wawamouse | Oz Rewatch 3: S4E05: Gray Matter

Plotlines

Bruno Goergan the detective arrives at Oz and recognises Mobay, who kills him and makes it look like an accident; Mobay’s partner comes to visit; Mobay visibly spirals
Glynn exploits his family for the gubernatorial race
Diane calls Tim, who is having a shit time in Unit B,
Querns meets with Said
Kevin Ketchum/Supreme Allah arrives at Emerald City
Querns appoints trustees to Emerald City and begins transferring white inmates out of Oz
Death Row business; Deyell punches a wall and asks Gloria to come by and see Ginzburg
Patrick Keenan arrives at Oz for Gloria’s rape
Cyril gets sedated by Gloria after reacting violently to Tidd and Browne
Querns suspects Stanislofsky for the death of Galino; Ryan turns Hoyt against Stanislofsky and obtains the cellphone
Rebadow feels alive after killing Hernandez and starts acting out; he asks Morales for permission to kill someone else
Beecher remains despondent over his children’s kidnapping; Gary turns up dead; Mukada reveals to Schillinger that Beecher found Hank with good intentions and urges him to let Holly go
Hibitz tells Beecher that Chris is behind the kidnappings; Chris is questioned by the FBI; Beecher tries to kill Keller; Schillinger tells Hank to let Holly go

I realised this episode that I actually really enjoy the first half of season 4. I shit on season 4 a lot, but what it really is is the later half, because I think there are actually a lot of interesting bits—a lot more character interactions between characters!—and smaller plots in 4a. I like that there’s a lot more characters coming in, especially ones we don’t know that well, because it makes the place seem busier. I also like that there’s more story moments of Augustus Hill as Hill rather than just the Narrator, and yay! More for Mukada to do. His nervous smoking is hilarious. For that matter, I feel like there’s a lot in s4 that feels funnier than I remember, or maybe that’s the result of watching it with someone else. Either way, Les Hibitz cracks me up; Arif being pissy about advocating for a black unit manager only to get shut out if funny to me; Beecher trying to shank Chris and the fight spilling out onto the floor where a hack gets absolutely squashed at the very bottom of the skirmish and subsequent dogpile… comedy gold. Me and Sister got a real hoot out of that.

I also really like the moments on Death Row—Deyell missing Shirley’s presence and also telling Gloria that no one’s come by to see Ginzburg was nice. Sister doesn’t see the point of the Death Row stuff, but I like the jump aways to seeing what they’re up to. They have such an isolated storyline, but I feel like it’s interesting nevertheless, and it does feel different with old Shirley. (Sister during that scene: OLD? She would hate being called ‘old Shirley’!)

Stray Thoughts:

I really like the Stanislofsky, Hill, Busmalis, and Keller table gossip moments. I think it's fun how Stanislofsky often ends up playing cards with Busmalis. They seem like an unlikely grouping of characters, but they also all seem to get along. Makes sense; none of them have any competing interests, so they're all just chill and get along.
I find Supreme Allah's character pretty interesting (sort of lame ending aside) so I'm glad he's now in the show
Note to self: the freight elevator near the dress factory is not a heavily guarded area...

Sister: They’re having a funeral at a… national gallery?