Characters / Oz Main

Prisoners

Hill

Augustus Hill

"In my hood, you had to learn to run, before you learned to walk."

Played By: Harold Perrineau

"At the end of the day, everybody wants somewhere to rest, somewhere to lay their bones, even if it's in a land called Oz. Yeah, like Dorothy says when she wakes up in her own bed back at Aunt Em's, "There's no place like home." There's no fucking place like home."

Prisoner #95H522. Convicted November 6, 1995 - Possession of illegal substances, murder in the second degree. Sentence: Life imprisonment, up for parole in 20 years.

A wheelchair-using lifer who also serves as the show's surrealistic narrator, breaking the fourth wall by addressing the connecting theme(s) of each episode. He introduces every prisoner, and informs us of their crime and sentence.

In the "reality" of the show, he mostly acts as a neutral figure, rarely getting directly involved in the craziness around him; though, he sometimes is aligned with the Homeboys.

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• Anti-Hero: Downplayed, at least in comparison to everyone else. He's a murderer and a former drug dealer, but he's the Token Good Teammate for the prisoners as a whole.
• Amateur Sleuth: Hill is an amazing crime solver in the novelization, his feats include correctly deducing that Adebisi planted the gun in Tarrant's pod and placing Schillinger as the prime suspect in Andrew's death.
• The Atoner: For his crimes; when your criminal actions put you in a wheelchair, you end up with a lot of regret. Hill stays clean, keeps out of conflict if possible and tries to quietly do his time.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He kills Supreme Allah by poisoning him after he makes it clear that if Hill doesn't kill Redding, he will.
• Butt-Monkey: Despite being one of the few characters who genuinely wants to move toward rehabilitation, Hill rarely gets what he wants. He's ultimately killed.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: A rare courageous example, as he's ratted out a couple of prisoners and they all completely deserve it, or alternately, he's able to prevent an escalation of violence.
• Cop Killer: He gunned down a cop during his arrest, which resulted in another officer chucking him off a building in response, causing his paralysis.
• The Cynic: The novelization explores his lack of faith in the purpose of Emerald City and how it will inevitably fail in changing the inmates for the better. The worst part? He's right.
• Despair Event Horizon: After his appeal fails, Hill gives up all hope of leaving Oz.
  Said: But hope is all we have!
  Hill: All I have is Oz.
• Disabled Snarker: His sharp tongue sure isn't disabled.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Despite arguably being the show's lead character and the damned narrator, Hill is killed off in a pretty shitty way: accidentally shanked by a random attacker.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Often gets mistreated or ignored by his fellow prisoners which angers him considering he's a lifer who killed a cop.
• Foil: To O'Reily. They're both inmates who don't really belong to a gang and are simply trying to survive in Oz. However, Hill is genuinely repentant about his crimes and survives by staying out of the various gangs' way, whereas O'Reily is remorseless and actively involves himself in Oz's prison politics to manipulate various factions for the sake of settling grudges and protecting himself and his family.
• Greek Chorus: His main role for most of the story. He continues even after death.
• Handicapped Badass: He is very smart, sharp, and in a wheelchair.
• Iconic Outfit: His sweatshirt and fingerless leather gloves.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He's highly cynical and frequently borders on being flat-out nihilistic, but he's still one of the only prisoners who will stick his neck out to do the right thing.
• Large Ham: During his narrations, but less so in the 'reality' of the show.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Occasionally interacts with the characters in his role as narrator. One memorable example had a drugged out Adebisi watching Hill narrate the story with a look of utter confusion on his face.
• Lemony Narrator: He tells the story from inside one of Emerald City's glass cells; sometimes he's dressed differently, sometimes he's writing on it, sometimes the entire cell is rotating, sometimes he's been covered in paint...his narration is certainly unusual. He'll also frequently pause to take shots at the other inmates or the staff.
• Loved by All: Almost everyone in Oz seems to like him, at least enough to make small talk with him. Almost everyone's reaction to his death is horror and sadness.
• Morality Pet: He is this to Redding. Redding is more forgiving of him than he is to others which does not go unoticed.
• Nice Guy: He's generally friendly and affable, rarely gets involved in the other inmates' power plays and murders, and is one of the only inmates who are actually committed to the idea of reformation and to show any kind of conscience, trying to stop a gang war and turning in Malcolm Coyle simply because it was the right thing to do. Said even says he's always admired Augustus for it.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: When he enlists Said's help to appeal his conviction, Said seems to think he's helping with the 'cause' of prison reform and exposing an incomptent system. Hill just wants out.
  Said: Do you want to replace me? You wanna get Beecher to take up our cause?
  Hill: Our cause? This is not our cause, this is my fucking life! I am not you, man! I don't want to be a martyr or a fucking saint! All I want is to get out of here and be free. Either you can do that or you leave me the fuck alone!
• Not So Above It All: While he generally keeps out of prison politics and the other prisoners' power plays, Hill definitely isn't immune to getting involved. The most notable example of this being his murder of Supreme Allah to protect Redding.
• Odd Friendship:
  • He forms one with undercover cop Johnny Basil, though it sours as Basil becomes increasingly corrupt, much to Hill's disgust.
  • He and Beecher get along surprisingly well.
• Only Sane Man: Hill is one of the few characters who actively chooses to stay under the radar, do his time, and not get involved with the crazy shit going down all around him.
• Out of Focus:
  • Hill spends the first half of Season 1 mostly off in the background outside of his narration. It isn't until Jackson Vahue shows up that Hill gets his own story arc.
  • He also spends the first half of Season 4 as a supporting character in Johnny Basil's arc.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: He ruins Jackson Vahue's chances at parole out of spite. It's difficult to say he doesn't deserve it.
• Pinball Protagonist: Since Hill just wants to quietly serve his time, it's generally the actions of other people that galvanize him.
• Taking The Knife: For Burr Redding, who doesn't exactly deserve such a sacrifice.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • The infamous "paper route" speech to Burr Redding.
  • He gives an epic one to Johnny Basil for becoming a Dirty Cop.
  Hill: I ain't telling nobody nothing. I'm not telling anybody that you're a cop. A cop who breaks the law all in the name of the law. I just want you to know… that I know… you're a fraud. And I don't mean that you're undercover. I mean as a person, you're a fraud.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: He quickly catches on that Johnny Basil is an undercover cop, but chooses not to expose him, and only reveals it to express how disgusted he is with Basil.
• Token Good Teammate: Compared to the rest of the prisoners. Hill is one of the few people in Oz who are genuinely repentant for their crimes, and he frequently sticks his neck out to do the right thing.
• Sacrificial Lion: His death signals that even more so than before going into the final season Anyone Can Die.
• Vocal Evolution: His voice gets subtly deeper over the course of the series.
• Wicked Cultured: For a given value of 'Wicked'. Has a wide array of knowledge on history, politics, literature, and philosophy — as seen in his narration. He even writes a book about his time in Oz.

Beecher

Tobias Beecher

"Same old story. I got fucked in the ass."

Played By: Lee Tergesen

Prisoner 97B412. Convicted July 5, 1997 – Driving while intoxicated, vehicular manslaughter. Sentence: 15 years, up for parole in four.

A Harvard-educated attorney born from privilege, Tobias Beecher was a successful husband and father; but also an alcoholic. One night, he drives drunk and accidentally kills a nine-year-old girl. The judge, a family friend of the Beechers, decides to make an example of him and sentences him to 15 years in a maximum security prison.

In Oswald, Beecher quickly becomes a target of bullying and rape from Schillinger. Throughout the series, he learns to stand up for himself, becoming a feared inmate. Somewhat of a wild card, Beecher has no affiliation to any of the major gangs.

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• Accidental Child-Killer Backstory: Beecher was sent to prison for accidentally killing a child while driving drunk. While the act itself is rightfully treated as heinous and warranting punishment, Beecher's status as one of the kinder inmates and the horrific Trauma Conga Line he goes through after being incarcerated make him one of the more sympathetic characters.
• The Alcoholic: Beecher struggles with numerous addictions, but alcohol was what landed him in Oz in the first place.
• Amoral Attorney: Downplayed but Beecher uses his legal skills to keep Keller off death row, knowing full well he was guilty.
• Anti-Hero: He's one of the most compassionate of the prisoners, but simultaneously one of the most vicious. He's also willing to sink to very dark territory very fast if he's slighted, with the most horrific case being him selling Guenzel to the Aryans as a sex slave for humiliating him.
• Anti-Villain: At his worst, Beecher can be downright ruthless and even sadistic, but he tends to have sympathetic motivations and standards.
• Arch-Enemy: The feud between Beecher and Schillinger begins in the first episode and lasts throughout the entire series; it's essentially a war between two people with numerous deaths racked up along the way.
• The Atoner: For the death of Kathy Rockwell, which haunts him throughout the series. Later for the deaths of Andrew and Hank Schillinger.
• Ax-Crazy: As a result of his Sanity Slippage, Beecher briefly goes insane and becomes rather feared within Oz. He even seems to play it up.
  "Thank God I'm crazy, 'cause I don't give a shit!"
• Badass Pacifist: In later seasons. He's rarely outright violent and gets things done through legal means.
• Beard of Evil: He tends to grow a beard whenever he's at his most morally ambiguous.
• Beneath Suspicion: He gleefully mocks Keller for not suspecting "good ol' Toby" of being the one who murdered Metzger and stabbed Keller.
• Beneath the Mask: Beecher always had a dark side even before he came to Oz; his imprisonment just resulted in it coming to the surface.
• Berserk Button: He starts strangling Keller when he insults Beecher for having been Schillinger's prag.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Beecher is a rather shy but friendly enough guy, and even after taking a level in badass he's generally well-intentioned. He's still highly dangerous. Metzger found this out to his detriment.
  • When Guenzel arrives in Oz, Beecher does everything he can to keep the kid from ending up as Schillinger's prag the way he first did. He makes a deal with the Italians to have them keep the Aryans away from Guenzel. When Schillinger offers Beecher the chance to take his place delivering mail to death row so that he can visit his lover, Keller (on death row at the time), if Beecher will just let the Aryans do what they will with Guenzel, Beecher initially tells him to piss off. But after Guenzel finds out that Beecher is bisexual (which Vern made sure he learned, anticipating his reaction), Guenzel stops showing gratitude and starts showing hostility towards his benefactor. Beecher puts up with it for a while, feeling that handing him over to the Aryans would be Disproportionate Retribution. Then Adam, partly motivated by his homophobia and partly by someone implying that he must be sleeping with Beecher, hits him with a cheap shot, grabbing the still dazed Beecher by the head to simulate fucking his face in front of everybody. This is the final straw for Beecher, who proceeds to call off the Italians and accept Vern's offer.
• Break the Cutie: Poor Tobias is put through the ringer. And his sanity never truly recovers.
• Break the Haughty: Played With. While Beecher isn't particularly arrogant, he's had an easy, privileged life, especially in comparison to the other inmates. Prison life swiftly breaks him down until he goes insane.
• Butt-Monkey: More so in Season 1, but he rarely catches a break even as the show goes on and he takes several levels in badass.
• Crisis of Faith: Beecher questions God's existence when he is subjected to Schillinger's abuse.
• Card-Carrying Villain: In Season 3, after his temporary Face–Heel Turn.
• Carved Mark: Schillinger brands a swastika on his butt in the first episode after raping him.
• Combat Pragmatist: Beecher wins a ton of fights against much stronger opponents because of he's good at using the element of surprise and making people underestimate him.
• Creepy Good: Beecher is undoubtedly one of the most moral inmates in Oz, but whenever his sanity is particularly low he can be downright terrifying.
• Crusading Lawyer: After getting paroled Beecher fights for prisoner rights.
• Deadpan Snarker: He gradually becomes very snarky and sardonic.
  "Reading Mein Kampf? Let me tell you how it ends. The Aryans get their asses kicked!"
• Defiled Forever: Manages to escape the worst of this by fighting back and brutalizing the man who raped him, although the other inmates still toss him occasional jabs over his past as Schillinger's prag.
• Despair Event Horizon: After his parole is rejected, Beecher just shuts down emotionally.
  Beecher: Fucking Oz…
• The Dog Bites Back: After spending much of Season 1 as Schillinger's abused prag, he finally snaps and attacks him while high on PCP, glassing Schillinger's eye in the process. Beecher then proceeds to take every chance he can get for the rest of the series to take any kind of revenge he can on him.
• The Dragon: Briefly becomes this to O'Reily in "A Game Of Checkers".
• Drugs Are Good: Mostly averted, as his alcohol addiction led to the crime that got him incarcerated in the first place. However, when Beecher tries PCP, he throws a chair through Schillinger's cell, beginning his vengeance against his tormentor. If he hadn't altered his mind in such a profound way, he might never have found the courage for this initial counterattack.
• Drunk Driver: How he ended up in Oz; vehicular homicide.
• Embarrassing Tattoo: He understandably regards the swastika Schillinger branded on him as this. However, when Keller offers to turn it into something else, Beecher refuses as it will cause even more scarring.
• Establishing Character Moment: He is introduced to the series screaming for his life after seeing a fellow inmate get stabbed. He'll be doing a lot of that by series' end.
• Evil Feels Good: During his temporary Face–Heel Turn in Season 3, Beecher admits to Keller that he regrets none of his crimes save for Cathy Rockwell's death, and that he actually enjoyed them, especially killing Metzger and stabbing Keller.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: How sane Beecher is at any given time can be judged by whether or not he has a beard.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Despite his questionable morals, Beecher is one of the few inmates who doesn't seem to discriminate in any way.
• Excrement Statement: He gets revenge on Schillinger by beating him to the ground and taking a dump on his face while the other prisoners cheer him on.
• Face–Heel Turn: After Keller, Schillinger, and Metzger break his limbs, Beecher snaps and becomes a vengeful, callous manipulator. It takes Andrew dying to get him to snap out of it.
• Fish out of Water: He really doesn't belong in a maximum security prison. And it shows. He gradually adapts.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: When he first arrives, he's a pushover who quickly gets pragged. He goes on to be one of the most feared inmates around.
  • It's implied Beecher always had a violent side buried within him. At the very least, he quickly learns to hold his own in a fight.
• Gasshole: At one point, he Trolls Hill with his stinky farts.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: What finally causes Beecher to go insane is a week in solitary confinement.
• Good Is Not Soft: Beecher is one of the more sympathetic and compassionate inmates, but he's also one of the most vicious and cunning, and can dish out a ton of physical and psychological pain to anyone who gives him reason to.
• Groin Attack: He bites off the tip of Robson's penis when he tries to rape him.
• Had to Come to Prison to Be a Crook: Imprisoned for vehicular homicide, he is a murderer several times over by the end of the series.
• He Who Fights Monsters: His battle with Schillinger takes a toll on his morality, as he sinks to new lows to even the playing field with the Nazi rapist.
• Heel Realization:
  • Meeting with Cathy Rockwell's mother gets Beecher to accept it's his own fault that he's in Oz.
  • Andrew's death results in Beecher realizing he's changed for the worse.
  • After seeing Adam bloody in the gym Beecher decides nobody deserves to be raped and feels guilty about letting The Aryans have their way with him.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: To a lesser extent than Keller, but Beecher can alternate between deeply compassionate and violently insane on a dime.
• Humiliation Conga: Pragged by Schillinger, has a swastika burned into his butt, is forced to perform in drag for the whole prison, forced to eat pages of a law book, and finally forced to wear a Confederate Flag around the prison when Schillinger finally tires of him and orders him to do it so one of the black inmates will kill him. At the last, he finally snaps.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Intends on doing this after Hank's body is found, believing that if he offers to let Schillinger kill him his family may be spared. However, Keller prevents him from going through with this.
• Honest Advisor: He serves as this to Said after the two befriend each other, being Brutally Honest and telling Said the unmitigated truth when he needs to hear it.
• Honor Before Reason:
  • He contacts the parents of Cathy Rockwell to give them a say in his parole hearing despite it significantly lowering the chances of him being freed.
  • Trying to save Keane even after O'Reily threatens him.
  • He snitches on Schillinger over his role in Gunzel's death even though it means making Vern an enemy again.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch:
  • Allowing Gunzel to be raped by the Aryans.
  • Assaulting Keller in the gym and then gloating about it to him.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Beecher gets revenge on Schillinger for sodomizing him by victimizing Schillinger in the opposite way, physically speaking.
• Laughing Mad: After going crazy, he spends a lot of time cackling maniacally to himself.
• Naïve Newcomer: It doesn't survive the first episode.
• Nice Guy: Even at his craziest, he still retains a strongly compassionate nature.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Tobias means well, but his attempts to help others almost always backfire. His attempts to make peace with Schillinger only ever get him hurt or put his family in danger. His advice to Said to "embrace the Adebisi side of himself" leads to Said going off the deep end. His attempt to help Hill get over the death of his mother causes him to relapse and almost kills him.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: A recurring theme in Beecher's life.
  • His attempt to make up for Andrew's death leads to his son being killed.
  • His efforts to save Jefferson Keane from an unjust execution results in Schillinger forcing him to eat pages out of a lawbook as punishment.
  • He violates his parole to help Keller's ex-wife who Keller told him was sick, not realising it was part of Keller's plan to get him sent back to Oz.
  • He is humiliated in front of the entire prison by Adam Guenzel after he went out of his way to save Guenzel's life.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Is ultimately this to Chris Keller. When Beecher rejects him completely, he commits suicide.
• Madness Mantra: His nursery rhymes, when he's really crazy.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When he realizes that he's too late to call off the hit on Schillinger's second son.
• Manipulative Bastard:
  • Not usually, but he callously uses Andrew Schillinger as a pawn against his father: he befriends the boy, gets him clean, then allows him to lash out and reject his father, leading eventually to Andrew being sent to the hole and overdosing on heroin supplied by his father (delivered by a complicit guard).
  • He also has a moment of this early on in Season 2, where he threatens repeatedly to ruin Schillinger's chances at parole and manipulating him into calling a hit on Beecher, which is subsequently exposed to McManus, ruining said chance and adding more years onto his sentence.
• Morality Pet:
  • He is literally the only person Keller cares about.
  • In Season 1 he's this for Ryan.
• My Greatest Failure: Killing Cathy Rockwell and causing Andrew's death.
• Naïve Newcomer: To the prison, which gets him in serious trouble at the beginning of the series; he really snaps out of it.
• Odd Friendship:
  • Has a surprisingly genuine friendship with Ryan O'Reily.
  • He and Said also get along surprisingly well, and form a close friendship.
  • He also gets on pretty well with Hill.
• Outliving One's Offspring: His son is murdered by Hank Schillinger. To further twist the knife, Hank mails his son's hand to him.
• Papa Wolf: Has Hank murdered to avenge his son.
• Playing the Victim Card: Initially, Beecher considers himself to have been unfairly punished for doing one thing wrong after a lifetime of following the law; he finally takes responsibility for his crime after meeting with Cathy Rockwell's parents.
• Positive Friend Influence: He and Saïd have this sort of friendship. They both confide in each other despite their very differing views, and both help each other make important decisions. Much of their Character Development in the later seasons is a result of their friendship.
• Prison Changes People: His time on Oz changes him from a polite Shrinking Violet to a grizzled con who once murdered a man with his fingernails.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: Beecher gradually becomes more vengeful and amoral as he tries to get revenge on Schillinger, and he snaps totally when Keller betrays him. After this, Beecher becomes a callous manipulator who enacts an elaborate scheme to get Schillinger to kill his own son; when he succeeds, he has a Heel Realization, and while he mostly reverts to his old, compassionate self, he's still markedly more cruel than he was before.
• Psycho Party Member: For the rioters at the end of Season 1, spending most of his time off in the corner cackling to himself or being The Dragon to O'Reily.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He gives one to Schillinger after manipulating him into ruining his chances at parole.
  Beecher: Hey Vern! They let you out of the Hole already? …You're mad at me, aren't you? Sure, you're mad, and I understand why. I fucked up your chances for parole, you're facing ten more years in Oz, all because of me. Oh man. I manipulated you like the dumbass white trash Neanderthal you are. You know, you get to learn a lot about a man when he's FUCKING YOU UP THE ASS!
  [Schillinger chucks a fan at Beecher, which he easily dodges]
  Beecher: (laughs maniacally) Getting slow there, sweet pea. Getting a little soft!
• Reformed, but Rejected: He spends the last third of Season 3 and all of Season 4 struggling to atone for his earlier cruelty, but the parole board ends up rejecting him in spite of his recent good behavior because of his past actions.
• Rejected Apology: When he's given a visit from the judge who sentenced him, she admits that she let her emotions get the best of her and did not treat him to a fair trial. Beecher, despite being empathic with her guilt, makes it very clear that he cannot forgive her.
• Restoration of Sanity: His burgeoning relationship with Keller in Season 2 slowly restores Beecher to sanity after the end of the previous season saw him turned into a vicious madman. Keller's betrayal results in Beecher becoming just as vicious as he was before, but still totally sane.
• Sanity Slippage: Schillinger's abuse and the subsequent drug addiction Beecher develops as a result gradually takes a toll on his sanity until he finally snaps and goes insane. He does recover somewhat thanks to Keller's influence, but his sanity is still tenuous at best.
• Self-Deprecation: By his own admission, he's struggled with self-loathing long before he got to Oz.
  Beecher: I'd rather feel happy, but good old self-hate will do the trick any time."
• Shame If Something Happened: Beecher pulls this card on ol' Vern with regards to his parole.
  Beecher: You get into a fight, you fuck up your parole. And I hear for the next three months, you're gonna be a good little boy, so you can get outta Oz, see your two sons. You know, I think that's great. But, you know what I'm wondering? What if Vern doesn't get out? What if, as he comes up for parole, he gets into a brawl, a knock-down, drag-out with his old roomie? What if every time he comes up for parole, Vern gets into some ugly incident and has to serve his entire sentence? And his two sons, they become monsters. That's what I'm wondering about. Prag.
• Shrinking Violet: When he first gets into the prison, Beecher is shy and submissive, trying his best to keep to himself and generally being rather naive and sweet-natured. Schillinger's abuse breaks him out of this; while he's still something of a loner, he's both more sociable and a lot rougher around the edges.
• Slowly Slipping Into Evil: Beecher gets increasingly ruthless and cruel over the course of his sentence as he sinks to increasing lows in his quest for revenge on Schillinger.
• Token Good Teammate: Zig-Zagged. He's definitely the most compassionate and repentant of the prisoners, but he's also one of the most vicious and he'll go to amoral territory very quickly if it gets him what he wants. He'll also exploit this image to manipulate the prison administration if necessary.
• Took a Level in Badass: Oz forces him to become a badass in order to survive, transforming him from a meek newcomer who's easily taken advantage of to a formidable and cunning inmate. Perhaps the exact moment when he took a level in badass was when he fights back against Schillinger, throwing a chair through his cell and injuring him.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: He becomes cruel and manipulative in Season 3 as a result of Keller's betrayal, callously stringing Andrew along just to get at Schillinger through him. He snaps out of it after Schillinger kills Andrew.
• Took a Level in Kindness: At the end of Season 3, Beecher reverts back to his compassionate nature and becomes one of Said's few allies.
• Trauma Conga Line: By the end of the series nearly his entire family and his lover has died.
• Tuneless Song of Madness: He's prone to singing nursery rhymes whenever his grasp on sanity is particularly tenuous.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Augustus is the only one who will call him out as he's losing his mind.
• White Male Lead: A white, Harvard-educated lawyer from an upper middle class family, and one of the show's central characters. Despite having more resources and social support than many prisoners, his incarcerated life begins with a hellish period of abuse, and his life continues to unravel even after he grows vicious enough to effectively defend himself. His bisexuality is also unusual for this trope. On the other hand, the prison staff seem to treat him with more respect than many of the black and Hispanic inmates, which makes his life somewhat easier.
  • Ironically, this is subverted in season 2 when Metzger is appointed head CO. Beecher has to eventually take him out privately to ensure his survival.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: At the end of Season 4, it seems like he's about to be paroled with a new life waiting for him in the outside, only for his parole to be rejected at the last minute.
  Beecher: Fucking Oz…

O'Reily

Ryan O'Reily

"I'm like the lord of the fucking dance. I got moves."

Played By: Dean Winters

Prisoner #97P904. Convicted July 12, 1997 - Two counts of vehicular manslaughter, five counts of reckless endangerment, possession of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a weapon, parole violation. Sentence: Life imprisonment, up for parole in 12 years. Convicted of murder in the first degree in 1998 and parole was extended to 40 years.

Ostensibly, the deuteragonist. An Irish-American career criminal who serves as an Iago-figure, pitting the various gangs and cliques within Oz against each other for the purposes of surviving.

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• Abusive Parents: His childhood was pretty horrible, due in no small part to his alcoholic, violent and belittling father.
• Affably Evil: Can be a pretty pleasant guy if you don't piss him off or get in his way.
• Alliterative Name: Close enough, anyway. Ryan O'Reily.
• Arch-Enemy: Dino Ortolani in the first episode, who shot O'Reily and a friend shortly before coming to Oz. The fact that Ortolani doesn't survive the first episode demonstrates that O'Reily is clearly not someone to be fucked with.
  • Nikolai Stanislofsky in Seasons 3 and 4, much of the conflict in his storyline in those seasons comes from them trying to one up and later murder each other.
  • Jia Kenmin in Season 5, who antagonizes him and Cyril and later manipulates Cyril towards a death sentence.
  • Robson in Season 2 and thereafter.
• Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Schillinger's decision to rape Cyril and then taunt both brothers about it turned O'Reily from someone defined mostly by Pragmatic Villainy into someone with a specific and very deep grudge. Bad idea. For Andrew.
• Badass Boast: They are understated, but when he makes them, you know he's serious. Plays checkers with Hill then finds out a bet he made with the Italians lost and D'Angelo is trying to stand him over it, threatening him with being killed if he doesn't pay. Big mistake. Upon returning, Hill checks him and wins. Then O'Reily says the following:
  Hill: You lose, white boy.
  O'Reily: No. I never lose when it counts.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Subverted in the first half of Season 4. He spends much of it in a petty feud with Stanislofsky, and gets betrayed and cast aside by Adebisi early on; it appears that O'Reily's attempts at destabilizing Adebisi's empire never go anywhere and have almost no effect on the plot. Then he has Stanislofsky killed in transit to Em City and frames enough of Adebisi's crew to have Querns dismissed, McManus reinstated and Adebisi eventually killed.
• Big Brother Instinct: Cyril is the only person he'll go to bat for, and he does so with no hesitation whatsoever.
• Book Dumb: He's undoubtedly intelligent, brilliant even, despite being a high school dropout.
• The Chessmaster: At any given time, he's playing everyone against everyone. And no one's ever the wiser.
  O'Reily: I'm a man of logic, I'm a man of planning. I consider every detail, I factor in every possibility. Then I flip a coin.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: It's rare that he allies with another inmate for more than an episode or two. The only longstanding alliance he has is with himself.
• Cruel to Be Kind: He lies about having Gloria raped so that she won't have romantic feelings for him and her feelings of self-loathing will disappear.
• Culturally Religious: Though he's pretty all over the place in terms of how he practices his faith. He wears a cross, prays, and holds some respect for Father Mukada, but he's also fairly immoral and lashes out at his priest cellmate due to his resentment of Catholicism.
• Deadpan Snarker: Probably the biggest wise-ass in the main cast.
• Decoy Antagonist: The pilot episode sets Dino Ortolani up as the series protagonist with Ryan as the Big Bad.
• Dysfunctional Family: Ryan had an abusive dad, his birth mother had no part in raising him, his brother is constantly the victim of his manipulation and he resents his aunt for never intervening to stop the abuse.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: His late mother was one of the few people he truly cared about. When his real mother shows up, he shows her much the same affection.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Despite manipulating him he still cares about his brother Cyril enough to confess to ordering a murder getting 40 years added to his sentence to protect him from the Aryans and later does everything he can to save him from execution.
  • He has real affection for Dr. Nathan.
  • His mother Suzanne. While Ryan probably loves Cyril more he's never as much of a Manipulative Bastard or Jerkass to her as he is to Cyril. He is nearly always nice to her and has Peter Schibetta killed to save her life.
• Even Evil Has Standards: O'Reily, sociopath and all round Manipulative Bastard, nevertheless has a code regarding the sort of crimes he will tolerate.
  • He was disgusted that William Cudney could murder a child.
  • He is also disgusted with Patrick Keenan, a rapist. This is amplified as O'Reily has a crush on the person Keenan raped.
  • As with everyone else, he hates Coyle for being a brutal, unrepentant murderer of an innocent family. Unlike everyone else, he's also appalled that Coyle's Snuff Film of the murder is being shown on television where anyone can see it.
  • O'Reily also tends to have a soft spot for those who are not hardened or violent criminals and attempts to protect them from the more vicious bullies of Oz. For example, O'Reily is the only prisoner in Em City to try to help Beecher cope with being abused by Schillinger and cheers him on when he sees Beecher attack Vern. He's also sympathetic to Guillaume Tarrant when he enters Oz, advising him to stand up to Wangler and Pierce as soon as the opportunity arises.
  • He doesn't seem to like the Aryans much, even before they rape his brother.
  • He is horrified by Connolly's plan to bomb the prison and tries to stop him from doing so, also making a sincere attempt to talk Connolly out of letting himself be killed in the explosion.
  • He is the only one not to laugh at Beecher when he is forced to wear women's makeup and perform in the prison talent show.
  • He is outraged when Sister Pete is briefly fired from her job for protesting the death penalty.
  • He seems genuinely saddened by the deaths of Keller and Hill.
  • He is shown to be angered when Pedophile Priest Robert Sippel is released.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: His wife Shannon clearly loves him and is very worried Ryan won't survive his cancer diagnosis.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: A manipulative sociopath who speaks with a raspy voice.
• False Friend: Pretends to befriend Andrew as part of Beecher's plan to manipulate him into an overdose as revenge on Schillinger.
• Fighting Irish: Downplayed; he tends only to fight when provoked, preferring more subtle means to get his way.
• Foil: To Hill. They're both inmates who don't really belong to a gang and are simply trying to survive in Oz. However, Hill is genuinely repentant about his crimes and gets by by staying out of the various gangs' way, whereas O'Reily is remorseless and actively involves himself in Oz's prison politics to manipulate various factions for the sake of settling grudges and protecting himself and his family.
• Genius Bruiser: Definitely more the former than the latter, but he can still hold his own in a fight.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: "I'm no fag!" is almost a catchphrase for him.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: A lot of the things that befall him (and especially his brother Cyril) are his own fault, and brought on by his own manipulations.
  • On the other hand, he's very good at staying alive and gets out of most of the messes he creates without a scratch.
• He Knows Too Much:
  • Arranges Cudney's death to keep him from exposing Ryan spiking the drinks of the participants in the boxing tournament.
  • Also uses his connections with Healy to have Keane killed to hide his involvement in Dino's death.
• The Irish Mob: The leader of the all-Irish Bridger Street Gang.
• It's All About Me: Not even Cyril is safe from Ryan's supreme selfishness.
• Kick the Dog: Manipulating his brain damaged brother into killing an innocent man so he can get with his wife.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Many of Ryan's victims are deserving.
  • He murders Patrick Keenan for raping Gloria and gloating about it to him.
  • He humiliates Robson and causes him to be kicked out of the brotherhood.
  • He manipulates the guards into murdering Jai Kenmin who got Cyril sent to Death Row.
  • He has the Latinos cut off Shupe's arm.
• Kick the Morality Pet:
  • Ryan's love for Cyril doesn't stop him from bullying him into performing in the boxing tournament when he really doesn't want to so he can make some money on gambling, and taunting him about leaving Khan irreversibly brain dead after Ryan drives him into a frenzy.
  • Subverted in Season 1. He threatens to kill Beecher, his only genuine friend at this point, if he doesn't stop trying to prove Keane's innocence. When Beecher ignores him, O'Reily compliments him on his bravery and offers him some drugs.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Keenan's rape of Dr. Nathan and subsequent boasting about it enrages O'Reily so much that he decides to personally dirty his hands for the first time in the series and bash Keenan's head in with a dumbbell.
• Love Makes You Evil: A lot of O'Reily's most amoral actions are motivated by his love for Dr. Nathan, mainly since O'Reily's idea of love can best be described as fucked up.
• Manipulative Bastard: Does not even begin to describe him. He often offers help to people of different factions and seems welcoming to new prisoners, but he usually does this as an attempt to steer them into completing actions that benefit himself. As he explains to Patrick Keenan:
  O'Reily: When I want someone dead, I never grease him myself. I always talk someone else into doing the deed for me. I make them believe the person I want dead is their enemy.
  Keenan: That's so cool.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Ryan was so guilt-ridden over Cyril's brain damage that he went on a drunken, drug-fueled rampage through the city. He ended up killing two people and causing untold amounts of property damage, which gets him sent to Oz.
• Narcissist: Overall, this is what he is. While there are a few people he actually cares about, O'Reilly ultimately proves that he always comes first. When he gets a crush on Dr. Nathan, he has her husband murdered (manipulating Cyril to do it), and even claims that he did it for her because he loves her. The only time he drops this attitude is when Cyril is in immediate danger, as he will gladly get himself in trouble or damage his reputation to protect him. Even so, O'Reilly still mistreats Cyril and manipulates him to help with his schemes, putting Cyril in harm's way to earn money if needed. Notably, when Cyril is being executed, O'Reilly is making out with Dr. Nathan.
• Never My Fault: Blames Jack Eldridge for the death of his mother as she died after an interview with Eldridge exposed him and Cyril as criminals to her. He goes as far as to try to kill Eldridge over this. It never seems to occur to him that he holds some level of responsibility for agreeing to the interview and becoming a criminal in the first place.
• Noble Demon: Heavily downplayed. O'Reily is amoral and downright sociopathic at times, but he does have his own moral code, and will on occasion do the right thing because of it, albeit generally in the most fucked up way imaginable. He's also no sadist like Schillinger and if you're not in his way, making him into an enemy or doing something even he finds repulsive, he's pretty content to leave you be.
• Non-Action Guy: In a show filled with violence, O'Reilly almost never fights. He prefers to let others do his dirty work. Notable exceptions include: attacking Schillinger in the cafeteria after he's raped Cyril, attacking an Aryan when he mocks him about having cancer, attacking Schillinger again after he mocks his relationship with Dr. Nathan, and of course, killing Patrick Keenan.
• Not Good with Rejection: Not at all. Enraged that his doctor rejected him for...her own husband.
• Odd Friendship: With Beecher in Season 1, and sporadically thereafter. Unlike virtually every other connection O'Reily makes in Oz, he appears to be friendly with Beecher simply because he enjoys his company and not because he is seeking to gain anything from him. While it began because Ryan was hoping Beecher could find some legal way to get him exonerated, they continue to hang out even after Beecher says there's no way he can help him and Ryan isn't at all bitter about it. And off-and-on with Adebisi throughout the series, though some Enemy Mine is involved.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • The usually unflappable O'Reily has a Freak Out after learning he has breast cancer.
  • He actually lampshades this to Keenan before he kills him. As he notes, he generally manipulates people into killing his enemies for him, but Keenan's rape of Dr. Nathan has pissed him off so much that he's decided to do the deed himself. He then proceeds to bash his head in with a dumbbell.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: He repeatedly uses racist and homophobic slurs. With that said Ryan doesn't seem to have any personal hatred for gay people as he is friendly enough with both Beecher and Keller.
• Pet the Dog:
  • When Schillinger sets Beecher up to be killed by the homeboys, Ryan freely gives him some drugs to calm his nerves. It doesn't sound like much but he could have charged him and it does end up saving Beecher's life. Throughout the first season, he's pretty much the only character to show Beecher any kindness or concern or help him adjust and make his time in prison more tolerable.
  • He helps with the fund for Rebadow's grandson.
  • After Father Meehan's death, Ryan feels guilty about his ungrateful treatment of him and washes his body to honor him.
  • Jumps in to defend Beecher when he's attacked by Omar during a drug counseling session.
• Smart Jerk and Nice Moron: A rare dramatic version. Ryan is a manipulative snake who is always tricking his brain damaged brother Cyril into going along with his schemes, and is not above forcing him to commit murder.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He has a lovely and soft speaking voice, but is one of the most vicious characters on the show.
• Spell My Name With An S: Ryan O'Reily (rather than O'Reilly or O'Riley).
• Stalker with a Crush: To Dr. Gloria Nathan.
• Straight Edge Evil: He quits using drugs cold turkey after Season 1, but still deals heroin to the other inmates.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: He becomes increasingly cruel and sociopathic in Season 3, ruthlessly manipulating Cyril by forcing him into boxing to make money and taunting him about it when he calls him out on it.
• Took a Level in Kindness:
  • At the end of Season 4, O'Reily tries to genuinely change for the better and even borders on a Heel–Face Turn. Sadly, it doesn't last, as he's forced right back into his old ways by Kenmin's campaign to ruin him.
  • In the series finale, Ryan seems honestly committed to changing for the better.
• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • During the riot in season one, he was protected from an attack by the Muslim gang by Beecher who had nothing to gain from it and was under no obligation to do so. Ryan is quick to forget this when he tries to convince Keller that they should kill Beecher.
  • He throws Shannon to the side when he becomes obsessed with Gloria even though she loves him deeply and spent a lot of time looking after Cyril.
  • By Ryan's own admission Healy was never anything but loyal to him and yet he sells him out to Nino.
• Villainous Friendship: It still most likely wouldn't prevent either from betraying the other but Ryan and Keller work together in several schemes and seem to get along quite well. When Keller dies Ryan gives an accusatory look at Beecher.
• Villain Protagonist: Most inmates flirt with this to some degree but Ryan fits this trope best as he is one of the most central characters, extremely self serving, manipulative and villainous but without ever sliding into straight up antagonist territory like Schillinger and others.
• Wild Card: No matter what's going on at Oz, you can expect to see O'Reily Playing Both Sides at some point or another.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: He's genuinely disgusted by anyone who hurts children.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Possibly his greatest skill is his ability to adjust his plans as time goes.

Saïd

Kareem Saïd AKA Goodson Truman

"You wanna save this place, right? And I want to destroy it. Brick by hypocritical brick."

Played By: Eamonn Walker

Prisoner #97S444. Convicted June 6, 1997 – Arson in the second degree. Sentence: 18 years, eligible for parole in five. Later, found not guilty of one count of murder in the first degree, and pled guilty to two counts of attempted murder and sentenced to an unknown period of time.

A devout Muslim and Black nationalist who was imprisoned for blowing up a white owned warehouse. Saïd immediately took charge of the Muslim prisoners, who sometimes chafed at both his extreme moral code and his apparent violations of those same standards. Saïd is one of the most powerful prisoners in Oz with considerable influence and control of a large portion of the inmate population. Saïd is also a very powerful figure outside of prison with a network of fellow Muslim leaders, a large political influence and numerous contacts in the media. Saïd and the other Muslims renounce themselves from smoking, alcohol, foul language, abnormal sex, drug smuggling, and drug use, because these things strongly violate their religion.

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• Achilles in His Tent: After he snaps and beats the hell out of Omar White, he elects to stay in solitary confinement for an extra week to sort out his issues in solitude.
• All-Loving Hero: He's a downplayed version, namely in later seasons. Said is not always the easiest man to get along with and it takes a lot to get into his good graces, but he's generally willing to help any inmate who comes to him if he thinks they have a legitimate grievance or that they are honestly seeking redemption.
• Anti-Hero: One of the very few characters who might be considered truly "good" or even heroic by non-Oz standards. Saïd sticks his neck out for Poet, Keane, Omar, Beecher, Hill, and other prisoners in ways that rarely benefit him directly and sometimes create friction with the other Muslims. Saïd is also far more likely to reach for non-violent conflict solutions than most of the other characters, including the prison staff. Despite this, he's still perfectly capable of violence when he finds other methods lacking.
• The Atoner: He becomes this in the aftermath of Season 1's riot, focusing more on legal and spiritual aid to the prisoners.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Inverted. Saïd, one of the most altruistic and noble of the prisoners, is the one to ultimately topple Adebisi's empire where other, far eviler inmates fail.
• Badass Preacher: A strong contender for the most badass preacher in Oz.
• Benevolent Boss: Saïd is more loyal and compassionate to his gang than some other inmates. Even when Mershah betrays him, all Saïd does to retaliate is cast him out.
• Becoming the Mask: Played with. Saïd's conviction to his ideals are unquestionably genuine from the very beginning, but his Character Development is him developing into the benevolent and righteous figure he initially styles himself as for real.
• Black Sheep: His father and sister are both Christian ministers and took his conversion to Islam personally. Despite this, their relationship seems relatively normal.
• Big Good: Upon his entrance to Oz, Saïd sees himself as this. He sets about making himself a leader with smug confidence, seeing himself as a champion of the oppressed prison population. Following a riot, however, he becomes more self-aware and realizes he's just as flawed as anyone. Later seasons have him sharing this role with McManus.
• Break the Haughty: His experiences in Oz are humbling to say the least. He goes from a confident demagogue to an unstable wreck.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: His offscreen, long in the past conversation with Lemuel Idzik , who would later show up and murder him over it. Idzik even admits that Saïd probably forgot about the conversation entirely.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: To the point that Beecher calls him out on constantly needing something to rage against.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Gunned down by a fake reporter a mere 5 episodes from the finale.
• Egocentrically Religous: While his devotion to Islam is sincere, it often gets tied in with his own ego and become an outlet for his own anger and selfishness. Kareem even admits in Season 3 to Hamid Khan that finding Allah just made his already existing flaws worse.
• Enemy Mine: He's briefly willing to take Schillinger's case, with both men hoping to benefit from the Appeal to Audacity of a black nationalist Muslim defending the legal rights of a white supremacist. Their alliance quickly falls apart once Said realizes Schillinger is actually being justly prosecuted.
• Establishing Character Moment: His first scene has him talk down to the prison heads and proclaim how he owns Oz due to his influence over the Muslims, convert an inmate, simultaneously getting him to quit smoking, get Keane and Adebisi to stand down without throwing a single punch, and command one of his followers to punch him repeatedly in the face to demonstrate how tough he is. Schillinger's comment about how dangerous he is almost seems redundant by that point.
• Face Death with Dignity: After being fatally wounded by Idzik, Saïd uses his last breaths to tell Arif not to hurt him in retaliation.
• Fake Defector: He brings down Adebisi by pretending to join with him. Adebisi nearly kills him when he finds out.
• The Farmer and the Viper: Saïd's efforts to help other prisoners frequently end with them either blowing the opportunities he secures for them, or just straight up manipulating him.
• Foil:
  • To McManus — Both are attempting to reform prisoners and the prison system, one from outside the system and one from within.
  • To Adebisi. They're both the leaders of Oz's two black gangs and are aware of the judicial system's flaws. However, while Saïd tries to reform it, Adebisi actively exploits it to gain power.
• For Great Justice: Professes high ideals, including having written several books about the justice system.
• Friendly Enemy: Saïd is frequently willing to cross group lines to help other prisoners if he feels they have a legitimate grievance against the justice system. He's willing to help gay inmate Jason Cramer (to the disapproval of his fellow Muslims) and even briefly takes on a legal defense of white supremacist Schillinger.
• Good Is Not Soft: While he's committed to his ideals and will fight for other prisoners even at cost to himself, he's also capable of fighting against you just as fiercely.
• He's Back!: After spending all of Season 5 grappling with his inner demons and out of control, it becomes clear he's back to normal when he comes out of solitary smiling and wearing his kufi and tasbih.
• Heel–Faith Turn: Before his conversion, he was a Straw Nihilist and a drug addict.
• Heel–Face Turn: Over the course of his Humiliation Conga, Said becomes genuinely altruistic and more accepting of his own faults.
• Heel Realization:
  • His character arc in Season 2 sees him gradually realize the harmful affect his Well-Intentioned Extremist attitude and ego has on the people around him.
  • After spending a whole season grappling with his rage, he eventually comes to accept that it is a part of him that he should embrace, but not allow to control him.
• Heteronormative Crusader: Opposes homosexuality and bisexuality for religious reasons, though with less personal hatred than many prisoners. Despite his underlying views, he forms a strong friendship with Beecher and agrees to help Cramer with his case. He also applies his views equally to Schillinger and other men who force inmates into sex, while the rest of prison seems to reserve the homosexuality taboo for their victims.
• Honor Before Reason: Say what you will about his ideals, he's willing to stick his neck out for them.
• Holier Than Thou: One of his less admirable traits. He eventually admits that his conversion to Islam has not stopped him being selfish or arrogant.
• Humiliation Conga: Season 2 and Season 3 are just one long parade of humiliations for Saïd, culminating in him being thrown out of the Muslims. He regards it as a deserved and humbling experience.
• I Just Want to Be Special: A core motive of his actions which many call him out for. He's obsessed with his cause of overthrowing a legal system he sees as corrupt and horribly prejudiced, but he sees no problem using others to do this and tries to prop himself up as some profound revolutionary or saintly oppressed martyr. The results of his actions don't match his ambitions and he ends up making people's lives worse instead of better.
• It's All About Me: Initially, Saïd is massively egotistical and selfish, cynically manipulating his fellow inmates just to prop himself up as a righteous figure campaigning against the system. After this attitude leads to a Humiliation Conga, he wises up and changes for the better.
• It's All My Fault: Saïd blames himself for Leroy Tidd's death, insisting it was entirely his fault against Arif's protests.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's arrogant and hard to get along with, but he's a genuinely good, principled man who tries to help his fellow inmates. Most times, when around prisoners in whom he sees a principled individual, he veers straight into Nice Guy territory. Arguably he's just a frustrated Nice Guy all up.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Giving Robson a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
• Knight Templar: Saïd believes that because he fights against a corrupt and racist system, any actions he takes against it are justified. Then, of course, is the crime that got him into Oz, for which he never seems remorseful. He loses this attitude when he begins to see the effect it is having on others.
• Large Ham: As a preacher and self-styled voice of the powerless, Saïd can definitely get theatrical at times. It mostly works for him (see Rousing Speech below).
• Magnetic Hero: His charisma means he manages to attract a lot of allies with ease.
• Malcolm Xerox: Subverted; Despite having the outward signs, he lacks the hypocrisy, one-dimensionality, and misplaced rage of this trope. He especially contrasts with the more aggressive of his followers, particularly Khan and Mershah. The result is a rare realistic portrayal of a Black nationalist character.
• Manly Facial Hair: He sports a beard, and is one of the toughest inmates in Oz and very willing to stand up for his beliefs.
• Manly Tears: Breaks down crying after being shunned by his Muslim followers after various personal infractions against Islam and Leroy Tidd's Heroic Sacrifice.
• Martial Pacifist: Saïd prefers peaceful solutions and tends to shy away from violence, but he is more than willing to turn to it should nothing else suffice.
• Minored In Ass Kicking: He's mostly a religious leader, rarely personally violent (at least relative to the other inmates), and his first line of attack is usually a legal or intellectual one. But on the occasions when Saïd is drawn into a fight, he's handed some of Oz's most fearsome inmates their asses.
• Mortality Phobia: Implied by Rebadow to be deeply afraid of his own death and is afraid how he will be judged for his actions, despite trying to come off as righteous. When he does die, he faces it with grace.
• My Greatest Failure: Because of his altruistic ways, Saïd deeply regrets not being able to reform Adebisi. The fact that Saïd ends up being the one to kill him only makes it worse.
• Never My Fault:
  • He acts like he has been unfairly imprisoned despite being guilty of the crime he's in Oz for.
  • It takes awhile for him to admit that he was partly responsible for causing the deaths that occurred in the riot.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Dishes a spectacular one out to Robson.
• Noble Bigot: He opposes homosexuality and bisexuality, but he also opposes using violence against them and is close friends with the openly bisexual Beecher. His hatred for the Aryans also stems more from their raping then their sexuality.
• Not So Above It All: Deconstructed and Reconstructed. In the middle of Season 4, Saïd is forced to kill in self-defense for the first time, causing a crisis of conscience. At first he attempts to embrace the violent side of his personality, but it turns him into a rage-fueled bully. When forced to confront what he has become, he has a nervous breakdown, until he realizes that the two sides of his personality are not in conflict, and he's just as human as anyone else.
• Odd Friendship: With Beecher, a white, alcoholic and bisexual inmate. Especially notable in Season 3 as all of the other inmates have taken sides based purely on race in the impending race war in Em City.
• Positive Friend Influence: Saïd's influence pushes Keane, Tidd, and Omar into their Heel Face Turns, and he also helps Beecher sort through his issues after he becomes increasingly cruel following Keller's betrayal. Beecher and Said end up bringing the best out of each other.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Evolves into the closest thing there is to this among the inmates after his Heel–Face Turn, with even Father Mukada seeking his counsel at one point.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers an epic, not to mention humiliating, one to Governor Devlin on live TV. Gets one from Rebadow, Hill, Poet, and Beecher at various points.
  Saïd: How do I feel? …I feel joyless. My brothers remain behind. Imprisoned, suppressed. I don't just mean my Muslim brothers, I mean every single man who will sleep in here tonight, who is cut off from everything that he loves. Cut off from his own self. You know, as the word went around that the Governor was gonna give somebody clemency, I saw a rift develop. As each inmate wished himself to be the chosen one. The desire to be free became as palpable as the food that we eat. But is a meal that I am being served right now. And I am Muslim… and Allah does not allow me to swallow certain things. Allah does not allow me to take scraps from the hands of a man such as this! A man who is corrupt… and immoral… A man who denigrates the gift of clemency just as he violates the principles of justice! A man that gave the order that caused the death of eight people. And so, Governor Devlin, because even the cost of freedom can be too high, I refuse your pardon!
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: While Said becomes increasingly altruistic and selfless, he never entirely overcomes his ego.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: He opposes Keller and Beecher's relationship and frequently tells Beecher that he should break it off. He's right that the relationship should end, because it's toxic and Keller is emotionally and physically abusive, but Saïd's objections come more from his prejudices than anything else.
• Rousing Speech: A specialty of his.
• Sanity Slippage: Really starts losing it after Adebisi's death. He gets better.
• Secretly Selfish: Especially when he first gets into Oz, he is primarily motivated by propping himself up as a righteous demagogue more than any genuine do-goodery. Over time, his altruism becomes increasingly legitimate, but it never entirely goes away.
• Self-Deprecation: He becomes increasingly aware of his faults due to Character Development.
  Saïd: I'm no better than any other punk here.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: He switches to primarily wearing t-shirts after being ousted from the Muslims by Khan.
• Springtime for Hitler: His representation of Jason Cramer. His intent was to get Cramer a new trial based upon a bad jury, but expected that Cramer would lose his second trial due to his obvious guilt. Saïd never intended to win, just get Cramer a fair trial. Unfortunately, he underestimated how badly flawed the first trial was, and once the legal issues were worked out, there was not nearly enough evidence left to convict. Cramer walks free, and Saïd has to deal with the guilt of letting a murderer go in the name of justice.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Tricia Ross. This wrecks his relationship with his Muslim inmates due their policy of racial segregation.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: He takes his vow of pacifism very seriously. Killing Adebisi in self-defense causes him to have a mental breakdown.
• Token Good Teammate: Initially subverted. Upon getting into the prison, Saïd brings prisoners to his side by preaching about redemption and righteousness, but he ultimately proves to be as amoral as the other inmates, having manipulated the entire prison into a riot. As an ever-increasing number of humiliations beat his ego out of him, he plays it increasingly straight, becoming the closest thing Oz has to a Big Good alongside McManus.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: He turns into a rage-fueled bully in Season 5 due to his guilt over Adebisi and Tidd's deaths and his inability to reconcile himself with his inner demons.
• Took a Level in Kindness: He becomes increasingly altruistic over the course of the series, mellowing from a Well-Intentioned Extremist to an Anti-Hero.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Saïd fights for civil rights, but he does so by blowing up warehouses, cynically manipulating other prisoners, and instigating riots. After the riot, he starts to grow out of it.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He gets this a lot in his more dark moments.
• Where da White Women At?: A major issue with both his family and his fellow blacks is his romantic interest in exclusively white women. He mentions that he was engaged to a white woman before he converted to Islam.
• Worthy Opponent: He has some sort of interest in Adebisi, particularly his salvation in spite of the two being enemies and directly opposed to each other. Considering the two were from similar backgrounds, it's easy to see why.

Rebadow

Bob Rebadow

"God told me."

Played By: George Morfogen

Prisoner 65R814. Convicted September 9, 1965 - Murder in the first degree. Sentence: Death. Commuted to life.

The oldest inmate on the show and a prominent member of "The Others", the group in Oz which generally stays away from trouble and gang related warfare. His age as well as experience in Oz makes his interactions with several other inmates dynamic; some see him as a mentor, others a survivor, and a few a vulnerable old man.

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• Alliterative Name : Robert Rebadow.
• Beneath Notice: The reason Morales picks him to kill Hernandez and claim self-defense.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • When two of the Aryans discover their escape tunnel and intimidate them into handing it over, he and Busmalis booby trap it so that the Aryans get buried and suffocate.
  • Hernandez also found this out the hard way.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Clayton Hughes tries to question him about his father’s murder, but Rebadow doesn’t remember anything. To Hughes it was the most important day in a young boy’s life, but to Rebadow it was just another random act of senseless violence.
• Butt-Monkey: Quite a bit but he always seems to recover.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: He's generally regarded as crazy due to claiming to talk to God. Not only does he often given very good advice and guidance, but he sometimes shows knowledge he couldn't possibly have known otherwise such as knowing the name of Tobias' wife immediately upon meeting him.
• Cool Old Guy: Part of how he survives in a hell-hole like Oz is that he's so damn likable that no one wants to mess with him.
• Evil Feels Good: After Rebadow murders Hernandez, he claims he's never felt more alive.
• Fake Guest Star: Appeared in every single episode but was always listed as a guest star.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Busmalis.
• The Man They Couldn't Hang: He survived an execution in the electric chair, thanks to the Great Northeast Blackout of 1965 causing a power surge just as his executioner threw the switch.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: See The Cuckoolander Was Right.
• Nerves of Steel: Never panics or shows fear despite being an older man in a maximum security prison surrounded by younger men.
• Nice Guy: He stays out of trouble and is the only one to treat Beecher kindly on his first day in Oz.
• Odd Couple: With Busmalis. Arguably even more so with Groves before that, due to their age gap.
• Only Sane Man: He's one of the only characters in the show to avoid trouble.
• The Old Convict: The oldest, in fact.

Alvarez

Miguel Alvarez

"I'm so tired. I'm tired of trying. I'm tired of the walls. The lies. The fear. The death. I'm so tired."

Played By: Kirk Acevedo

Prisoner #97A413. Convicted February 3, 1997 - Assault with a deadly weapon, criminal mischief in the second degree. Sentence: 15 years, up for parole in two.

The main Latino prisoner of the show. A loser whose father and grandfather are also both imprisoned in Oz, Alvarez repeats history by serving a prison sentence of his own. He becomes the Latino gang leader in season 1, but is forced to abdicate his position upon the arrival of El Cid. His exile often puts him at odds with his old crew who frequently try to dispose of him.

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• Anti-Villain: He does undeniably horrible things to survive in Oz, but he frequently shows flashes of a compassionate nature and is filled with guilt over his crimes.
• Anti-Hero: He evolves into this in Season 5. He's still violent and cynical, but he's genuinely making an effort to change for the better.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • His former friend Chico Guerra, who turns on him when "El Cid" Hernandez takes over the Latino gang. The feud ends with them patching things up over time, but they are never really best friends again.
  • Also Warden Leo Glynn, who takes a personal interest in making Alvarez's life a living hell.
  • El Cid, who's always doing something to make things worse for Alvarez out of spite.
• Assassin Outclassin': Guerra and Ricardo's attempt on his life doesn't go as planned, since Alvarez was smart enough to keep a shank on him. He kills Ricardo and nearly does the same to Guerra before the guards stop him.
• The Atoner: He zigzags all over this trope. However, his one consistent story arc is trying to earn the forgiveness of the CO he blinded.
• Babies Make Everything Better: Alvarez immediately falls in love with his baby and makes an effort to change so that he can raise his child. Subverted when the baby develops a terminal disease and eventually has to be taken off life support.
• Being Evil Sucks: Trying to fit in with the more hardened Latino gangsters only makes his life progressively worse.
• Being Good Sucks: Unfortunately, his attempts to reform don't improve his fortunes either.
• Big Bad Wannabe: During his tenure as the Latino leader. Unusually for this trope, Alvarez recognizes this and is more than happy to cede the position once El Cid arrives.
• Break the Haughty: Upon his entrance into Oz, he's arrogant, callous and casually cruel. His experiences swiftly break him.
• Bring It: After Jorge Vasquez confronts him after he realizes his attempt to be a rat for Glynn means he'll be sent back to solitary and kicked out of the Latinos, Alvarez tells him to go ahead and fight him. Vasquez does, and gets stabbed to death.
  Alvarez: Come on. I've got nothing to lose and nothing to gain.
• Brutally Honest: He bluntly admits to Morales that he's happy El Cid is dead when asked.
• Butt-Monkey: Absolutely nothing goes right for Alvarez. Almost everything he does backfires horribly on him, and whenever things seem to be looking up for him something always screws him over.
• Bullying a Dragon: Taunting Glynn about his daughter's rape does not work out in his favor.
• Bungled Suicide: He tries to hang himself in Season 3 after Garvey cuts off his antidepressants, only to be saved by Howell.
• Bystander Syndrome: He doesn't lift a finger when Mukada is dragged away and beaten during the riot, despite Mukada begging for his help.
• Cosmic Plaything: Whatever forces are at work in the universe of Oz have conspired not to give Alvarez a single moment of happiness. What truly breaks him is the fact that a member of the parole board, Ruiz, personally has it out for him, and has already made up his mind that he will never leave.
• Cowardly Lion: He's looked down upon by the other Latinos for being timid to a fault, but Alvarez is almost always the winner when he gets into a straight-up fight.
• Cuteness Proximity: He absolutely melts when he sees his baby and the guide dog he's supposed to train.
• Deadpan Snarker: Alvarez won't hesitate to snark at anybody, even Glynn and McManus.
• Despair Event Horizon: After dancing on the verge of it for the entire series, he finally succumbs to true despair after a parole board member privately makes it clear to him that he will never, ever be paroled.
• The Determinator: Played with. He does carry on despite all the crap he goes through, but it requires a substantial kick in the pants.
• Diagnosis of God: The novelization has Hill implying that Alvarez suffers from some form of bipolar disorder.
• The Dog Bites Back: Glynn makes his life hell after his daughter is raped by Latinos, something Alvarez had absolutely nothing to do with. When Alvarez learns who the rapist is, he refuses to tell Glynn out of spite until after he kills Ricardo, when he frames Ricardo for the deed and taunts Glynn by saying that the rapist "was in here the whole time." To add to the bite, Alvarez was in fact lying and the true leader of the rape, Louis Bevilaqua, is never known to Glynn).
• Drunk with Power: During the riot, he gets a power high over getting control of the hostages. It quickly fades away after he beats Mineo for having made a joke about his baby's death.
• The Eeyore: Perpetually morose, though he has good reason to be.
• Elder Abuse: He's in prison for beating up an old man for scratching his car.
• Everyone Has Standards: Shows concern for the life of a guard during the riot.
• Establishing Character Moment: He's introduced getting shanked right before he enters Em City, which gives you a pretty good idea of what he's in for.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Alvarez becomes convinced that his is Pride after his baby develops a terminal disease, and that God caused it to punish him for it. He cuts his own face with a knife in a futile attempt at forgiveness.
  • His real Fatal Flaw is impulsiveness. A good chunk of his grief is caused by his short-sighted actions, which only spell more trouble for him in the long run than if he had thought his actions through.
• Freak Out: Whenever he's locked up in solitary, Alvarez completely loses it and has increasingly destructive breakdowns, culminating in him smearing himself and the entire cell with his own feces.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Gradually becomes this to the Latino gang members, who resent the fact that he is scared of his own shadow. All of the leaders try to kill him, and even when he's let back in by Hernandez, he's treated like dirt.
• Generation Xerox: His father and grandfather are both in Oz, and his grandfather has spent the last several years in solitary. Alvarez attempts to defy this trope, but circumstances always work against him.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: Going into solitary generally causes Alvarez's mental health to decline, and his entrance there is always accompanied by a Freak Out.
• Had to Come to Prison to Be a Crook: He was a petty criminal pre-Oz with a two year sentence, and is a murderer several times over by the end of the series in for life.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Downplayed. He's generally pretty calm, but whenever he's under a ton of stress, it doesn't take a whole lot to make him snap.
• Happiness in Slavery: Or rather, "poison peace in slavery." At the end of the series, he resigns himself to living as Torquemada's prag in exchange for drugs, because he's so worn down that he doesn't want to think about anything else.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: After his baby is born, Alvarez is on the verge of a Heel–Face Turn and wants to change himself for the better for the sake of the baby. Then the baby slowly dies, and Alvarez just gives up on the idea of redemption entirely, especially when he becomes leader of the Latinos.
• Heel–Face Turn: After getting Jaime Velez killed, Alvarez starts trying to atone for his actions and stay out of trouble.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Alvarez switches in and out of being The Atoner depending on how much pressure he's under. He eventually settles on Face.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Well, he's not quite a hero, but he definitely loves dogs and, while training a guide dog, he spends a lot of time gushing over it.
• Insane Equals Violent: Deconstructed. He tends to lash out violently whenever his mental health is particularly poor, but he generally poses more of a threat to himself than anything. He later plays this up after being kicked out of the Latinos as a defense method.
• Jerkass: Make no mistake, Alvarez can be an absolute asshole at times. He's selfish, cruel, callous, and prone to bullying weaker inmates for fun. He develops into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold as the series goes on.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When Glynn tries to coax Alvarez into telling him the identity of his daughter's rapist, Alvarez calls Glynn out on abusing his power to make life miserable for Alvarez out of a petty grudge and the fact he expects Alvarez to tell him this without giving him anything in return before flatly refusing.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Miguel is impulsive and violent but he also shows compassion at times like when he advised Rebadow about the death of Donald Groves.
• Lack of Empathy: Zig-Zagged. He can be deeply compassionate at times, while at others he can be totally callous towards the people around him.
• Latino Is Brown: Zig-zagged. El Cid cites this stereotype to support his disapproval of Alvarez; he tells Alvarez that he's "too fucking white, man" both when meeting him and later when Alvarez asks what he has to do to earn his cojones with the gang. However El Cid also says the second time that he's really talking about Alvarez' lack of ruthlessness rather than his skin color.
• Made of Iron: He's stabbed four times (once in the first five minutes of the show), shot, strangled, beaten, starved, and attacked with a shiv twice, and tries to commit suicide twice, and, in spite of spending some time in the hospital ward, comes out alive and ticking. It's lampshaded several times that it's almost impossible to kill him.
• Mr. Fanservice: His female following is pretty sizeable, likely more than any other in the main cast.
• Nemesis Magnet: Literally everything Alvarez does earns him a new enemy.
• "No More Holding Back" Speech: Subverted. He gives a truly impressive, ballsy speech to Enrique Morales about how he's killed and wounded enough people that he knows he's proven himself. Then he promptly picks a fight with Giles — tiny, elderly Giles — and gets unexpectedly curb stomped, to the hilarity of all watching.
• Obfuscating Insanity: He plays up being crazy to the hilt after being kicked out of the Latinos so he'll be left alone by the other prisoners without having to rejoin the gang.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: He spends a good chunk of Season 4 on the run and successfully evading the police for months on end. He gets caught right when he reached the Mexican-American border.
• Out of Focus: Alvarez spends most of Season 4 on the run and in solitary so Kirk Acevedo could shoot Band of Brothers and Third Watch.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: He beats Mineo within an inch of his life for making a joke about his baby's death.
• The Peter Principle: He's a good enough soldier, but he proves to be absolutely incompetent while he's leader of the Latinos. Alvarez has enough sense to realize as much and willingly defers to El Cid when the latter arrives in Oz.
• Pinball Protagonist: He's constantly bouncing from conflict to conflict because of others' whims, and he often tends to lack the backbone to make that much of an impact. When he does make an impact, it's generally something profoundly self-destructive to him and destructive to others.
• Put on a Bus: Escaped and was on the run, off screen, for much of Season 4 so that Acevedo could shoot Band of Brothers.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: Even after his Heel–Face Turn, he still has a violent streak.
• Refuge in Audacity: He adopts this approach to survive after being kicked out of the Latino gang; he acts so ballsy that the other prisoners leave him alone out of respect, fear, or both. Surprisingly enough, it works.
• Sanity Slippage: His relationship with sanity is a tenuous one; over the course of the series Alvarez goes through severe mental episodes, including hallucinations, self-harm and crippling depression.
• Self-Deprecation: He's deeply self-loathing, particularly after he cuts out a CO's eyes, which he views as his own, personal invoked Moral Event Horizon.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Cathy Jo Cutler, Wolfgang Cutler's widow. Due to Schillinger's influence, it doesn't work out, contributing further to his downward spiral.
• Stop Being Stereotypical: Gets this from parole board member Ruiz, who lambasts Alvarez for acting like a negative stereotype of Latinos. Ruiz implies that this is the reason Ruiz will make sure Alvarez's parole is denied every time.
• Tragic Hero: Alvarez genuinely wants to change for the better and improve his life, but outside forces and his own impulsiveness always conspire to ruin things for him.
• Tattooed Crook: Has at least five tattoos; the cross on his arm and the script on his back are actor Kirk Acevedo's tattoos, but the others, including the prominent rose on his hand, belong to the character.
• Troll: While on the run, he sends a post card to El Cid that simply reads "HA. HA. HA."
• Underestimating Badassery: He's timid and cautious enough that most people tend to dismiss him as a wimp, forgetting that most fights with Alvarez end with him stabbing his opponent to death.
• Unfit for Greatness: He quickly proves to be a terrible leader for the Latinos due to his cautious nature. He's well-aware of it, and more than happy to cede his position to anyone more qualified for it.
• Ungrateful Bastard: While he he does appreciate Mukada's perpetual support, the most Alvarez ever does to repay him is to not beat him senseless.
• The Uriah Gambit: The Latino gang leaders hate him and constantly pull this on him when he tries to ingratiate himself.
• Wild Card: He tries during the conflict between Adebisi and Peter Schibetta, but he's too level-headed and cautious to pull it off.
• With Friends Like These...: Mukada helps him unconditionally and is pretty much his only real friend, which Alvarez rewards by taking him hostage twice.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: If things are looking up for him, it always means something especially horrible is going to happen to him.
• You're Insane!: He bluntly calls Hughes a nutjob in the middle of his deranged rant after taking over Solitary.

Schillinger

Vernon "Vern" Schillinger

"Whatever I've done. I've done for righteous reasons. Any laws I've broken don't deserve to be laws."

Played By: J. K. Simmons

Prisoner #92S110. Convicted October 21, 1992 – Aggravated assault in the first degree. Sentence: Eight years, eligible for parole in five. Convicted in 1998 of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to ten additional years without the possibility of parole.

One of the most feared inmates in Oz. As leader of The Aryan Brotherhood in Oz, Schillinger controls most white inmates and has a reputation for ruthless brutality and rape. He is shown to be a high ranking member of the Aryan Brotherhood outside of prison, thus giving him power outside of Oz through a vast network of allies.

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• 0% Approval Rating: Almost everyone hates Schillinger in Oz, even the guards. When Beecher kills him accidentally during Macbeth, everyone celebrates.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear if he actually had Beecher's wife killed or if it was a suicide that he was opportunistically lying about. Schillinger even mocks Beecher about the fact he'll never know if it's true. A deleted scene reveals he was lying to hurt Beecher.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: His death during the play is met with deafening applause.
• Arch-Enemy: To Tobias Beecher. Their enmity begins in the first episode and lasts throughout the series. Also to Said, on a more ideological level. Nticeably, Said is the only one to ever pronounce his name correctly.
• Abusive Parents: Andrew mentions Vern hit him growing up.
• Bait the Dog:
  • Schillinger is introduced as an affable mentor to Beecher. He keeps up the act right until Beecher becomes his cellmate, at which point he shows his true colors and rapes and brands him.
  • For a bit, it looks like Schillinger actually has genuinely reformed after Beecher's attacks on him. Then he tries to blackmail Wittlesey, and it's clear that he's the same scumbag he always was.
• Bald of Evil: Well, mostly bald.
• Being Evil Sucks: Like many convicts, Schillinger's actions rarely if ever net him any gain. His cruelty and racism have given him nothing in life and taken a great deal.
• Berserk Button: Don't pronounce his name incorrectly.^note It's Schilling-er with a hard g, not Schillin-jur with a soft one.
  "Schillinger! God DAMN IT! Schillinger! I've been here NINE FUCKING YEARS! You'd think you'd know how to say my goddamn name!"
• Big Bad: Arguably for the whole series, but mostly for Beecher's storyline.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: In the first episode only, when we're introduced to him in the same way as Beecher. He appears to be a possible mentor, instead of the predator he really is.
• Boomerang Bigot: A virulent homophobe who's also a serial rapist of fellow inmates.
• Broken Pedestal: He idolised Wilson Loewen, a Corrupt Politician who was secretly a member of The Klan and a long time patron of the Schillinger family. When he actually meets Loewen, he insults Vern to his face and dismisses him. He doesn't shed a tear when Loewen is assassinated.
• Category Traitor: For all Schillinger's neo-Nazi symbols and racism toward black and Latino inmates, he's still happy to rape and murder his fellow whites in prison, despite some superficial gestures of solidarity. He's even willing to toss white inmates misleading offers of "protection" to lure them into the Aryans' grasp as sex slaves. His white supremacist views seem to revolve more around hatred for other races than love for his own.
• Control Freak: Schillinger has a pathological need to be in control. He refuses to let his family be independent from him and beets angry whenever they refuse or he perceives them as refusing to go along with his whims and ideology, and his making new prisoners into prags seems to be motivated by his need to have someone totally under his control just as much as it is by sexual gratification, while his hatred of Beecher comes from his anger that he was able to defy Schillinger and break free from him.
• Create Your Own Villain: His abuse of Beecher turns the formerly shy, submissive inmate into a deadly enemy. In the first season alone, Schillinger ends up beaten, half-blinded, and sexually assaulted back by his former prey. Much like the immediate drop in status of his sex slaves, Schillinger faces a good amount of mockery for getting his face shitted on, leading to a drop in the Aryans’ status. A trio of black inmates even beat him up in his cell. While Schillinger recovers and remains a powerful force, his war with Beecher continues to cost him dearly, culminating in the deaths of Andrew, Hank, and eventually Schillinger himself.
• Deadpan Snarker: For a Nazi scumbag, he's quite adept at the humorous barb.
• Depraved Bisexual: Despite expressing contempt for gay inmates, Schillinger has a habit of raping other men.
• Dirty Coward: Anytime Vern faces a genuine threat, usually in the form of someone fighting back after his abuse, he becomes frightened, to the point of being almost timid around Beecher after he fights back over the first season and during the riot, when he no longer has thr protection of the guards or other Aryans, he simply hides in his bunk to avoid the wrath of enemies. He also only tends to go after new inmates who are much weaker and more timid and never faces anyone else without a serious advantage.
• Dirty Old Man: He's old enough to have two fully grown sons and a granddaughter before the series is over, and most of his rape victims and prags tend to be (or at least look) at least twenty years younger than himself.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Schillinger's temporary truce with Beecher and regret for the pain he caused him ends when Beecher doesn't tell Schillinger about his parole, at which point he resumes his campaign of revenge against him and tries to have him killed out of pure spite.
• Dysfunctional Family: Throughout the series, he has a number of major family issues: his father, whom he hates, taught him everything he knows about white supremacist ideology; his sons are both amoral drug addicts; he has disowned his sister for marrying a Jew, and his daughter-in-law is a prostitute.
• Enemy Mine: When he sees the Muslims and Homeboys starting to align together under Adebisi, he approaches his enemies among the other white inmates, including Beecher, and suggests they all temporarily put aside their differences for mutual protection. Stanislofksy, a Russian Jew, asks if that includes him too and after a moment's hesitation Vern says it does.
• Establishing Character Moment: Schillinger is introduced acting as a mentor and friend to Beecher and protecting him from Adebisi, convincing him to become his cellmate. After Beecher agrees, Schillinger shows his true colors by asking Beecher if he's a Jew, and upon learning that he isn't, rapes and brands him. All this establishes Schillinger as being manipulative, virulently racist, sadistic, and hypocritical.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: His relationships with his family members are irreparably broken, largely by his own attitude and actions. But they still find moments to give him love and affection when they can.
  • Subverted with Andrew. Andrew is finally willing to warm up to Schillinger after kicking his drug addiction, only for Schillinger to ruin it by sending Andrew to his death in the Hole.
  • Played straight with Hank.
  • His father asks for him when he's dying of lung cancer.
  • He ostracized his sister, Greta, for marrying a Jewish man. She ends their visit by telling him "Shalom", a Hebrew word that wishes him peace and happiness. It implies that her Jewish husband feels no ill will towards Schillinger either.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Played straight at times, yet subverted at others. He does love his sons and mourns their deaths, but he's responsible for Andrew's death. Played a little straighter with his son Hank's girlfriend and her daughter/his granddaughter.
  • He fondly recalls his deceased wife, Arlene.
  • He legitimately cares about Robson as a friend, advising him to see Dr. Faraj out of genuine concern for his well-being and later trying to dissuade the Aryan leader from casting him out.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Played straight with his disgust at a pedophile priest and protecting Augustus from Malcolm Coyle, and then subverted horribly when he has Beecher's son killed.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Beecher reunites him with his son Hank, to try and atone for turning Vern's other son against him, which resulted in the death of Andrew Schillinger. Upon finding out that it's Beecher's doing, Schillinger immediately concludes that Beecher is only doing it as part of some plan to mess with him, and orders Hank to kidnap and murder his children as retaliation. It takes a one-on-one session with Father Mukada to make him understand Beecher had good intentions.
• Evil Is Petty: Though he prefers to inflict rape, drug abuse, and physical abuse on his enemies, Vern occasionally settles for petty slights such as messing up someone's lunch tray and only giving Beecher the envelope of the letter from his grandmother under the pretense that it had to be confiscated.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Courtesy of J. K. Simmons's naturally deep voice.
• Eyepatch of Power: Subverted. He does get a nifty black eyepatch to cover his eye after it was glassed, but because this was done by his former prag, of all people, it only makes him look a bit pathetic.
• Falsely Reformed Villain:
  • He pretends he has become a better person in season 2 so that he can make his parole but Beecher sees right through it.
  • He later seems to show remorse for how how treated Beecher but it's just an act as part of his plan to rape Adam Gunzel.
• Fatal Flaw: His sadism and tendency to make enemies as a result. Many of Vern's setbacks come from pissing people off with his awful behavior for no reason other than sheer petulance and wrongly assuming it will never blow up in his face and he refuses to stop, no matter how many times that does happen.
• Faux Affably Evil: His polite moments are mostly this, but has the strange tendency to occasionally blur this with Affably Evil.
• For the Evulz: A lot of his more horrible actions really don't have any point to them besides the fact that he enjoys the suffering of others.
• Freudian Excuse: His father is just an older, more bitter version of himself. It's little surprise Vern turned out the way he did.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: That said, Vern continued The Chain of Harm by being neglectful of his sons, except when it came time to pound more Neo-Nazi ideology into their heads. As a result, they both grew up to be amoral drug addicts. He also disowned his sister for marrying a Jew, which is something even his hateful father didn't do as he seemed to have kept in touch with her. Furthermore, despite the disadvantages he received in his life from early on, his other son Andrew ultimately kicked his drug habit, renounced his racist upbringing and resolved to change his life for the better. There was nothing stopping Vern from likewise turning a new leaf... except he kept doing the things he did because he enjoyed hurting, abusing and bullying those weaker than him.
• Hated by All: With the exception of the Aryans, nobody likes him because he goes out of his way to be a dick to literally everyone for no real reason. When he's accidentally stabbed to death by Beecher during the play, the immediate response from the rest of the prison is deafening cheers.
• Heteronormative Crusader: Seems to consider himself heterosexual, and agrees when Said calls homosexuality an abomination. Said calls him out on this.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Stabbed with the same knife he had planned to stab Beecher with.
• Hope Crusher: The novelization describes him as a sadist who enjoys breaking the spirit of his unfortunate victims.
• Humiliation Conga: He gets a brutal one at the tail end of the first season. He gets his eye injured when his sex slave Beecher snaps after one abuse too many, he loses his spot in Em City, and he gets sent to Gen Pop. Following that, Beecher knocks him down and takes a dump of his face right in front of a group of prisoners. Schillinger has to work very hard to get his cred back after this.
• Hypocrite: He's violently homophobic, yet he commits several acts of rape over the series against weaker white inmates. Said also calls him out on this reminding him of his rapes of Tobias and Cyril O’Reilly.
• Idiot Ball: Yes Vern, make an enemy of Ryan O'Reily by raping his brother. And taunting him about it. Turns out about as well as you would expect for him.
• I Reject Your Reality: He seems convinced that the conspiracy to commit murder charges that add 10 years onto his sentence are unjust, in spite of the fact he actually did it.
• If I Can't Have You…: After boring of having Beecher as his prag, he tries to set up the Homeboys to kill him because he doesn't want him to fall into the clutches of any of the races he deems inferior.
• Ignored Epiphany: After having Andrew killed, Schillinger starts to feel guilty, only for Robson to convince him that it was Andrew's fault and that he was entirely justified.
• Insane Troll Logic: Schillinger is always jumping through logical hoops so he won't have to admit fault or take responsibility for his actions.
• It's Pronounced "Tro-PAY": Almost no one pronounces his name correctly and he has correct them a lot.
• Jerkass: Schilinger is undoubtedly an asshole. He's petty, racist, vindictive, hypocritical, cruel, bullying, and unable to accept responsibility for his own actions.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Any time he shows redeeming qualities or standards, he'll subvert them eventually or show that they were entirely fake. Even his near redemption in Season 4 is shown to be shallow when he gives up on it for the pettiest possible reason.
• Kick the Dog: Like it's a football game. Most of his treatment of Beecher in the first season, for starters. Later there's his taunting the O'Reily brothers about his rape of Cyril, and his daily gratuitous humiliation of Busmalis (spitting in Busmalis' food and forcing him to eat it).
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: With that being said a few of the people whom he has assaulted or murdered did have it coming. Such as brutally assaulting a drug dealer up for selling drugs to his sons and for selling drugs to kids in general, his torture and murder of Robert Sippel for being a pedophile and even though he commits several acts of savage rape and assault on Adam Gunzel and Franklin Winthrop and turns them into his sex slaves??? The both of them were sent to Oz for a savage gang-rape and attempted murder of a innocent woman who happened to be their friend in the first place.
• Knight Templar: He's a Neo-Nazi, so this is pretty much a given. In fact it's the reason he's in prison, having beaten a black drug dealer half to death.
• Malicious Misnaming:
  • Frequently on the receiving end of this due to unclear pronunciation of his name and the rest of the inmates and prison staff's dislike of him. Only Beecher, Father Mukada, and Said pronounce his name correctly.
  • He himself repeatedly calls Beecher "Bitcher" throughout Season 1 just to be an asshole.
• Moral Myopia: If someone else does it, its horrible. If Vern does it, it's excusable.
• Never My Fault: He loves blaming Beecher and conveniently forgets that he started it all with his vile abuse. He's also in denial about his shortcomings as a parent.
• Noble Bigot: What Vern thinks he is in spite of his rapist tendencies and murdering of innocent children.
• Outliving One's Offspring: By the end of the series, both his sons are dead - Andrew overdoses on heroin and Hank is murdered by the Italians.
• Papa Wolf: The reason he got arrested was beating a man who sold drugs to his kids with a crowbar.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He is one of the prisoners who contributes to the fund for Rebadow's grandson.
  • He decides to have Beecher's daughter released after Mukada makes him realise that Beecher had good intentions when he reunited him with his son.
  • Schillinger genuinely appreciates the kindness shown to him by Jeremiah Cloutier and allows him to escape vengeance from the brotherhood as a result.
  • He is grateful to Beecher for saving Loewen's life and orders the brotherhood not to interfere in his parole to pay him back.
  • After confirming Carrie is Hank's wife Vern is very kind to her, being very supportive through her pregnancy and comforting her as she gives birth.
  • He participates in the interaction sessions with Beecher despite having nothing to gain and expresses genuine sympathy for the death of his son.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Well, he is a Nazi.
• Pronouncingmy Name For You: He strongly objects to his name being mispronounced, averring that it should be pronounced with a hard "G" sound ("Schilling - ur"), not a soft "G" sound ("Schillin - jur"). Few characters throughout the show's run actually pronounce it properly. Seamus O'Reilly takes the cake, referring to him with a hard "C" as "Scillinger" and doing so even after being corrected.
• Quip to Black: When something bad happens to an inmate at his hand, the very next scene will be him shooting pool in his cell, complete with snarky one-liner about the situation.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: He's the prisoner who engages in sexual abuse and assault of inmates most frequently and enjoys it the most.
• Redemption Rejection: It's shown that Schillinger does have the potential to redeem himself, but his pettiness and cruelty means he tends to push it away every single time.
• Sadist: Oftentimes, he tends to inflict suffering on fellow inmates just because he enjoys it.
• Self-Serving Memory: When Said calls him out on raping men in spite of his homophobia, Schillinger denies having ever done it even though one of his victims is sitting in the same room. Wheter he honestly believe that, is just trying to avoid admitting to it with Sister Pete there or is just trying to rile up Beecher is up for debate.
• Straight Edge Evil: He is strongly opposed to drug use, making the Aryans one of the only gangs not involved in the drug trade in Oz.
• Stupid Evil: Raping Cyril O'Reilly and making Ryan an enemy. The two had previously gotten along fine and Vern knew that Ryan was dangerous and intelligent and he could've even made him an ally by giving genuine protection to Cyril and there was no benefit to hurting Cyril beyond pure sadism. Instead, Ryan grows to hate him as much as everyone else and works against him, getting Vern's son killed.
• Threw My Bike on the Roof: His Jerkassery is made even worse by the fact that there is absolutely no benefit from it.
• Too Dumb to Live: Rather too arrogant to live. Rapes O'Reily's brother creating possibly the worst possible enemy in Oz, with Ryan having a quiet hand in most of Schillinger's gradual downfall throughout the series.
• Villainous Breakdown: He has at least one of these per season.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Justified. He could very easily murder Beecher or have his men kill him, but because their history is well known among the staff he'd be the obvious suspect and face murder or conspiracy charges which would put him away for life. He also can't get one of the other gangs to do it because they’re either afraid of Beecher or hate Schillinger and are happy watching Beecher make him suffer.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Subverted. He's disgusted by fellow inmates who harm children, but he ultimately arranges the murder of Beecher's young son out of spite.
• Would Hurt a Child: He arranges the death of Beecher's young son Gary. Very ironic because he considers raping a child to be wrong; and yet he had no problem with murdering one.
• You Are What You Hate: Despises his father for abusing him but is an even worse dad to his two sons.

Adebisi

Simon Adebisi

"I have everything. Everything I need. Every love satisfied. It's not enough."

Played By: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

Prisoner #93A234. Convicted May 2, 1993 - Murder in the first degree. Sentence: Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

A gigantic, deranged maniac of Nigerian descent; incarcerated for decapitating a police officer with a machete. His flirtations with insanity and religion are transient. One of the most powerful inmates within the walls of Oz, he initially serves as the underboss to the Homeboys, and eventually fully takes over the gang.

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• And There Was Much Rejoicing: Completely averted. He was so badass, that his death was met with gasps of disbelief.
• Affably Evil: Adebisi is easy-going and charismatic if you don't get on his bad side. He's still a ruthless criminal, and he'll sink to depraved lengths to get what he wants.
• Alas, Poor Villain: It's hard not to feel some kind of sadness when he dies by the hands of one of the few people he respected, after they betrayed him.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: The novelization argues that despite being a complete hedonist who wastes his time pursuing drugs, sex and power, Adebisi still manages to come off as sightly less monstrous than Schillinger.
• Ascended Extra: He started off as a minor character, but Tom Fontana was impressed by Agbaje's performance and gradually increased Adebisi's role until he was a main character.
• Assassin Outclassin': Schibetta and Pancamo's attempt on his life ends poorly, since Adebisi beats the ever loving shit out of both of them and rapes Schibetta.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Adebisi gets on top of the homeboys and stays on top due to his fierce strength and brilliant mind.
• Ax-Crazy: Adebisi isn't only feared for his size and strength, but his unpredictable nature and drug-fueled violent rampages. He rapes, he fights, he cuts off heads.
• Badass Boast:
  Poet: You have no heart, Adebisi.
  Adebisi: I have a heart. I have the heart of a lion.
• Bait-and-Switch: His final fight with Said. He emerges looking victorious and unhurt...then he spits up a gallon of blood and drops dead.
• Bald Head of Toughness: Adebisi is a veritable juggernaut who wins almost every fight he gets into, even when he's going up against multiple opponents. Coincidentally, he's also bald.
• Bald of Evil: He's bald and an amoral psychopath who thinks nothing of raping and killing with impunity. Noticeably, he grows his hair out in Season 3 and his returning to his shiny dome is a sign that he's back and just as fearsome as ever.
• Bald of Authority: Simon Adebisi is a bald thug who initially is just another member of the Homeboys. However, after the two previous leaders are killed, Adebisi takes over via Asskicking Leads to Leadership and quickly becomes The Dreaded thanks to being a brutal psychopath. He eventually manages to take over Em City through sheer cunning, in exchange for preventing any deaths from happening within the cell block.
• Beard of Evil: Played with. He grows a beard in Season 3, but only while pretending to be reformed. He shaves it off again when he reverts to his old ways.
• Becoming the Mask: Played for Laughs. His and O'Reily's control over the kitchen is a front for drug running, but Adebisi becomes legitimately committed to its upkeep.
• Being Evil Sucks: Briefly in Season 2, when he meets Jara and reconnects with his culture, and loathes what his life in America has become. He has a similar moment in Season 4 after he finally achieves real power, taking over Em City, but tells Said it's not enough and never will be.
• Berserk Button: Messing with his hat really pisses him off.
• Big Bad: Of the first half of Season 4. Adebisi's manipulations eventually make him essentially the ruler of Em City; the rest of the season focuses on multiple different inmates' efforts to overthrow him.
• Breakout Character/Breakout Villain: Adebisi started off as a minor character, but quickly ascended into prominence and became one of the most popular characters in the series.
• The Brute: Of the riot leaders; Said, O'Reily, Ross and Alvarez are all pretty organized but Adebisi's drug withdrawal turn him into even more of a maniac than he used to be.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Adebisi is well aware he's a bad person, and damn proud of it. He repeatedly boasts about how amoral and ruthless he is, and during his final confrontation with Saïd he makes it clear that he views his cruelty as essential to who he is.
  O'Reilly: [Saïd's] right. You do have a bad heart.
  Adebisi: What can I say? I'm a bad-heart muthafucka.
• Catchphrase: "Hey boss."
• Character Tic: He's frequently seen chewing on a tooth pick or eating some fruit. He also needs to have whatever hat he wears tilted a specific way.
• The Chessmaster: He spends all of Season 3 and Season 4 playing everyone in Oz like fiddles so he can rise to power.
• Chewing the Scenery: Whenever Adebisi gets particularly worked up, expect a lot of this. The best example is when he loses it while undergoing heroin withdrawal during the riot.
  Adebisi: GIMME SOME FUCKING TIIIIIIIIIIIIITS!
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He betrays all of his allies over the course of Season 4 the second he no longer needs them, eventually leaving his reign over Em City almost unchallenged save for Said.
• Combat Pragmatist: In addition to being a Genius Bruiser, he has no qualms about using whatever he thinks will get the job done. He wrecks Pancamo with a soup can.
• Commonality Connection: He exploits the racial divisions in Oz to get the Muslims to unite with the Homeboys and turn Em City into an all-Black (inmates and staff) unit he can rule over. It’s shown that he actually feels no kinship with other Black people (or at least with African Americans), at one point mocking a Muslim for thinking they have anything in common just because they have the same colour skin.
• Cop Killer: His crime flashback shows him decapitating a cop with a machete, and he's implied to help with the murder of Markstrom.
• The Corrupter: Adebisi's influence changes Wangler, Hughes, and Basil irrevocably for the worse. It goes both ways in Wangler's case since he ruins Adebisi's chance at redemption in turn.
• Cuckoosnarker: The fact that he's crazy never stops him from being snarky as hell.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: He gets cornered by Schibetta and Pancamo in the kitchen...and proceeds to beat the absolute SHIT out of both.
• Deadpan Snarker: He's surprisingly witty, and often has a snarky remark reserved for anyone who annoys him.
• Death Seeker: Implied. Kareem Said says that Adebisi had a look in his eyes like he wanted to die. This fits with Adebisi falling for Said's very obvious plan to betray him, as well as Adebisi's comment that he has all he wants and is still unhappy. On the other hand, Said is traumatized by having to kill Adebisi and may not be an entirely reliable narrator.
• Depraved Bisexual: The bisexual psychopath to Chris Keller's bisexual sociopath.
• Disc-One Final Boss: During Season 4. He's the Big Bad for a good stretch of time but is killed off halfway through.
• Double Standard: Rape, Male on Male: Because his "quarry" are men and not women, he's regarded as particularly manly and badass for being able to dominate other men on every single level, including the sexual one.
• The Dragon: Initially, he serves as this for Jefferson Keane and later Paul Markstrom. He becomes a Dragon Ascendant after killing Markstrom for being an undercover cop.
• Dragon Ascendant: Initially he was The Dragon to Jefferson Keane, but Keane converted to Islam. Markstrom takes over, but is revealed to be an undercover narc and killed. Adebisi quickly promotes himself to the leader of the Homeboys.
• The Dreaded: Adebisi is quite rightly one of the most feared (perhaps the most) feared inmate in OZ. He's incredibly strong and utterly fearless.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: He blisters during his partnership with Schibetta as it becomes increasingly clear the man doesn't view Adebisi as an equal and seemingly prefers Ryan to him.
• Establishing Character Moment: He's introduced casually looting Beecher's stuff, putting Beecher in a headlock for protesting, and gleefully taunting him that he's going to rape him, then smiling and blowing kisses at Beecher when he moves to Schillinger's cell, knowing full well what's going to happen to him. It quickly establishes Adebisi as a hedonistic, boisterous psycho who is far more observant than he lets on.
• Et Tu, Brute?: After Said betrays him, Adebisi feels… well, genuinely betrayed and tries to murder Said for it.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite the short amount of time they have together, he comes to genuinely love Jara like a father to the point it almost rehabilitates him.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • He refuses Kenny Wangler's plan to steal the $3,000 set aside to send Bob Rebadow's dying grandson to Disney World.
  • He's disgusted when Arif hypocritically tries to get him to kill Supreme Allah in spite of his vow of pacifism, refusing to do his dirty work for him.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He genuinely comes to love Jara and see him as a father figure, and mourns him after his death.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Or at least, cannot comprehend emotional connections. Because he generally thinks of sex as a means of pleasure or domination, he's caught off guard by Augustus saying that he sleeps with his wife, even when he can't feel anything, for her pleasure.
• Excrement Statement: To show how little he respects Mershah, he starts taking a shit right in front of him while ordering him out of his cell.
• Face Death with Dignity: His last act before dying is to walk out of his cell and flash all of Em City a bloody smile.
• Foil: To Saïd. They're both the leaders of Oz's two black gangs and are aware of the judicial system's flaws. However, while Saïd tries to reform it, Adebisi actively exploits it to gain power.
• Freak Out: After Jara is killed, Adebisi has a mental breakdown and strips near-naked, doing a ceremonial dance over his corpse while crying.
• Friendly Enemy:
  • With Said. The two are diametrically opposed in every way, but still have mutual respect for each other. When Said is abandoned and humiliated by the other Muslims, Adebisi is one of the first to approach him with an offer of friendship and protection. The two even manage to share a pod with no trouble. This lasts right up until Said betrays him.
  • Also with O'Reily. Adebisi learns very early on that he can't intimidate O'Reily the same way he can others and so the two develop a mutual respect and friendliness, at least on the surface. Underneath they are trying to fuck each other over constantly, but conversationally speaking, they get on like a house on fire.
• Genius Bruiser: Adebisi is a big guy, but he's no Dumb Muscle. Under that nifty hat lurks a cunning and observant brain and he proves himself to be an incredibly skilled schemer and manipulator.
• Good Costume Switch: He briefly grows his hair and stops wearing his hat in Season 3 when pretending to be a changed character, but reverts back to his old look when he seizes control of the Homeboys.
• Good Feels Good: Most of the time, evil feels better. Still, Adebisi does lapse into this once.
  Wangler: Rebadow collected like 3 G's. And that money's gone tomorrow. Know what? I'm thinking we go to Rebadow, we take the dough, and so these other fucks don't get mad, we make Rebadow swear he sent it.
  Adebisi: No.
  Wangler: What do you mean, no? It's $3,000.
  Adebisi: I said no.
  Wangler: Why?
  Adebisi: 'Cause sometimes it's good to be human.
• The Hedonist: Big time. Adebisi only seems to enjoy pleasure, whether it be sex, drugs, food, or violence. Notably, when he is at his most powerful (and therefore able to enjoy these things all the time), he stops enjoying them. The best example is when he starts eating an orange, but just has a disgusted look on his face, and stops eating it.
• Heel–Faith Turn: Under Jara's influence, he becomes more in touch with Ìṣẹ̀ṣe and his culture, which gradually starts making him into a better person. Unfortunately, Jara's murder and a stay in Oz's psych ward results in him reverting back to form.
• Heel Realization: Jara's influence helps him realize how unhappy he truly is with his lifestyle, and sets him in the path to a Heel–Face Turn. It makes it all the more tragic when he's framed for Jara's murder by Nappa and Wangler and driven to even further madness.
• Hidden Depths:
  • His storyline with his African mentor at the end of Season 2 hinted at a desire for redemption and inner turmoil.
  • In a lighter version, he's shown to be a pretty good saxophone player in Season 4.
  • In general, he often comes across as another short-tempered and depraved gangster and he is, to an extent, but he's also much smarter and more cunning than he appears.
• Idiot Ball: He flat-out gives Said the tapes of him living in luxury as a Secret Test of Character, apparently expecting that he wouldn't turn them in and prove his loyalty. To literally no one else's surprise, Said turns them in. It's implied Adebisi did it because he was both subconsciously suicidal and blinded by his VillainousCrush on Said.
• Ignored Epiphany: His Heel Realization has a profound effect on him. Being framed for Jara's murder and some time in the psych ward results in Adebisi taking the wrong lesson and falling back into his old ways.
• Improbable Weapon User: It's kind of a specialty of his: he attacks Poet and Pierce with boiling water, beats Pancamo's face in with a can of vegetables, and uses an HIV-infected needle against Antonio Nappa. Basically, anywhere in the prison where Adebisi goes to work, he'll find creative ways to hurt people with the implements at hand.
• Kick the Dog: He arranges for Hill to be beaten by the COs and thrown into solitary as part of his plan to take over Em City.
• Large Ham: He can get fairly dramatic when he wants to, and he has a tendency to scream at the top of his lungs when things don't go his way.
• Laughably Evil: Adebisi is hilarious, but he's definitely not someone you want to meet in a dark alley. Or anywhere else, really.
• The Load: He spends a good chunk of the riot tied up because he was going through heroin withdrawal and led the Homeboys to attack various inmates and search them for nonexistent drugs.
• Lonely at the Top: He confesses to Said that, even when he's essentially running Em City and wants for nothing, he's still unsatisfied.
• Manipulative Bastard: Really shines in Season 4, when he plays the Latinos, the Italians, and the Administration like a one-man bandstand.
• Medium Awareness: In one episode, Hill does one of his narration asides on the screen of a computer Adebisi is using. Although usually only the audience can see these segments, Adebisi reacts like he can see it too.
• Mr. Fanservice: He loves showing off his physique, rarely wearing a shirt. That's when he isn't just completely naked.
• Mysterious Past: Nothing is revealed about Adebisi's past outside of his crime and the fact that he's a Nigerian immigrant.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He grabs a huge Idiot Ball by giving Saïd the tapes of Adebisi living in luxury (as proof of his special treatment by Querns). Simon does this as he rightfully suspects Saïd for wanting to bring him down but gives him the tape as a test for Saïd to prove his loyalty to Simon by not giving the tape to McManus. Of course, Saïd does just that, resulting in Adebisi’s power falling apart.
• Nothing Can Stop Us Now!: Chants a variation on this, standing on a tabletop no less, after Saïd pledges his loyalty. Of course, Saïd is plotting, and successfully pulls off, a betrayal.
• No Shirt, Long Jacket: Shows off his chest an awful lot.
• Not Good with Rejection: He and Shirley Bellinger trade love letters. O'Reily eventually arranges for them to meet (so they can have sex). Her response? "But you're a nigger." Needless to say, he doesn't take that well. He has to be dragged away while demanding oral sex from her.
• Not Me This Time: He's framed for Jara's death by Wangler, Pierce, and Nappa, and his mental breakdown leaves him unable to protest.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: When it suits him, Adebisi will play himself up as a Dumb Muscle to get people to underestimate him.
• Oral Fixation: He's frequently seen chewing on a toothpick.
• Pet the Dog: He refuses to let Wangler steal the donation money for Rebadow's dying grandson and helps donate.
  Adebisi: Sometimes it's good to be human.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He has a slow, drawn-out one to get revenge on Nappa, Wangler, and Pierce for Jara's murder, putting each of them through a Humiliation Conga and getting them killed through his machinations.
• Sanity Slippage: Debatable as to whether he was remotely sane in the first place, but he definitely gets crazier as the show progresses.
• Silent Snarker: Perhaps due to language barriers, but Adebisi is adept at conveying his contempt or the fact that he feels Surrounded by Idiots with a mere glance. One especially hilarious example is when Vern Schillinger is trying to get someone to kill Beecher for him and, after exhausting every other possibility, comes to Adebisi. The two just stare at each other for a moment before Vern leaves.
• Scary Black Man: Adebisi is easily one of, if not the, most terrifying characters in the entire show. He takes pleasure in other people's fear.
• Secret Test of Character: He gives Saïd the tapes of himself living in luxury as a test of his loyalty, to see if he would turn them in to McManus or not. Predictably, Saïd turns them in, which Adebisi is genuinely shocked and hurt by.
• The Snack Is More Interesting: He can often be seen chewing on an orange while dealing with Oz's prison politics and drug trade, no matter how serious the situation.
• Stop Being Stereotypical: Jara calls him out for acting like the Scary Black Man white Americans expect him to be.
• Took a Level in Kindness: He abandons his violent ways in favor of embracing his Yoruban heritage in Season 2 due to Jara's influence. It's sadly ruined by Nappa's scheming.
• Trademark Favorite Food: While Adebisi loves eating fruit in general, oranges seem to be his favorite and he can almost always be seen eating one.
• Victory Is Boring: He takes over Em City in Season 4 but quickly finds he no longer enjoys any of his old vices.
• Villainous Friendship:
  • With Keane, though it sours after he converts to Islam and leaves the Homeboys. Adebisi still seems genuinely saddened by his execution.
  • He also has one with O'Reily, though it's partially the result of the two having various Enemy Mines, and the two are always trying to screw each other over.
• Villain Respect:
  • Despite being adversaries for most of the series, Adebisi and Saïd have a mutual respect for one another.
  • To a lesser extent, Adebisi seems to respect Beecher after he Took a Level in Badass. He never retaliates for Beecher helping tie him up during the riot and warns Mondo to not screw with him when they're bunked together. It seems Adebisi is well aware that Beecher is more dangerous than he looks.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • He loses it during the riot due to heroin withdrawal, and he has to be tied up because he keeps attacking inmates for non-existent drugs. Immediately after the riot, he's locked up in solitary where he covers himself in toothpaste and feathers and tries to get Alvah Case to suck his balls.
  • Played for Laughs when Shirley Bellinger rejects him, and he loses it and starts loudly demanding she give him oral sex.
  • He completely loses it after Saïd double-crosses him, screaming at him for his betrayal and trying to murder him in a fit of rage.
• Villainous Crush: His admiration for Saïd is pretty heavily implied to be something more, which is flat-out confirmed when he tries to talk Saïd into kissing him.
• We Can Rule Together: He genuinely believes this about Kareem Saïd to the point of a Villainous Crush.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: As his power base increases, Adebisi grows even more unstable. All his desires are satisfied, and he grows bored while realizing that for all his strength, he's still in prison.
• Won't Do Your Dirty Work: As a general rule, Adebisi refuses to do people's dirty work for them, especially if he feels they are being hypocrites by delegating it to him.
• Worthy Opponent: He and Saïd are near opposites from an ideological standpoint, but he still deeply respects the man. It's eventually revealed that Adebisi's respect for him is something more.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Jara's mentorship seems to be steering Adebisi toward some sense of peace, possibly even (by Oz standards) a Heel–Face Turn. Then Wangler stabs Jara to death.
• You Killed My Father: When Nappa and Wangler orchestrate the death of Adebisi's father figure, he spends the next two seasons orchestrating a plan to have everyone involved killed.

Keller

Christopher "Chris" Keller

"At first I wanted unconditional surrender, then I wanted unconditional love."

Played By: Christopher Meloni

Prisoner ID 98K514. Convicted June 16, 1998 - felony murder, two counts of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, driving under the influence and reckless driving. Sentence, 88 years, with the possibility of parole in 50. Convicted in 2002 of murder in the first degree and was sentenced to death, overturned in 2003.

A bisexual serial killer who preyed upon gay men in the outside world while hiding his sexual orientation through a series of marriages. Perhaps the most amoral figure in the entire milieu, he is a master of emotional manipulation and only seems to really enjoy himself when those who care about him are made to suffer.

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• Affably Evil: Despite his cruelty and selfishness, Keller is a charming man who's easy to like.
  • Faux Affably Evil: However, how much of it is genuine is up for debate.
• Becoming the Mask: Initially, Keller was a Honey Trap for Beecher who wanted to screw with his mind and betray him. He ends up falling in love with him for real, or at least as real as love gets for Keller.
• Being Evil Sucks: His sociopathic tendencies drive away the one man he really wants: Tobias Beecher. He never gets better, which derails any attempt the two make at a real relationship. When Toby finally rejects him once and for all, it drives Keller to suicide.
• Card-Carrying Villain: In an unguarded moment with Sister Pete, he openly calls himself "as bad as they come."
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Keller frequently betrays his friends and allies, and his allegiance seems to only be to himself.
• Contrasting Sequel Protagonist: Keller essentially replaces Ross as Schillinger's Depraved Bisexual old friend. However, while Ross was an ass-kissing Casanova Wannabe Jerkass loathed by the entire prison, Keller is a charming manipulator respected by most of Oz. And while Ross remains loyal to Schillinger even after Beecher humiliates him, Keller eventually turns on him and sides with Beecher.
• Domestic Abuse: Toward Beecher, through physical violence and manipulation alike. Keller also seems to have abused his ex-wives on an emotional level.
• Defiled Forever: Averted. During a stay at another prison, Schillinger coerced him into sex for exchange for protection, but he faces no apparent mockery or drop in status within Oz, even from Schillinger himself.
  • Possibly due to the fact that despite being unprotected and unaffiliated with any prison gang, he is an incredibly dangerous man to tangle with, as several assaults and murders he commits throughout the series shows us.
• Depraved Bisexual: The bisexual sociopath to Adebisi's bisexual psychopath. He is willing to start relationships with either women or men, as long as they are useful as emotional crutches.
• Driven to Suicide: Rejected entirely by Beecher, Keller decides to end his life with a Thanatos Gambit.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He comes to genuinely love Beecher, saving his life from Schillinger and making it clear to O'Reily that he will stop him if he conspires to kill Tobias. He is even willing to confess to ordering the the murder of Schillinger's son Hank, which he didn't have any part in, to spare Beecher and his family from Schillinger's retaliation. However, it is ultimately shown that Keller will always put his needs before Beecher's as he gets him sent back to prison due to missing him, not considering how negatively Beecher's life could be affected by being sent back to Oz.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: At times, Keller's capacity for violence and manipulation proves an asset for Beecher, but he stabs him in the back too many times to count.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: He uses his attractiveness to manipulate and torment everyone around him.
• Fatal Flaw: At his core, Keller is unable to form a two-way, mutually beneficial relationship with anyone because, believing himself to be the worst person he knows, he does not take his lovers at their word and abuses them to prove their commitment. When faced with the fact that he will spend his natural life in Oz and that Beecher will never take him back, he decides to kill himself.
• Hates Being Touched: Oddly enough, despite being pretty handsy with everyone else, he doesn't much like being on the receiving end.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Is he trying to be good? Is he inherently evil? Is he selfish? Is he too psychologically damaged to know what he's doing? Is he loyal to Beecher? Is he working for Schillinger? Is he trying to get help from Sister Pete? Is he trying to screw with her mind? The answer to all these questions and more are a half-hearted shrug.
• Heel Realization: After breaking Beecher's arms and legs, Keller spends most of Season 3 and 4 realizing just what a reprehensible person he is and absolutely loathing himself for it.
  Keller: You saw my ex, Bonnie? When I met her, she was all alone, and very unhappy, so I knew it'd be easy to get her to fall in love with me. But what I didn't know, was after I broke her heart, would she still love me. See, I am a piece of shit. I am worthless. As bad as they come. And to have someone keep loving me, no matter how bad... You happy now? You got me to open up and spill my guts all over your table. Breakthrough.
• Hell: Claims he experienced this realm after he was shot, and attempts to reconcile with Beecher and Sister Pete to escape punishment for his sins. He also seems to fear damnation over his relationships with men.
• Hot Guy, Ugly Wife: With his ex-wife, Bonnie, which is why (he says), he was able to manipulate her into staying in love with him no matter how many times he broke her heart; as a result, she remains his favourite of his three ex-wives. So much so that he married her twice.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: What he's after is unconditional love; he needs to know that he can be the biggest asshole on the planet and someone will still love him. His favorite of his ex-wives is Bonnie for this reason. While his other wives are gorgeous, Bonnie was fat and unattractive, making her desperate.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Averted; Keller wants his beloved with him so he can be happy. When Beecher finally gets paroled and is getting his life back together on the outside, Keller misses him a lot. So he tells Beecher a sob story of his sick ex-wife who supposedly needs a non-FDA-approved drug in order to ease her suffering, and begs Beecher to pick it up for her even though it would be a violation of his parole. And then he tips the cops off about the deal, resulting in Beecher's arrest and return to Oz. Beecher, understandably, was unable to forgive this and Keller didn't get the reunion he was hoping for.
• If I Can't Have You…: He doesn't love, he possesses.
• It's All About Me: Keller is unable to see past his own gratification and needs; he manipulates and tortures the ones he claims to love.
• Love Makes You Crazy: His obsessive desire to possess those he wants makes him absolutely crazy.
• Love Makes You Evil: He claims that he was driven by love to kill people. Both are a product of him being an Unreliable Narrator, as he seems like a sadist no matter what.
• Manipulative Bastard: Keller and O'Reily eventually see a kindred spirit in the other; both are manipulative beasts who are expert schemers.
• Morality Pet: Downplayed with Beecher. Keller turns against the Aryans because of his guilt over assaulting Beecher in the gym, and he seems to develop some genuine, self-sacrificing love for him. Keller goes so far as to protect Beecher by falsely confessing to murdering Hank, accepting the resulting trip to Death Row. But in the end, Keller can't or won't change his manipulative, possessive nature. Even his "good" deeds often involve manipulating Beecher or Sister Pete, or killing other inmates.
• Mr. Fanservice: He's a huge fan of the form-fitting white T-shirt, and that's when he decides to wear one at all.
• Neck Snap: After he discovers that an old friend tried to sell him out to the cops, he coaxes the man into giving him a blowjob in a janitor's closet, then snaps his neck afterwards. He does the same to Franklin Winthrop after Winthrop murders Beecher's father.
• Opposites Attract: With Beecher. This perhaps best highlighted in their final conversation together.
  Beecher: "The only thing I believe in is life. Every life is precious, not just yours and mine, but every single person on the planet who's breathing, their lives are precious. And the loss of a single life, even in Oz, is my loss too.
  Keller: "Well that's bullshit, the only thing that matters is you and me."
• Really Gets Around: 3 ex-wives and an innumerable series of lovers. The man is nothing if not prolific.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He uses O'Reily's attempts to destabilize Adebisi's empire as an excuse to kill everyone Beecher had sex with during their break-up out of spite.
• Serial Killer: It's eventually revealed that he was a killer of gay men.
• Sociopathic Hero: Despite being incredibly manipulative, amoral and selfish, he's firmly on Beecher's side for most of the series.
• The Sociopath: What Keller ultimately is. Even his "love" for Beecher is warped and self-serving.
• Thanatos Gambit: Keller throws himself over a railing, yelling 'Beecher' as he does and thus poor Beecher gets blamed for the 'murder'.
• Tattooed Crook: His trademark crucifix tattoo (which is one of Meloni's real tattoos).
• Toxic Friend Influence: Beecher's love for Keller drives him to do some very questionable things. Beecher wises up to this several times, but always comes back for more.
• Villain Protagonist: Keller is a manipulative sociopath, yet he's a main cast member.
• Yandere: For Beecher. It escalates to the point where he murders all of Beecher's former lovers and even gets him sent back to Oz so that he can be with him.

Prison Staff

Glynn

Warden Leo Glynn

"People, we've got three murders in two weeks. I got the Commissioner yelling in my ear and the press shoved up my ass. The Governor's threatening to send in the feds. And my daughter wants to move into an apartment with her boyfriend. Somebody, help me out here."

Played By: Ernie Hudson

Glynn: Look, we're doing everything we can to keep the number of reported rapes down.

Sister Pete: Reported? Listen to you, your own daughter was raped!

Glynn: Well... this is different. This is Oz.

The warden of the prison. A conflicted person trying to maintain law and order in an often chaotic environment. He does what he can to manage every conflict present in Oz. Sister Pete calls him "the best man for the worst job."

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• Ambition Is Evil: Downplayed; his ambition to become the first African American Governor of his state doesn't make him a bad guy, but it does make him a jerk. It also makes him neglect his job, with horrific results.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: We never get to see him in action, but he's ripped underneath that fancy suit and is a pretty decent boxer to boot. And as a prison guard, he was good enough to rise all the way to warden.
• Benevolent Boss: He treats his staff very well, which is why they are so loyal to him. He is quite forgiving of them, as seen when he gives Tim his job back and when he compliments Murphy when he admits to harming Morales.
• Berserk Button: He absolutely loses it when he learns Healy was part of O'Reily's drug-trafficking ring, and screams at him over it for a solid minute before having him arrested.
• Big Brother Instinct: He gives the Italians preferential treatment to keep his brother Mark out of prison. He eventually has enough and forces Mark to turn himself in.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: A mild example. Leo is a genuinely good and noble person most of the time but he has a serious streak of petty cruelty as well. Beneath his veneer of respectability lies a deeply prejudiced and somewhat self-centered man. He's what Devlin would be if he had even a shred of humanity.
• Butt-Monkey: Naturally, being the warden of a maximum security prison. When something does go off without a hitch, he can never bring himself to believe it.
• Character Tic: Has a tendency to just sigh quietly whenever he sees after the fact the terribly cruel things inmates do to each other. That includes murders where the sight of the dead body could make plenty of other people vomit or cringe in horror. He's truly world weary and has seen everything possible under the sun, many times over.
• Control Freak: He clearly enjoys having total control over the prison, and tends to get angry whenever his power is challenged.
• Deadpan Snarker: Glynn is more than prone to snarking at his subordinates and superiors (albeit when they're out of earshot).
• Disproportionate Retribution: He starts making Alvarez's life hell when the prisoner makes an ill-times quip when Glynn made an announcement after his daughter was raped (which Alvarez knew nothing about).
• Everyone Has Standards: He's not happy about Cyril being given electroshock.
• He Knows Too Much: His investigation of Loewen's murder ends with him, in turn, being murdered as he gets closer to figuring out Devlin ordered the hit.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his flaws, he takes his job seriously and does care for his staff and his family. Even if he doesn’t always agree with the more liberal members of his staff like McManus, Dr. Nathan or Sister Pete, he respects their efforts and tries to meet them halfway on the issues.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: His attempts to end racial tensions in Oz grow increasingly more desperate, ending with him essentially turning over control of Em City to Adebisi. Only when McManus shows him the extent of the havoc that Adebisi has wreaked does he finally come to his senses.
• Knight Templar: He's essentially Devlin-lite, prioritizing keeping order over everything else. Unlike Devlin, however, he actually believes in the whole Law and Order ideal.
• Lack of Empathy: While he's a good man who tries to do his job fairly, Glynn often has an issue thinking of the prisoners under his control as people, believing their crimes have lost them the right to fair treatment and views Tim's desire to genuinely help and rehabilitate them as naive.
• Like a Son to Me: Loves Clayton Hughes like his own flesh and blood. He comforts him when he's dying even though Hughes just tried to kill him.
• Moral Luck: Occasionally his arguments about why prisoners "deserve" certain treatment falls under this category such as believing any mistreatment they receive is deserved due to their crimes.
• Nepotism: Subverted. His given reason for putting Paul Markstrom in Em City is that he's his cousin, but it's later revealed Markstrom was an undercover cop, and Glynn was simply providing a cover story to McManus.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: After he dies, there's a lot of Character Shilling about how he was amazing at his job.
• Not So Above It All: He is not above treating the prisoners poorly, abusing his power, or playing favorites with issues.
• No Sympathy: He really doesn't give a shit about the inmates. He's particularly unfair to Alvarez and Schibetta. He doesn't do much to investigate either time Schibetta is raped and sees such assaults as a sort of informal act of discipline.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: It's noteworthy that as unfazed as he is by most of the goings-on of Oz, he's openly furious at the guard who screwed up and let Idzik sneak a gun in, which Idzik then used to murder Kareem Said.
  "Pack up your things... and get the FUCK OUT OF MY PRISON!"
• Reasonable Authority Figure: For the most part, but his pettiness often gets the better of him.
• Revenge Before Reason: After his daughter is gang-raped by Latinos, he focuses his rage on the first Latino he sees: Miguel Alvarez.
• Sanity Slippage: Mostly it's a power craze, but the various stresses he deals with and his repeated problems in his personal life don't do him any favors.
• Save the Villain: Averted. Schillinger pleads to be allowed to help one of his sons, and Glynn shuts him down hard, flat-out admitting that it's payback for Schillinger fucking with him in the past. When Schillinger frantically protests that his son will die, Glynn tells him "Maybe you'll be luckier with the second." He isn't.
• Trauma Conga Line: His daughter gets raped by a gang of Latinos, his brother gets locked up in Oz for murder under orders from the Italian Mafia, his wife divorces him, and his young surrogate son goes insane and is killed before him.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: During his run for Lieutenant Governor. He gets better once he pulls out of the race.

McManus

Tim McManus

"I may be blind but I'm not dumb."

Played By: Terry Kinney

"I'm a simple man with a simple plan."

A liberal idealist who forms Emerald City for purposes of making a perfect prison where rehabilitation and conflict are resolved. Often seen as weak for supposedly soft approaches to dealing with the inmates, he still manages to come out on top of many situations.

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• Arch-Enemy: With Kareem Said. The two are constantly at each other's throats with Said seeing Tim as part of the problem and just trying to make prisons more comfortable rather than fix the bigger issues in the justice system and Tim seeing Said as trying to undermine his authority and create trouble for his own ego and to posit himself as a savior.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: While his positive aspects are genuine, he's way more petty, spiteful, and vindictive then he lets on.
• Bourgeois Bohemian: Downplayed, but he's implied to be college-educated and left leaning politically. This puts him at odds with the more conservative Glynn, and the working-class prison guards. Querns describes him as "a white, candy-ass liberal".
• Butt-Monkey: Things just seem to conspire against him and much of his misfortune is self-inflicted.
• Cosmic Plaything: Everything he does seems to find some way of backfiring on him.
• Deadpan Snarker: Its usually the only way he can keep his sanity.
• The Determinator: No matter how many setbacks he faces and how many failures, Tim never fully loses his desire to geninely rehabilitate prisoners.
• Dumbass Has a Point: While McManus isn't dumb, just rather petty and overly idealistic, his belief that Groves can be rehabilitated seems like a pie-in-the-Sky fantasy. However, Groves does legitimately start changing for the better, or at least regretting his crime, after his victim's mother forgives him, so McManus may have been onto something.
• Establishing Character Moment: His first central scene has him calmly explaining to Dino Ortolani the purpose of Em City and why he's there despite being a lifer. It ends with him screaming at Ortolani to get the fuck out of his office. It nicely sums up Tim's positive and negative attributes.
• Failure Hero: His efforts to help the prisoners frequently fail due to his vindictiveness and short-sightedness as well as his misplaced idealism and sometimes just bad luck.
• Freudian Excuse: McManus grew up near Attica, in a town where everyone either worked as a prison guard at the prison or (like his dad) worked at a business where a good chunk of the customers were prison guards. For his tenth birthday, rather than a party, McManus was forced to attend the funeral of one of his friend's dad, who died at the infamous 1971 riot at the prison. He discusses this with Said, who lampshades it by saying, 'Emerald City is your birthday party.'
• Good Is Not Nice: He's a very good guy with great intentions but he can be really petty at times and is a deeply flawed hypocritical figure.
• Head-in-the-Sand Management: Occasionally his Wide-Eyed Idealist nature strays into this hard. Him blowing off Ryan O'Reily's warning about Guillaume Tarrant and his unfathomably stupid decision to put Omar White in the same cell with Idzik are examples that led to completely unnecessary deaths.
• Holier Than Thou: Very moralistic and judgmental, despite also having some unsavory tendencies.
• Honor Before Reason: He surrenders himself as a hostage during the prison riot, despite knowing it will put him at the mercy of Scott Ross, who pretty obviously wants to kill him.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Part of what makes his job so difficult is he's forced to trust people that really ought not to be trusted and puts his faith in people who really should have gotten great scrutiny. This includes both prisoners and guards, who he seems to completely trust despite their track record for abuse and laziness.
• Hot-Blooded: He can be an angry, angry man.
• Hypocrite: McManus tends to break his own principles when it would mean hurting someone he cares about.
• Internal Reformist: Deconstructed. He recognizes that the prison system is fundamentally flawed, but believes the solution is to build a better, more compassionate prison. Unfortunately being part of the corrupt system only serves to make him more corrupt instead of making the system better. He eventually ends up being just as depraved and immoral as the prisoners.
• Kavorka Man: It's unclear whether this is a case of Informed Attractiveness or not, but the ladies can't get enough of this guy.
• Kick the Dog:
  • He does virtually nothing to help Beecher get away from Schillinger, and even mocks him when he asks to be moved to a different cellblock or prison.
  • Is willing to turn a blind eye to Cyril (a disabled man) being raped if Ryan doesn't admit his role in Preston Nathan's death.
  • He has Omar punished by putting him in solitary even though it's clearly not his fault. It seems obvious this was motivated out of spite for Omar making him look bad.
  • After Supreme Allah plants drugs on Hill right before a shakedown, McManus refused to believe Hill's pleas of innocence even when Sister Pete backs him up and sends him out with no punishment so everyone will think he's a rat.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Tim harbors precious few illusions about the prison system and how hard instituting any kind of real change is, regardless of the clear benefits, but he soldiers on all the same.
• Love Makes You Crazy: Wittlesey moving to England drove McManus to drinking, singing Camptown Races at a wake for a slain black CO, and Glynn finally firing him.
• The McCoy: To Glynn's Kirk and Governor Devlin's Spock.
• Not So Above It All: Tim tends to lose his temper and is as destructively petty just as much as, if not more than, the prisoners in his care. There are numerous points where McManus does something so irresponsible that it has disastrous consequences, like not personally giving a prisoner a letter from his sister (instead giving the envelope to a guard who predictably throws it out), ignoring abused prisoners like Beecher and Tarrant, trusting the word of Adebisi, and threatening to turn a blind eye to a disabled man being raped.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He tries to comfort Kenny after his wife's death and also tried to help him improve in general in the second season, even teaching him to read. Wangler returns the favor by lying about what happened and accusing him of sexual harassment.
• Odd Friendship: He and Glynn disagree on basically everything but they have a mutual respect and McManus is distraught when he dies.
• Put on a Bus: He's fired for his increasingly erratic and racist behavior after being charged with sexual assault, and spends most of the first half of Season 4 absent until Glynn rehires him to run Unit B.
• Really Gets Around: Lampshaded and deconstructed. Without exception, he's slept with all of the female staff except Sister Peter Marie. In fact, when a liaison from the government joins the staff, it ends up being his ex-wife. It becomes an issue when he's accused of sexual harassment. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, no one can seem to believe him.
• Sanity Slippage: He becomes increasingly erratic throughout the beginning of Season 4, culminating in him singing "Camptown Races" at Joseph Howard's funeral.
• To Be Lawful or Good: After Wittlesey kills Scott Ross, Tim struggles to decide if he should protect the woman he loves or stand by his principles and turn her in. Ultimately he chooses to lie to save her from prison.
• Token Good Teammate: For all his many flaws, Tim is one of the few people in the prison who actually wants to help the prisoners improve and have better lives when they get out.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: He becomes increasingly foul-tempered and cruel as things continuously go wrong for him, eventually becoming a full-on asshole in Season 4.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He's constantly making stupid decisions, which no one ever hesitates to point out. The biggest example has to be Said's reaction to him throwing Omar in solitary for something that clearly wasn't his fault, which earns McManus a look of pure disgust from him.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: His belief in rehabilitating his prisoners and reforming the prison system sometimes verges on foolishness and willful blindness. This is portrayed as both a positive and negative character trait.
• Worthy Opponent: For all his tension with Said, McManus does truly come to respect the man and Said similarly grows to see that Tim's desire to help the prisoners is sincere.

Sister Pete

Sister Peter Marie Reimondo

"Don't think of me as a psychologist. Don't think of me as a nun. Think of me as your mother."

Played By: Rita Moreno

A psychiatrist and nun, she is the main force of good inside of the prison and often is helpful to McManus, Father Ray Mukada and Dr. Gloria Nathan in whatever conflict they are trying to solve.

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• Broken Bird: She's still deeply troubled by how her husband was killed when he was pushed in front of a truck and strives to find closure by finding his killer. Keller's mind games also reveals she has great regrets over becoming a nun, longs for intimate companionship again, and almost ends up leaving her convent out of frustration.
• Cool Old Lady: She's one of the few figures beloved by everyone in the series. When she was temporarily fired for protesting the death penalty, the inmates in her rehab support group show zero respect to her temporary replacement.
• Deadpan Snarker: She's remarkably witty and not afraid to use a sharp tongue on anyone who pisses her off.
• Hidden Depths: Sister Pete has had an interesting life outside of being a nun, and is very knowledgeable about a number of topics.
• Hollywood Nuns : Averted. Sister Pete doesn't wear a habit and her primary role is as the prison's psychologist. She's also warm-hearted and motherly, in contradiction with the stereotype. The only oddity is that she insists that she's a nun rather than a sister, and the former are usually cloistered while the latter are normally engaged in helping professions. But even sisters are sometimes called "nuns" in casual conversation.
• The McCoy: Sister Pete is quite passionate about her causes, particularly the death penalty.
• Never Mess with Granny: When she is attacked during a rally against the death penalty, her response is to calmly kick the attacker's ass.
• Pet the Dog: When William Giles reveals the secret of who murdered her husband, she gives him a large box of dental care supplies, which he treasures.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Not ranked all that high in the prison hierarchy, but probably the most reasonable authority figure in Oz.
• Silver Vixen: The reaction of many inmates towards her. A small group actually voted her the hottest woman in the prison. Then again, she is played by Rita Moreno. When she was younger, va-va-voom!◊
• Team Mom : One of few "feminine" influences on the inmates, she cares for them in a way their own mothers probably did not.
  "Don't think of me as a psychologist. Don't think of me as a nun. Think of me as your mother. Kareem, take your medicine!"