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ozimagines · 1 month ago

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Chris Keller and Ryan O’Reily in…

You’ll Be Back, Dummy

“Teacher’s daughter.” Keller listed, placing his bet.

“Priest’s sister.” O’Reily responded, raising by two dollars.

“Cousin’s girlfriend.”

“Dentist’s niece.”

“Elderly neighbor’s son.”

“Girls only, Keller.”

“Okay; Farmer’s daughter.”

“Isn’t that the setup to a joke or something?” O’Reily and Keller were playing cards in the main room of Em City, having a conversation amongst themselves that Rebadow caught and rolled his eyes to. They’d started listing off their conquests in the middle of the game, mulling over their greatest ‘pulls’ as they called it.

“Doesn’t change the fact that she was, in fact, a literal farmer’s daughter.” Keller responded, folding his hand, glancing nonchalantly at Ryan. It was a lazy, dragging Wednesday. Prison got to be so boring some days you could fucking die. It was more than a little bit the point of their sentences.

“How do you even come across a farmer’s daughter in the city?” O’Reily asked, pulling in his winnings, wishing he’d had a smoke available. He always liked to smoke when he gambled on the outside. Keller shrugged.

“In the Ity neighborhood, there was this guido vegetable cart guy. He introduced me to his zucchini source one time and it must have been bring your daughter to work day, or something because the bitch was standing there in shorts and one of those plaid farm-girl tops, swear to God. Didn’t fuck her in the middle of an open field though. My only regret.” Chris, put his cards down and went to shuffle again when O’Reily shook his head. Gambling was no fucking fun without a smoke.

“Then where?”

“Alleyway. Told her pop I was taking her to get ice cream.” Keller rolled his head on his neck back, then cracking it from side to side. “She got creamed alright.”

“Noice.” Ryan responded, lazily tapping his foot on the floor.

God it was a miserably boring day.

“Wanna go for a walk?” Ryan asked after a second. Keller considered then nodded. They started doing laps around Em City, still going over their conquests.

“How’d you even come upon a chance to fuck your dentist’s niece?”

“She was a dentist tech. Learning on the job or something.”

“You use any of that novocaine that makes your mouth numb?”

“Jesus fuck, Keller, no.” O’Reily was sometimes in awe of Keller’s perversity. Keller smirked. Ryan talked a big game but he was a little league fucker at heart. Keller could think of at least four dental tools he could use in the sack.

“When I fucked the elderly neighbor’s son, we were blasted on E. I was married to Kitty then, but this guy was too pure to ignore. He had a wife and kids but a couple minutes of seduction and I had him on his knees for me.” Keller reminisced fondly, and Ryan crinkled his nose. Keller noticed and almost chuckled. Ryan was too ‘straight’ for his own good.

“Some guys got no integrity. Secret queers, y’know? That’s the only explanation for letting you face fuck them like that.”

“Secret fag, direct fag, who cares. Nobody’s 100% straight.”

“I am, K-Boy.”

“I maintain that no one is. Not even you.”

“And your proof for that hypothesis?” Snapped an increasingly more annoyed Ryan.

Keller got a wicked idea. When they were out of view of the hacks, near the stairs, Keller turned to O’Reily and pressed his hand to the other man’s crotch. Ryan instantly recoiled but Keller didn’t let him, grabbing the back of Ryan’s hair and pressing his lips flush against his neck, tonguing hotly. Ryan’s dick snapped to attention. Of course it did. Whose wouldn’t? He jerked away.

“Fuck, Keller, the fuck is wrong with you?!” He admonished, touching the spot on his neck that Keller licked, the other hand tucking his cock into his belt. Keller smiled. “Oh, what, this was supposed to prove something?”

“No.” Keller said, to his surprise, but what he said next fucking floored him. “You coming back for more will prove something.”

“Coming? For more? Keller, you’re out of your fuckin’ mind.” He stepped to the man, who didn’t flinch or react. “Listen up ‘cause I’m not gonna say it again; I’m. No. Fag. Full fucking stop.”

Keller chuckled.

“Yeah, we’ll see.” Keller walked away, going to harass someone else, leaving Ryan standing there with a hard on and a wet spot on his neck.

Ryan wasn’t even sure he knew what just happened. Coming back for more? Yeah goddamn right. Keller was too cocky for his own good. He was used to seducing naive boys like Beecher, but Ryan was smarter, slicker. Can’t shit a shitter, he once said.

The only issue is that the boner hadn’t gone away quickly. It lingered. Ryan had to stay behind the stairs for a solid second before he was able to rejoin the population. It did feel good. Last person he’d fucked was Howell, and God knows she was selfish in bed. Or in bathroom, as most of their sessions had been.

No, fuck, what was he thinking? No one needed to cum that bad. Besides being a dude, Keller was dangerous. He joined Cyril at the TVs, not saying a word. Cyril kept staring at him.

“What?”

“Did someone hurt you, Ryan?”

“…no?”

“Why do you have a bruise on your neck?” He asked, innocently and Ryan’s blood pressure spiked through the roof. He touched his neck and realized there was a tender spot. He immediately covered it with his hand and excused himself again. He rushed to his pod to inspect the damage, and lo and behold, he had an angry, red hickey on his neck. Fuckin’ Keller! Man sneak attacked him. His blood boiled inside him. There was no way to play this off. No way to hide this. He needed makeup. If he were on better terms with Howell, he would ask her. He didn’t know if Sister Pete wore any. All he could think of was Fiona, so he stuck his head out of his pod and looked for her. He exited and saw her sitting at one of the tables. He couldn’t go back down so he tried to get her attention by dropping a paper clip down onto the tables. She looked up and he gestured to his pod. She, confused, excused herself and went up the stairs.

“What’s with the secret agent shit, O’Reily?” She asked before she noticed the mark on his neck, somehow purpler and angrier than before. “Woah! Hello Nurse!”

“Shut up, Fiona.” O’Reily snapped. She threw her hands up.

“I’m sorry but you have a hickey that pronounced and someone’s bound to remark.” She touched her chest and giggled a little. Ryan’s face burned red.

“It’s not a hickey,” he lied, hoping she would believe it. “Someone took a swing at me-“

“Save it, O’Reily, no one’s buying it.”

Ryan’s face turned impossibly redder.

“Look, I need some makeup to cover this.”

If Fiona was happy before she was elated now.

“The great straight Ryan O’Reily wants to borrow my makeup. Savor the moment, Fiona, you’ve been waiting so long for this.” She put her arms out dramatically, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. Ryan rolled his eyes. Fiona was such a drama queen.

“Fiona, please, I really need you to be cool about this.” He begged, and Fiona clapped her hands.

“Oh, God, he’s begging now. What have I done to deserve such wonders!” She laughed loudly and covered her mouth shortly after. Ryan grimaced.

“You gonna help me or not?” He hissed and Fiona relented.

“Okay, fine. You owe me.” She reached into her little purse and pulled out a small compact. She motioned for him to move closer, so he did. She inspected the damage. “Someone really did a number on you, huh?”

“Fiona.” He scolded and she giggled again.

“Sorry.” She applied the makeup on his skin until the reddish purplish mark was relatively the same color as the rest of his skin, save for a small shadow. She handed him the compact. “Till it goes away.”

“Thanks, Fiona.”

“Anytime, doll.” She started to leave the room, before turning back. “Don’t suppose I get to know how this little situation came about?”

“It’s fine. It’s never gonna happen again.”

Fiona nodded and left, and Ryan sat down on the bed, heart rate going down for the first time all morning. His mind was racing as to how he was gonna get Keller back. All he could think of is Beecher. That was the only thing Keller seemed to care about. He decided that would be his move. He walked downstairs, seeing Keller sitting next to Cyril and Bob, while Beecher and Busmalis were sitting in a corner. He made a beeline for Beecher, making sure to walk in front of Keller to get his attention.

“Hey, Beech.”

“Hey, Ryan…?” Beecher was instantly confused. He hadn’t hung out alone with just Ryan since getting to Oz. Ryan stopped in front of him, eyeing him up and down.

“Looking good today, man.”

“…thanks?” Toby looked over to Keller, who made the basest form of acknowledgement but said nothing. Ryan looked at Busmalis scornfully. Busmalis got the hint.

“I… uh… I gotta go.” He excused himself, warily surveying the situation. Ryan nodded, remarking that it would be a good idea. He looked Beecher over again, not really sure how one goes about seducing his ally’s boyfriend. With one more cursory glance towards Keller, Ryan proceeded.

“Hey, I was wondering if… y’know… I mean… you and Keller…?”

“You gonna finish that thought?” Beecher asked, a small, amused smile playing in the end of his lips. Ryan blushed.

“It’s a little busy in here. Mind stepping over there?”

“Sure.”

They walked right past Keller, who was regarding the situation with an outward indifference, even if something inside him twisted every time a guy talked to Tobias. Ryan leaned in to talk to Toby.

“Keller’s on his bullshit again.”

“When isn’t he?” Toby said with a grin. That was his guy alright.

“He thinks I’m… well… he’s got this theory that no one’s 100% straight.” Ryan explained and Toby raised a brow.

“Are we proving or disapproving that theory today?”

“Fuck you.”

Beecher nodded and went to walk away, when Ryan grabbed his arm and forced him back. Keller certainly clocked that.

“Listen, Ryan, our relationship is complicated and everyone I sleep with gets killed so-“

“I’m not saying sleep with me. I’m no-“

“‘No fag’, yes, Ryan, we know, we all know.”

“Hey, I just trying to get Keller back for his little stunt today.”

“Stunt?”

Ryan flushed and looked away, trying to save face and get revenge at the same time. Toby ahhhed under his breath, sure that Keller had gotten Ryan all worked up with a little surprise loving.

“He can be a little frisky these days, that’s for sure.” Toby said with a short laugh. Ryan crinkled his nose. It was like hearing his parents talk about sex. That only made Beecher laugh harder.

“Look, if you’re not gonna-“

Tony surprised both Ryan and Keller at the same time by wrapping a finger around the collar of Ryan’s shirt and pulling him in for a short, sharp kiss. Ryan pulled away in disgust, and Keller shot out of his chair, receiving oohs and ahhs from the few men that had seen what happened. Ryan never had a plan so badly so quick before. Keller and Ryan were left staring at each other, this kind of awkwardness and anger between them both. Toby was cackling as he walked away, having gotten his revenge on them both, Keller for cheating and Ryan for his homophobia. Ryan stormed off and Keller stormed after him.

What a lousy, rotten day!

Ryan was in the bathrooms between Em City and Unit B, washing his mouth with soap. Keller rolled his eyes. The Irishman was so goddamn dramatic.

“Wanna tell me what the fuck that was, O’Reily?”

Ryan spat and looked up.

“Don’t get any thoughts there, K-boy that didn’t go as I wanted it to either.”

“You touch Beecher again-“ Keller walked forward, menacingly. Ryan stepped to him.

“I’m not a fag, Keller, my god! I’m O for Two today, could you just get off my fucking ass and leave me alone!”

“O for Two?” Keller repeated, so Ryan clarified.

“I’m not fucking queer, and I’ve been kissed by two dudes today. Shit sucks.”

“C’mon, Ryan, you’re so fucking transparent it’s laughable. You’re not as straight as you seem to think you are.”

“Why? Cause I got hard while you were jacking me? Anyone would have!” Ryan waved his arms big, exasperated by his efforts to prove his heterosexuality. “I don’t want to take it in the ass, I don’t want to put it in anyone else’s. It’s a fucking desert in here, you go looking for water anywhere you can. I don’t think that makes me- what? What’re you looking at me like that for?”

Keller had latched onto that last comment, a surprised-ish sort of look on his face.

“‘You go looking for water anywhere’?”

“Yeah, shit happens.” Ryan said with a red face, his ears starting to burn.

“What kinda shit?”

“I’m not getting into this with you, Keller.”

“C’mon. Cards on the table. O’Reily.” Keller leaned forward on the sink. “You’re sexy when you’re angry.”

He popped a wink and Ryan burned inside and out.

“Shut up-“

“Ryan, please.” He twinkled his eyes and held out his hand to hold Ryan’s. A silence passed over them. Ryan paused and considered. “Just be honest with me. You never thought about it? Not once?”

Keller was almost pleading with him now, eyes trying to drag out any semblance of attraction. Ryan’s heart was beating a mile a minute, the idea of being completely straightforward being so foreign to him. He thought and thought and thought, and only when he let loose a sigh did Keller smile broadly, following Ryan’s eyes and moving his head to match.

“I knew it. Once?”

“More than once.”

“Wow.” He moved Ryan in front of him, holding onto his waist and rubbing his nose against Ryan’s cheek, who was flushing and fidgeting in his grasp. “Kiss me.”

Ryan felt and thought and considered and every other word all of which came up in his head as a ‘no’. That said, Keller’s welcoming face, and that ‘fuck me’ look in his eyes, it was all too much. Ryan threw caution to the wind and turned on his own seductive look. He half smiled and leaned in, pressing his lips to Keller’s, not frenching or sucking but still passionately kissing Keller, the man he’d come to think of as a friend and foe. They held together for a moment, breaking apart only when they ran out of breath. Keller nudged his neck a little and kissed the hickey tenderly.

“You realize this is the second time we kissed today?”

“Yeah.”

“Y’know what that means?”

“Hmm, what?” Ryan asked, a little excitement in his voice. It felt good to get this excited over a such a romantic gesture. Keller smirked and Lilly Ryan in, so that he was whispering in his ear. He took a deep breath, and then husked;

“Who’s queer now?”

It took Ryan’s brain a second to catch up with the remark but when he did, he pulled away from Keller roughly and snarled in his general direction, shoving him aside and stalking up to the door. Keller was laughing his goddamn ass off behind him, as elated as he’d ever been. The bitch fell right into the Ol’ Keller Charm trap.

“I hate you.” Ryan said, his voice certainly reflecting that sentiment.

“Aww, baby, don’t be like that.” Keller jibed, making a fake pouting face and enraging Ryan even more. Ryan went to leave the room, when he heard Keller shout behind him;

“You’ll be back, dummy.”

Ryan stomped away. Fuckin’ lazy goddamn no good lousy day.

#hbo oz #oz meme #oz #oz hbo #ryan oreily #chris keller #tobias beecher #literally couldn’t function today until I got this out of my head #dean winters played Dennis Duffy on 30 Rock and that was his character’s catchphrase #you’ll be back dummy #Keller’s such an ass #Toby just vibin

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postmoderntongues · 5 months ago

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Asking the James Robson Question

Ive seen like 3 posts on the subject and didnt want to hijack anybody else's old post but there is a lot of discussion in the relatively small and inactive Oz fandom about if James Robson deserved his fate in season 6. The obvious answer is, yes, it is not only morally correct but funny to rape a rapist. But even more importantly yes, because it was the right artistic choice from the writers IMHO. In a show that builds itself on being Shakespearian, this is as Shakespeare as it gets. I could draw at least some parallels between Titus Andromedas and Robson's starring arc in the same way that there are some parallels in King Lear and the plotline that follows Schillinger and his sons (that comparison is a different ramble though)

So yeah, in the episode where Robson's character debuts, the first thing that happens is he is mean to the very sympathetic and lovable elderly man in a kick the dog moment. Then he orally rapes Beecher in what is probably the most graphic onscreen sex act pictured up to that point (While we see the psychological abuse and the branding, the sexual abuse that Vern puts Toby through is conveyed through dialog and never shown on screen). We are so uncomfortable. When Beecher bites off the tip of his dick, we rejoice. It is the first time Beecher actually gets retribution against an abuser instead of just getting away. Everybody stands and claps and feels good not only because Beecher ended the attack and defended himself but because Robson is suffering for how uncomfortable we were made as onlookers by witnessing him committing his first on screen rape.

When shit starts to go south for Robson during the gum incident at the end of season 5 you absolutely want anything bad to happen to him, nothing is bad enough, he deserves literally the worst, he has not had a single sympathetic moment. From the second you see him in pain from his gums you are like "good. Literally good". You are happy about seeing anything bad happen to him at all after 4 seasons of him dong nothing but raping and killing more sympathetic characters with no consequence. Imho this peaks either at Cyril's rape or the torture and murder of the young Muslim which I would consider the most disturbing act of non-sexual violence on the show (Robson is the girl that can do both).

At most he gets a few uncomfortable shock laughs at his outlandishly, flamboyantly disgusting dialog. You feel only anxiety when he is in a scene. The only time he is not consistently hurting somebody is when he is suffering, like when Said beats the shit out of him. When Said feels bad about attacking him, which you want to happen every time he opens his abusive mouth, you as an audience are like bbygirl you have nothing to feel bad about 10/10 I support it.

Even VERN, who you think will be the most unlikable character from the first episode, has sympathetic moments by that point: during the bus crash and how often he talks about his coming granddaughter and even arguably when he makes the choice to painlessly kill his youngest son through an overdose because he believes that there is a chance that Beecher (or potentially Keller who he has a complicated relationship with and knows can be unpredictable and oh yeah also sexually abused as a minor. There is some level of if not fondness then at least familiarity between them, but we learn that Keller was a minor submitting to sex with an adult for protection and that Vern "Liked sex better if it was a power thing (forced)" so even if Keller convinces himself that he consented Vern has no way of knowing that he was doing anything other than sexually abusing a kid and actually specifically got off on the fact that it was abuse.) could eventually make good on his threats to subject Andy to the same things that Vern subjected Beecher and Keller to, and he knows that he has done things to deserve the worst retribution imaginable. After the death of Hank, Robson even completely biffs the opportunity to have the slightest humanizing moment and comfort Vern when he is in mourning. This dude is the worst. He does not a single thing to earn a good feeling in the time he is on screen.

So the brotherhood shuns him for the cadaver transplant. When hes talking to Said and says "My friends will take me back" is the first deviation from what we have come to expect every time Robson Appears on screen. (which is the first time I noticed what a good actor R E Rodgers was, the little stutter and lower lip pout twitch when he delivers the line, the man put his entire cunt into this role) he doesnt say "they" or "the brotherhood" he says "my friends". That is literally the first time we see any hint of the potential that he is capable of any form of human connection at all. Its also the first time that we see his face in distress (his face is obscured by shadow when he gets bit) in contract to what is up until now his constant cruel smirk. It is the first time that we see him show any level of vulnerability at all. And we as an audience are like fuck yeah, I want justice, I want to see him get what he deserves. We don't know what we want, but we are glad that it is happening. Maybe in this bleak-ass show the closest thing to a good thing that can happen is something bad happening to a bad person.

We see Vern betray him in a very bizarro-christ-in-the-garden-of-Gethsemane-way when he favors former prag Franklin Winthrop when Robson gets physical with him. Winthrop is an interesting character in this conversation because he and Gunzel are a taste of how good it can feel when we see rapists get what a large portion of the audience feels like is even justice for not only their crimes but what a dick Gunzel is when Beecher tries to protect him/bragging to the bikers about the crime (and our desire to see the advancement of the love arc between Keller and Beecher through Schillinger's offer). Their fate is satisfying on both a moral and narrative level. Like Robson in season 2, the audience also wants to punish the characters for what they had to witness. Their joint assault on their female victim is the 2nd most graphic SA scene on the show. The last time we were made this uncomfortable, somebody lost their mushroom cap. It sets a pattern of expectations, sort of a horrible version of the fairy tale rules of three, with each incident in a sequence of three following the same pattern and escalating.

Then Pancamo gets out if the infirmary ready to completely FSU and Robson has nobody. Hes not a small dude, hes pretty fit, but Palarmo is not only larger but has numbers to back him up. We see Robson have a lot of physical altercations and come out the less damaged party about 50% at the time. When he loses in the boxing match to Cyril earlier in the show, again, a triumphant moment of not only bad guy Robson and the Aryan antagonists not persevering but getting to watch Cyril have a victory over at least one of his rapists. Hes not somebody who can always physically defend himself even with the brotherhood to back him up. He holds Pancamo off with a book cart until the guards break it up and rescue him. Then we see him bug the fuck out. He is wide eyed and terrified and breathing heavy and looks like hes about to burst into tears.

He goes to Cutler for protection, who we know nothing about other than that he is a nazi who killed a man by burying him alive with his head exposed and running over his head with a motor cycle. Robson stabbed a stranger, which is unforgivable, but its also only a choice he was able to act on on impulse. Cutler's victim was prepared in a way that would be extremely time and labor intensive just to enjoy the act and do something uniquely deranged, which is significantly scarier and requires an even longer and more intense period of autonomous choice to do something evil. May I introduce the new most unlikable and unsympathetic character, Wolfgang Cutler. When Robson approaches Cutler, he offers to hurt anybody Culter wants him to hurt in any way Cutler wants him to hurt them. Cutler's response is that Robson is the person he wants to hurt, and he wants to hurt him in the worst way possible, in a way that he genuinely has to calculate if it is worse than a violent death.

When we see him talking to sister Pete he is absolutely pathetic, and confesses that he has lived his entire life in fight or flight waiting to be hurt/killed. He is torn on which fate is worse. You still don't feel bad for him, but you're not sure how much you want to watch. Maybe it would be better to just watch a death scene. But didn't you want justice? And you're like yeah, I guess if it has to happen again on the show the character that I would be least upset to see it happen to would be Robson. So he goes back to Cutler, and in THE top most disturbing, graphic, and drawn out SA scene in the series, he is violently sodomized with a metal spoon. Suddenly, Cutler is the perpetrator that subjected us as an audience to the new most uncomfortable scene, and our laser ray of hate becomes focused on him.

We see a completely fallen Robson feminized and humiliated. Cutler is publicly parading around the fact that he is raping Robson, and all of his fellow prisoners join in degrading and mocking him over the fact that he is being raped. Nobody is helping him. Even when Cutler protects him, he is faced with the realty that the only person who gives a fuck about keeping him alive for any reason is a rapist who wants to use him as a sex toy. Is this fate actually better than death? If death would have been better, has he already submitted to too much in his attempt to stay alive that he can't go back on it even if it means he gets to die in relative peace?

In his conversation with Sister Pete, he breaks down in tears and admits that he was a CSA victim and feels like he can't defend himself now any more than he could defend himself when he was a 6 year old little boy getting "fucked in the shed". Understanding the full significance of this means knowing a little bit about the pop psychology climate of the very early 00s. To some audiences at the time, this revelation is the missing puzzle piece that explain why Robson does what he does for 4 seasons. It was a commonly accepted theory that sexual abusers were acting out of sexual trauma, abusing others as a way to take the power back that was stolen from them when they were abused. Robson has lived "shacked up with a psycho", as he later sobs to Sister Pete, for every moment of his existence that is accounted for in the narrative: First with his father, then as Vern's lieutenant, and now as Cutler's prag. This confession also carries the weight of the fact that in submitting to his abuse at Cutler's hands, he is not only reliving his most painful and shameful childhood trauma, but he cannot even experience it as a secret. We wanted to see him hurt, but this is a lot. It kind of isn't satisfying anymore. He can't get much more broken and pitiful. We don't feel any better about seeing him in this state than Said felt about punching him so long after he was passed out.

We see Cutler humiliate him in the gym and then leave him behind for the Italians to intercept, which he responds to by freezing in panic and staring at nothing with dissociated eyes. Does he care if they end his suffering at this point? Was it worth what he went through if he only survived a few miserable days extra before the Italians get their revenge on him anyway? But they don't kill him, they tell him he can redeem himself by killing Cutler and in exchange they won't kill him. The audience is almost as relieved as the character.

Not out of the woods yet though, because we are then subjected to the most graphic (not the most disturbing but 100% the most explicit) scene of any sort of sex act in the series. Nothing is left to the imagination. It shows more than viewers at the time thought even an HBO show could show and still be considered art. It is disgusting and relentless and you want it to stop but didn't you want to see him endure the worst fate possible for his crimes? Did you ever think you would be capable of feeling any pity for the most evil character on the show until Cutler's introduction? Because holy shit you feel bad for him. Even his method for murdering Cutler involves sexually degrading himself in order to convince Cutler to put a noose around his neck (IMHO it is also pretty punk rock and symbolic to kill a white supremacist villain by hanging because of the historical connotations with nooses and racial violence by lynching). When it is over, the worst person in Oz is dead and you are happy about it. Did Robson deserve to get abused? Another question you could ask is, did you like seeing him suffer at the hands of somebody you liked even less? Did you like seeing Cutler swagger and parade him around and get off? If a bad person is hurt by a worse person is your instinct to hate the perpetrator or celebrate that he abused the "right victim"?

Still not over. Unable to accept his rape, he ruins his relationship with his wife and crosses the only line he has ever expressed having. With everything he's done, he now reveals that he does have some moral limit in his mind, he does have some sense of shame (he also expresses shame about what he's done to others when talking to sister Pete). He's not happy about the people he hurt. He doesn't feel good about it. He hurt all those people trying to feel better and it didn't even work. He is then diagnosed with HIV, which had a very different prognosis in 2000 than it does today in 2024. Finally we get a silver lining, a tiny chance at the potential for some sort of redemption; he joins a support group for rape survivors and seeks professional help for his trauma.

That is his last plot point on the show, but the deleted scenes extend the nightmare and I think one in particular is important to mention. In the scene, he is cornered in a bathroom stall by Clarence, who we recognize as the man who originally threatened Winthrop with rape in order to get Winthrop to submit to the Aryans for protection. At best he is a rape enabler, but we come to find that he intends to rape Robson. Robson agrees not to resist, saying it is because he knows he couldn't beat Clarence in a fight. Again, devastating scene. Robson looks so hopeless and literally asks Clarence point blank if he's about the be raped, and when Clarence confirms you want to see the now-healed Robson fight back and it is tragic when he doesn't. Wasn't the last time supposed to be THE last time? Back in the pod, Vern approaches him about a rumor that Clarence was spreading that he fucked Robson, which Robson confirms is true. Vern is disgusted (always weird what he shows disgust/outrage at and what he normalizes/justifies he has very shifty moral goalposts from one episode to the net). Vern asks why he let it happen (Which he really couldn't have prevented it Clarence was 3x his size and he was unarmed and alone). Robson replies that it was for "retribution". When Clarence passes by the cell and mocks Robson, Robson reveals that he was infected with aids and he infected Clarence. For the first time he can make an abuser pay for abusing him without having to be violent himself. This last time WAS the last time it was ever going to happen because now nobody would ever do that to him again without dying a horrible death. He announces with his final line that he is moving to the HIV unit. I have no idea why they deleted this scene.

We hate Robson for nearly his entire run on the show, and while I don't think this arc makes him sympathetic, it forces us to confront what we thought we wanted/what we thought would be justice. When the arc starts you want to see literally every bad thing ever happen to Robson to punish him for all the atrocities he commits with no consequences. It forces us to ask ourselves if we really wanted "equal justice" if it meant having to be so intimately involved with the most repulsive parts of it. At a point you feel bad about wanting what you wanted, there is a limit, you want it to stop. But until you have to watch Robson get his "justice" no matter how pitiable and human he becomes, you think nothing would be too bad for him.

#james robson #R E Rodgers #oz #hbo oz #oz hbo

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