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The Christians
In General
- Butt-Monkey: Every member except Timmy Kirk.
- Corrupt Church: Subverted; the vast majority have questionable morals, but are led by Cloutier, who is unquestionably a good man underneath his sense of entitlement.
- Covert Pervert: Despite their saintly veneer, nearly all of the Christians are sex offenders, save for Cloutier and Gougeon.
- Death Seeker: Probably not intentionally, but they tend to have a disregard for their own lives that can only be called suicidal.
- Everybody's Dead, Dave: At the end of the series, only two Christians are confirmed to still be alive; Samuel Gougeon and Harden.
- Goldfish Poop Gang: Even less violent than the Muslims and considered the weakest of all the gangs.
- Holier Than Thou: A largely unjustified attitude, given most of their crimes.
- Hypocrite: Most take a strong stance on sexual immorality and violence despite being populated mostly by sex offenders and murderers.
- Non-Action Guy: They never participate in the boxing tournament, the only gang not to do so.
- Lethal Joke Character: Timmy Kirk upon joining the Christians. He's the only member to actually kill other inmates, and is the most violent of them all. William Cudney is a close second in this regard, as he is a psychopathic and fanatical child murderer, but never gets to kill anyone on the inside.
- Light Is Not Good: Despite their saintly appearance, they are one of the most psycho of all the gangs. Most of their members are guilty of the worst crimes, generally sex crimes and violent crimes against children, and the creepiest thing of them all is that most have no sense of self-preservation. At all.
- Pedophile Priest: Robert Sippel. The gang as a whole could be considered the layman equivalent of this.
- Token Good Teammate: Jeremiah Cloutier and Samuel Gougeon are the only ones in the Christians who are not child murderers or rapists. Jonathan Coushaine has elements of this, seeing as he is a kindly and calm man with no violent tendencies whatsoever, but he is implied to be a sex offender of some kind.
- Would Hurt a Child: All but two are either child murderers or sexual perverts of all kinds, including pedophiles.
Rev. Cloutier
Rev. Jeremiah Cloutier
Played By: Luke Perry
Prisoner #00C966. Convicted December 27, 2000 - Embezzlement and petty larceny. Sentence: nine years, up for parole in five.
A charismatic TV evangelist caught embezzling from the church.
- And I Must Scream: Is sealed behind a wall by Timmy Kirk. Twice.
- Anti-Villain: He's your standard sleazy televangelist, at least at first. But he does good work with the other inmates.
- The Atoner: Trying to make up for embezzling money from his church.
- Butt-Monkey: Once he gets on the bad side of Timmy Kirk.
- Doing In the Wizard: His mystical, unexplained disappearance from the hospital in Season 5 was actually the bikers finishing the exact same job they started, sealing him back inside a wall to die
- Egocentrically Religious: Admits to Father Mukada that he's been like that most of his life, having performed his first miracle at a very young age. In fact, it's why he commits his crime: he thought he was entitled to the money. Fortunately, he seems to outgrow it during his time in Oz.
- Fate Worse than Death: Exploited. When Luke Perry first joined the show, everyone was assuming that he would be subjected to a prison rape storyline for maximum shock value. What his character got was so gruesome and grotesque, that being raped would have been a kinder fate for the character.
- Looks Like Jesus: With his long hair and beard. Probably a deliberate style choice on his part.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: There are times where he does seem to have genuine spiritual powers (such as seeming to exorcise demons from Jim Burns), but which might just be explained by a charismatic presence.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He casts Timmy Kirk out of his congregation when Kirk becomes a violent zealot. He also sincerely tries to help Schillinger become a better person and find a little happiness in his life. The latter earns him the enmity of Jazz Hoyt and the reason of the bikers, who don't want the leadership of the Aryan-Biker alliance to weaken before the Muslims and other rivals. Kirk and Hoyt conspire to humiliate and ultimately murder Cloutier in horrific fashion.
- Good Shepherd: He's a much better minister in Oz than he ever was on the outside. His greatest achievement by far is getting Vern Schillinger the closest he ever gets to a Heel–Face Turn.
- Redemption Equals Death: Immediately after he resolves to become a better minister by working alongside his congregation as an equal he is sealed behind a wall by Kirk and Hoyt. This doesn't kill him, but does lead to a series of events that eventually lead to his death.
- The Rival: To Mukada, but they eventually put their differences behind them and become friends.
Timmy Kirk
Timmy Kirk
Played By: Sean Dugan
Prisoner #96K423. Convicted April 16, 1996 - Manslaughter, endangering the welfare of a child. Sentence: 12 years, up for parole in seven. Convicted of Conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree in 2002 and sentenced to death.
Arrested and convicted for putting his baby in a rat-infested dumpster, he was part of Ryan O'Reily's Irish prison gang and colluded with O'Reily on several occasions regarding possible friction between both the Irish and the Homeboys, as well as in the aftermath of the prison riot. He for a while worked on janitor duty in Death Row, and delivered messages between Simon Adebisi and Shirley Bellinger.
Originally an Irish Catholic, he later joins the Christians under the leadership of Rev. Cloutier but then usurps power from him, become the new leader of the gang.
- Ascended Extra: Pretty much existed as an O'Reily subordinate who saw Shirley Bellinger's vagina before getting a major role in the last two seasons.
- Ax-Crazy: He will kill without hesitation or remorse for the most minor of reasons.
- Church Militant: Hoo boy, is he a dark example. His temporary brush with religion turns him into a psychopath willing to kill anyone who apostatizes.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Electrocuted to death when Hoyt jams a light fixture in his mouth. A fitting end for one of the most morally repugnant and truly evil characters on the show.
- Depraved Bisexual: He'll offer a blowjob to anyone who'll listen, but he's also shown to be attracted to Shirley Bellinger.
- Devil Complex: When he goes of the deep end, he becomes convinced that he is Satan himself.
- Evil Redhead: The evilest ginger in Oz.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: He may look like a choir boy, but that's not even close to being accurate.
- Faux Affably Evil: He's pure evil with a smile.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: He starts off as an errand boy for Ryan O'Reily. He later becomes one of the most dangerous prisoners in Oz.
- The Fundamentalist: A violent version. He's repeatedly beats Catholics to force them to convert to Protestants, and is completely bewildered as to why Cloutier thinks this is a bad thing.
- Heel Faith Revolving Door First Catholic, then Protestant, then...Satanist. Then proclaiming to be Satan himself. He's nothing if not willing to change.
- Hate Sink: One of the few major characters to not get any Pet the Dog or Jerk Ass Woobie moments. This guy is just pure evil.
- Hiding Behind Religion: Kirk uses religion so he can excuse his crimes. One of his defining moments is when he lectures about how even the most brutal of crimes can be excused.
- In the Blood: Kirk's mother has a brief story arc. She... turns out not to be much more in touch with reality than her son.
- Jerkass: He's a self-righteous, smug little bastard with absolutely zero redeeming qualities.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Kirk is one of the few inmates to get absolutely no redeeming qualities or sympathetic moments. Even his turn to religion is shown to be shallow and self-indulgent.
- Knight Templar: He maims and murders for the lord. When Cloutier tries to get him to back off, he takes over his leadership of the Christians and seals the good reverend behind a wall.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Hoyt murders him in one of the most gruesome ways possible on Death Row, and it couldn't have happened to a more deserving bastard.
- Manipulative Bastard: He loves to play innocent to get ahead. Rev. Cloutier and Father Mukada get it the worst, both temporarily losing their positions to his machinations.
- Sanity Slippage: He goes from not all there to psychopathic killer to declaring himself to be Satan in the flesh.
- Smug Snake: Without someone under his control, he's pretty pathetic.
- The Sociopath: He places absolutely zero value on human life.
- The Unfettered: Treats the
Moral Event Horizon like a jump rope in his quest to destroy both Cloutier and Mukada. - The Vamp: As indicated by his quote above, a Rare Male Example. His go-to method of payment for favors is oral sex.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: When he gains control of the Christians, he loses his tenuous grasp on sanity.
- Would Hurt a Child: His own child, who he dropped in a dumpster to be eaten alive by rats.
Cudney
William Cudney
Played By: Will Cote
Prisoner #99C124. Convicted February 10, 1999 - Murder in the first degree. Sentence: Life imprisonment without the possibly of parole.
A fanatical Christian inmate.
- Asshole Victim: Absolutely no one cares when he is found in bed with his neck slashed.
- Cold Sniper: How he killed his victim.
- Even Evil Had Loved Ones: Deconstructed; his grief over his unborn child being aborted leads to him killing the child of the doctor who performed the abortion.
- Even Evil Has Standards: On the receiving end; O'Reily is sickened by him.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He wears spectacles and is an unrepentant child killer.
- Hate Sink: An obnoxious, undeservedly self-righteous jerk who lectures other inmates about morality when he is an unrepentant about murdering a child in cold blood. Yeah, it's fair to say he qualifies as this.
- Holier Than Thou: Of all the Christians, he is by far the most obnoxiously self-righteous.
- Hypocrite: He's supposedly opposed to abortion because he considers it the murder of children. This from a remorseless child killer.
- Knight Templar: He's a hero in his own mind for evening the score with his wife's doctor. No one else agrees.
- Jerkass: Doesn't even begin to describe him. He is a repulsive Holier Than Thou hypocrite who revels in the fact that he shot a child dead.
- Moral Myopia:
- He takes his holier-than-thou attitude much farther than the other Christian inmates, lecturing the O'Reilly brothers on the immorality of violence and theft with a straight face in spite of the fact that he's a murderer.
- He takes pride in having murdered a child in cold blood - motivated by the fact that the child's father was the abortionist who provided service to Cudney's wife.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech; He gets an unintentional one from Cyril, who asks him what he's going to say to his victim when he gets to Heaven. Cudney has no response and it's clear that he hasn't even thought about it.
- Revenge by Proxy: He killed the child of the doctor who performed his wife's abortion, so in his mind he's 'paying him back'.
- The Sociopath: Guns down a child without even blinking and gloats about it to O'Reily.
- Truth in Television: Like Malcolm Coyle he is proof that Child Killers do not last very long in maximum security prisons.
- Too Dumb to Live: He decides to brag about shooting a kid in a maximum security prison. Ironically, however, that's not what kills him. What kills him is betraying Ryan O'Reily to his face, which was an even stupider decision to make.
- Would Hurt a Child: Kill one, actually, and feel absolutely no remorse over doing so.
Gougeon
Samuel Gougeon
Played By: Blayne Perry
Prisoner 97G141. Convicted August 5, 1997 for manslaughter in the first degree. Sentence: 19 years, up for parole in 10.
A kind-hearted and benign Christian inmate imprisoned after a fatal hunting accident.
- Keet: A milder version of this trope, keeps a relatively optimistic demeanor despite his surroundings and is a very devout Christian.
- Nice Guy: Arguably one of the kindest inmates in Oz.
- Nerd Glasses: A harmless, bespectacled man.
- Token Good Teammate: One of the only Christian inmates who is not a sex offender or child murderer, and the only one who is confirmed to have survived the series. In a show where Anyone Can Die, doubly so for good-natured characters, that's rather remarkable for a minor character.
Sippel
Robert Sippel
Played By: David Lansbury
Prisoner 88S510. Convicted March 10, 1988, for sexual abuse in 2nd degree. Sentence: 15 years, up for parole in 10.
A guilt-ridden ex-priest and child molestor.
- The Atoner: He turned himself in, and continues to feel deep guilt about his crime even after his time is up.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The Aryans crucify him to the floor, and leave him to bleed to death.
- Pedophile Priest: He molested a young boy.
- Too Dumb to Live: Why would a child molester willingly come back to his old cell just for a place to sleep? Sure enough, the Aryans crucify him on the gym floor just hours later.
Coushaine
Jonathan Coushaine
Played By: Bryan Callen
An easy-going Christian inmate and initial leader of the Christians. Was once a high school teacher and as a result, teaches the GED classes in OZ.
- Affably Evil: He's never much of a plotter or schemer, and is easy to get along with.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Disappears without explanation in Season 3.
- Nice Guy: You need to be to teach the bastards imprisoned in Oz.
- Noodle Incident: It's never revealed how he entered OZ. It's implied he may be a sex offender by Hill and Wangler, though the two are amused by the likelihood of such, considering Coushaine's passionate diatribe on the sex offender registry.
- Put on a Bus: After the graduation of the GED class, he just sort of disappears.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: His long rant about the sex offender registry heavily implies that the crime he was convicted for was sexual harassment or battery. Considering that he used to be a high school teacher...
Harden
Harden
Played By:
One of the more mysterious Christian inmates, often seen in the flock of William Cudney and Jeremiah Cloutier. When Timmy Kirk becomes head of the Christians, Harden acts as one of Kirk's mooks. One of only two Christian inmates to survive the end of the series.
- Bit Part Bad Guy: A thug with no real characterization or plot relevance who isn't onscreen for long.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Helps Augustus Hill bring down Supreme Allah.
- Elite Mook: Acts as this to Timmy Kirk
- Flat Character: Harden is a Christian inmate who is quiet, obedient to whoever is in charge of the Christians, and often appears in the background. That's really it.
- Noodle Incident: It is never revealed how he got into Oz.
Burns
Jim Burns
Played By: Peter James Kelsch
A former biker inmate who becomes Born Again Christian under Cloutier.- Cain and Abel: Maybe. He's in prison for killing his brother but insists he is innocent and since he's never given a crime flashback might be the only prisoner in Oz who really is innocent.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He refuses to kill Cloutier as Cloutier brought him to God.
- Religious Bruiser: First played a bit darkly when he beats up several non-Christians to convert them then more positively when he won't kill Cloutier for Hoyt and Timmy, instead attacking them.
