'Oz' - Life Behind Bars Trivia Quiz

Answer: Aryan Brotherhood

Vernon Schillinger called the shots when it came to Oswald's Aryan Brotherhood. As one would expect, Schillinger had an "ideological" issue with Jews, but he pretty much disdained any non-Caucasian group as well. In the opening episodes of the first season of 'Oz', Schillinger was seen to take former lawyer, Tobias Beecher, under his wing.

At first it appeared to be an altruistic move by the neo-Nazi, but before long his true motives became apparent.

Answer: Psychiatrist

Tobias Beecher ended up being one of the most compelling characters throughout the six seasons of 'Oz'. In the first season, his entry into the prison's "Emerald City" was portrayed as a torturous time for the ex-lawyer; verbally, physically and sexually abused, Beecher eventually realised that if he kept on viewing himself as a victim, the other prisoners would keep on treating him as one.

This realisation was partly inspired by Oswald's psychiatrist, Sister Peter Marie; Peter Marie noticed very quickly that his transition to prison life was going to be especially difficult and so allowed him to work with her, updating all the inmates' computerised psychiatric evaluations.

This took him out of danger, for a few hours at least.

Answer: Accidental

It becomes apparent to the viewer over the course of a few episodes that Diane Wittlesey, a senior correctional officer at "Emerald City", was responsible for deliberately shooting Scott Ross during the riots. However, she shot Ross in response to Ross shooting the head of the cell block, Tim McManus. Consequently, a lot of pressure was put on an investigating Alvah Case to do the right thing "morally" even though Wittlesey's actions fell outside of the law. Case eventually returned a verdict of accidental death but from thereon, the idealistic Tim McManus had a lot of trouble accepting his part in the cover up.

Answer: Agamemnon Busmalis

Agamemnon Busmalis had such a reputation for digging tunnels that he was nicknamed "The Mole". At the end of the second season, the tunnel that he had put much care in to creating was discovered by two members of the Aryan Brotherhood. So rather than Busmalis, and his then cell mate Bob Rebadow, benefiting from all this hard work, two bystanders jumped in at the last moment in order to make their escape. What the members of the Aryan Brotherhood hadn't counted on however, was that with Busmalis knowing that they knew, he weakened the wooden supports throughout the tunnel such that the whole structure collapsed with the two Brotherhood members still inside.

Answer: Pharmaceutical

Weigart, as a privately financed pharmaceutical company, was naturally interested in posting a profit. This tied in nicely with Governor James Devlin's policy of reducing the cost associated with running the state's prisons, including Oswald State Correctional Facility. Dr. Gloria Nathan took exception to the money-driven ways of Weigart's representative at the prison; this representative was a man who wished to take a prisoner suffering from major depressive episodes off his prescribed anti-depressants. Dr. Nathan was concerned that such a course of action would lead to the prisoner, Miguel Alvarez, attempting to take his own life and she vocalised those thoughts vociferously. Weigart's representative disagreed with her assessment and took Alvarez off the medication and as expected, the mentally unstable prisoner attempted suicide but failed.

Answer: Islam

Tobias Beecher sought the counsel of inmate and imam, Kareem Said, regarding the ongoing hostilities between himself and Vernon Schillinger. Through his knowledge and interpretation of the Quran, the holy scriptures of the Islamic faith, Said implored Beecher to forgive Schillinger as this would be the only way that any further acts of violence between the two could be prevented.

Unfortunately, Schillinger couldn't forgive Beecher for his transgressions and this eventually led to both Beecher and Schillinger being non-fatally stabbed.

Answer: No

Tim McManus was an idealist, a reformer, and he was often heard pontificating that if even just one prisoner managed to turn his life around, then his many years' work at Oswald would have been worthwhile. Unfortunately for McManus, the warden of the facility, under pressure from state political figures, had to get rid of him after the death toll of both prisoners and correctional officers became too high. McManus was replaced by Martin Querns, who could only be described as a "selective conservative"; he was willing to leave all sorts of transgressions go unpunished so long as violence was non-existent.

In order to achieve his vision of a violence-free "Emerald City", Querns made the decision to segregate people on the basis of skin colour; all those with pale skin were moved to the general population blocks whilst all those with darker skin tones remained where they were. Initially this seemed to work as most of the racial tension that had previously plagued the block had dissipated. After a while however, it was found that when one difference is eradicated, a population will soon find a different dividing line!

Answer: Irish

Padraig Connolly was an Irish nationalist who despised the fact that the government of the United Kingdom was in political control of Northern Ireland. For the crime of "illegal entry into the United States", Connolly was spending time in the "Emerald City" block of Oswald State Correctional Facility whilst waiting to be extradited to the United Kingdom. Connolly had no intention of going back to the UK and so decided to develop a bomb with the aim of destroying the cell block and gaining freedom. Unfortunately for Connolly, the bomb didn't work and he was taken away by the powers that be, never to be heard from again! What happened to him is a mystery as the writers of 'Oz' never mentioned Padraig Connolly again.

Answer: Death row

The relationship between Tobias Beecher and Chris Keller was meant to reflect on ideas of situational homosexuality, the strong feelings shared by two people in close quarters and of the same sex going beyond just friendship. Before entering the Oswald State Correctional Facility, Chris Keller already showed signs of being bisexual at the very least but Tobias Beecher was a heterosexually-identified man with a wife and kids. So when Beecher started to develop feelings for Keller, he wasn't sure what that meant in terms of his sexuality and whether what it meant was actually important at all. Throughout season five of 'Oz', the pair were kept apart as Chris Keller found himself on death row for murder.

Answer: He was murdered

In the penultimate episode of the final season of 'Oz', the warden of Oswald State Correctional Facility, Leo Glynn, was murdered whilst doing the job he had put so much effort into over the years. The murder was committed by an inmate by the name of Lionel Kelsch and this was done at the behest of Adrian Johnson, a correctional officer at the facility. For the final ever episode of 'Oz', Leo Glynn was succeeded as warden by Martin Querns, the man who he had previously fired for his ineffective management of "Emerald City".