Chris Keller
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Chris Keller is a fictional character on the HBO series Oz, portrayed by Christopher Meloni from 1998 to 2003.
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[edit] Season 2
A violent sociopath, Keller had committed several murders by the time he was sent to Oz to serve an 88-year sentence. Upon his arrival, Keller allies himself with the Aryan Brotherhood gang, "owing" the gang's leader, Vernon Schillinger, who protected him as a 17 year-old during a previous sentence, in exchange for sex. Keller is a seductive bisexual who "does what he has to." Schillinger arranges for Keller to meet Tobias Beecher, Schillinger's former "prag" or sex slave, with the intent of gaining his trust and seducing him. A mutual attraction instantly forms between them, and the two eventually exchange confessions of love. Unbeknownst to Beecher, however, Keller has betrayed him to Schillinger and the Aryans, who beat him so mercilessly that they break both his arms and legs. Keller obviously enjoys the beating, but is briefly seen experiencing a moment of regret when he returns to his empty cell.
[edit] Season 3
Keller later tries to seek Beecher's forgiveness, but Beecher rebuffs him, refusing to have anything further to do with him unless he confessed his role in the attack to prison authorities. Keller complies, but Beecher still rejects him, igniting in Keller a confusing, unfamiliar emotion: regret. Keller began attending counseling sessions with the prison psychiatrist, Sister Peter Marie "Sister Pete" Reimondo, as a ploy to win back Beecher's favor. During the meetings, Keller first tries to make her feel ineffective as a psychiatrist; then through various sexual provocations, forces her to question her commitments to as a nun. When Sister Pete discovers that his confessions were insincere, she too turns her back on him.
Keller briefly allies himself with Ryan O'Reily for protection against the Aryans, who now hate him for becoming Beecher's lover and for turning himself in (as Beecher requested), implicating Schillinger. He and O'Reily, an inmate equally devoid of conscience, were a force to be reckoned with, plaguing Schillinger and, along with Beecher, playing a role in the death of his son, Andrew.
Keller eventually did get a chance at a kind of moral redemption when he saved Beecher's life after Schillinger stabs him and Beecher requests that Keller be moved back into their old familiar cell; they share a happy reunion on New Years' Eve.
[edit] Season 4
After a brief period of solitude and happiness during a two-week lockdown, it becomes obvious that Keller and Beecher are a deeply dysfunctional couple, often having sex with different prisoners to make the other jealous. Keller even kills Beecher's lovers, including inmate Mondo Browne, to discredit the new manager of Em City, Martin Querns.
After killing Browne, Keller takes up with his former cellmate/lover, Ronald Barlog, to hurt Beecher. Barlog then secretly makes a deal with FBI Agent Pierce Taylor to give evidence against Keller and have him convicted of three murders in exchange for his own freedom. Beecher is immediately suspicious of Barlog and warns Keller, who dismisses the warning as mere jealousy. But Keller soon starts to have his own suspicions and eventually murders Barlog, snapping his neck while receiving oral sex from him. Just before killing Barlog, Keller confesses that he had indeed committed the murders the FBI suspected him of, and that his victims, all young, gay men, represented something within himself that he hated. When the police discover that Schillinger's other son, Hank, had been murdered and that the hit was ordered by an inmate from within Oz, Keller takes responsibility for the crime to protect Beecher and his family. He is then sent to Massachusetts to stand trial for this murder.
[edit] Season 5
Keller is transferred back to Oz the following year, after Agent Taylor proved he lied about his involvement in Hank Schillinger's murder. He is then put in protective custody while the District Attorney's office tries to convict him of an unsolved murder (which he had indeed committed). While in protective custody, he begins an affair with one of the guards, Officer Claire Howell, but soon tires of her and begins rejecting her advances. Enraged, Howell brutally beats him, putting him in the infirmary, and tells her superiors that he attacked her. After he recuperates from his injuries, he is found guilty of the murder charge, and sentenced to death.
[edit] Season 6
When Beecher is paroled, he shows his gratitude to Keller by helping him appeal his death sentence, which is subsequently overturned. At about this time, Beecher's father is stabbed to death in a suspiciously empty hall. While Keller's relationship with Beecher is by now somewhat estranged, he tries to show his former lover that he still cares by killing Franklin Winthrop, the inmate who had murdered Beecher's father to advance in the Aryan Brotherhood.
Keller then concocts a plan to ensure that he and Beecher could be together again; he asks Beecher to deliver a package of illegal medicine for his dying ex-wife. Beecher hesitates, but eventually agrees and takes the package. Shortly after Beecher leaves the room, Keller makes an anonymous telephone call to tip off the police, getting Beecher caught and sent back to Oz. Furious, Beecher rejects Keller once and for all. At this time, Beecher is offered a deal from the FBI to set Keller up and he seriously considers it.
In order to win back Beecher's affection, Keller devises a plan to get rid of Schillinger. Beecher is cast in the prison theater production of Macbeth which features Schillinger in the lead role and Beecher as MacDuff. Keller switches Beecher's prop knife with a real one. Beecher stabs Schillinger unintentionally during a fight scene, thinking the knife in his hand was a prop. Keller claims to have no idea how a real knife got onto the set. Schillinger's death was considered an accident and nobody was going to be blamed or punished, enraging the Aryan community.
Afterward, Beecher returns to his cell, only to discover that Keller is his new cellmate. Beecher demands to know whether Keller had set him up; when Keller admits the truth, Beecher rejects him for the final time. During the ensuing confrontation in the prison halls Beecher pushes Keller away, only Keller was backed up too far and falls backward over the railing, screaming "NO Beecher NO!". The fall breaks his neck and kills him. Beecher takes the blame for Keller's death, knowing that his rejection had provoked the accident.
At the same time, a package arrives from a friend of Keller's, containing an unknown contaminant — later revealed to be anthrax. When opened by the Aryans in the mail room, the contents are released into the air, killing the inmates and two guards in the room and resulting in a total evacuation. In the final scenes, the entire prison is empty and several buses leave the premises loaded with prisoners and staff, and the camera focuses on Beecher, who can't help but smile knowing who was responsible.
[edit] Popularity and Cultural Impact
Keller, a charming and ruthless opportunist, quickly became one of the most popular characters on the show and an iconic symbol of what Oz was about. Keller also gained notoreity for being one half of the shows iconic romantic couple along with Tobias Beecher. Among fans, particularly gay fans, the Beecher/Keller relationship, sometimes know as B/K love, was a highlight of the show. The relationship was one of the first gay romances shown on American tv. The character of Keller in particular is one of the most truly bisexual fictional characters on TV. This is emphasized by Keller's desire to have sex with many fellow inmates, correctional officers, and other individuals regardless of whether or not they are male or female. More proof of this is present are Keller's three ex-wives, his relationship with Beecher, and the allegations of his murder of three young homosexual men whom he met at a gay bar.
