Jeremiah Cloutier
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Reverend Jeremiah Cloutier is a fictional character on the HBO prison drama Oz, played by Luke Perry. Cloutier came to Oz in Season 4 when he was caught embezzling funds from his church. Cloutier was still a good person at heart though and did what he could to convert and comfort many inmates while in Oz. After disagreeing with a manipulative convert named Timmy Kirk, Cloutier is subject to violence from the Biker gang and ends up with third degree burns across the majority of his body. From there the Bikers take and hide his body again where he then dies.
[edit] Season 4
Cloutier arrives in Oz and immediately begins religious services for Oz's Protestant inmates. On the outside he was a famous Reverend who was well respected and as a result Warden Glynn gives him the privelage of working in the Chaplain's office while in Oz. He takes charge of the Christian inmates and is then in a competition with Father Ray Mukada who serves as Oz's head Catholic Priest. He tries to comfort Aryan leader Vern Schillinger into becoming a happier person focusing on the birth of his granddaughter but is warned by his Aryan friends such as James Robson to back off as they need someone to lead them. Cloutier would then successfully convert Biker Jim Burns and Irish inmate Timmy Kirk, who was Catholic at the time and an alter boy at mass for Father Mukada. When Cloutier and Mukada meet after this, they disagree over the Catholic faith and so for a time, there is bad blood between the two. Timmy Kirk begins to use his new faith to attack other inmates who don't share his beliefs such as Catholic convert Samuel Goeugon. As this happens, Mukada realizes Cloutier is in fact true to his faith and with the help of Kareem Said and a local Rabbi, the four hold an ecumenical service. Muslim leader Kareem Said begins to also see Cloutier for being truthful with a belief in justice and then asks him for a favor. As the Aryans and Muslims are at war, inmate Leroy Tidd died at the hands of Carl Jenkins, an Aryan recruit on orders from James Robson but will not give up Robson until Cloutier convinces him to do so as a means of saving himself. This angers Robson and Schillinger who threatens Jenkins who then takes his own life. Schillinger then allows Cloutier to go unharmed as he has been comforting him with a warning not to interfere with Brotherhood business. When the war gets uglier, Glynn has Cloutier calm Schillinger and his Aryan troops down. Kirk in the mean time is still causing trouble and as a result, Cloutier casts him out of the congegation. To get revenge, Timmy enlists the help of Jaz Hoyt and the other bikers. Hoyt humiliated Cloutier by stealing his towel while he is in the shower, forcing him to walk naked back to his cell. Later, Kirk, Hoyt, and others trap Cloutier inside the wall of the cafeteria and at the end of Season 4, there is an explosion in the cafeteria, which miraculously Cloutier survived.
[edit] Season 5
Even though Cloutier is in the hospital and burned beyond recognition, this does not stop Kirk from trying to kill him. Hoyt is haunted by a vision of Cloutier in which Cloutier tells him to kill Kirk. One day, when Dr. Nathan and Father Mukada went to Cloutier's bed, he had disappeared. No explanation was ever given for his disappearance and he was never seen or heard from again. It was however revealed on the final episode of the series by Hoyt where Cloutier's body was taken and as a result, another Biker kills Hoyt.
