Directed by Barbara Kopple
Written by Tom Fontana
- Abusive Parents: When Seamus comes for a visit, he starts mocking Cyril and slaps him after his son asks him to stop. He is also shown beating Ryan and Cyril in Cyril's flashbacks.
- Ambiguous Situation: How insane Shirley is and how much she's putting on remains unclear.
- Asshole Victim: Cyril punching his brother is well-deserved after Ryan's need for clout caused Khan's death.
- Everyone Has Standards: Glynn finally has enough of Clayton when he accuses him of betraying his own people and fires him.
- Evil Is Petty: Stanislofsky exposes Ryan in revenge for Ryan's previous refusal to take out Kosgyin for him.
- Enemy Mine:
- Schillinger suggests that all the white inmates put their differences aside and work together against the black inmates. The only one who absolutely refuses to consider it is Beecher.
- The Muslims form an alliance with Adebisi and the homeboys.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- Though his speech is meant to manipulate Hughes, Adebisi does seem to still mourn for Jara and refers to him as His "father".
- When Murphy puts an end to his spiking drinks Ryan tries to come up with a way to keep Cyril from being hurt in his fight with Khan.
- Freudian Excuse: When Seamus lays into his sons Ryan points out his abuse made them like that.
- Jerkass:
- Ryan taunts Alvarez that Hernandez is likely going to kill him.
- Howell and Lopresti take great pleasure in Khan's coma.
- Manipulative Bastard: Adebisi convinces Hughes to give him a gun by making him blame white people for the death of his father.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Cyril is wracked with guilt after he accidentally puts Khan in a coma.
- Never My Fault: Glynn thinks McManus never takes enough responsibility for his actions.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Diane attacks Howell to pay her back for accusing McManus of sexual abuse
- Pragmatic Villainy: Devlin commutes Shirley's sentence as he knows executing a mentally ill pregnant woman will be bad for his publicity.
- Stupid Evil: Lopresti openly defends Schillinger before he expresses disdain black people to Diane, which could easily incriminate him further down the road.
- Save the Villain: A variation. Despite Shirley's despicable crime of murdering her young daughter, she is protected from the death penalty by Sister Pete, due to her unborn child.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Though Murphy lets Ryan go unpunished he puts an end to his cheating and the only reason he stays quiet is to keep the fight from being cancelled out of fear it would cause a riot.
