01/12/03

This show is definitely lacking some of its original intensity. I was encouraged by dead Augustus' talk of senseless violence -- what's happening to me? -- but there wasn't all that much of it and it wasn't very senseless, at least up until the end when I was horrified and traumatized!

There was rioting OUTSIDE Oz for a change, after the governor threatened to overturn the conviction of the mayor, who was accused of conspiring to kill a little black girl. I think that's what the story was. He didn't end up overturning it and the mayor-man was sent to Oz, with instructions to the warden to keep him safe no matter what. Hmph. He was put in protective custody, where Beecher is, and when he choked on his fancy mayor food, Beecher saved his life with the Heimlich manouver.

Did I mention Beecher got parole? BEECHER GOT PAROLE! BEECHER GOT PAROLE! Now the biggest question of the year is: will Beecher get out of Oz alive? I want him to, everyone wants him to, which might just mean that they kill him off or have him commit some other terrible crime. Schillinger's on his side now that he saved the racists shithead mayor's life, and Beecher gave Schillinger a nice little speech about how he did it because it was the right thing to do, something Schillinger would never understand. Well done.

Shirley Bellinger showed up to do some of the vignettes, which was nice. She's spooky.

I did like Claire's "Rise and shine, you little fucks" to the guys in solitary, all of whom are puking right & left. HBO has definitely become the puke channel. I feel like that's TV's latest broken boundary. Hooray, now we can actually show puking! Six Feet Under runs that clip of Nate vomiting relentlessly, and now it's happening on Oz. Thank you for that relaxation of standards. . .not. Anyway, it turned out that here was some kind of error made when they rebuilt Oz, and the chemicals they used in the walls of solitary were giving everybody lung damage. Oooooooops. Oz became toxic!

Okay, now for the dumbest but funniest part of the whole show. This made absolutely no sense whatsoever, and yes it was funny, but please! it would never happen in a million years. Maxim magazine decided to do a fashion spread of prisoners from death row! Stupid stupid stupid...but very entertaining as Hoyt, Cyril O'Reilly, Tommy Kirk, and born-to-pose-in-tailored-clothes-Keller posed while the cameras clicked. Hoyt took the opportunity to kill Tommy Kirk, which was a nice thing to do for Father Mukada, who's now having a crisis of conscience because he wanted Tommy dead. He gets to be a Father again, but I suspect things will get worse for him even as they get better. And I'm sorry, a death row fashion layout? For Maxim? What?

Said is planning on publishing Augustus' memoirs, by the way. They keep throwing this in, so I'm assuming it's important somehow. We'll see.

The prison also has this great plan that they'll put the prisoners to work, and Plan A involves telemarketing. Um...do you want violent felons calling your home? (Well actually, do you want any telemarketers calling your home?) This behavior will not exactly endear the public to the incarcerated population. Who's hated more than murderous prisoners? Telemarketers! Great idea.

Ryan O'Reilly is back to his old tricks of playing everyone against each other. Sooner or later he's going to get it. Peter Shebetta put the evil eye on him and had him scared, but now poor Shebetta is dead dead dead. I think he's better off that way, he really was getting the worst of it in Oz. Worse than Beecher!

And finally, the gratuitous violence I was telling you about....when Robson, desperate for protection now that he's not part of the Aryan brotherhood, teamed up with a scary bald dude who made him lick a spoon, then shoved it up his ass and dug. OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! I know Robson deserves the spoon in the ass, but do I deserve to watch it and listen to his screams? I think not.

01/05/03 -- SEASON PREMIERE

And so begins the final season of Oz. Schillinger and Alvarez are in solitary, Keller is guilty and up for the death penalty, Cyril's due for execution, and Augustus is dead, along with Rebadow's grandson. Three months have gone by.

I like that Augustus still turns up in those vignettes -- "You thought I was dead, didn't you? Well I am." -- and that we're seeing Jefferson Keane as well. I hope Adebisi stops by too. All the dead guys can swing by for a little visit, that would be nice. And where the hell is Luke Perry? They never found him.

I have to say, it took far too long to get to Beecher this time around. I think he didn't show up until the last ten minutes. Poor, poor Beecher, I can't believe that shithead kid went ahead and killed Beecher's dad so he could stop being a prag and become a member of the Aryan brotherhood. It's not fair! Beecher has lost his wife, his son, and now his dad too. And what's up with him suddenly having a third child? This is all news to me. Last I heard he had a son and a daughter and Schillinger arranged for the son to be killed. I assume they created another kid so someone else can be kidnapped or killed....poor, poor Beecher.

Redding is so freaked out about Augustus' death that he won't deal drugs anymore! At least not personally. He still orders his minions to do it, despite Said's best efforts to convince him to stop. McManus' freaky "meditative maze" on the gym floor isn't helping either. Some of McManus' ideas are pretty dumb.

Claire is still having her way with the men in solitary. Terrifying. I love her. She got her comeuppance when she ordered Omar White to strip, and he puked on her. Oops!

Schillinger was somehow allowed out of solitary, as was Alvarez, and trouble's brewing.

And in the scary department, Tommy Kirk is getting even MORE evil as time passes. It looks like he is successfuly ruining Father Mukada's life. He claimed Mukada hit on him, and now Mukada can't even be a priest anymore. Bastard! He's also insisting that he can't die, because he's Satan, and he needs an exorcism. I find it strange that they'd believe a prisoner over a priest, but these are not good times for priests right now.

And oh yeah, what's up with Abby's variety show? She cast Father Meehan as Macbeth and next thing you know, he's dead of an aneurysm, which led Ryan O'Reilly to the uplifting conclusion that "the last thing we do before we die is shit." Lovely. Ryan isn't having the best time either, but he's still stirring up shit. Something violent has to happen to that boy sooner or later, but I don't want it to because I think he's cute and he winked at me once at Chelsea Market. Ah Ryan. He turned up on an episode of The Twilight Zone this season and my friend Lou says he was funny as hell on Sex & The City. I despise that show so I missed it.

Have I mentioned the gross blowjob scene yet? I'm sorry, but there's something gross about seeing spluge on somebody's face. The things we see on TV these days, I swear.

All in all, it was more of a catch-up episode than a great one. Beecher's father getting killed was the most terrible thing, and that's what's haunting my husband, who's been muttering "poor Beecher" all week. There are but a handful of episodes to go, so I hope they get more intense soon.

02/24/2002 -- SEASON FINALE

Oh, Augustus. Oh oh oh oh Augustus.

I knew someone big was going to die this episode and during the show I kept listing off the ones that could get it without bothering me that much. Burr Redding, Omar White, Cyril O'Reilly, that annoying ex-wife of McManus, but no. . .it was Augustus! BOO!!!

But that was in the last minute of the show, and a lot came before that.

Poet is back to his old poetic self, or at least he's been getting the best lines. "Looky here, my stepbrother!" he called out to Robson, who's now so desperate after being abandoned by the Aryans that he's cutting out his own gums. Gross! I missed what happened to him after that, since I had my eyes closed.

Alvarez was up for parole, McManus was vouching for him, he looked all spiffy in his suit, and then one of the guys on the parole board asked, "What the fuck makes you think we should let you free you little prick?" and that was the end of it. Alvarez attacked him. Frankly, I think it was weird he was up for parole at all, it wasn't that long ago that he carved Rivera's eyes out.

Lots of death in this show though. Pancamo's on the edge of death and Gloria feels responsible. Rebadow's grandson died because a power failure scrambled all the machines he was on. Rebadow's grieving and blaming fate because he was about to die in the electric chair years ago and was SAVED by a power failure. Brass showed up a day too late with the lottery winnings -- d'oh! A new Aryan (named Wolfgang!) showed up and said he was going to kill Said, so Omar White attacked him, nearly killed him, and then brought him back to life with artificial respiration. (He's in solitary now, thanks to a compassionless McManus.) And Keller got the death penalty.

Keller got naked in front of Sister Peter Marie. Keller clearly doesn't believe in underwear. And Keller finally got his moment with Beecher -- and a very long tongue-kiss. Beecher was right when he told Said he should go see Keller. I love Said but this time he was wrong. Beecher & Keller! I want another few moments of them together before the inevitable.

That priest, Father Meehan, has gone out of his way to help Ryan O'Reilly and finally Ryan's giving in and letting him. It was way too easy though! One buried secret and it all came out -- but since I love Ryan, I can't complain about scenes where he cries, where he yells at his dad & threatens him, and where he finally gets to go see Cyril. Now he's going to fight Cyril's sentence. And he's got Abby and Rita Moreno on his side, at the very least they could do a nice duet. I wouldn't be devastated if Cyril died anyway. "I'm afwaid," he called out from his cell -- he's starting to sound like Elmer Fudd.

And Augustus. Augustus got out of the hospital. Poet came by to ask him not to rat him out for giving him drugs. Augustus said sure. Poet said "if I was a girl you'd get tongue" in gratitude. Then one of the Sicillians went after Redding, Augustus tried to save him, and then died in the middle of the prison floor. I don't like that! I was starting to love all those segments of him talking in between scenes, I think he's a great character and a great actor, why why why!!!!! I guess he just got another job. Damn him.

At least there's definitely a season 6 on the way. I hope it's soon!

02/17/2002

Next week is the season finale already, can you believe it?

This week there was a little less grossness for grossness' sake, which was nice after last week's arm slicing and dental torture. The bleeding gums were really gory, but they were worth it because of what's happening to Robson as a result! The dentist, a great character who came and went in only two episodes, spread the word that Robson had "ghetto gums" and now he's been totally ostracized by the Aryans. He was getting scarier than Schillinger anyway, so it'll be interesting to see what happens to him once he's no longer protected by his little Nazi buddies.

I just realized that it was Malachy McCourt playing the priest who's sharing a pod with Ryan O'Reilly. He keeps trying to help, poor bastard. I liked when he asked Ryan if the cross he wore around his neck was "just a bauble". Bauble! By the way, I think Ryan's right: Cyril's better off dead than in Oz or a psychiatric institution, plus he's getting boring anyway. I mean, I loved the whole puppet thing and the singing and all, but he's not that exciting and Ryan's more fun when he's less vulnerable. I love that he's always finding a way to get someone else to kill whoever he wants dead. This time he got one of the COs to do it! Brilliant.

And how cool was it that Alvarez taught his seeing-eye dog to respond to commands in Spanish. It almost makes up for gouging that guy's eyes out! Not.

Timmy Kirk's finally going to get his. I hope. Death penalty, death penalty! And where IS Cloutier? And why isn't anyone asking about him anymore? I guess it's okay to escape from prison if you've been burned and you're Luke Perry. I find it odd that no one's even talking about it.

Liked that random Ben Vereen cameo, even if I'm not in love with the whole Rebadow storyline. I do hope he gets his faith healer. And moves on. And poor Busmalis, having to lie for Poet and get all these other guys killed for selling drugs to Augustus, when it was Poet all the time. D'oh!

Beecher & Keller! I can't stand it, I want them to see each other. Next week's preview showed Keller in the cell with Beecher on the other side, his hand on Keller's. Now now now! I hate waiting.

And I'm lovin' Sister Peter Marie these days, who's the only person who seems unhappy with the constant rapes & violence. Go Sister Pete!

02/10/2002

Just when I'm wondering if this musical business is going to be a waste of time, Beecher and Schillinger do a musical number that was so fun I had to rewind the tape and watch it again. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

In the non-singing vein: Said seems to be feeling better about everything and has achieved some new level of enlightenment about the dangers of power. The rest of the Muslims don't seem so happy about it, but he's smiling and seems through with his violent demons.

Peter Shebetta is still having trouble dealing with being raped -- again -- so now Sister Peter Marie and Dr. Nathan have teamed up to help him out.

There was a fabulous scene with a dentist -- who is he and where has he been? -- and Robson, who needed some serious oral surgery. When he told the dentist he wanted gas instead of needles, the dentist asked, "What is it with you Nazis and gas?" Funny. It was a really ugly & horrible scene, complete with close-ups, but I mised them because my eyes were closed. I loved when the dentist told Robson that the gum tissue he was getting grafted on could have been from the gums of a kike, spic, nigger, or black nigger.

Where is Cloutier, by the way? They all seem to have stopped looking for him. Why isn't it a big deal that someone escaped from prison?

After being punched by Adam, Beecher finally stopped being Mr. Good Guy and made Schillinger the trade: Adam for Keller. ("I predict by the end of the week he'll be sucking my cock," said Schillinger of Adam.) I was glad Beecher gave in, that little rat Adam deserved what he got. But nothing worked out as planned. Evil scary guard Claire had already beaten Keller so badly (because he wouldn't have sex with her again) that he'd been sent to the hospital by the time a nervous Beecher finally arrived. I was crushed. (So was Keller, by Claire's nightstick.) And Adam got it BAD. Worse than Beecher ever did.

Cyril's on trial for killing that other prisoner. I don't know, isn't it clear that he's mentally incompetent? What kind of judge would make him stand trial? It makes no sense.

Now on to the singing. I didn't need Omar White, or Redding, or Hoyt (gross!), or even Sister Peter Marie despite the fact that she's played by the fabulous Rita Moreno. I had that incredibly fabulous song with Schillinger & Beecher, complete with Brady kid dance, John Travolta imitation, and crazy ass dancing. Worth all of the other songs, even the one Omar White sang that I last heard on an old Monkees album.

I don't know what else to say. But I'm not taping over that part of the tape.

02/03/2002

Poor Said. Poor Cyril. Poor Ryan. Poor Augustus. Poor Rebadow. Poor everybody. Except that bastard Robson, and Schillinger, and that kid Adam who raped that girl and keeps yelling "fag" at Beecher.

Said found out that Omar was selling drugs out of his practice room, and not knowing that Redding forced Omar into it, he got furious and beat the shit out of him. He got sent to the hole, and after Omar successfuly convinced McManus to let Said out, Said begged to be able to stay. He's still trying to work it out and looked so sad in there, begging to be allowed to stay. There was blood all over the wall next to him and his knuckles were all ripped up. Omar looks like hell too, one of his eyes looks sealed shut. Gross.

Speaking of gross, did they have to keep cutting back to that horrible torture scene with Robson and that poor guy? Horrible! I had to keep closing my eyes. Robson's asking for it, I really want someone to kill him. He's much scarier than Schillinger right now. I don't like this whole Schillinger transformation, I hope he's faking. He is so terrifying when he's being a badass. He asked Beecher for forgiveness in one of Peter Marie's therapy sessions, it was strange and unnecessary. He's been carrying letters between Beecher and Keller all of the sudden, and then offered to let Beecher deliver the mail there in exchange for that kid Adam. Beecher should have given him up; Adam brutalized a girl and was mean to his poor friend who got turned into Robson's prag and now calls Beecher a fag and thinks he's a tough guy. If he gets caught by the Aryans it'll be his own fault. Dumbass.

Cyril might go to death row and Ryan's all freaked out about it. He had his family come in and we got a good glimpse into why he's such a mess. He has a family of freaks. (And his aunt is Ann Meara!) Poor Abby got called a cunt by her ex-husband. Frankly, I won't be all that crushed if Cyril goes away. He doesn't have much of a story now and sometimes his acting is a little hammy. As long as Ryan stays, I'll be happy.

Rebadow got BURNED. He convinced that CO to buy him a lottery ticket so he could use the jackpot to save his grandson's life, and the CO took the money and ran. Bastard. I really liked Murphy's speech to McManus about why he should stop blaming himself for what happened to that CO, the one who had his achilles tendon slashed. "He filled out an application," he kept saying over & over. I like that guy. McManus, on the other hand, is getting more annoying every week. He seems to be on this big power trip and loves being in control of everybody's life.

In another dumb move, Father Mukada told Morales that his sister told him she was having marriage problems right before she died in that bus accident. Morales got his brother-in-law in for a visit and took the opportunity to smash his head in to a nearby table. Lovely!

Next week: the musical episode. I get nervous whenever I see that shot of Beecher & Schillinger singing back to back.

01/27/2002

I can see that singing episode coming a mile away. At least it won't be as gross as that horrible murder that happened at the end. I didn't watch any of it, as soon as I saw that evil bastard Robson take out a blade I just closed my eyes.

McManus and his ex-wife had another embarassing personal conversation in front of a stranger. Freaks. And the whole seeing-eye dog program didn't make much sense to me. They let dogs stay in the prison? Whose bright idea is that? It was nice to see Alvarez happy for a few minutes, though. I think when he was playing with the dog he smiled for the first time. Ever. On the whole series.

The Keller-Beecher situation isn't heating up, just sitting there. Beecher's lawyer girlfriend seems awfully blase about meeting her "boyfriend's boyfriend", as she puts it. She kisses Beecher, then she goes to see Keller, who wants to see Beecher but can't, and Beecher loves both of them. . .oh my.

It was nice of Beecher to try to protect that filthy rapist! I'm sorry, I had no sympathy for the guy at all even though the Aryans were after him. It all ended up in a huge fistfight between the Italians and the Aryans and Beecher took the scared boy and ran away. Good call! Then the stupid idiot he was protecting decided he wished he had jumped in and kicked some ass. I don't think he's going to be around too long.

I love Keller and that evil bitch guard together. Nice combo.

What else. . .poor Augustus is back on drugs. Can you blame him? Ever since his Mom died he keeps seeing that bus spinning over & over.

And McManus is so random! He doesn't give a shit about Cyril O'Reilly, but he's all over giving Omar White a place to sing. And he doesn't ever do anything for Beecher. I miss those staff meetings where everybody yelled at him.

And finally: how horrible was it when that prisoner threw blood and shit in the poor guard's face? The same guard who had his achilles tendon severed. . .now he might be HIV positive. Nice.

I wonder what the hell everybody's going to sing about.

01/20/2002

I'm so glad God is talking to Rebadow again. The lottery ticket thing. . .oy. But I'm glad he's back to his spooky old self.

But what's up with McManus? Why was he harassing they guy who got his achilles tendon cut to play basketball with him? It's McManus' fault that the guy will never be a professional basketball player, he's permanently injured, and he's still trying to goad the guy into playing with him. I almost wish the guy had punched him in the face. And what was that very embarrassing, non-professional conversation between McManus and his ex-wife (the new governor's liaison) in Glenn's office? I can't imagine sitting through such a conversation, as a participant or an observer. Vile.

I still fear the singing episode, and now I'm told it's definitely going to happen, but I did laugh when Cyril was singing and Ryan was laughing at him. It was funny.

Oh my. Pete Shebetta. Poor, poor Pete Shebetta. I almost couldn't take the fact that he got raped AGAIN, even though he was really stupid about it and asked for it. But it was horrible. I was sad. I was traumatized (but not as traumatized as he was). Idiot!!!! That was just terrible.

Okay, the reenactments are back to their old cheesy state. I wish they'd just shoot them on film. I know it's expensive but it looks a hell of a lot better.

I actually liked Augustus' little monologues again this week. They're usually not so good but the last two weeks have been fun. This time it was all about dreams. Well done.

Luke Perry's ghostly instructions to Hoyt made him stab Tommy Kirk in the chest with a big ol' pointy cross from the church. It was a real Oz-style attack. Looks like Kirk survived, the Cloutier-hating bastard. And what's up with Cloutier? They made Luke Perry as gory as he could possibly be after the gas explosion, and now he's sneaking into Hoyt's dreams and then disappeared from his hospital bed. They didn't look around much, though, I mean, he could have just fallen. But it was interesting when he sat up just as Kirk was nearly impaled.

How come I JUST noticed that John Lurie was on the show? How could I have missed him? (Go rent Down By Law if you want to see him in a great movie with co-stars Tom Waits & Roberto Benigni.) Anyway, I agreed with him that "it wasn't right" that the warden just wanted him out of his sight. He saved the warden's life. It's not fair.

Said is still on his journey to madness and it looks as if Omar White is going to help him along the way. I still don't care so much about him. I love Said, but I don't care about White at all, except I guess he's going to be doing some of the singing in the singing episode. Betty Buckley must be so excited!

What else? Oh yeah: Keller Keller Keller Keller Keller! Keller's back! Hooray! He's not in Oz, he's in protective custody, because even though he didn't have Schillinger's son killed, they found an eyewitness on an old murder of his that could put him on death row. NOOOOOOOOOOOO. I fear he's going to get the death penalty and what if he & Beecher never get a chance to see each other? They both asked Sister Peter Marie and she's trying -- I think she thinks it was nice of Keller to confess to protect Beecher -- but Warden Glenn will have none of it. Keller! Beecher! Keller! Beecher!

Except it was weird that one minute Beecher was kissing his (female) lawyer and the next he was asking the guys if he looked "fuckable" because Keller was returning. (Nice question.) And he kissed the lawyer in a totally gross way, asking her if she had "a kiss for Daddy" and kissing her all man-and-woman-like with his daughter sitting there -- the daughter whose mom killed herself, whose dad is in prison, whose brother was killed when they were kidnapped together. . .hasn't she had enough to deal with?

01/13/2002

Where was Beecher? All that excitement about Keller coming back and Sister Peter Marie didn't even bring it up until almost the end of the show. Beecher only got about 5 minutes of airtime. Very sad.

I was also disappointed with Rebadow, he was all out of character and I didn't even think his acting was very good. He used to get messages from God and be kind of mysterious, he seems to have changed completely. The bone marrow story didn't grab me either.

But I'm still lovin' Ryan O'Reilly, he is just a genius at pitting other people against each other so they get rid of each other and he's completely out of the circle and off the hook. It's a little weird that his Mom is now at the prison teaching music. . .what? She's being played by Betty Buckley, so I expect there will indeed be more singing coming our way. Look: I don't like the all-singing episodes. I've heard a rumor that Oz would have one and I didn't believe it but with Abby around, I'm wondering if it's true. It's disturbing, isn't it?

By the way, McManus should feel way worse than he does about the guard who got slashed in the leg. It happened last season because of a basketball game, and McManus lied & said the guard was going to play, so the prisoners permanently damaged his leg. Also I'm not that interested yet in the fact that his ex-wife is now a liaison between Oz and the governor. We'll see how it goes. It was strange when McManus was trying to talk Glenn into letting the wounded guard work in the prison itself (instead of just at reception) despite the fact that he just couldn't be as agile, and Glenn said no, "I'm not running a funhouse." A funhouse? I'm so confused.

But here's a plot I see forming that's going to get interesting. Pancamo has been found out as the guy who ordered Hank Schillinger's death, which is why the Nazis went after him en masse. Keller claimed he did it last season, in order to protect Beecher (who had had something to do with it), and now he's coming back to Oz because he's been proven innocent. Now isn't Vern Schillinger going to wonder why Keller confessed, and then put two & two together? Scaaary.

Father Mukada wasn't quite on the ball this week, telling Timmy Kirk that Cloutier (poor burned Luke Perry) would testify against him once he was able to speak again. Hello? Big surprise, Timmy wants to have Cloutier killed before that happens. Sometimes these people forget that they're dealing with violent criminals. Now everyone's having strange visions of Luke Perry telling them to kill other people. I really could have done without seeing Hoyt naked in solitary, although I should speak kindly of him. The actor, Evan Seinfeld, tried to hit on my friend Candice that day in Chelsea Market oh so long ago, which is what resulted in me having a fascinating and fun conversation with Lee Tergesen. Still, I don't want to see him naked again, and his Luke Perry vision was a little on the silly side.

I hope next week brings more Beecher, a little Keller, and most of all. . .NO SINGING.

01/06/2002

Before I get into just how good this episode was, and just how worth it it turned out to be despite all those long months of waiting, I have to mention that in last night's show, I think I saw more penises than I've ever seen in my entire life. Maybe not. But there was this one scene where all the inmates behind Augustus Hill were just walking around in a big crowd completely naked. It wasn't that important, it was just a whole lot of penises.

They moved the studios to New Jersey for this season, so they explained a change in look with the explosion that happened at the end of last season. The staff & prisoners returned to Em City, and because of a problem with the air filtration system, everyone in solitary got to join them. It took way too long to get to Beecher, but there was a lot going on, even if they did spend a little too much time on the guy who stabbed McManus, who was fresh out of solitary. Alvarez is also out being threatened by everybody, but he seems to have gone a little mad so they're a bit scared of him too. Sister Peter Marie has been setting up some kind of somewhat implausible truce meeting with Said, Beecher, and Schillinger, but I don't mind that it doesn't make much sense because I like all four actors enough to just be happy they're all in one big scene together.

And for once, there actually seemed to be enough guards around to prevent TOO much horrific violence. Every time a fight started, they broke it up, it wasn't like before when guys were getting crucified or having their arms & legs broken for half an hour before somebody in authority showed up.

When the show started, I thought they were showing one of those crime flashbacks (you know, when they show a crime being committed and then you see the criminal walking into Oz), but instead it was just a freight truck crashing into a school bus, and flipping it over about 5 times. It didn't seem to fit in with anything until Father Mukada (B.D. Wong) was standing next to a school bus, signing off names on a clipboard as mothers, sisters, daughters & granddaughters told him who they were visiting at Oz. Just waiting for it was horrible, they cut back & forth from the prison scenes to the bus until the inevitable ending. Really, the final scene, where they showed the staff & prisoners' reaction was just so powerful, I haven't seen anything like it on TV before. I hate to be such a sap, but it was really moving.

And poor Augustus Hill, oh dear. His mom was on the visitors' bus to tell him his wife was divorcing him, because she wanted to be the one to tell him, to ease the blow. He got a letter from a lawyer anyway, and said that she was his only lifeline, and kept him from doing drugs, and meant there was a better life out there, and then seemed to feel better with the thought that his mom was coming. And then, horribly, terribly, his mom was one of the ones killed on the school bus. He's in for some bad times.

Ryan O'Reilly is as devious as ever, he's trying to plant evidence on 2 other inmates to implicate them in the murder of the guy who raped Gloria, since Ryan killed him. Gloria knows it because he left the rapist's necklace for her, but she's not telling.

There were so many great scenes in this, I'll be thrilled if the rest of the season (a mere seven more episodes) are as riveting. The Nazis were scary (that Robson guy is especially nasty), poor Luke Perry survived being sealed into the wall AND the explosion, but has horrible burns all over his entire body, Said seems to be slowly losing his mind now that he's killed Adebisi and "shanked" Schillinger and Robson, it's all very exciting.

And guess what Sister Peter Marie tells Beecher in next week's preview? Keller's coming back!