Episode 52 of "Oz"
s06e04 A Failure to Communicate
Title: A Failure to Communicate
Original Air Date: 01/26/2003 on HBO
Director: David Von Ancken
Writer: Tom Fontana, Bradford Winters
Guest Stars: Andrea Anders (Degenhart), Patti Lupone (Stella Cuffo), Jennifer Harmon (Miss Lang), Ray Iannicelli (Officer Brese), Felix Solis (Escobales), Connie Nelson (Det. McGorry), Ra Hanna (Bismilla), Andy Powers (Franklin Winthrop), Michael Rivera (Rosa), Brendan Kelly (Cutler), Emanuel Yarbrough (Clarence [uncredited]), Antoni Comacchione (Urbano), Hank Wagner (Stein), Peter Francis James (Prisoner #03N679 Jahfree Neema), Phillip Scozarella (Mineo)
Plot Outline:
As Tim breaks the news of Said's murder to an awestruck Em City, his shooter, Lemuel, confesses quickly, only saying he had to kill Said before nightfall. Glynn learns that the death has already been leaked to the media, and also tries to figure out how a man with a gun got in the prison. A drunken Officer Brese is responsible for the goof. Glynn angrily fires him. While Det. McGorry is on the premises, Devlin drops in and orders her to find a culprit, any culprit, for Mayor Lowen's murder. McGorry believes it was a personal killing, not race-related. Beecher's struggles on reentering Oz as a visitor are not helped when Sister Pete sadly informs him of Said's death. Beecher takes on Keller's case and they share an uneasy reunion as Keller tries to control his increasing jealousy of Beecher's freedom. After uncovering FBI Agent Taylor's prepping of a witness, Tobias manages to get Keller's case dismissed. Keller confidently strides back to gen pop. His first order of business is enticing Franklin Winthrop into a storage room for sex, and suffocating the life out of him in revenge for the killing of Beecher's father. With McM clearing the royalty problems up, the Muslims, now led by a reluctant Arif, decided to press on with Said's plans for a book-binding business. Meanwhile, most of Burr's men are failing miserably at the telemarketing business. When Burr fires Poet, all of the other homeboys quit their jobs in protest. Poet tells his pals that they will go to work for the book-binding, pretend to be completely legit, and then start dealing again secretly. Arif and followers are astonished at the seemingly endless group of people lining up to get jobs on the first day. Stella's literacy campaign with Pablo Rosa is a success, and she and Rebadow are closer than ever. Rebadow advises Busmalis to visit Norma before it's too late, and his words are heeded. Norma claims that she got cold feet (literally and figureatively) while stuck in the snowstorm before the wedding, and had a one-nighter with her ex-boyfriend, but she thought of Busmalis the whole time. The couple make up, but Rebadow and Stella are not so fortunate. Rebadow's plans for private intimacy are eradicated when Stella reveals she may not even be at Oz much longer due to her discovery that she has breast cancer. Crushed at yet another loved one falling victim to deadly disease, Rebadow flees the room. Mukada works with Hoyt's lawyer to get him off death row, and is floored when he learns that Hoyt (who still believes he is surrounded by Satan) comes from a very rich family and has only been posing as a poor, rebellious biker all these years. On the basis that he has been mentally disturbed from childhood, Hoyt is shipped off death row and into the Connelly Psychiatric Institute (where Shirley went back when she wanted to kill her baby back in season 3). Unfortunately Cyril is still on death row, still getting ECT, as his execution is only weeks away. As if Ryan's life isn't depressing enough, an ex-Black Panther who helped turn Suzanne mother into a radical activist arrives in Oz. For his mother's sake Ryan tries to be nice, but Jahfree dismissively shuts Ryan down as "white boy". He has a much warmer greeting for Suzanne, as Ryan looks on in Oedipus-like dispair. Glynn's shadow, Ellie, nags him about how his press conference has led to Penders filing a lawsuit and trying to get Martinez's family and Omar in on the action. In exchange for his silence and a free pass back to Em City, Omar agrees to not join up. When Omar giddily returns to his former home, he faces news of Said's death and a very cold shoulder from McManus. After Gloria learns Martinez was killed by suffocation, not his liver, she struggles with mixed feelings of guilt and relief. Brass, in spite of trying to pass the blame off on the Latinos, is the prime suspect, and is asked to take a lie detector test. Brass freaks out and when Murphy asks why, Brass admits he DID lie - about Martinez making a deathbed confession to him. Murphy is full of righteous outrage and demands they tell Glynn the truth. This leads to a near-fistfight between the two former friends. Morales is cleared of his crime and moved from solitary to the infirmary. He is greeted by the rehired nurse (Gloria had fired her after learning she missed the code on Martinez) who tells him Martinez was a "nasty man" who deserved to die. Morales panics as he sees the big neon sign over her head which says she's the killer. Miguel visits with his lifelong friend and finds out he let Maritza sell Miguel's beloved car, and that Maritza has been having an affair - with the lifelong friend. A heartbroken Miguel writes them both off and burns all of his Maritza possessions. Pancamo kindly suggests that Robson kill Cutler to get in good with the Sicilians and the Aryans. As Robson's sexual services now include nylons pulled tight on his face and severe punches to his kidney during anal sex, he realizes he has to get out of this ugliness. After suggesting breath control play - putting a noose around Cutler's neck to give him an unbelievable orgasm - to an agreeable Cutler, Robson visits with Sister Pete to confide Cutler's suicidal thoughts in her. Pete tries to counsel Cutler and gets the verbal finger for her troubles. Soon after, "Wolfie" is found dangling from the bars of his cell, Robson conveniently not remembering to untie him in time.