Episode 3 "God's Chillin"

Season 1
Episode 3 -God's Chillin
Original air date July,21 1997

"God almighty creator of all things,including the loophole" -Tobias Beecher

Its interesting to see the early cast of Oz and how they branched off in their careers after the show. Some of them went on to do Law and Order SVU including Christopher Meloni,BD Wong,J.K Simmons and Dean Winters;and Kathryn Erbe and Rita Moreno both starred in Law and Order: Criminal Intent. Of course we saw Adewale Akkinuoye-Agbaje in Lost and Harrold Perrineau as well. And who could forget Edie Falco in The Sopranos? Most of these actors were from the New York area and some were working on other projects simultaneously during their time on the show.

Ryan O'Reilly at the scene of his arrest.

Kirk Acevedo was written off the show twice due to conflicting projects and was brought back on again.The first was in early 2001 when he was working on Band of Brothers then he disappeared again at the second half of the fourth season due to landing a role on Third Watch.


Christohper Meloni was also written off the show and sent to another prison,effectively ending the love affair plot thread between him and Beecher. This was during his early tenure on Law and Order SVU in 1999. According to IMDB Christopher decided that working on two great shows simultaneously was worth the physical and emotional toll and the character made a return in a later season.

Back in Oz though..The scene opens with yet another prison funeral,this time Johnny Post. The rivaly is very obvious at this point with the Homeboys and the Wiseguys glaring at each other across the tables. War is in the air and everybody knows it.Beecher turns jailhouse lawyer,as he attepts to use his past legal expertise to help Ryan O'Reilly with his case. Then he lands a job in Sister Pete's office because of his knowledge of office software. This could be a good thing for Tobias,Sister Pete takes on a bit of a motherly role on the show and,her presence could have a theraputic effect on him.

Kenny Wangler a 16 year old tried as an adult.

Beecher really starts his downward spiral here in this episode. He starts doing Heroin with Ryan to escape his daily hell,and hes now openly submitting to Vern's advances.
Kenny Wangler arrives in Oz. Played by JD Williams another veteran of the NY acting circuit. Hes 16 annd tried as an adult for murder,his flashback is spoken with a hilariously exaggerated hip-hop slang by Augustus.
The fact that Kenny is only 16 and is in Oz among grown men is never mentioned.

Kenny at first decides to find a group to belong to,and chooses Said and the muslims but decides that the strict Islamic lifestyle is not for him.He falls in with the Homeboys and starts dabbling in Heroin use,leading to an explosive scene when Said finds out and takes measures to protect the 16 year old from the dealers. After a lengthy chat with Keane,Said seems to have converted him to islam and he denounces all his vices leading to an internal rift now within the Homeboys.

Governor James Devlin.

Jeffersons new found morality conflicts lead to him and Ryan having a heart to heart about the murder. Ryans self preservation mode kicks-something that would become his crutch later on-and he immediately goes to Nino saying Keane ordered the hit. Keane is set up in a prison fight by the correctional officers and ends up killing his opponent.
And thats it. We have murder number 4. LOCK DOWN.

This episode also fleshes out the slimy Governor James Devlin for the first time. And he does not disappoint,he comes off as a smug prick in a heated scene with McManus,demanding the death penalty for Keane. He played this scene with such smarmy glee that Devlin would become one of the shows villians later on and a character everyone loved to hate.

And that ends disc one of Season one. we still got 6 more episodes this season, how will things turn out? Keep watching and reading.

DEAD Julio Martinez

Episode 2 "Visits,Conjugal and Otherwise"

Season 1
Episode 2 - Visits,Conjugal and Otherwise
Original air date July,14 1997


"You think if the Chevy plant was hiring id choose to come here and babysit these pisspots? I have no choice, just like these inmates. Trapped."- Dianne Whittlesey


We begin where last week left off,the death of Dino Ortolani a prominent member of the Italians has the prison officials in constant fear of retaliation and an eventual riot on their hands. And the look on Nino's face as he identifies the charred remains says it all. The inside corruption within the ranks of the correctional officers was also on display this episode,after all it was a CO who enabled the murder to take place.

A massive investigation is launched,and interviews with various inmates are conducted,as rising tensions erupt between the Homeboys and Italians. Tobias Beecher,still in shock over the murder of Dino has been staying in his cell and not even coming out to eat. We get to meet the beautiful Sister Peter Marie played by an unassuming Rita Moreno. She is a short,thin,elderly woman who is a motherly figure in Oz. She is so soft spoken and lighthearted that it can feel uncomfortable at times to watch her in the presence of these murderous brutes. There is an amusing scene in the early minutes where she is handing out pens to the inmates,and is yelling and trying to sound tough in an effort to make sure she gets every pen back; and the inmates mostly ignore her harmless rantings and continue writing.
                           

Augustus Hill narrates his own flashback.

Beecher gets a visit from his wife but their one kiss is cut short by the prison buzzer. She also seemed kind of distant to me, as if the time spent alone was starting to take its toll. When the visit was over she left in a hurry,seemingly terrified and claustrophobic at the same time. Back in his cell he continues to be threatened and subjugated by Vernon Schillinger.

Oz has these cool little flashback sequences where we see the prisoner and the crime he commited before coming into prison. These are accompanied by a short vignette and narrated by Augustus Hill with the charges being read aloud,the sentence and inmate number. I found these little bits really great and useful for fleshing out the many various characters on the show.

Vernon Schillinger all american.

As the interrogations continue the code of silence remains strong within the inmate population. For you see the prison officials arent the only ones trying to find out who killed Dino, the Italians are too.
We see the beginning of a rift between Leo Glynn and Tim McManus when McManus agrees to let Jefferson Keane get married to his girlfriend and is immediately denied. And with good reason a murder had just taken place and the warden didnt want to take focus off the investigation.
Jefferson then asks the help of Kareen Said to plead his case to the warden,who then relents and seizes the opportunity to have a favor owed to him by a respected inmate like Kareem.

This does not go over well with McManus who feels he has lost credibility with the inmates now. The "wedding" itself was not what Keane expected since he was a high risk inmate they conducted the wedding by video conference with stand-ins for the bride and groom. The scene was made all the more tragic by an acapella rendition of The Turtles' 'So Happy Together' sung by Augustus.

Cool and calculated,Nino Schibetta begins making quiet plans for retaliation. During Nino's flashback we see him getting arrested outside of a fancy nightclub in an expensive suit,his wife screaming and in tears.

Jefferson Keane. His was a crime of passion.

Perhaps in an attempt to use Glynn's own tactic to his advantage,McManus offers to arrange for Nino to see his sick wife at the hospital. The whole thing comes off as a rather weak attempt to regain some relevancy with the inmates though,as Nino toys with the idea then coldly says no ("Im a cynical bastard"). It is important to remember Tim McManus' stake in all of this. Emerald City is his experiment and he does not want it to fail,or the deal with the negative media attention surrounding the murder.

The surreal narrative segments often provide insights 

Ryan O'Reilly is seen coming into Em City and moving into Dino's old cell,he is immediately grilled by the Italians and taken for a meeting with Nino, who gets a sense that hes lying. During his interview O'Reilly gets a rude awakening that the investigators know that Dino had shot him in the chest on the street,and that they had a history. Fearing that the Italians would connect the dots and track Dino's killing back to him he immediately tells Nino who did the deed. Nino already distraught at the recent passing of his wife-the one that he refused to go visit-is eager to take his frustrations out. He's seen calmly making funeral arrangements with one of his goons as they descend the stairs into one of the prison boiler rooms. In here we see Johnny Post tied to a chair and spewing profanities, ever defiant even when death is near.

Now they have two murders on their hands in as many weeks,and a potential for more retaliatory violence. Things are not looking good.

DEAD  Johnny Post