M/B is and plans to tell if he doesn't protect him. Adebisi wants M/B to kill someone to show his loyalty. Funny you should mention that, Adebisi, 'cause I think M/B has a perfect candidate. M/B tricks Gergan into thinking Hill knows who Gergan is and suggests they take care of Hill-- Oz style. He gets both men to come to an open elevator shaft and then instead of pushing Hill down it--Well, I'll be darned-- Gergan makes the fall instead. See ya, Bruno, it was nice getting to know you for, oooh, about 5 minutes. All this murdering and snorting and accent-faking must be getting to M/B because everyone's starting to suspect he might not be for real, even his old partner. Apparantly everyone but Glynn, that is, because the warden's too busy getting ready to be lieutenant governor. Way to keep your priorities straight, Leo. Apparantly, Leo isn't a very good lieutentant governor either, according to Gov. Devlin who feels they should leak the news of Glynn's daughter's rape to the papers so that Leo can look like a man who understands pain and cares about his family. Leo, to his credit, says no. Gov. Devlin ain't too pleased. Yeah, go figure why the guy wouldn't want to exploit his daughter's rape. Jackass. Oh wait, now Glynn's doing what the Governor said. Jackasses. Tim gets a call from Diane and it makes him all cranky. He takes it out on Murphy, under the guise that he's angry Murphy took his old job for a few minutes. I don't like it when people are mean to Murphy. New inmate Kevin Ketcham (aka Supreme Allah) arrives at Oz. He's a Muslim of a different colour in that he's a 5 percenter (meaning he believes 5% of all black men truly "get" life). Supreme smokes weed, deals drugs, and pisses off Said simultaneously. That's okay though, Said has a friend in-- Adebisi?! Oh man, he must be up to something. Adebisi warns Said that the Earth is about to quake but offers him no more info than that. Said still isn't interested in being best buds quite yet. A few more inmates are transferred out-- all bikers or Aryans. Pancamo, Morales and Adebisi make up the new council that will handle all of Em City's complaints. Hey, I think this is the beginning of that quake. Murphy doesn't like where this is headed and Querns doesn't like his attitude. Murphy is transferred out of Em City. What did I just say about being nice to Murphy? Jackass. Hey death row, how *you* doin? Well, Miles is still a bitch, Moses still kicks ass and Nat-- well, Nat ain't doing so good. Dr. Nathan checks on him and it seems like AIDS might kill him before the State gets a chance to. Same goes for Patrick Keenan, a new inmate who's crime was raping Dr. Nathan. Except replace "AIDS" with "Ryan O'Reily." While O'Reily plays nice with Keenan, we all know his days are numbered. O'Reily's gotta a lot of rape victims to protect this week, as his brother is being harassed in the quad as well. This makes Cyril justifiably angry. Solution? Up his meds, of course! As if Ryan's day couldn't get any worse, Stanislovsky is trying to get Ryan in trouble for Ralph Galino's death. Stanislovsky tries to get Ryan killed, but nobody's interested. Just to make sure, though, Ryan tells Hoyt about the cell phone. Hoyt demands it and in the ensuing scuffle, O'Reily ends up with the phone. Well, at least something's going right for him. Same can't be said for the depends friends, unfortunately. Rebadow still isn't talking to Busmalis, and Busmalis is missing the love. Keller feels his pain, because Beecher ain't talking to him, either. Actually, he's not talking to anyone. I think he's still hung-up on the whole "my kids are missing" thing. He doesn't even come out for count, and Rebadow sticks up for him by telling the guards to fuck off. Old men swearing=awesome. This is just the beginning of bad-ass Rebadow, whom I love. Even with Bad-Bob sticking up for him, Beecher is falling apart. Robson and Schillinger are loving it. Schillinger tells Hank to drop of the next package, which, if you couldn't guess is the body that hand belonged to. When Toby's dad tells him they found Gary's body, Beecher can't even cry, but I find I can when I see Gary's tiny coffin. Man having to bury his son? Not right. Toby's strong enough, however, to plot revenge. He gets another inmate, Zabitz, to do some digging for him, while Ray's digging away at Schillinger's frozen soul, trying to convince him to let Holly live. Schillinger plays dumb, and me and Ray are all like: Yeah, right. So we're figuring Zabitz might pass along good info, right? *sigh* No, of course not. He says it's Keller who kidnapped his kids. My hand hurts from smacking it against my forehead. Keller is interegated by the FBI and his shocked that the agent could even suggest he'd kill Beecher's kids. *shrug* I guess it sounded believable to Beecher, 'cause while Keller is in their pod, minding his own business and Beecher's all like: *shank!* Luckily, no one's hurt... well, physically anyway. We see Schillinger pay Zabitz for his misinformation and just when you think Vern's evil-incarnate, we see a shred of hope as he tells Hank to release the other "package"-- alive. Viewers everywhere let out a collective sigh.
A Word to the Wise
The white Christians are transferred to Unit B; Adebisi keeps the black Christian as his new plaything. Said motivates Arif to take a stand against Querns, but he accomplishes nothing. Supreme's conversion of Arif's men sends Arif on an unsuccessful bid to pit Supreme against Adebisi. McManus and Murphy make up. When Querns transfers Mineo and Armstrong, Tim moves them and Murphy to Unit B. His complaints of racism to Glynn backfire when Claire is moved to Em City. Sister Pete manages to grant Nat's request to move up his execution. Dressed as Susan Hayward, he dies in his sleep hours before his date with the gas chamber. Detective McGorry investigates Gergan's death. Miguel is sighted at Bear Mountain. While high, Mobay lets a hint of his identity slip to Hill. He later decides to kick drugs. Beecher learns Holly is alive, and that Hank Schillinger has been arrested. Vern stays cool under questioning. Keller rejects Beecher's pleas for forgiveness. Querns moves them to separate pods. Keller confesses his guilt in the gay murders to Mukada, who refuses to grant him penance. With Keller watching from overhead, Beecher consents to sex with aggressive new podmate Mondo. Rebadow fantasizes about gunning down the entire lunch crowd, makes up with Busmalis, and tries to kill him as he sleeps. Busmalis survives and Rebadow goes to the Hole. Despite Nikolai revealing all details about the cell phone, Querns's search comes up empty. Nikolai asks his girlfriend to dial a number at a certain time. The phone rings until guards find and confiscate it. Cyril overdoses on Haldol. Worried that Gloria's anger will cause her to mistreat Cyril, Pete tells Gloria about Ryan falsely confessing to arranging her rape. In the gym, Ryan kills Keenan, with an unseen Arif watching. Unsure of her feelings for Ryan after he gives her proof of how he avenged her, Gloria takes some time off.
A Town Without Pity
Ryan, who is secretly having an affair with Howell, asks her to kill Nikolai. She electrocutes Nikolai in the bathtub. Moses learns his appeal has been denied, and an appeal to a higher court would take a year. Sick of the racial taunts, Moses begins chipping a hole in the wall between his cell and Miles'. Keller and Schillinger separately plan to kill Zabitz. When Keller and Robson confront him in a storage room, their turf war is solved by Zabitz's fatal heart attack. Said catches Beecher with yet another man, as Beecher uses sex to numb his pain. Beecher rips into Sister Pete for her recent disappearing act. Hank gets vacation money from Vern after being freed by technical error. As he plans to kill Vern, Beecher pays Pancamo to kill Hank. His later attempt to stop the hit is too late. Rebadow returns from the Hole, apologizing to Busmalis, but falls to the floor before Busmalis can shake his hand. He goes to an outside hospital for removal of a brain tumor. Busmalis begins another tunnel. Hill is shaken after after a lengthy interrogation by McGorry. Allah threatens Arif, who then begs Said to retake his role as Muslim leader. The gays are transferred to Unit B. Adebisi tapes wild sex and drug parties in his pod. When Pancamo and Morales demand their share of drug money, Adebisi reveals they (along with the rest of the Italians and Latinos) are being transferred to Unit B. McManus and Said make plans to take back Em City. Said grants Adebisi's longtime wish of a partnership. Adebisi forces him to swear on Allah that he's sincere. Lenore shares her fears with Glynn. At a press conference, a Travis Bickle-esque Hughes (complete with Mohawk) shoots Devlin.
You Bet Your Life
Apparantly you can't shoot the Governor without some sort of 'punishment'. Go figure. Clayton Hughes is sentenced for shooting at Governor Devil-- er, Governor Devlin. While I ain't a big fan of Hughes, I'm kind of glad to see the devil get his comeuppance. Glynn resigns from the race for lieutenant Governor to be there for Hughes. Just a thought, Leo: Maybe the time to be there for Clayton was *before* he took aim at a politician. Just saying is all. Mobay/Basil is the most efficient drug trafficker ever and the worst undercover narc at the same time. His new life as a thriving drug snorter and seller with a Ja-fake-an accent is in danger of ending as the feds start to ask about Bruno Gergan's (who? Oh yeah... elevator shaft guy) death. To add to M/B's trouble, Hill realizes he knows M/B's girlfriend because she was the cop who was there the night Hill got thrown off a building. M/B does whatever any self-respecting cop might do in that position and beats Hill like a dirty carpet. He realizes the sham he's become and admits to the authorities that he killed Gergan (who? Oh yeah...). My eyes burn with the pain of a thousand fires as O'Reily and Howell make sweet prison-bathroom love again. And, Ryan? Just because you're thinking about Dr. Nathan while you're doing it doesn't mean we can erase the horrible, scarring memories that easily. Apparantly Ryan's really bad at covering his tracks because even Cyril starts to notice there's something going on between him and 'that woman'. Cyril doesn't like it and rightly notes that he can beat Ryan up. Bet you wish you hadn't taught him how to box so well now, do you O'Reily? Ryan does what he knows best-- he lies. He tells Sister Pete and Gloria that Cyril's having nightmares and that he's saying "crazy things." Sister Pete talks to Cyril about his nightmares and God and Cyril notes that "We don't choose God, God chooses us," a line which Sister Pete will steal and pass off as her own many times. Her heart-to-heart with Cyril results in Cyril getting more sleepy-time drugs. Her next stop is to meet with Chris Keller to talk about why she was considering resigning as a nun. She also talks to him about God but Chris looks bored so she hits him with the A-material, mainly "We don't choose God, God chooses us" (sound familiar?) We hear the faint sounds of Cyril grumbling at having his only profound line snatched. For the record, Keller doesn't believe God will pick him. Maybe it sounded better coming out of Cyril? Pete rips up her "I'm not a nun anymore" papers anyway. On this episode of "The Golden Guys" Rebadow is okay and does not get old and die as I thought he would. Busmalis is happy to have his buddy back. It's a pretty good time to be Busmalis, on the whole. He's getting a visit from none other than Miss Massive Mammaries herself, Miss Sally. Only problem is, it isn't Miss Sally (who sounds like a real bitch) but her secretary, Norma. Busmalis likes Norma anyway (c'mon he's in prison.. who is he to be picky?) and the two start a slightly creepy romance. Surprises abound this episode as Schillinger gets a visit from a daughter-in-law he didn't know he had. Carrie Schillinger is pregnant with Hank's child which means Schillinger's gonna be a grandpa. And if that don't creep you out, you have no soul. Not enough death has happened so far in this episode. This sounds like a job for O'Reily and his trusty sidekick, K-Boy. Keller says the word 'fandango' and I giggle. The two formulate a plan to get things back to normal around Oz (ie. before Querns) and their plan is full of spilt blood. Shemin dies and Beecher is blamed by Adebisi for having something to do with it, since the two were, shall we say, "intimate". Beecher goes to Keller's pod to look for the murder weapon and instead gets a lovely story about how Keller got his tattoo. To sum the story up he got it while drunk, he wanted people to think he was almighty and that's why Beecher shouldn't sleep around. A lovely parable for our times. Beecher says he's gonna squeal about him to Adebisi, but Keller says if he does he'll tell Vern about the hit he put on Hank. Point 1, Keller. Hill says money is a burden. Weigh me down, baby. Ryan and K-Boy's excellent adventure continues as Ryan steals Supreme Allah's necklace and arranges for a delivery truck to be late so Mondo has to wait alone for it while Keller does his part by offering Mondo a blowjob (hardly fair division of labour, I say). Keller puts out a match with his tongue and then snuffs Mondo (get my clever pun? Ah, my humour is wasted on you). Supreme's necklace 'mysteriously' shows up at the crime scene and the murder weapon is found in his pod. Allah is sent to solitary. Adebisi's reign isn't ending soon enough for Said and when he hears that Adebisi's been making videotapes of his escapades, he becomes his roommate in order to try and get his hands on a tape. Adebisi confesses he likes Said and gives him a tape, convinced Said won't give it up. Said turns Adebisi in to Adebisi's surprise and Adebisi attacks Said with a shank to Said's surprise. The scuffle continues until Said comes out with a bloody shank in his hand and Adebisi comes out with a hole in his back. There is no joy in Mudville for mighty Simon has been shanked.
Medium Rare
Six months have passed. Said was acquitted of Adebisi's murder on grounds of self-defense. "Up Your Ante", a game show, has joined Miss Sally in the prisoner's tv lineup. McManus and Glynn have done their best to keep the events leading up to Adebisi's death a secret. News producer Lisa Logan tours Oz in preparation for the arrival of hard-hitting reporter Jack Eldridge, who will also be spending a night with the new inmate the cameras will follow around on his first day. That man is Omar White, a jittery, homophobic addict fiending for drugs. Busmalis drives the cameras away. After an interview with Beecher, Lisa considers focusing the piece on his struggles in Oz. Beecher taunts Keller and Ryan with oncamera hints of their involvement in the murders; Keller threatens Ryan when Ryan wants to deal with Beecher; Pete dodges questions; Tidd interrupts a tense moment between Lisa and Vern. After a mention of Adebisi's drug-and-sex videotapes by Poet, Lisa decides to make the piece about the mystery surrounding his final days. Eldridge arrives, digging for information on Ryan after Ryan hints at their past connection. Eldridge blindsides Said with questions about his part in Adebisi's death. Worried about damage to Em City and he and Glynn's careers, Tim points Lisa toward the man he blames: Querns, who kept quiet in exchange for Glynn keeping quiet over his unethical methods. Per Glynn's advice, Querns turns down requests for an interview; per Querns' advice, Glynn destroys the tapes. Glynn and Jack have an off-the-record conversation, leading Eldridge to realize Glynn was a good man caught up in a situation he couldn't control. Jack cancels the Adebisi story. Offering him a constant supply of drugs, Ryan manipulates White into helping him settle an old score against Eldridge. Unfortunately, White tries to attack Eldridge directly in front of the guards. White goes to solitary. Eldridge chooses Cyril for his podmate, sensing good story potential. Cyril, who hasn't been taking his medication, remembers Eldridge and blames him for his mother getting cancer (Eldridge did a piece on Ryan on Cyril when they were in charge of their local Irish gang, painting them as monsters. Their mother developed and died from cancer not long afterward.). Cyril beats Eldridge to a pulp. As he recovers from serious injuries, the network decides to cancel the piece on Oz. Lisa resigns in protest.
Conversions
McManus introduces instructional videos and the Cage, a cage in the middle of Em City that Keller is the first to test out. White returns from solitary after lying to McManus about his plans for recovery. Supreme Allah asks an uninterested White to remind Em City that he's coming back someday. Miguel is recaptured; Glynn personally escorts him to solitary. When Guerra asks White to kill Miguel, White stabs him, sending himself back to solitary. After a six-month break due to her transfer from Em City, Claire forces Ryan to resume their affair. Gloria returns. Claire taunts Gloria about her relationship with Ryan. During an overnight stay in the infirmary, Ryan tells Gloria that he killed Keenan. Gloria confesses her love for Ryan to Sister Pete. Devlin is inaugurated for a second term. Sick of Busmalis, Glynn hires the young, energetic, attractive Floria Mills as his assistant. Glynn separates from his wife. Busmalis proposes to Norma, who joyfully accepts. He reveals his latest escape tunnel to Rebadow after Rebadow agrees to be his best man. Enraged by Tidd's past tie to Adebisi, Said rejects Beecher and Tidd's pleas to accept a repentant Tidd into the Muslim circle. Tidd makes a deal with the Aryans to kill Said. Fallen televangelist Jeremiah introduces himself to Vern, offering spiritual guidance. Vern rejects his offer, but later accepts after seeing Jeremiah in action. Beecher considers Vern's offer of a victim/offender session. Vern's behavior puzzles Robson. Keller taunts Beecher over the appeal of his visiting brother, then has the tables turned when his old friend Ronnie enters Em City as Beecher's podmate. New prisoner Redding congratulates Said on killing Adebisi, shares a warm reunion with Hill (who he raised like a son), takes over the homeboys from Poet, and has an unpleasant first meeting with Pancamo and Morales. McManus is forced to house illegal Chinese immigrants in Em City until their deportation. Over his friend Pinghao's warning, Yixue assumes a leadership role for the group. Morales falsely tells him that Redding is planning to kill the immigrants, and the only way to stop Redding is to kill him. Yixue goes to McManus. Yixue, happy after speaking to his wife over the phone, volunteers for work detail. Morales kills him with a staple gun. Suspicion falls on Redding, who is placed in the Cage.
Revenge is Sweet
Redding is accused of the murder of a Chinese immigrant, but he insists he didn't do it. Pancamo and Morales think of new ways to screw Redding over. Alvarez offers to be an informant to Glynn, in exchange for getting out of solitary. Alvarez tries to get back into the fold with the Latinos, but is told the only way that's going to happen is if he offs Redding. Now, hold onto your hats folks for what is possibly the most far-fetched plot--ever. Two words: aging pills. Yes, that's right. A company wants to test a drug out on the prisoners that would make them the physical age they'd be when they'd be released (i.e. If you're in for 20 and you're 20 years old, the pill would make you the physical age of 40), then they'd be set free. Several prisoners sign up for this 'privilege' including Beecher, Hoyt, Wick, Kirk, and Robson. Meanwhile, Cyril is getting out of control and his getting sent to The Connelly Institute seems inevitable. Ryan begs Dr. Nathan to let his brother and him take the pill so that they can leave and she agrees despite McManus's urgings and the fact that the two O'Reily boys are in Oz for life and therefore kinda ineligible for the whole 'aging pill' thing.. Vahue is up for parole and he's sassing off to Hill who's still going to be in Oz when he's gone. Hill fixes his wagon, however, when he informs the woman that Jackson Vahue beat up that Vahue's up for parole and well, that just about ends that there. Giles is sentenced to death for killing Bevilacqua and he chooses the method of stoning. Tidd tries to become a Muslim but Said ain't having it, because of Tidd's ties to Adebisi. Tidd and Robson stage a fake fight in the gym in which Tidd comes to Arif's rescue. Arif suggests to Said that Tidd is for real, and Said accepts Tidd, giving him the new Muslim name Salah Udin. Hoyt and Robson pay Cloutier a little visit to tell him they don't like the way he's been "councelling" Schillinger. Schillinger doesn't care what his cronies have to say, however and continue on his path to righteousness by reading scripture at an interaction session with Sister Pete and Beecher. In other news, Hell announces it's a bit chilly. Busmalis wants to get hitched to Norma and the warden says yes, provided he stops digging tunnels. Busmalis agrees and starts filling in the one he was digging. He hits a water pipe and, despite his attempts to look extra-old and innocent, he's sent to solitary. Floria proves she's a multi-talented secretary by redoing Glynn's office, sending his soon-to-be-ex-wife flowers and getting every C.O. and prisoner all hot and bothered-- and they say good help is hard to find! Clayton comes to Oz since every other prison has beaten the crap out of him. Glynn sends him to 'J' ward-- the cop ward-- so that he'll be safe.. in theory at least. Keller realizes that Beecher and Barlog have been getting a little 'friendly' (if you get my drift and I know you do) and is seriously ticked. Keller warns Barlog to stay away from Beecher ("the guy's a slut") but to no avail. The next trick up Keller's sleeve? He seduces Barlog who, in turn, calls it quits with Beecher. Then Keller moons Beecher and well, I'm not sure how to react to that. A wrench is thrown into the plans when Barlog is offered a bargain with the feds to rat out Keller about the homosexual murders he committed in return for reduced prison time. Beecher tells Keller about it, Keller doesn't know who to trust (psst... hey, Keller, if it's any use to you, I'd go with Beecher). He confronts Barlog about the issue in an EMPTY STOREROOM and says he believes Barlog. He asks-- nay, demands-- a blowjob from Barlog and I guess Keller's hand must've 'slipped' because right at the heat of passion we hear a deliciously nasty Crrrraaaccck! And Barlog? He ain't looking too good. Hill says that revenge can be the highest complement. Personally? I'll take a 'gee, you sure smell pretty' over a "Crrrraaaccck!" any day.
Cuts Like a Knife
Hey kids! Did you ever want to know how to make a knife? Well, lucky for us, our wonderful narrator Augustus is going to tell us how! Yay! Crazy, crazy Alvarez kills another Latino this episode with --guess what?-- A KNIFE! The 'Gilette Bayonnet' we're told (take one razor blade from safety razor add one pencil, and mix). This is the end to his informant days. Back to solitary for you, my friend. Oh look... Alvarez is reaching into the bowl of his toilet and.. oh lord.. what's he smearing on...? Eww. Moving right along, Rebadow convinces Glynn to move Busmalis out of solitary and the geriatric pod rises again. Speaking of old people, Cyril must've got the real deal out of those aging pills because-dangnabbit if his hair ain't all grey and his eyes all wrinkly. 'holy mother of christ' ryan is heard to exclaim. Ryan tries to get them out of the program, but Dr. Nathan says no. Ryan gets mad, Cyril gets sad and then Ryan sings-- bad. (but it still makes me a wee-bit teary eyed, all the same. Damn those O'Reily boys.) Just as the aging pill thing is taking off, Wick dies, bleeding profusely (and grossly, i'll add) from the nose, all glassy-eyed and dead. One more bodily secretion and I'm through, I promise. Tidd tries to shank Said but loses the nerve which makes him... vomit! yay! Omar wants to do something that'll make him noticed. Shanking McManus seems to work well enough for him (with a 'blunt'- take a piece of metal from the metal shop, sharpen against wall, stab, twist, repeat). Hey! Everyone's in solitary! Mobay/Basil gets a visit from his old partner, only for her to tell him that he sucks. This makes Mobay/Basil sad. Remember those Chinese refugees? Yeah, well, even if you don't, Gongjin wants Jia Kemin to kill Morales, and tells him so. Supreme comes back to Em City with a grudge against Keller and O'Reily, since he's caught on that they're the ones who framed him for the deaths of Shemin and Browne. Supreme ain't exactly innocent either, since we learn he's the one that ratted out Hill to the cops. Hill tries to take Supreme on in the showers but Supreme kicks his ass old-school. Keller approaches Redding, suggesting that if he wants to take out Supreme, he'd be glad to help. Redding says he has no problem with Supreme, but a few short minutes later, we see Poet providing Method Man--err.. "Tug Daniels" with a shank (carve toothbrush end, hide in pocket, bristles up), and Supreme.. well, looky here, he's in the hospital bed next to Hill! Man.. this is a jam-packed episode. Mukada comes back from priest-camp, or wherever it was that he was at to find Reverend JC (hehe.. jeremiah cloutier.. jesus christ.. cute, fontana, real cute) has taken his flock. Mukada=jealous. He confronts JC who calls his crucifix 'showbiz on a stick'. The meeting does not go well. Beecher and Schillinger have an interaction with Sister Pete which is interrupted when the warden informs Schillinger that his son, Hank, has been found dead. Schillinger? Not pleased. Robson does was Robson does best, stirring up shit. He convinces Schillinger that Beecher is the man to go after, which he does, vowing to kill his whole family. While Beecher's playing with his daughter, his brother (whose standing outside) gets shanked with the night's last guest starring knife, the Don Juan held by Robson. Made from bedsprings. Penetrates. Get it? Beecher urges his dad to hide with Holly. Keller tries to convince Beecher that they have to take revenge against Schillinger. When Beecher doesn't comply, Keller knocks him out and tells ol' JC that *he* was the one who took the hit out on Hank and to pass the word along to Schillinger. Schillinger believes him, Beecher and him shake hands and make nice, while Keller sporting a fetching orange jumpsuit is transferred to Cedar Junction in Massachusettes to stand trial for Hank's Murder. Keller tells Beecher he's doing it for him. Beecher and Keller kiss goodbye, fanfic writers everywhere cry in disbelief and then go straight back to writing Beecher/Keller porn, and I sniffle and weep like a pathetic child And the worst stab wound of all, says Hill? The one to the heart. Awwwww...
Blizzard of '01
Busmalis confesses his virginity to Rebadow, but his fear is moot when Norma doesn't show up for the wedding. Wicke's family sue Gloria, Wygert and Oz for his death, putting her career in jeapordy. Ryan gets a visit from Suzanne Fitzgerald, who claims to be his mother. Cyrils returns to his normal appearance. A bored Claire ends her fling with Ryan, only to have Cyril attack her when she gropes him. Ryan is stunned when his father confirms her existence. Beecher pines for Keller, but his attractive parole liason, Catherine McClain, almost guarantees parole if he can stay out of trouble. Beecher goes to the Cage after provoking a physical confrontation with his new podmate, rigid military man Galson. When Christian Gougeon becomes a Catholic, Kirk has him beaten. Mukada and Cloutier reach an understanding of each other, even holding a service incorporating several different faiths. When Vern informs Carrie of Hank's death, she goes into labor, delivering a baby girl in the prison hospital. Basil advises Glynn to do something about Hughes, but Glynn doesn't even have time to visit. Vayhue switches to heroin when he stops getting a good high, but he stops himself moments before injecting a needle into the legs he's counted on his entire life. Influenced by Vayhue turning his life around, a conflicted Hill rats to the guards moments before the execution of Redding, Jia, and Omar's plan to kill Morales, Pancamo, and Supreme. Pete and Giles delay his execution by asking for death by stoning, not an approved method of capital punishment. Inspired, Moses asks Said to help him arrange to donate his organs. Tidd confesses his initial motives to Said, who forgives him. Robson bullies the scrawny, young Carl Jenkins into killing Said during lunch. Tidd lunges in front of the knife; upon his death, Said retreats into darkness.
Orpheus Descending
McManus returns, forcing Redding and Morales into a public display of peace. Supreme begins manipulating Hill into killing Redding. Redding disowns Hill, who isn't responsive to Supreme's attempts at friendship. New podmates Galson and Redding find they have a past war in common. Hughes transfers his hatred from Yood to Basil when Basil takes Yood's side. Basil has an emotional visit with his wife, asking her to bring their son soon. Blocking the door to keep Claire out, Hughes kills Basil. Floria gives a drunken, guilt-ridden Glynn a ride home. Seeing Beecher's continued depression over Keller, Sister Pete arranges a phone call between them. When Beecher mentions coming to visit once he's paroled, Keller begs him to leave the past behind, then hangs up. Beecher and Catherine's bond grows. Vern meets his granddaughter, Jewel, but his joy is shattered when a black inmate claims Carrie was a whore, and he slept with her himself. Said uses Cloutier to persuade Jenkins into giving Robson up, but threats delivered by mail drive him to suicide. Vern and the Brotherhood warn Cloutier never to interfere again. Tim challenges Vayhue to a basketball tournament, Tim and another staffer vs. Vayhue and a prisoner of Tim's choice, with Vayhue being allowed back in Em City if he wins. Murphy and Glynn decline, but Officer Brass agrees. Tim picks Busmalis for Vayhue. Vayhue wins, but Brass' abilities stun everyone. Moses asks to meet those who will receive his organs. En route to the hospital, Moses dies in an escape attempt, demoralizing Said yet again and reducing Giles to tears. Padriac Connelly, an Irish terrorist fighting extradition for killing a British soldier, is moved to Em City per Tim's request. Assuming he can win on appeal or be released on bail, he blows off Tim and Ryan's attempts at friendship. Connelly gets into a fight with Kirk when Kirk tries to force him into conversion. Zelman reveals, to Connelly's horror, that he has been denied bail, and must remain in Em City until a decision is made. Ryan learns Suzanne isn't Cyril's mother. A gym confrontation Cyril and Jia causes to go into a coma. Pete and Gloria successfully convince Tim to put Cyril in protective custody instead of an institute. An overheard conversation about Jia's coma spurs Arif into confessing his knowledge of Keenan's murder to Said. When informed, Glynn confronts Ryan, whose attempts at blackmail over Adebisi's videotapes anger Glynn into fully investigating the murder. Desperate, Ryan asks Gloria to help he and Cyril escape.
Even the Score
Guerra tells McManus about Omar's continued drug use, but is busted as well. Omar sparks a free-for-all in rehab, leading even Pete to give up on him. McManus refuses to. As the parole hearing nears, Beecher asks that the Rockwells be told. Pete arranges an interaction session. Despite their anger, they agree to not fight his parole. Glynn visits Hughes in solitary, tearing up his manifesto and rejecting his plans to seek the death penalty for Basil's murder. Upon release from solitary, Robson is severely beaten by Said after taunting him. The tension between Aryans and Muslims grows; Cloutier manages to talk Vern into a temporary truce (so he can visit Carrie instead of facing a lockdown), but Said refuses and stays in the Hole. Carrie owns up to her past, but asserts that Hank could be the father. Vayhue is treated as royalty due to the last game. The guards injure Vayhue's knee. Rejecting Tim's offer to postpone the game, he loses, and is met with disdain when he moves back to Em City. Accepting a spot in rookie camp from a scout Tim hooked him up with, Dave can't play the last game. When Morales gloats, Tim lies that Dave will be there. Morales pays Martinez to sever Brass' Achilles tendons, crippling him. In partnership with Tug, Supreme lets the Colonel overhear their plans for Hill to kill Redding. After a mock trial, Redding strangles Tug. Supreme uses the murder to rattle Hill further. Pete balks at Devlin's suggestion of declaring Giles mentally incompetent to stand trial. The state Supreme Court declares the death penalty unconstitutional, and Devlin ends capital punishment until a committee can look over the process. Giles' elation ends as he realizes he's back in solitary, all alone. Ryan investigates Cyril's obnxious pc neighbor, who Cyril may or may not have spilled secrets to. Claire offers to change her story of Cyril assaulting her if Ryan lets her sleep with Cyril. Bribed by Ryan with more food, Yood pushes her down a flight of stairs, breaking her pelvis. Ryan and Cloutier stop Kirk and Burns from beating Connelly. Cloutier casts Kirk out; Ryan and Connelly grow closer. After revealing that she left Ryan to join a militant group, Suzanne explains that she has been a fugitive for 35 years, and came to see Ryan before she turned herself in. Ryan asks her to join his escape plan, she advises him against it. Connelly learns he will be extradited in a week. Gloria decides not to tell Glynn what she knows about Keenan's murder, but also decides not to help Ryan escape. Stung by her comment that he has no ethics, Ryan offers to help Connelly fight for the cause. After gathering the supplies, Ryan is told at knifepoint exactly what Connelly's plan is: to build a bomb that will destroy Em City.
Famous Last Words
Drugs are planted in Hill's pod. When Supreme promises to kill Redding if he doesn't, Hill agrees, buying time until he kills Supreme by telling Poet to slip eggs (Supreme's food allergy) into his meal. Redding and Hill mend fences, but Hill declines the offer to rejoin his crew. Galson has an unpleasant meeting with his daughter, who wants her stepfather to walk her down the aisle. On Redding's orders, he tries to kill Morales while they repair an elevator, but Morales pushes him into the shaft, sending the car crashing down onto him. Wounded by being forced to resign from his church and Kirk's attempts to undermine and humiliate him, Cloutier takes Mukada's advice of working with his followers in manual labor. Kirk, Hoyt, and the other bikers brick him up behind a kitchen appliance. Hughes overpowers Smith, christens himself Gamba Kufu, and claims solitary as his new republic. He picks fellow prisoner Penders as his vice-president. When Glynn tries to break through to him, Hughes offers to surrender in exchange for a hug. As he prepares to knife Glynn in the back, Penders saves him. After being stabbed during a struggle with SORT members, Hughes dies in Glynn's arms, exactly as his father did. Glynn writes a letter of resignation, but Floria tears it up after he leaves. Murphy and Tim lose lose the third basketball match. A sober Omar follows Tim around work every day, worshipping him. When Omar defends Tim's unfortunate appearance on "Up Your Ante", an argument with Guerra causes Omar to smash another Latino's head through the tv. When Tim tells him he's going back to solitary, Omar nearly kicks Tim's head in. Tim still pledges to note give up on him. Vern gives a blood sample for Jewel's paternity test, exploding into rage when Robson tells him of Beecher's parole. Vern promises to do all he can to stop the parole, Said does his best to protect Beecher. Beecher urges Said to face and accept his part in the death of Adebisi. Beecher dreams of a life outside Oz with Catharine and his kids, but his parole is denied for another year. When Vern and Robson taunt Beecher in the library, Said stabs them, exclaiming, "Adebisi lives." Em City finally gets HBO. Upon Cyril's return and Ryan kissing Gloria, Ryan has second thoughts on the bomb. He pleads with Connelly to change his mind, finally stealing the bomb, but Connelly activates it. Ryan tips McManus off, Em City is evacuated, the bomb turns out to be a dud. Unfortunately, a guard lights a match near a burner Ryan left on while stealing the bomb, engulfing the kitchen and cafeteria in waves of flame.
Visitation
The episode begins with a flashback of a bus run off the road by a sleepy truck driver. Oz reopens several months after the gas explosion, with new facilities (although they look basically the same as the old ones). Miguel, Giles, Penders, and Omar White are released into Em City due to a ventilation problem in solitary. Miguel tries to establish himself as tough and crazy to keep the Latinos away, but that backfires when he tries to attack Giles and Giles beats him up. Meanwhile, Omar tries to stay out of trouble and win a second chance with McManus, but a fight with Martinez in the cafeteria leads Omar to a trip to the Cage. Cloutier, who was found because of the gas explosion, is returned to Oz's infirmary. When Tim wants to communicate with him, he learns that his vocal cords were badly burned, and the rest of his body was charred as well. Tensions between the Aryans and Muslims intensify as a result of Said stabbing Vern and Robson last season. When Said receives a feces package in the mail, he attacks Robson. To hold off the looming war, Sister Pete asks Beecher to participate in interaction sessions with Vern and Said. He agrees, for humanitarian reasons and also for his parole standing. Pete convinces both men to join, and in the first meeting, Beecher stuns them by saying they are a lot alike. Arif wants Ryan punished for killing Keenan, but won't testify for fear of his life. He tells Glynn about the shamrock ripped from Keenan's neck. Gloria admits to Glynn that she had it, but protects Ryan by lying that she threw it away. To kill 2 birds with 1 stone (Glynn breathing down his neck, and creepy Harry Stanton constantly spending time with Cyril), Ryan bribes inmate Martin Montgomery to lie that he saw Stanton killing Keenan. Ryan also plants Gloria newspaper clippings under Stanton's mattress. Stanton makes the mistake of commenting on Gloria's breasts during an interrogation with Glynn, and is thrown in the Hole. Ryan plans to keep the investigation in the air because he knows Gloria will come forward if Stanton, an innocent man, is actually arrested for the murder. Cyril asking if he can tell others about Ryan's scheme leads to a major argument between him and Ryan. Hill receives his divorce papers and discusses his mother and his wife with Redding, who talks about his own marriage problems. Back to the Bus: - Annette disrupts the atmosphere with her smoking, and tells Mukada she plans to ask her brother Morales to kill her abusive husband - Carrie asks Mukada to lift the curse from Jewel's head before it ruins her, as it ruined Hank, Andrew, and Vern - Arif's wife Sonsyrea raves and pontificates about the state of young black men in America, and the evils of the drug culture - Hill's mother, Eugenia, calms Sonsyrea and discusses her regret over Hill's broken marriage, that she blames his wife for him being in jail, and that she's going to Oz that day to tell him of the divorce. Five minutes before they arrive at Oz, the bus swerves, rolls several times, then turns upside down. Annette, Sonsyrea, Eugenia, and Carrie (among others) are killed. Jewel is at Benchley Memorial. Glynn breaks the news to their devastated relatives in Oz.
Laws of Gravity
After taking advice from Rebadow, Miguel decides to "take the blow" - let Guerra stab him in the shoulder and that way the vendetta will end. Due to remorse for his sister's death, Morales forbids Guerra from killing Miguel, but Guerra nearly does anyway, sending Miguel to the infirmary yet again. Tim's ex-wife, Eleanor, joins the staff as liasion to the governor. Tim's basketball buddy Dave Brass works at the entry desk, staying at the prison due to vengeance desire against the person who ordered his tendons cut. McManus tells him that he is responsible, because he told Morales that Brass was going to play. Feeling guilty, and in the mood to play games with his ex, Tim sends Brass in Elly's direction after Glynn refuses to let Brass return to guarding Unit B. Her threat of legal action causes Glynn to move Brass to the cafeteria. Ryan's mother Suzanne, let out of prison in exchange for community service, comes to Oz to teach inmates performance arts. Ryan bullies Busmalis into joining up, while being plagued by fear for his mother's safety. To his dismay, Suzanne shrugs off his request to not work at Oz. He also has to worry about Martin Montgomery, who wants more in exchange for not telling Glynn that Ryan bribed him into being a witness. Thinking on his feet as always, Ryan puts the shamrock necklace in Montgomery's cell, then tells Stanton that Montgomery was the witness who implicated him. Stanton stabs Montgomery in the neck, taking both men off Ryan's hands for a while. Busmalis learns Miss Sally's Schoolyard is on the brink of cancellation, which means Norma probably no longer works with the show. Meanwhile, Rebadow reacts to his grandson's second bout with leukemia by scouring every source of information available to find a cure. He finally does, but realizes he needs money to fund that cure. Said goes beserk after a new Muslim recruit sneaks food during prayers. To help curb his temper, Tim makes the equally unstable Omar Said's podmate, with Said teaching Omar right and wrong. Peter Schibetta is released from the psych ward after nearly 3 years. Pancamo protects him, but is in the need of protection himself after Vern finds out from the feds that Pancamo paid for Hank Schillinger's murder. During a gym melee between Aryans and Sicilians, Vern shanks him in the side. Vern's grief is doubled because of Carrie's death and baby Jewel going to live with Carrie's parents in Montana. Due to Pancamo being uncovered as Hank's killer, Sister Pete informs Beecher that Keller is returning to Oz. Burr gives Hill a ring given to him by Hill's mother, and Hill goes to his mother's funeral. Mukada visits Cloutier and is shaken by his appearance. Timmy Kirk orders Jim Burns to smother Cloutier, but the guards pull him off in the nick of time. Cloutier's spirit begins haunting Burns until Burns agrees to kill Kirk. But when he tries, Hoyt snaps his neck. While Hoyt is in the Hole, Cloutier shows up and begins haunting *him*.
Dream a Little Dream of Me
Miguel Alvarez is recovering nicely in the hospital from yet another stab wound. 7 lives down, 2 to go. Glynn tells him that if the knife had gone in just a little to the left, he'd be dead. This ticks Alvarez off but, true to his word, he promises to not retaliate. Morales promises Miguel that the Latinos won't hurt him. Seeing how well Miguel's program worked, an inmate named Velez wants to be part of his never-die revolution. Miguel says sure with one condition: kill Guerra. Busmalis forges dead prisoners signatures on protest letters against the cancellation of Miss Sally's Schoolhouse. Miss Sally is now drawing the numbers for the Superball lottery, which --Holy segway Batman!-- gives Rebadow an idea! He pays Brass a dollar to go get a lottery ticket with the numbers that God gave him to raise the money for his grandson's treatment. Dave could use some luck of his own. He's still down about that whole "I can't walk properly ever" thing and McManus offering to shoot some hoops with him? Not a big help. Plus Morales still refuses to tell him who cut him in the first place. Jia Kenmin returns to Oz after being knocked out by Cyril and professes to be a changed man. He shows his change by talking to Ryan and Cyril in one of Sister Pete's ever-helpful interactions, but Ryan ain't buying it. Cyril however is, because.. well, you know. Cyril and Jia embrace which is cute but unnerving and then Cyril sings with his mother which produces much of the same emotions in me. The O'Reily's are all happy until Suzanne's next students come along-- Well, if it isn't Jia Kenmin and his new friend Li Chen! The two speak together in Chinese so I don't understand them, but they glare in English so I can only assume they're up to something. Ryan agrees with me. While Pancamo's in the hospital, Peter Schibetta's taking care of the Italian's business. Pancamo warns him not to get too comfortable. Petey says he isn't, he's just running the drugs, the kitchen and the partnerships. Sounds like getting comfy to me. Redding and Morales make a pact to start working together turning them into (in the words of Officer Murphy) "one big happy tit factory". This image makes me laugh, but it's late and I'm not very mature. Schibetta tries to get support to fight the Aryans but finds that he's lost some respect in people's eyes after becoming Adebisi's one-night girlfriend. Said tells him that he will always be Adebisi's bitch, and the rest of the Italians agree, waiting to rumble until Pancamo's out of the infirmary. Hey, where's Unit B's pool table? The Aryans can't look properly menacing without pool cues. Schillinger goes in search of it and finds Peter Schibetta instead. Petey tries to be all tough, but all it gets him is a bunch of laughing Aryans and an ass full of Vern. Man, first Adebisi, then Schillinger, this guy just can't get a break. Penders, the guy who saved Glynn's life wants a job in Glynn's office so he can stay out of trouble. Glynn tells him to get lost because seeing him would remind him of Clayton. Governor Devil reinstates the death penalty with a new restriction, which I'll call the Giles Clause: An inmate can only choose to die through electrocution or lethal injection. And on that happy note, Here's Keller! Beecher's all excited to see Keller and Keller's all excited to see Beecher but neither one seems to get their way, as Keller isn't being sent to Em City, he's being sent to Protective Custody. Why, you ask? Well, here's agent Taylor of the FBI to explain it. Turns out, there was a witness to one of the homosexual murders Keller committed. Taylor says that PC's just his temporary home until he's shipped off to Death Row. Man, this guy's ticked, maybe because Keller called him Spanky? Katherine McClain (or as I think of her, substitute Keller) comes with Holly to visit Toby. They get all snuggly-wuggly and I get all vommity-wommity. But that's not the worst relationship tonight-- that honour goes to Keller and Howell flirting up a storm in PC. I know the man needs comfort but Come ON! I already had to put up with a million episodes of Howell and O'Reily...now this? Man, Tom Fontana hates me. Keller and Beecher are denied time together by Glynn who refuses to offer any kind of reward to Keller. Robson is taunting Said by doing that whole "I'm going to copy what you say right after you say it" game. That's a great tactic. If you're six. It works on Said, however, who just keeps getting angrier and angrier. In an interaction with Schillinger and Beecher, Said also admits to doing drugs before he found Allah. You can't think about drugs without thinking of Omar White-- and there he is. Poet tries to give White some drugs but Kareem "McGruff" Said crushes 'em. Said tells McManus that helping White isn't helping curb his anger, but McManus says to keep trying, mainly because he's tired of doing it himself. Said asks White what he's passionate about, and he says being a singing cowboy. Hey, whatever gets you through the day, Omar. Omar gets signed up for singing lessons with Suzanne Fitzgerald but refuses to sing and then goes crazy when he's told to. Maybe he doesn't so much need singing lessons as anger management lessons. Just a suggestion. Hill and Redding continue reminiscing about Hill's mother and Redding's regret in not going to a Martin Luther King rally with Hill's parents. Hill realizes he has to give up on ever having a chance with his soon-to-be-ex-wife. Kirk hires some guy named Gunner to smother Cloutier, who still looks like a baked ham. Dr. Nathan gets to him in time and Gunner gets thrown in solitary. Hoyt tells Kirk about his vision of Cloutier, but Kirk tells him he's crazy. That night, Cloutier appears again in a snazzy suit and tells Hoyt to kill Timmy Kirk or he'll be back. Hoyt stabs Kirk with a crucifix (oh! the irony!) while Cloutier smiles. Smiles as much as a baked ham can. When Dr. Nathan comes to check on him, though, he ain't smiling. He ain't smiling because he ain't there. He's up and disappeared. He has risen...?
Next Stop: Valhalla
Miguel: Per Miguel's orders, Velez tries to kill Guerra in the shower room. Guerra gains the upper hand and beats Velez's head against the shower wall repeatedly. When a guilt-ridden Miguel visits Mukada, a distracted Mukada suggests Miguel do a good deed in penance for his sins. When Miguel learns of the dog training program Alicia Hinden has pitched to Em City (approved after more sparring between McManus and his ex-wife), he signs up and makes a great first impression on Alicia. Hill (hoping to get over his mother's death) and Penders also sign up. Miguel's dog defends herself ably when Guerra taunts her. Busmalis/Rebadow: Busmaslis's efforts to save Miss Sally's Schoolyard (he wrote 200 letters all in different names, but with the same address) are for naught when he learns the show is being replaced by Sallycize, an exercise show. He ponders whether Norma has a job on that show. Rebadow asks Dave Brass to buy him a lottery ticket. Brass has his own problems as Martinez throws a blood and human waste cocktail in his face. When Gloria tells him he needs to tell his girlfriend that he could be HIV-positive from the exposure, he storms out. Vern/Beecher/Keller: Before Schibetta's first session with Sister Pete, Vern reminds him not to tell her who raped him. In Vern's interaction session with Said and Beecher, he denies Said's accusations of raping Beecher or Cyril. An enraged Beecher lunges at him and has to be pulled away. Vern's theme of rape continues when Franklin Winthrop arrives in gen pop. After saving him from a large black inmate, Vern and Robson roll out the Pragmobile. Franklin's friend, Adam Gueznel (who is Beecher's new podmate; Adam's father was Beecher's scoutmaster) is disgusted when he sees him dolled up as a prag during lunch. Seeing Adam's repentance and knowing the Aryans will come after Adam soon, Beecher asks Said to protect Adam. Said refuses, so Beecher elicits a promise from an increasingly sick Pancamo. Moments before the Aryans attack Adam, new prisoner Urbano and the rest of the Sicilians step in. A brawl ensues. Adam is unharmed but pumped by the idea of fighting and violence. Beecher is concerned. Sister Pete unsuccessfully tries to give Keller a pep talk. Keller spends the rest of his time flirting with his guard, Claire. Meanwhile, Beecher freaks out when he discovers Keller's public defender is none other than Catherine. He asks her to get Keller another lawyer, but curiosity gets the better of Catherine. Beecher's two lovers share a tense first meeting, but Keller swears he didn't kill anyone and she agrees to stay on his case. Ryan: Ryan, his mother and Cyril are more of a family than ever. After Gloria's prodding, Ryan confesses his past crimes to Suzanne, but not before inflicting a little white man breakdancing on her. The family harmony is broken when hippie inmate Shupe overhears Li Chen and Jia discussing their plans to murder Ryan. To get drugs, Shupe exaggerates to Ryan that they plan to rape Suzanne. Ryan stabs Li in the side, and is hit in the face. Enraged, Cyril stabs Li in a more fatal area. McManus moves Cyril to solitary in preparation for the upcoming murder trial. Omar/Said: Suzanne's love of singing has infected Omar. Unfortunately, his singing bugs all in Em City, podmate Said most of all. McManus gives Omar his own private storage room to sing in, an hour every day. Omar's blue skies quickly turn grey when Redding informs him that he has to run drugs through the room, "or else." Said's followers continue doubting his association with Omar, but Said puts them in their place. During a library altercation with the Aryans, upstart Muslim Lalar is fight-happy. Robson realizes the best way to get to Said is through his youngest. Cornering the helpless youth in a storage room, Robson and another Aryan heartlessly slice and slash Lalar into an excruciating death. Miscellaneous: Gloria treats Martinez's wounds (he was badly beaten after throwing the waste shake on Brass). When Martinez won't stop groping her, Gloria has flashbacks to her rape and goes mad-ass on him. Sister Pete tries to soothe Gloria's guilt over beating a helpless prisoner by telling her to work through her anger, work through why she wanted to return to a pit of violent men after being raped. Redding asks for and gets control of the kitchen. His mother's last moments in the bus won't leave Hill's head. Beecher tells him to think of her decomposing, rotting into nothing. Not surprisingly, this only devastates Hill further, and he goes back on drugs after 4 years of sobriety.
Wheel of Fortune
Said and Arif go to Warden Glynn about Lalar's murder. Angry and full of rage, Said then confronts White about passing drugs. Unsatisfied with White's response, Said beats White severely, which gets Said thrown in the hole. Robson stirs up trouble. Pancamo develops a staph infection. On orders from Schillinger, Winthrop gets into a fight with Guenzel. Schillinger goes to Beecher to win favor only he intends to have Beecher turn Guenzel over to him to be his "slave". Guenzel doesn't want to be seen with Beecher the 'faggot'. Keller discovers the feds have compelling evidence linking him to one of the past murders. Meanwhile, Howell makes her move on Keller. Officer Brass makes off with Rebadow's winning $2 million lottery ticket. Rebadow's ship comes in...for someone else. Hill becomes gravely ill. Redding vows to find out who got Hill back on drugs. Morales deals with his sister's death - he beats his brother-in-law bloody in the visiting room and is thrown in the hole. Kirk is transferred back to Oz from Benchley Memorial and begs Father Ray to let him return to the church as Hoyt is transferred to death row. O'Reilly tries to cover Cyril's legal fees and holds a family meeting. McClain recommends that O'Reily hire a big-name lawyer for Cyril.
Variety
The inmate variety show takes shape with Busmalis as MC and White the featured performer, and with Omar White as the finale. Said returns from the hole ready to apologize to White, and the two turn over a new leaf in their relationship. Robson's painful teeth force him to the dentist, something he secretly fears. The dentist recommends gum replacement surgery. Alvarez wants to give his dog to Eugene Rivera (the Oz guard he blinded). Cyril's trial looms and gets off to an inauspiciously cold start. Ryan is worried and cuts a deal that gets Shupe disabled. Redding continues to search for culprit that gave Hill the drugs. Poet, in an attempt to hide the truth from Redding convinces Busmalis to tell Redding that one of the Italians did the deed. This results in Redding having DeSantos poisoned. Chucky's condition worsens and out of fear, he summons Sister Peter for spiritual help. Dr. Nathan counsels Peter Schibetta. Sister Pete starts looking for Schibetta's attackers only the 3 who know (Said, Beecher, Schillinger) refuse to divulge. tensions between Mukada and Kirk come to a boil when Mukada convinces Hoyt to squeal. In exchange for a blow job, Timmy Kirk has Clarence get someone to burn down Father Mukada's church and rectory. He is seriously injured, and two other priests die. Beecher and Keller anger McClain, who walks out. Howell gives Keller a free trip to Benchley Memorial. Beecher takes Schillinger's deal: He takes the mail job and Adam is transferred to Unit B.
Good Intentions
Hill returns from Benchley Memorial, to his own private room in the hospital. He refuses to tell McManus who gave him the drugs, but says it wasn't Urbano. Tim tells Redding, who confronts "witness" Busmalis. Busmalis and Poet lie that Guerra was responsible. This leads to a brawl between Redding/Morales and their respective groups. Cyril is found guilty, and Ryan informs Catherine and Sister Pete that he won't ask for clemency. He tells Cyril that he's going to be set free. When Suzanne tells Ryan she knows him, that he won't be able to live with himself, he blows up, telling her that she doesn't know him at all. He also has to deal with Father Meehan pressing him on his lack of faith and his attitude towards Cyril's future. Behind Ryan's back, Sister Pete, Suzanne, Catherine, and Father Meehan begin working on a press blitz to ensure the public won't let Cyril be executed. Ryan repays the Sicilians for amputating Shupe's right arm by provoking Jia into a fight. Jia takes a swing at a CO, then knocks out another, until Ryan starts beating on him. The hacks are grateful, egged on even more when Ryan says he's heard Jia laughing about how dumb the CO's are. 3 of them greet Jia in his solitary cell, macing him and beating him senseless. Even though he's still shunning Peter Schibetta, Glynn is thrown into action against Timmy Kirk due to Mukada's injuries. He convinces a biker friend of Hoyt's to implicate Kirk in Cloutier being bricked up; Kirk is put in chains and dragged to solitary. When Officer Lopresti bullies Penders, Penders tells his dog to attack. Well-trained, the dog rips into Lopresti's throat. Penders is sent to solitary, leaving Miguel as the last of the three dog-trainers. He gets high praise from Alicia, and a great surprise when Eugene Rivera stops by, deciding to take the dog after all. Rivera gets a surprise of his own when Miguel reveals that he trained the dog commands in both English and Spanish. McManus is overjoyed with the success of the dog and music programs. Glynn notices the intimacy in the bickering between Tim and Eleanor. Feeling guilty for his part in Brass' downslide and stealing of the lottery ticket, Tim helps Bob Rebadow track down a match for his grandson's transplant. Not only does the match refuse to help, the only thing he gives Bob is a punch in the face. Inspired by another prisoner's miracle story of a faith healer, Bob asks his sister Sarah to let the woman try to heal their grandson. She says no, and harsh words ensue from both sides. Bob even curses. Yes, that's right, he curses. Robson's gums still bother him as he confides in Vern that he isn't sure what race the donor was. When Dr. Fajar learns Robson has been asking to see him, he freaks out, quitting Oz and, for spite, passing along a note to Poet that details Robson's potentially biracial gums. Ryan gleefully announces Robson's problem during lunch, humiliating him and the Aryan Brotherhood in front of everyone. Robson confronts Fajar in his office, but miraculously, Fajar manages to hit him in the jaw and escape alive (but not before assuring him the donor wasn't white). Thanks to this, Fajar ties Diane Whittlesey as the smartest person to ever work at Oz, especially smart because they got the hell out of there! After being counselled by a higher-up in the Brotherhood (who apparently lives on the outside and has never been seen or mentioned before), Vern knows he has to throw Robson out of the group. And he does exactly that. Keller caught the same bus that took Hill back to Oz, only Keller has permanent hearing loss in his right ear. Sister Pete tries in vain to help him. She also tries to help Adam Guenzel, now pragged and withdrawn. Meanwhile, a guilt-ridden Beecher admits his behavior to Said, who tells him he has to punish himself by not seeing Keller if he truly wants to atone. Beecher agrees. During an interaction session with Vern/Beecher/Said, Pete takes the offensive and asks what they know about the rape. Each clam up, and a disgusted Pete swears that she will talk to Adam every day until he tells her what has been done to him. Clued in by her incredibly dangerous and stupid statement, Vern then arranges for Adam to "escape", which leads to Adam being electrocuted on the barb-wire fence at the gates. Beecher is, as always, guilt-ridden. Minor stories: Pancamo's health continues to worsen, to the point of incoherent babbling. Peter Schibetta is much better after talking to Gloria, but still can't face his wife and won't admit who raped him. A nasty remark from Vern turns him into an emotional mess, curling into a ball. Grizzly Alvin Yood, the sole survivor of Unit J last season, is back as Sister Pete's new assistant. Murphy gets rough with Martinez to pressure him into confessing why he threw that nasty cocktail in Brass' face.
Impotence
All roads lead to solitary, and a season finale of cliffhangers commences as: Robson deals with his rejection by the Brotherhood by slicing his gums away with a razor blade. McManus arranges a parole hearing for Miguel. Glynn is outraged and tells the board of Miguel's many misdeeds. Miguel tries, but reaches his limit with a hateful inquisitor and beats him bloody, causing his 50th trip back to solitary. Gloria's guilt over Pancamo grows as he lapses into a coma. McManus tries to comfort her, telling her even doing one good thing, as he has with Omar, makes up for all the crap. Meanwhile, Omar overhears Schillinger telling Cutler, a new prisoner who wants to join the Brotherhood, that he has to kill Said for membership. Omar threatens Cutler in the storage closet, which leads to a fight and Omar nearly killing him. A betrayed, furious McManus sends Omar back to solitary. Tim's ex rages at him, his idealism, and his self-righteousness. Beecher's guilt leads him to come forward with news of Vern raping Winthrop and Guenzel, sending Vern to solitary with the help of corroborating witnesses and evidence. Beecher then defies Said and returns to Keller's arms (through cell bars). Keller is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Rebadow leaves Oz for the first time in over 35 years to visit his near-death grandson. When he returns, he goes on death watch, knowing the end has arrived when an electrical storm temporarily knocks out the power. As prepared as he was, Rebadow breaks down when he hears the news. He senses the hand of karma, since a power outage saved him from execution decades ago, and the power came back to short-circuit his grandson's machinery. As Murphy and Tim discuss his leaving Oz for the second time in a week for the funeral, Brass returns, offering to give Rebadow the money back. Both men can only stare at him. Busmalis is overjoyed when Norma sends a letter stating her plan to visit that very day. When he sees that she is pregnant, he walks out, crestfallen. Sister Pete and Suzanne continue their media blitz against Cyril's execution. Cyril is moved to death row and beats on several guards (with Keller's encouragement) when he realizes he's going to die. He is somewhat comforted when Pete brings his sock puppet. Meanwhile, Father Meehan searches for the cause of Ryan's bitterness and inability to fight for Cyril's life. He finally uncovers and confronts Ryan with the truth: Ryan and Cyril's father shook their baby sister Carolyn to death right in front of Ryan. Ryan breaks down in Meehan's arms, and decides to join the Cyril cause. He also tells his father that if he ever gets out of Oz, he'll kill him. Hill again promises Poet that he won't tattle on him, as Redding confesses to McManus that he isn't sure Guerra sold the drugs. Later, Redding admits his intense pain and guilt over sitting at a dinner table with Hill and his mother while he was feeding her son drugs and making him a pusher. Hill says he made his own choices, and Reddings says he had been so afraid of losing him. While this unfolds, Morales convinces default-Sicilian leader Urbano to kill Redding. Urbano crosses his path, preparing to stab him, but Hill wheels in front of his father figure, the blade cutting into him. As all of Em City reacts with shock and confusion, as Redding has to be restrained and a crying McManus rushes down to be near the mortally wounded man as he passes away. A final shot of an empty set, an empty chair where the narrator should be, indicates that Augustus Hill, the voice of Oz, is truly dead.
Dead Man Talking
As season 6 begins, Augustus Hill reappears to tell us that he has indeed shuffled off the mortal coil, but will continue to speak to us. He then introduces long-dead Jefferson Keane, who contributes most of the narration. Only McManus and Burr Redding continue to mourn Hill's murder. McManus begins to move more into New Age approaches and paints a meditative circle on the basketball court. Hill left a small box to be opened 6 months after his death, and McManus calls Burr and Said into his office to hear the letter contained inside. At the end McManus attempts to give the two men personal notes of Hill's, but Redding wants nothing to do with it and flees from the room. Pancamo is finally well again and learns from Morales that the homeboys are out of the drug trade. As they speak, those very same men are getting into brawls with other prisoners, as Burr sits alone in his pod, desolate. Said tries and fails at motivating Burr to step in. After Keane talks about the afterlife, Claire Howell is seen informing the solitary prisoners that they are up for review regarding a release back into gen pop. Claire steps into Martinez's cell for a round of carnal passion. At the hearing, she then tells the others (McM, Sister Pete, Glynn, Gloria, and a few extras) that he has no business being let out of solitary. In the end, Vern (against Pete's wishes) and Henry Stanton are returned to gen pop, while Miguel goes to Em City (against Glynn's wishes). Omar, Martinez, and Penders stay in solitary. Claire later tries to force herself on a sick Omar but he vomits on her shoes and is kept in the infirmary for observation. Tim warns Guerra not to go after Miguel, or else, and Guerra decides to genuinely mend fences with him. Timmy Kirk believe he is Satan, and asks Mukada (just released from the hospital) to exorcise him. Mukada refuses, believing that Kirk is pure evil and cannot be saved. As if to validate Ray's rage, the monsignor arrives at Oz to tell him that he has been suspended from his duties due to Kirk accusing him of sexual abuse. Glynn asks Suzanne (Ryan's mother) to do another variety show. She instead suggests Macbeth, with current costumes and sets to keep costs down and give a more modern feel. Slowly but surely prisoners are found, with Miguel doing wonderfully as stage manager and Father Meehan cast in the lead role. Meehan and Ryan are closer now, but Ryan still refuses to pray with him. Ryan and his family and friends keep fighting for Cyril's conviction to be overturned, but they run into roadblocks everywhere they turn. Their new attorney Zelman tells Ryan the state says the mentally retarded are exempt from death for crimes only if they showed signs of retardation before the age of 18. Ryan bullies witness Shupe into coming forward and exonerating Cyril in regards to stabbing Li, but learns that Shupe is a compulsive liar and won't be credible on the stand. As if Ryan doesn't have enough troubles, Peter Schibetta starts harrassing him about putting ground glass into Nino's food, and worst of all, Meehan dies of an aneurysm hours after agreeing to help Ryan turn his life around and not be so guarded and angry all the time. A grief-stricken Ryan bathes Meehan's body as a final tribute. Beecher (who has moved to Unit J after threats on his life by Aryans) continues working on Keller's appeal and anticipates seeing his son Harry for the first time in 6 years (Harry had been living with Gen's parents). Beecher's father, Harrison, visits and tells him that Harry is too frightened to leave the car. Beecher suggests they keep Harry away for a while, and father and son share a warm moment as Harrison gives him a recent picture of Harry. Harrison then visits Keller and says the key witness against him has been uncovered as a former drug dealer. Keller needles him about the disgust he must feel that his son has fallen in love with the likes of him. Unfortunately, this unpleasant exchange is far from the worst part of Harrison's day. Franklin Winthrop made a deal with Vern that he would get out of being a prag in exchange for killing Beecher's father. After paying off the guards, Winthrop traps Harrison in a corridor and stabs him to death. Misc: Due to therapy, Peter is finally mentally well enough to see his wife, Rosalie. Rebadow is still crippled with grief over his grandson's death. Tim agrees to transfer him to work duty in the library, and he strikes up a bond with the forceful new librarian, Stella. On death row, Keller watches Cyril giving his sock puppet Jericho a hostile and frightening personality. The mayor's trial for murdering two black girls decades ago, and Devlin's offhand remark that he would pardon the mayor if convicted, has led to rioting in the streets and serious racial tension inside Oz.
See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Smell No Evil
The much-missed (well, by some of us) Shirley Bellinger is our guest narrator this week, and discusses the senses: touch, taste, smell, hearing, sight, and common. The lockdown which had been caused by racial tension is ended. Beecher finds out about his father's murder, but can't go to the funeral. A prisoner Beecher didn't even know is found with the shank in his cell, and promptly arrested. Beecher is convinced Vern had the crime arranged. Meanwhile, the racist mayor is sent to Oz because Devlin's stupid remarks and the ensuing riots made pardoning impossible. Devlin ensures that he is put in the safest unit, J, with Beecher and Alvin Yood, and warns Glynn that he will burn Oz to the ground if anything happens to his friend. Vern, who was helped out by the mayor many times in his life, is worried Beecher will kill him, and dispatches a cleaned-up Winthrop to dole out a warning. Instead, Winthrop witnesses Beecher saving his life after he was choking on his lunch. Vern promises not to interfere with Beecher's parole hearing. Beecher, to his astonishment, is paroled, but has to wait a few days until the paperwork goes through. Keller learns from Lopresti that his lawyer is dead and Beecher is leaving, and is none too thrilled. The remaining solitary inmates are violently ill; Gloria discovers that the substances used to rebuild Oz have wafted into solitary and caused them permanent organ and possibly mental damage. Martinez has severe liver problems and Gloria wants to send him to Benchley Memorial Hospital, but Glynn says no. She tries to keep him in the infirmary for a while longer. Brass, who is now a guard again for no apparent reason, tells Martinez he's going to find out who paid Martinez to cut his tendons. Morales asks Murphy for a transfer to the infirmary, and Murphy says nogo and gives Morales a similar threat. To Guerra's horror, Morales says he may have to kill Martinez. Timmy Kirk stares in the mirror as he swears to Satan, freaking Cyril, Keller, and Hoyt out. Father Mukada visits death row to exorcise Kirk. Timmy claims it's too late to be saved and plans to go to the cops and the archdiosese about how Mukada fondled him. Timmy and the others are distracted from their various personal plots and crises by the news that McManus' ex-wife (thankfully less shrewish this time around) has arranged for them to do a death row fashion shoot for Maxim magazine! Really makes sense, huh? Next thing you know they'll make them all take aging pills. Anyway, Keller, Hoyt, Cyril, and Kirk have lots of fun, until Hoyt seizes the opportunity to get his long-awaited revenge. He shoves a lighting fixture down Timmy's throat, and Lassie can't save him from a brutal death. Hoyt leaps back in shock after he is finished with the murder, and he's dragged away by guards. Ray has been cleared of all suspicion, but sadly reveals to Sister Pete that he had earlier prayed for Kirk to die. Busmalis still refuses to see Norma, who had shown up last season pregnant with another man's child after standing Busmalis up at the altar. Rebadow and Stella get closer as she reveals she wants to help prisoners because she taught a neighborhood thief to read in juvie, he was stabbed to death, and she didn't want to give up the dream. Rebadow tries to help the other inmates love literature, but they're more interested in pop-up books and using tomes as toilet paper. McManus wants to turn Hill's notes into a book. Said has already contacted his publisher, but doesn't know how Redding feels about the idea. Redding is too busy muttering incoherently in the meditation maze to pay attention to reality, or the fact that his homeboys are contemplating killing him. When a new opportunity to have a legit business arrives in Oz (telemarketing), Redding wakes up from his coma and decides this is a great way for him and his boys to earn money without breaking the law. Said accompanies him, but backs out when he learns that the woman in charge will be paying much less than minimum wage. Redding doesn't care and is appointed foreman. Said skips around the maze and looks to Allah for inspiration. Miguel, wary of his parole hearing arriving in 3 years, refuses Morales' attempts to convince him to spy on Redding's gang. Miguel's mother visits and they share harsh words about her never coming to visit him and him always being in solitary or escaping. After making up, he asks her if she can get his ex-love Maritza (the one who had his baby which died shortly after birth) to come see him. She feels only Miguel himself should ask that question, so he calls and leaves a long, tortured message on Maritza's answering machine. Peter Schibetta smirks at Ryan in the gym and tells him he was responsible for Father Meehan's death; Meehan gave him his rosary, he gave it to his wife, his wife gave it to her grandmother, who knows about the evil eye and curses. Schibetta boasts that he will do the same to everyone Ryan loves, and eventually Ryan himself. Ryan has to be restrained from attacking him. Panicking, Ryan puts a bug in Pancamo's ear that Schibetta has put curses on both of them and is probably the reason Pancamo nearly died from his stab wound. Later, Schibetta ends his rehearsal for the Macbeth role to visit his wife. Right after he leaves, Suzanne realizes her car keys are missing. Ryan tries to stop Schibetta from putting a curse on his mother, but the guard won't let him through the bars. Meanwhile, Schibetta is walking to the visiting area when Pancamo and the mafiosos block his path. After a kiss on each cheek, they kill him. Glynn discovers Peter's eye ripped out, and Pancamo tosses Ryan his car keys. Looks like Ryan lucked out, for now. Looking at Meehan and Schibetta, the moral here seems to be: If you play Macbeth, you won't live out the week! Robson is nearly attacked by Pancamo and shunned by the Brotherhood. Biker/Aryan Cutler promises to protect Robson if Robson becomes his bitch. After a long talk with Sister Pete about his abusive childhood and how he has to do anything to survive, Robson agrees. He licks a spoon, drops his pants, and as his screams draw the closing credits out of hiding, the spoon is shoved inside his rectum.
Sonata de Oz
Beecher and Keller kiss as Lopresti tells them to knock it off. Keller is clearly upset that Beecher is leaving him, but tries to be happy and asks that Beecher never forget him. After more petting, Lopresti starts in again and Keller jumps him, leading to a beating. While Beecher is packing, Yood tells him bye and, for no apparent reason, also says that Winthrop killed his father on Vern's orders, and that the best way for revenge is to kill Mayor Lowen, as he's Vern's father figure. Beecher considers the offer and is later seen bidding farewell to Said and Sister Pete. He is finally, finally free. Meanwhile, Lowen tells Vern he has been a total failure in prison and is worthless in every way. Devlin is next on his hit list, as he promises to tell all of "Jimmy's" dirty little secrets the next day if Devlin doesn't get him released. That night, the infirmary guard is distracted long enough to enable a prisoner to race into the private room and slit Lowen's throat. He won't be talking ever again, and the viewer is left to choose between Vern, Beecher, or Devlin as the ringleader. While continuing his library duties, a thrilled Rebadow learns from Stella that she has no steady boyfriend. Stella begins to tutor a teen prisoner who used a book to beat his cellmate over the head. Norma asks to see Rebadow (Miguel wants in on the action as well) and swears that if Busmalis doesn't come to see her on the next visit, she won't return. Rebadow pleads with Busmalis to change his mind. Cutler protects his new bitch Robson (clad in a lovely scarf, earrings, and makeup) from a beating by Pancamo. As long as he promises to stop goading the Aryans, Glynn decides to give Pancamo and the Sicilians the kitchen again, due to Redding taking all his guys into another venture. Penders and Omar are back in solitary while Martinez is worse than ever. Guerra refuses to kill Martinez, incurring the wrath of Morales. Martinez dies within a few days; Gloria fires the nurse who didn't hear a code and warns Glynn that she will be doing an autopsy and releasing the results publicly. As damage control, Glynn spills the beans about solitary in a press conference. Meanwhile, Brass swears that Martinez gave him a deathbed confession implicating Morales as the one who paid him to slash Brass' tendons. Brass, Howell, and even Murphy corner Morales in a solitary cell and gleefully slash his Achilles' tendon, crippling him. Hoyt cries to Father Ray that he has seen the devil everywhere since Kirk died. Ray's offer of assistance to him arouses Pete's suspicion regarding Ray's motives. He later visits with Kirk's mother and tries to comfort her as she confesses to no longer loving her son by the time of his death. Cyril's session with Pete turns violent when she asks him to give up Jericho the sock puppet. That night as he screams for his handwarmer pal, Lopresti turns the hoses on him. Devlin, Eleanor and Glynn plot to offset public criticism of executing a mentally handicapped person by giving Cyril electroshock therapy to make him more normal. The family and Pete have no choice, and Pete realizes she has nothing left to give anyway. Making a bad situation worse, the court denies Cyril's appeal. Pete tries and fails to make Ryan accept Cyril's impending death, as Suzanne comforts Cyril during his painful ECT aftereffects. Burr's homeboys reluctantly go along with his plan to make them legitimate, even as Burr himself begins to doubt the good intentions of the telemarketer sharks and politicos they will be working for. When Said learns that Hill's book is deemed unpublishable due to various lawsuits and money claims from Hill's wife and the family of the cop Hill killed years earlier, Said decides to form his own book-binding business in Oz. He gets the go-ahead and both he and the Muslims feel rejuvenated. Unfortunately, when he is visited by a man claiming to be a magazine reporter, the stranger pulls out a gun and pumps two bullets into Said's chest.
A Failure to Communicate
As Tim breaks the news of Said's murder to an awestruck Em City, his shooter, Lemuel, confesses quickly, only saying he had to kill Said before nightfall. Glynn learns that the death has already been leaked to the media, and also tries to figure out how a man with a gun got in the prison. A drunken Officer Brese is responsible for the goof. Glynn angrily fires him. While Det. McGorry is on the premises, Devlin drops in and orders her to find a culprit, any culprit, for Mayor Lowen's murder. McGorry believes it was a personal killing, not race-related. Beecher's struggles on reentering Oz as a visitor are not helped when Sister Pete sadly informs him of Said's death. Beecher takes on Keller's case and they share an uneasy reunion as Keller tries to control his increasing jealousy of Beecher's freedom. After uncovering FBI Agent Taylor's prepping of a witness, Tobias manages to get Keller's case dismissed. Keller confidently strides back to gen pop. His first order of business is enticing Franklin Winthrop into a storage room for sex, and suffocating the life out of him in revenge for the killing of Beecher's father. With McM clearing the royalty problems up, the Muslims, now led by a reluctant Arif, decided to press on with Said's plans for a book-binding business. Meanwhile, most of Burr's men are failing miserably at the telemarketing business. When Burr fires Poet, all of the other homeboys quit their jobs in protest. Poet tells his pals that they will go to work for the book-binding, pretend to be completely legit, and then start dealing again secretly. Arif and followers are astonished at the seemingly endless group of people lining up to get jobs on the first day. Stella's literacy campaign with Pablo Rosa is a success, and she and Rebadow are closer than ever. Rebadow advises Busmalis to visit Norma before it's too late, and his words are heeded. Norma claims that she got cold feet (literally and figureatively) while stuck in the snowstorm before the wedding, and had a one-nighter with her ex-boyfriend, but she thought of Busmalis the whole time. The couple make up, but Rebadow and Stella are not so fortunate. Rebadow's plans for private intimacy are eradicated when Stella reveals she may not even be at Oz much longer due to her discovery that she has breast cancer. Crushed at yet another loved one falling victim to deadly disease, Rebadow flees the room. Mukada works with Hoyt's lawyer to get him off death row, and is floored when he learns that Hoyt (who still believes he is surrounded by Satan) comes from a very rich family and has only been posing as a poor, rebellious biker all these years. On the basis that he has been mentally disturbed from childhood, Hoyt is shipped off death row and into the Connelly Psychiatric Institute (where Shirley went back when she wanted to kill her baby back in season 3). Unfortunately Cyril is still on death row, still getting ECT, as his execution is only weeks away. As if Ryan's life isn't depressing enough, an ex-Black Panther who helped turn Suzanne mother into a radical activist arrives in Oz. For his mother's sake Ryan tries to be nice, but Jahfree dismissively shuts Ryan down as "white boy". He has a much warmer greeting for Suzanne, as Ryan looks on in Oedipus-like dispair. Glynn's shadow, Ellie, nags him about how his press conference has led to Penders filing a lawsuit and trying to get Martinez's family and Omar in on the action. In exchange for his silence and a free pass back to Em City, Omar agrees to not join up. When Omar giddily returns to his former home, he faces news of Said's death and a very cold shoulder from McManus. After Gloria learns Martinez was killed by suffocation, not his liver, she struggles with mixed feelings of guilt and relief. Brass, in spite of trying to pass the blame off on the Latinos, is the prime suspect, and is asked to take a lie detector test. Brass freaks out and when Murphy asks why, Brass admits he DID lie - about Martinez making a deathbed confession to him. Murphy is full of righteous outrage and demands they tell Glynn the truth. This leads to a near-fistfight between the two former friends. Morales is cleared of his crime and moved from solitary to the infirmary. He is greeted by the rehired nurse (Gloria had fired her after learning she missed the code on Martinez) who tells him Martinez was a "nasty man" who deserved to die. Morales panics as he sees the big neon sign over her head which says she's the killer. Miguel visits with his lifelong friend and finds out he let Maritza sell Miguel's beloved car, and that Maritza has been having an affair - with the lifelong friend. A heartbroken Miguel writes them both off and burns all of his Maritza possessions. Pancamo kindly suggests that Robson kill Cutler to get in good with the Sicilians and the Aryans. As Robson's sexual services now include nylons pulled tight on his face and severe punches to his kidney during anal sex, he realizes he has to get out of this ugliness. After suggesting breath control play - putting a noose around Cutler's neck to give him an unbelievable orgasm - to an agreeable Cutler, Robson visits with Sister Pete to confide Cutler's suicidal thoughts in her. Pete tries to counsel Cutler and gets the verbal finger for her troubles. Soon after, "Wolfie" is found dangling from the bars of his cell, Robson conveniently not remembering to untie him in time.
4 Giveness
Schillinger's willing to forgive and forget in the name of murder, so Robson is enveloped back into the Brotherhood and invited to do that most holy of holy tasks-- spotting Vern while he lifts weights. It's good Robson got something because even after all that spoon-lovin', Cutler decides to leave all his worldly possessions to... Alvarez? Yup, Cutler leaves everything to Miguel in his will. I hope this satisfies you as a plotline because we'll never get any answers as to why Cutler did that. But I digress. The brotherhood "suggests" that Alvarez gives everything to Cutler's widow, which he says he's likely to do. Robson, meanwhile, decides to celebrate his no-longer-prag status by having a visit with his wife, Liesel. Unfortunately, Robson seems more interested in a handjob than a visit and when his wife pushes him away, she calls him a 'cocksucker'-- not the best epithet considering recent events. Robson goes nuts and ends up in the Hole. Hey, here are the guest narrators for this week's episode: Andy and Hank Schillinger. There's some mentioning of chinese food and forgiveness and they bicker. It's all very moving, and speaking of moving, let's move on. Burr tries to get his boys back into telemarketing, but they aren't *that* desperate yet. So Redding uses good old-fashioned force and tells Pancamo and Urbano to keep an eye out for his boys slinging tits, and to crush them if they're caught so that they'll return to Redding. Ahh.. there truly is no justice like prison justice. Augustus' book is finally being published (available now at amazon.com!) but while the prisoners are all moderately pleased, the book binders themselves are pretty irritated. The profits aren't nearly as high as they should be and Arif is worried that Said's vision wasn't a great business deal. The Muslims have more to worry about than just bok binding because Said's killer, Lemuel Idzik is comin' to Oz. He's put in Unit J for protection, but it seems the only person who's planning any retaliation is Omar. And we all know how well *his* plans turn out. Because he killed Said, Idzik's got the Brotherhood on his side, even though he's a Jew and he manages to make less sense than even Giles did. Still, White has the fabulous plan to meet with Idzik and McManus has the fabulous idea to say: no. Good call, McManus. Schillinger's boys say something about tofu and accountability being alike. I can't say I see the resemblance. Because clearly Oz is the safest place for a party, Glynn announces the Correctional Officers Association will hold their annual banquet there. Howell confesses the stunning revelation that she doesn't even own a gown. Tee-hee. After the banquet meeting, Murphy confesses to Glynn about cutting Morales' tendon saying it was wrong, unjust and completely out of character for Murphy and was just some half-assed way to make a point about no one being above corruption. Okay, so maybe i added that last part. Glynn says he'll repremand them and I hope that punishment in Oz doesn't involve paddles. Or spoons. Glynn tells Morales he's going back to Em City and Morales tells Glynn nurse Grace is a psycho. Glynn doesn't believe him, but since when does he believe people when they're telling the truth? Brass tries to half-assedly apologize to Rebadow, saying it's Morales and Martinez he should hate but Bobby ain't havin' none of it. Adding to Brass' bad day is the fact that he's suspended and lost a month's pay but nobody cares. Oh, and Howell and Murphy lost a week's vacation. The Hell? They hold a man down, cut his ankles to ribbons and they lose a week's vacation? Wow, Glynn. Way to be the iron fist there. McManus is angry at Murphy but when he learns that Murphy is sorry (he lost a WEEK'S. VACATION. What more do you want, man? Blood?) he forgives him, but makes him buy dinner. Which is its own punishment, I guess. Nurse Grace smothers Morales in his sleep. Yup, couldn't see that one coming. Great sleuthing, Glynn. Agamemnon loves Norma, Norma loves Agamemnon, they both love the baby, the baby loves drooling. Busmalis wants to get married to Norma, Norma wants to get married to Busmalis, the baby wants to stop being taken to the depressing prison playroom. Next. Rebadow wants Stella to leave him be and Stella wants Rebadow to stay and I want this plotline to be over. Pablo reads some more, Stella still has cancer, there's some more Blake quoting and Rebadow still ignores Stella. I have the same urge. Pablo gets all up in Rebadow's face and i remember the time when i actually didn't want to see Rebadow get yelled at. Funny how that changed. Hank and Andy: What Would Jesus Do? Why, he'd forgive. Or, 4give, i guess. After all the murders that have gone uninvestigated in Oz, Mayor Loewen's seems to be all anyone can talk about. The authorities question Kelsch who insists he wasn't paid to be a distraction, he just had hives. Then they question Brandt and I'm wondering why no one saw the blood all down Brandt's neck and face the night of the murder. Silly question, i suppose. They threaten and lie and eventually Brandt admits that Officer Johnson hired him. Glynn insinuates to Johnson that he knows he's responsible and Johnson panics, calling the Governor to tell him the news. Jessica Kirk still feels guilt about not loving her boy and says she's prayed so hard her knees hurt. There's got to be a blowjob joke in there that I'm missing. Jess finds a friend in Mukada, though and offers to help work in the infirmary. I wonder if she'd be as eager if she knew that, in Oz's infirmary, more people get wrapped up in body bags than in paper gowns. Hoyt bleeds from the forehead. It's from stress. The technical term for it is "mematidrosis". And now you know. Cyril has a condition, too. The technical term for it is "throwing up because of ECT treatments". We get a glimpse of what's going on inside Cyril's brain as the pre-braindamaged "inner cyril" tries to get people's attention. We know he's the inner-Cyril because everything freezes and he's wearing a suit. Hmm... this is really hard to explain in text. It's not helping much that i'm concentrating too much on Scott William Winters in a suit. Oh, wait. Real Cyril soiled himself. Not so attracted. Oh, and just in case you wondered, Cyril's probably going to be executed next week and Ryan still loves Gloria. And that was the week that was in O'Reily's world. Poet and the gang try to get Jahfree Neema to be the new head of their merry band. He says no. Neema also manages to piss off Ryan (because his mom left his dad for Jahfree) and Burr (by refusing to talk to him because he was a drug dealer). Just a hint, Neema: If you want to last more than a season on this show don't simultaneously get the blacks, crazy ol' Burr and Ryan O'Reily wanting you gone. Bodies disappear in Oz faster than chicken nuggets at noontime Hank and Andy: forgive yourself. Done. While Agent Taylor isn't too happy Keller's still walking about, Beecher seems rather pleased. He feels so good about Keller's (somewhat) happy ending that he's decided to do pro-bono work for the other prisoners. But while he's off playing saviour-in-a-suit, Keller's not having an easy time adjusting to life without Beecher. Sister Pete suggest he do something generous for others and gives him the idea of helping out his ex-wives. Keller gets that glint in his eyes that suggest he's scheming and if I were Beecher I'd watch my back. 'Course, if i were Beecher I would always watch my back. Beecher and Keller meet and Keller explains that his ex-wife, Bonnie, has ovarian cancer. He pleads with Beecher to pick up the drugs and give them to Bonnie, even though the possession of those illegal drugs is a direct violation of his parole. Beecher, using that excellent judgement that got him into Oz in the first place, agrees. Quick cut to Keller placing a devious phone call and Wham, bam, Beecher's back in Oz. "Same old story, I got fucked in the ass." Couldn't have put it better myself, Beecher. And an unwanted ass-fuck? Is a mighty big action to forgive.
A Day in the Death...
Back in Oz on a parole violation, Beecher wants absolutely nothing to do with Keller. Keller makes a pact of friendship with, of all people, Vern. With Stella's lumpectomy nearing, Rebadow apologizes to her for his selfish behavior regarding her cancer. She sends him away due to her fear that his negativity will damage her chances of recovery. Lemuel Idzik asks to be transferred from Unit J to Em City. McManus rooms him with Omar. Lemuel asks Omar to kill him. Officer McGorry has been replaced by a new, no-nonsense investigator who, on Devlin's orders, cuts off Glynn's attempts to fully investigate the murder of Mayor Lowen. Glynn remains suspicious of Officer Adrian Johnson and learns that Devlin's assistant went to school with Johnson. Instead of turning on his friend, he tips Johnson off and Johnson kills Brandt. Mentally scarred by Cutler's abusive ways, Robson enters a rape support group. Miguel gets a visit about Cutler's possessions from Cutler's widow, Cathy Jo. McM decides to set up a meeting between Miguel and the parole officer he punched out. Gloria discovers one of her nurses, Carol, had worked for two prior hospitals, with a body count of 8 dead men, and deduces that she must have killed Martinez, Morales, and another man at Oz. Carol is dragged away by the cops. Burr is unable to get any prisoners interested in telemarketing. Meanwhile, the gangsters are getting pissed because Arif isn't paying them for the book-binding. Their efforts to deal drugs again are thwarted by the Sicilians. Burr bullies Christian prisoner Gougeon into destroying the book-binding equipment. Arif gets the Muslim money back via the insurance check, and Burr persuades him into keeping silent about the any possible sabotage. Per Gloria's advice, Ryan decides to give Cyril the electric chair instead of the more unknown and potentially painful lethal injection. As the execution draws near, Ryan shaves Cyril's head and keeps a braid of his hair as a memory. Not knowing he is about to be executed, Cyril eats fluffernutters as his last meal and visits with Ryan and Suzanne. After Em City's prisoners beat on their plexiglass cell doors in a protest spearheaded by Jahfree, Ryan, visibly moved by their gesture, goes to the meditation maze since he can't be with Cyril in his final moments. Cyril is led to the chamber, strapped down, his friends and Li Chen's family in attendance At the very last second before the switch is thrown, Glynn gets a call from the governor. Suzanne and Sister Pete are overjoyed, Ryan is in disbelief - the execution has been stayed!
Junkyard Dawgs
Poet and his fellow gangstas begin to suffer the consequences of no drugs. Just in time, a new prisoner named Bukowski arrives bragging of pot brownies. They are fed into lunches and much appreciated...so much that Pancamo realizes the trick and has Bukowski killed. Soon after, Poet finds out that the brownies were not narcotic in the slightest and the recipe is worthless. Disgusted, he and his pals return to working for Burr's telemarketing, only this time they will steal the credit card numbers of the people they're calling. Rebadow waits to hear from Stella about her cancer surgery. Pablo is put in the Hole for stabbing a prisoner during a fight. Rebadow gets a thumbs-up from McManus about Stella's recovery. Busmalis' second wedding day to Norma approaches. When she's late, he fears the worst, but she shows up in time for a lovely ceremony performed by Father Mukada. Omar goes to a less-than-convinced McM about Idzik's constant pleas to kill him. McM refuses to move him. Omar begins to understand the theories of stars and the universe, and explains them to Idzik. Furious that his lifelong dream has been usurped, he kills Omar in his sleep. McManus looks on in sorrow at yet another mistake he was responsible for. Robson goes into denial when he learns he has contracted HIV. Ryan continues to believe Cyril will be spared execution. Gloria confesses her guilt to Ryan over a part of her being happy that Cyril (her husband's killer) will be dead. Ryan asks if he can work as an orderly. Ryan and Cyril's pond scum father, Seamus, arrives in Oz. To Ryan's relief, he is not put in Em City. Vern demands that Keller kill Beecher because Beecher knows too much. Keller binds and gags Beecher, telling him that he really plans to kill Vern. He continues to play both sides as he swears loyalty to Vern and even gives him a kiss on the lips. McM asks the parole official to give Miguel a chance. The Aryans ask Miguel to stop his chumminess with Cutler's widow. A new prisoner, effeminate, one-eyed drug lord Torquemada, sweeps into Em City, and desires Miguel in every way. Miguel turns down his offer of...partnership. Glynn unsuccessfully attempts to pressure Yood into telling what he knows about Mayor Lowen's murder. Glynn refuses to compromise, even as he starts a relationship with McM's ex-wife Ellie, and prepares to accept an award from the Correctional Officers Association. The night of the gala, all of his closest associates and friends attend, but he is nowhere to be found. While looking for him, McManus follows a trail of blood all the way to the gala. Leo arrives, suffering from a severe stab wound. He dies in front of the bewildered eyes of all those he knew. McManus and Ellie finally break down their personal animosity and comfort each other over Leo's death.
Exeunt Omnes
To sum up the complex finale storylines: Devlin is accused of being involved in the deaths of Mayor Lowen and Glynn, among others. Prior to the pending investigation, he fires McManus from Em City. Querns replaces Glynn as warden and of course plans to make waves. Brass goes completely nuts and tries to kill Jackson Vayhue (now paroled and playing ball again) after Vayhue snubs him. He's arrested and sent away. Father Mukada learns that Hoyt's rich parents adopted him at birth. He was a troubled boy from the start. Mukada tracks down his mother and they share a loving, tender reunion. Hoyt is repentant for past crimes, and tells Mukada where Rev. Cloutier's remains are bricked up. The bikers get payback when Timmy Kirk's mother (who was spurned by Mukada) lets them into the infirmary to kill Jazz. The parole board official tells Miguel he will be a VERY old man before he gets out of Oz. As he is also cut off from Cutler's wife, Miguel slips into the seductive arms and drugs of his cellmate, Torquemada. Rebadow and Stella reunite. Pablo stabs another inmate and goes to the Hole (where the poor prisoner is now stripped naked AND held in a restraining chair). Stella reads to him from outside the door. On the opening night of Macbeth, Keller and Vern plan to kill Beecher. Instead, Keller turns the tables and after a prop knife is replaced with a real knife, Vern is stabbed in the stomach by Beecher. FBI Agent Taylor offers Beecher parole if he helps him find dirt on Keller. Beecher considers accepting the offer, only to run into Keller on Em City's second floor. Keller begs him for another chance as roomies. When Beecher says it's over for good, Keller screams "BEECHER, DON'T!!!" and throws himself off the railing. Beecher is suspected of pushing him, and although the odds of that being proven true are highly unlikely, his parole is still down the drain. Although Gloria tries to comfort him as best she can, Ryan is barely able to cope without Cyril in his life. With his scum father, Seamus, in Em City, he's desperate for payback. Jahfree stabs Seamus after Seamus ambushes him; Jahfree goes to the Hole and Seamus to the infirmary. Seamus begs his only living son for another chance. Surprisingly, Ryan forgives his father for past sins, and they decide to start over. Keller told Beecher that he'd taken care of the Aryans, and those cryptic words come true when a mysterious package arrives at the post office. The contents are a poisonous powder which kills all the Aryans immediately. In Oz's final moments, each section of the prison is evacuated, and every last characters gets on a yellow bus, ready to vanish into TV history. Gone, but never forgotten.