![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
switchbladeeyesIn episode 2, we've got cruelty, we've got love, we've got sex, we've got vengeance. It's Oz, baby.
Probably the easiest thing to do here is organize by the characters:
Vern Schillinger and Tobias Beecher
Oh, it is so hard to watch what Schillinger does to Beecher. We're introduced formally to the term "prag," which is slang in Oz for a prisoner who is enslaved, including sexually enslaved, by another prisoner. Here, Beecher by Schillinger. This is all about domination and control for Schillinger.
Beecher can't have a conjugal visit with his wife without Schillinger's permission. It’s humiliating and terrible as Schillinger forces this issue making Beecher ask him repeatedly at an increasing volume until he is shouting, “Please, sir, may I fuck my wife?”
What we see of Beecher's visit with his wife is pretty awkward as she's totally out of sorts being at the prison. She tells Beecher about a painting their young daughter did of the family and that Beecher is not in the painting. Sad. All Beecher wants is for his wife to hold him. I suppose his daughter leaving him out of her family portrait is the least of his traumas.
The visit is just a sad and temporary reprieve for Beecher. Later, when he gets back to Em City, Schillinger is looking through family photographs Beecher had hidden under his bunk. As he looks through the photos, he threatens Beecher’s family. Beecher takes the photos and tears up the photos because of this threat.
Schillinger gets off on this power trip. He is relishing abusing and frightening Beecher. It's terrible and it's just going to keep getting worse from here.
Augustus Hill
We learn what landed Hill in Oz and how he ended up in a wheelchair. While fleeing from the cops, he shot at one and killed him, and another cop threw him off a building in retaliation. Hill will be in prison for at least 20 years.
This episode really shows a human side to the inmates. We learn that despite being paralyzed from the waist down, Hill still has sexual function, but he can't feel any of it. Another inmate asks him why bother with the conjugal visit with his wife then. Hill responds, “For her.” (Insert watery eyes emoji.)
Hill loves his wife. He wants to be with her because it's her. He's killed someone, but he's also a person who cares about someone else.
And that takes me to…
Jefferson Keane
Keane is a stone cold killer. We learn he's in Oz for first degree murder having iced an enemy and his bride in full public view on their wedding day. The flashbacks to this are pretty ghastly. He's in prison for life.
But speaking of weddings, Keane’s got a girl on the outside, Mavis, and he wants to marry her. It takes some doing to get the warden to agree, but the warden does so after Said talks to him on Keane’s behalf (to McManus’s extreme annoyance as the warden had told McManus no).
The thing about Keane is that when he's talking about Mavis, you absolutely believe that he loves her. Genuine love. So on one hand, you've got this man who committed a terrible crime in cold blood, and on the other, you've got a man deeply in love with a woman who has stuck by him. It's actually, dare I say, cute when he's trying to explain to Said why he loves her and he finds it difficult to find all the words.
And they do get married by proxy (great scene with Adebisi standing in as Mavis's proxy lol) and Mavis sends Keane a letter and photo of her looking beautiful in a wedding dress. Seeing her photo, I couldn't help but think of the bride Keane murdered though.
The whole thing presents quite a striking contrast between the ice cold killer and the man in love. He committed a horrible crime and yet… he's also a human being who loves and is loved in return. The show is doing a great job of humanizing the inmates while not shying away from their crimes.
Miguel Alvarez
Alvarez was in the first episode, but got shanked in under a minute. He's a favorite of mine. With him in this episode, we've got a story of generational failure. Alvarez is soon to become a father because his girlfriend is pregnant, but he doesn't really give a shit. Both Alvarez’s father and grandfather are in Oz. The grandfather failed the father. The father failed Alvarez. And Alvarez is on the path of repeating the pattern with his own child.
We're also introduced to the priest Ray Mukada, a prison chaplain, who takes up the cause to break this pattern. He talks to the grandfather, convincing him to see Alvarez (he must have also convinced the father as he's there too, but we don't see Mukada visit the father). When Alvarez and his grandfather meet (having never met before, I might add), the grandfather slaps Alvarez, and then hugs him fiercely. This is perhaps the first familial love Alvarez has experienced in his young life.
That visit got through to Alvarez because we get a wonderful scene where he gingerly picks up a baby doll, trying to understand how to hold a baby, all while a cigarette is dangling out of his mouth. It's awkward, but he's trying, it's just all new to him.
Nino Schibetta
I wasn't sure where to talk about the aftermath of Ortolani's murder, but it makes sense to me to do so when talking about Schibetta. He's hellbent on finding Ortolani’s murderer and securing retribution. So much so that when McManus offers to let him visit his dying wife in the hospital if he'll agree to cool it on pursuing Ortolani's murderer, Schibetta turns him down. (I mean, I have a bit of a “fuck you” for McManus on making this kind of thing transactional, but at the same time, he's trying to prevent murder so… I kind of get it.)
Schibetta was very interesting to me here. He seems to genuinely love his wife and it's his last chance to ever see her again, but he doesn't even hesitate to decline McManus’s offer. Avenging the murder of one his own is a core value for him that supersedes even the love of his wife. I don't understand it, but nonetheless, it's fascinating. When his wife dies, he's pretty calm about it, but then suddenly has a breakdown while planning her funeral. Like he's bereft because of her death, but he's also got some retribution to take care of.
O’Reily has wiled his way into Em City and quickly realizes it's only a matter of time before Schibetta will figure out his connection to Ortolani's death. He turns on Johnny Post, the member of Keane's gang that set Ortolani on fire, and Schibetta has Post maimed and murdered. Whew. Just another day in Oz.
Coooooount! A final tally on various subjects.
Best Bloodshed: Though there is a murder in this episode, it happens offscreen. Other than the flashbacks, this is a pretty bloodless episode. As such, I'll go to one of the flashbacks for this topic: Jefferson Keane’s murders. It's just so shocking to see the bride and groom fall backwards after he shoots them, the blood soaking through their wedding clothes.
Body Count: 1
Bodies Connected to O’Reily: 1. Straight up saved his own ass by giving Post to the Italians. He's pretty lucky Post didn't spill all the beans before he was killed. And this is going to earn him Schibetta's "appreciation," which is high value currency in a place like Oz. Having a hand in taking out an enemy and then making an ally out of his enemy's ally is the kind of thing O'Reily excels at.
Best Line: Hill’s “For her.”
Best Scene: Alvarez trying to figure out how to hold a baby by awkwardly picking up a doll. You really believe in this moment that he has a chance at breaking the chain of paternal failure in his family.
The Best of the Worst: Schillinger. He wins again this episode and I'm sure will do so many times again because of his cold, casual cruelty toward Beecher.
Fuck is a four letter word. Rape is a four letter word. Wife is a four letter word. So is love. Fuck is a curse. So is love.
- Augustus Hill
Probably the easiest thing to do here is organize by the characters:
Vern Schillinger and Tobias Beecher
Oh, it is so hard to watch what Schillinger does to Beecher. We're introduced formally to the term "prag," which is slang in Oz for a prisoner who is enslaved, including sexually enslaved, by another prisoner. Here, Beecher by Schillinger. This is all about domination and control for Schillinger.
Beecher can't have a conjugal visit with his wife without Schillinger's permission. It’s humiliating and terrible as Schillinger forces this issue making Beecher ask him repeatedly at an increasing volume until he is shouting, “Please, sir, may I fuck my wife?”
What we see of Beecher's visit with his wife is pretty awkward as she's totally out of sorts being at the prison. She tells Beecher about a painting their young daughter did of the family and that Beecher is not in the painting. Sad. All Beecher wants is for his wife to hold him. I suppose his daughter leaving him out of her family portrait is the least of his traumas.
The visit is just a sad and temporary reprieve for Beecher. Later, when he gets back to Em City, Schillinger is looking through family photographs Beecher had hidden under his bunk. As he looks through the photos, he threatens Beecher’s family. Beecher takes the photos and tears up the photos because of this threat.
Schillinger gets off on this power trip. He is relishing abusing and frightening Beecher. It's terrible and it's just going to keep getting worse from here.
Augustus Hill
We learn what landed Hill in Oz and how he ended up in a wheelchair. While fleeing from the cops, he shot at one and killed him, and another cop threw him off a building in retaliation. Hill will be in prison for at least 20 years.
This episode really shows a human side to the inmates. We learn that despite being paralyzed from the waist down, Hill still has sexual function, but he can't feel any of it. Another inmate asks him why bother with the conjugal visit with his wife then. Hill responds, “For her.” (Insert watery eyes emoji.)
Hill loves his wife. He wants to be with her because it's her. He's killed someone, but he's also a person who cares about someone else.
And that takes me to…
Jefferson Keane
Keane is a stone cold killer. We learn he's in Oz for first degree murder having iced an enemy and his bride in full public view on their wedding day. The flashbacks to this are pretty ghastly. He's in prison for life.
But speaking of weddings, Keane’s got a girl on the outside, Mavis, and he wants to marry her. It takes some doing to get the warden to agree, but the warden does so after Said talks to him on Keane’s behalf (to McManus’s extreme annoyance as the warden had told McManus no).
The thing about Keane is that when he's talking about Mavis, you absolutely believe that he loves her. Genuine love. So on one hand, you've got this man who committed a terrible crime in cold blood, and on the other, you've got a man deeply in love with a woman who has stuck by him. It's actually, dare I say, cute when he's trying to explain to Said why he loves her and he finds it difficult to find all the words.
And they do get married by proxy (great scene with Adebisi standing in as Mavis's proxy lol) and Mavis sends Keane a letter and photo of her looking beautiful in a wedding dress. Seeing her photo, I couldn't help but think of the bride Keane murdered though.
The whole thing presents quite a striking contrast between the ice cold killer and the man in love. He committed a horrible crime and yet… he's also a human being who loves and is loved in return. The show is doing a great job of humanizing the inmates while not shying away from their crimes.
Miguel Alvarez
Alvarez was in the first episode, but got shanked in under a minute. He's a favorite of mine. With him in this episode, we've got a story of generational failure. Alvarez is soon to become a father because his girlfriend is pregnant, but he doesn't really give a shit. Both Alvarez’s father and grandfather are in Oz. The grandfather failed the father. The father failed Alvarez. And Alvarez is on the path of repeating the pattern with his own child.
We're also introduced to the priest Ray Mukada, a prison chaplain, who takes up the cause to break this pattern. He talks to the grandfather, convincing him to see Alvarez (he must have also convinced the father as he's there too, but we don't see Mukada visit the father). When Alvarez and his grandfather meet (having never met before, I might add), the grandfather slaps Alvarez, and then hugs him fiercely. This is perhaps the first familial love Alvarez has experienced in his young life.
That visit got through to Alvarez because we get a wonderful scene where he gingerly picks up a baby doll, trying to understand how to hold a baby, all while a cigarette is dangling out of his mouth. It's awkward, but he's trying, it's just all new to him.
Nino Schibetta
I wasn't sure where to talk about the aftermath of Ortolani's murder, but it makes sense to me to do so when talking about Schibetta. He's hellbent on finding Ortolani’s murderer and securing retribution. So much so that when McManus offers to let him visit his dying wife in the hospital if he'll agree to cool it on pursuing Ortolani's murderer, Schibetta turns him down. (I mean, I have a bit of a “fuck you” for McManus on making this kind of thing transactional, but at the same time, he's trying to prevent murder so… I kind of get it.)
Schibetta was very interesting to me here. He seems to genuinely love his wife and it's his last chance to ever see her again, but he doesn't even hesitate to decline McManus’s offer. Avenging the murder of one his own is a core value for him that supersedes even the love of his wife. I don't understand it, but nonetheless, it's fascinating. When his wife dies, he's pretty calm about it, but then suddenly has a breakdown while planning her funeral. Like he's bereft because of her death, but he's also got some retribution to take care of.
O’Reily has wiled his way into Em City and quickly realizes it's only a matter of time before Schibetta will figure out his connection to Ortolani's death. He turns on Johnny Post, the member of Keane's gang that set Ortolani on fire, and Schibetta has Post maimed and murdered. Whew. Just another day in Oz.
Coooooount! A final tally on various subjects.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-16 07:29 am (UTC)You really believe in this moment that he has a chance at breaking the chain of paternal failure in his family.
Oww. Agreed! Alvarez cautiously tries on the role, thinks yeah, I can do this, and you can *see* that. I find him generally open to suggestion. I liked that he got to meet his grandfather too, even though now that I'm thinking on it if Ricardo's been in solitary since Eduardo was 18, I'm surprised he's lucid. And not exactly the idealized reunion either, but still nice in its own Oz way.