wawamouse | Oz rewatch 3: S4E10: Conversions

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Plotlines

McManus introduces half an hour of educational videos and also the cage
Omar is let out of Solitary
Miguel has been captured after 6 months
Omar goes to the Hole for stabbing Guerra
Ryan starts to have trouble with getting rid of Howell
Dr. Nathan returns from her break and hears from O’Reily that he killed Keenan; Reimondo warns Nathan Nathan away from O’Reily but apparently she loves him now 🙄
Floria Mills is brought in as Glynn new secretary
Busmalis proposes to Norma; he reveals to Rebadow that he’s started a new hole
Leroy Tidd tries to join the Muslims but Said shuns him; Said starts a fight with Robson; Tidd strikes a deal with Schillinger to kill Said
Carrie visits with Schillinger; Beecher visits with Holly and catches up with Angus
Jeremiah Cloutier arrives at Oz and tries to reach Schillinger through Jesus but is rebuffed; later when he reaches Jim Burns through ??? something, Schillinger is convinced and wants to start counseling with Beecher
Ronnie Barlog and Burr Redding are introduced; McManus wants Said to play nice to prevent Redding from galvanizing the Homeboys; Redding meets with Poet, Morales and Pancamo
Chinese refugees arrive at Oz; Morales kills Yixue with a staple gun after having him point the finger at Redding

Sister: What a sensible man! …Although what’s not sensible is Miguel being back in Oz in the special unit after escaping. (later) Sister: Ah, I see. They’re sending him to that little box.
Me: No, that’s the Cage. He’s going to Solitary.
Sister: Wow, they got so many punishment locations. Solitary, the Hole, and now the Cage.

Sister: Wow, [Omar] really came out of Solitary for five minutes, did a bunch of drugs, and got a bunch of ketchup on this guy’s white shirt.

Sister: No, you should’ve put bees! Everyone should be give her the cold shoulder, not welcoming her back! She shouldn’t be back!

Sister: What the heeeell is she doing the cafeteria? She literally came back to stare at him? Look, she just came in there to stare at him.
Me: Well, actually there was a deleted scene that explains—
Sister: They should put it back in!

Ryan: (coughs)
Sister: (gasp) He’s got syphilis. He has an STI. That’s why he’s all sweaty and shaky. It’s not a fever. That’s his existential doom.
Me: It’s not an STI.
Sister: Is there going to be a contagion episode?
Me: No, I wish. 😔
Sister: Missed chance. Patient zero right here.

Sister: She literally dresses like Ma.

Sister: He’s changed sides, Wawa…
Me: What?
Sister: He’s changed sides….
Me: What?
Sister: Sides…
Me: What sides??
Sister: (solemn expression) The straights…
Me (remembering Sister is the captain and sole crew member of Glynn/Mukada): Ah.

Sister: He’s got a tiny heart, though. He’s got a little grinch heart.

Sister: Are the guards really gonna let him strangle this dude right in front of them? Ah… I see. They’re starting a cult.

Sister: He got 13 years for car theft? How many cars did he steal?! Aren’t most of the guys in here for murder?

Sister: I don’t know what games they’re playing here… I want my Miguel. Take us back to Solitary—I don’t care about this.

Sister: This guy always has his boobs out.

Sister: Why’s she talking so fucking slow? …She sounds like the actress speaks Cantonese not Mandarin.
Me: That’s what I’m saying. None of them speak fluent Mandarin. They should be from Hong Kong or Guangdong.
Sister: And the refugees look like they’re from that area, or possibly Malaysia or something. None of them look Northern, at least.
Me: But guess where they’re from.
Sister: Taiwan?
Me: They’re from Chengdu, LOL.
Sister: Well that’s why it must’ve cost them so much! They had to get to the ocean first!
Me: They had to pay for the land travel to get to the boat first.
Sister: Chengdu… They were running from the tigers, is that it? Wait, when is this? 1970?
Me: It’s 2001…
Sister: 2001?! They’re farmers from Chengdu?! [starts laughing] (*Chengdu is a landlocked municipal-level city)

Stray Thoughts

Sister remains unimpressed with Dr. Nathan
I love Floria. Her cackling like a witch when she gets the job is one of the funniest moments in the show
Penis count: 1
Carrie mentions that it’s been 5 months since Hank disappeared
Jim Burns is in Oz for murdering his brother
Spotted Chico 5 times around Oz/Em City after he gets stabbed at the start of the episode lol
The translator’s name is Gou Liu Xio which Murphy unhelpfully pronounces as “Gao Loo Zao”, which is a little baffling tbh as Xio is not a Chinese name so it could be Xiu or Xiao but Murphy’s pronounciation doesn’t really hint at which one it’s supposed to be.
Chinese refugee story made about as much sense to Sister as it did to me; we had a good laugh at the refugees being from Chengdu… Finally someone else who felt my pain over how stupid it was… And the way that Yixue & all them talk about being Chinese and what life was like and how they’d rather be dead in America… The dialogue is just very obviously not written by anyone with any kind of insight whatsoever. But you know, whatever lol. Par for the course.

Final Thoughts

Sister: I’m kind of happy they chose Chengdu for the place the refugees are from because at least it wasn’t like the usual choices. Like at least you get the impression someone looked at a map. Except they probably looked at the map and were like “Oh yeah, let’s pick Chengdu, it’s this place that looks like it's in the middle of nowhere right next to a bunch of mountains; it’s probably a little shanty town. They’re probably repressed there”. It’s like if you looked at a map now and decided to make all the farmers from Omaha, Nebraska, because it seems remote. But Omaha is like a tech city. I mean, I guess there would be farmers too, but like… We were in Chengdu in 2001, like, dude… 🥴 That’s a city. At least if they had the refugees be from Hong Kong like you said, yeah, that would make more sense, “Oh, they didn’t want to not be British citizens anymore”.
Me: Yeah, it’d be closer to the handover, too. I think they based the cargo ship thing on a 90s incident with a ship from Hong Kong to begin with.
Sister: …And that way it’d make more sense for them to be deciding to speak English, too, because at least they'd all know it probably. Why would farmers from Chengdu learn English? Crop fires… (shakes head)

Me: Did you think Dr. Nathan was going to be gone for good?
Sister: (sigh) No, she said she would be back didn’t she? So here she is again. ‘Cause she’s got no self respect or whatever… And now she’s attaching herself to prisoners and the source of her trauma and whatever, when really she should just be gone for good, for her own good. What’s she gonna say to her in-laws now? She loves Ryan now, the guy who got their son killed? And do you want her as your doctor, anyway, when clearly she’s got no logical thinking skills? It’s like how you should never trust a priest… Do you really want to listen to that guy promising to absolve you of all your sins?
Me: That’s the whole point of priests, though…
Sister: No, I mean, the guy in the prison.
Me: He’s not a priest, though. He doesn’t do absolution ‘cause he’s not Catholic.
Sister: Then what was that thing in the church? When he was doing the little demon whispers with the one guy?
Me: That was like… at best, like, pentecostal shit.
Sister: Either way. You can’t trust him to get the little demon worms out of your ear when clearly he also was those worms in his ears.