wawamouse | Oz Rewatch 3: S2E01: The Tip

Originally posted to Tumblr
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During opening titles, Sister asked “Does Mr. Mouse ever come back?”, which confirmed my suspicion that she did not register the he had died off screen. With Nino dead, Sister declared that she would simply have to keep tabs on “the little fava bean” (Rebadow). At the end of the episode when I asked if she had any new favorite characters, she said she would “have to fly her little [Sister] wings over to watch over the guy whose baby died”.

Me: Do you remember what his name is?
Sister: …Is he Italian or Latino? Wait, what name does he look like… Hm…. Johnny boy! … Ernesto… Rodrigo? (*holding her temples*) Does it start with an A? Not a C name… Something like Domingo… Alvarez.
Me: That’s his last name!
Sister: Derek Alvarez. (after several minutes of alphabetical guessing, having reached H names)
Me: It starts with an M
Sister: Matt. Matteo. McManus…. Matthew… Michael? Michelangelo.
Me: I think Michael is gonna be the closest you’re gonna get to it.
Sister: Mikhail. Mitchell. Megan.
Me: It’s somewhere around Michael and Mikhail.
Sister: ........Mi...............Miguel! (cheering)
Me: So Miguel is going to be your new favorite character?
Sister: Yes. Mostly because I remember one of your little screencaps of him from a part we haven't gotten to yet, so I know he’s going to last. So I’m just going to put all my eggs in that basket and watch him start his little drug empire.

Anyway, time will tell if Sister turns into a Miguel fan or simply remains a Miguel observer, haha!

More on the episode itself... I really like the way this season starts! I think framing it as sort of a whodunnit/mystery investigation keeps the episode really focused throughout the runtime. Alvah Case is one of the more rational characters to come through the show, so it's really fun to see him actually trying to poke holes in people's lies and sift through the bullshit, even if ultimately no one is really held accountable for anything (although that turns out to be a save for the riot leaders, so I guess it evens out!).

Overall, I think episode 1 serves as a very good start to season 2, although I feel like the mystery of who killed Ross gets a bit tired in the middle. It's pretty obvious that it was Diane, so the red herrings that get thrown in over the course of the episode feel a little flimsy. That said, the interview style of the chase is still fun (visiting all the different characters), so I find I don't mind it.

Sister also seemed to like this episode. She liked Case, although she said he reminded her of a college admissions counselor and she was confused as to why he agreed to investigate if he's the dean of a college and presumably very busy with that. Much like S1E1, she managed to guess a lot of lines/plot points ahead of time.

Sister: Haha, surrounded by ghosts of girlfriends past.

Sister: By the lady? (Diane)

Sister, laughing: Weren't they all murdered??

Sister: He gonna bite it off… don’t do it! He gonna bite it off.

Case to Diane: And you…?
Sister: Cradled him like a baby! Diane:
Cradled him in my arms.

Robson's hallucination reminded me of this:

Stray/Final thoughts:

Sister has been upholding the grand tradition of roasting McManus at every turn (“he’s been deteriorating rapidly. Usually when someone lands in the hospital, you say 'wow he looks terrible', but he looks the same. Didn't he used to wear suits?”, “he dresses like a 90s deadbeat dad”, “you’d think he’d try and clean up what with two ex girlfriend coworkers but he doesn’t… he’s just making it known that this is as good as it gets”)
Sister is surprised Gloria is still in the show because she doesn’t think Gloria has any story lines and her only purpose in the show seems to be shit talking the inmates and saying how bad they are at every staff meeting ("so like, why are you even here? Go open a private practice and make more money, girl, because you don't even seem to be here for the love of helping people")(me: *staring into the camera like Jim from the Office*)
Sister remains inexplicably suspicious of Sister Pete's character
I really thought Heim was going to do more in the show
Sister's out here thinking s2 is going to focus on the Latinos building and expanding their role in the tits trade by cornering the pharmaceuticals market. Oh how I would love to watch the version of the show in her mind where it's a prison business drama about Miguel making big money moves for El Norte 💀
Sister: People are very bald in this show