Fandom Snowflake Challenge 6

Challenge #6

In your own space, share a favourite piece of original canon (a show, a specific TV episode, a storyline, a book or series, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much. . Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

The following post contains spoilers for seasons two and three of the HBO prison drama OZ.

OZ is a series that ran on HBO for six seasons from 1997 to 2003. It focuses on the inmates and staff at the fictional Oswald State Penitentiary in upstate New York and never shied away from the harsh realities of prison life (please keep that in mind if you choose to jump in and watch it).

One of my favorite pieces of OZ canon comes at the end of the third episode of the third season ("Legs"). At the beginning of the third season, Tobias Beecher (the former lawyer jailed for a drunk driving accident whom viewers have been following since the beginning of the series) is in the infirmary recovering from having his arms and legs broken- an act of violence that involved a correctional officer, Karl Metzger, Beecher's former abusive cellmate, Vern Schillinger, and Beecher's current cellmate and love interest, Chris Keller.

As he gets out of the hospital, Beecher works to get revenge. He deals with Metzger first (in a very creative way that I won't spoil here), then stabs Keller in a storage room. All of this happens in the first two episodes.

In the third episode, Keller gets out of the infirmary and starts his plan to win Beecher back. He manipulates his way into being Beecher's cellmate again. The dialogue at the moment of their reunion is beautifully written and Lee Tergesen as Beecher does a terrific job going to the edge of confessing Beecher's guilt, then pulling back, then confessing again, and giving Christopher Meloni's Keller just enough pause to think that maybe the gentle, gullible pushover/prag Beecher had stabbed him. He then explains that he needs to find a way to get Schillinger.

The end of the episode presents a solution as Vern Schillinger's son, Andy, is incarcerated and brought to the cell block where Beecher resides. The little laugh that Tergesen gives at the end is part relief, part joy, and part crazy. After everything that Schillinger has put Beecher through in the previous three seasons, the viewer is just as giddy to see the revenge play out as Beecher is. It's a great moment in a series full of great moments.