Ryan O'Reily
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- For the wrestler, see Ryan O'Reilly (wrestler).
Ryan O'Reily is a fictional character in the television series Oz. He is portrayed by Dean Winters.
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[edit] Character overview
O’Reily is an Irish American gangster sentenced to life imprisonment after he went on a drug and alcohol fuelled rampage through the city. His charges include possession of a weapon, possession of narcotics, parole violation and vehicular manslaughter, among other things. A cunning sociopath, O’Reily survives in Oz by manipulating everyone around him, playing for a variety of inmate gangs to get whatever he wants; series creator Tom Fontana has likened him to Iago, the villain of Shakespeare's Othello.
[edit] Season 1
He was the primary cause of nearly every death in the first season of Oz:
- He bribed the guards in solitary confinement to allow Johnny Post in to burn Dino Ortolani
- He then betrayed Post to the Italians.
- He set up Jefferson Keane to be killed. This backfired, and Keane went to Death Row for killing one of his attackers.
- Along with Simon Adebisi, he fed Nino Schibetta ground glass over the course of a few weeks, causing him internal hemorrhage.
With all his major competition eliminated, O’Reily became a major player in the Oz drugs scene. He also plays a major role in Tobias Beecher's newly developed addiction to drugs, being his main supplier (usually in exchange for legal advice, but mostly just to pass the time).
[edit] Season 2
In the second season O’Reily was enjoying his new status in the Oz drug scene when he was diagnosed with breast cancer. He was helped through his treatment and chemotherapy by Dr. Gloria Nathan, the Hispanic head doctor in Oz. O’Reily fell in love with her and was so overcome with jealousy of her husband that he got his mentally handicapped brother, Cyril, to kill him. Cyril was arrested and sent to Oz, but was put in a different unit than his brother. There, he was raped by Vern Schillinger and his Aryan Brotherhood gang. O’Reily was enraged but couldn't do anything about it. In order to protect Cyril, he asked the manager of his unit, Tim McManus, to transfer Cyril into "Em City" with him. McManus then would agree only in return for O’Reily's admission that he told Cyril to kill Preston Nathan which O’Reily refused. Later, when a prison guard was blinded by Miguel Alvarez and needed a blood transfusion, it turned out that O’Reily was the only prisoner in Oz to match his blood type. He used this leverage to secure a place for his brother in Em City with him. However, O’Reily stepped up in telling McManus the truth so that he could remain in Oz to protect Cyril. McManus then informed him he would be brought up on charges for ordering the murder of Preston Nathan.
[edit] Season 3
Still eager for revenge on Schillinger for Cyril's rape, Ryan manipulated Jaz Hoyt into attacking him, but he escaped unharmed. Furious, O’Reily joined forces with Chris Keller and Tobias Beecher, two other inmates who were looking to get even with Schillinger. When Schillinger's son Andrew came to Em City, O’Reily tricked the young man, whom Beecher then befriended. O’Reily tortured Andrew even worse when he stopped selling drugs to him and forced him to buy them through the non-white inmates. Because Andrew had been trained as a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, he couldn't buy drugs from those inmates. When Andrew publicly embarrassed his father, Schillinger gave his son enough heroin to overdose as a kind of test - which he failed by dying. O’Reily felt no guilt whatsoever about this.
Meanwhile, the prison administrators hired a new CO supervisor, Sean Murphy. Murphy was a Black Irish like O’Reily, and the two become friendly. When Murphy organised a boxing tournament, O’Reily entered Cyril. To ensure Cyril won, he spiked the spritzers (slipped a mickey) of his opponents. Cyril beat James Robson, one of the Aryans who raped him in the first round and as a result, Ryan wins money in the bets and the Aryans leave Cyril alone for good. From there, Ryan then spikes Miguel Alvarez's water but not before telling his opponent, gay inmate Jason Cramer that the Latinos will rape his lover if he loses the fight. As a result Alvarez loses, the Latinos look worse and Carmen Guerra grows suspicious of O’Reily winning every bet. In round two, Cyril must fight Italian inmate Chucky Pancamo who Cyril is almost no match for in any way. After arranging the death of William Cudney who threatened to expose Ryan for cheating, he spikes Pancamo's water with heroin and Cyril barely wins the next fight. Murphy though discovers O’Reily cheating on the tip of Nikolai Stanislofsky and got furious telling Ryan to stop so that a riot does not break out. In order to allow Cyril to keep his edge and win the final fight against Muslim inmate Hamid Khan, O’Reily forced his brother to think of their abusive father. Pushed into a rage, Cyril beat Khan into a coma, making him brain dead. Making things worse, Cyril's injury to a Black inmate fuels the brewing racial tension in Oz which forces a lockdown into the new millennium.
[edit] Season 4 Part I
O’Reily still remained an ally of Simon Adebisi throughout the racial tension within Oz. Later, he participated with Cyril in an interaction session with Dr. Gloria Nathan and her husband's parents. Nathan wanted him there mostly to condemn him for killing her husband, but O’Reily turned the tables on them when he said that she and Tim McManus were having an affair. She was later raped by Irish hoodlum Patrick Keenan, and she suspected O’Reily set her up. He did not, but told her that he did so she could feel whole again, and then killed Keenan. Nathan took a leave of absence shortly after. Ryan also has a dispute over possession of a contraband cell phone with Nikolai Stanislofsky, eventually resulting in Stanislofsky's demise at the hands of Officer Claire Howell.
In Em City, white and Latino inmates and COs were constantly traded for black COs and inmates who supported Adebisi, so O’Reily and Keller united to turn the tables. They murdered inmates Nate Shemin and Mondo Browne, and framed Supreme Allah. Unit Manager Martin Querns was then fired and McManus was rehired.
[edit] Season 4 Part II
A television crew came to film events within Oz curious as to how the now-deceased Adebisi corrupted the place, headed by Jack Eldridge, a reporter who once made a mockery of the O’Reily brothers. More precisely, Eldridge had reported on Irish gang activity in general and the O'Reilys in particular, exposing them as criminals to their mother, who was emotionally devastated upon finding out. Cyril beat Eldridge and the staff was partially relieved. Later, Dr. Nathan returned, claiming that she did indeed have feelings for O’Reily. Supreme Allah was released from solitary and told O’Reily that he knew who framed him, so he and Keller went to Burr Redding and asked that he be eliminated. Redding then had Tug Daniels stab Supreme Allah.
A woman named Suzanne Fitzgerald came to visit, claiming to be O’Reily's birth mother. O’Reily rejected this at first but accepted it after his father told him about her. His mother turned out to be a 1960s radical on the run and looking to settle down. Later, Asian inmate Jia Kenmin and Cyril fight, putting Jia into a coma. The staff threatened to send him to a mental institution. Meanwhile, Provisional IRA member Padraig Connolly arrived and plans with O’Reily to blow up the prison. The bombing was unsuccessful, but O’Reily went unpunished.
[edit] Season 5
O’Reily's mother turned herself in and Governor Devlin reduced her charge to a two-year community service sentence at Oz. Inmate Li Chen arrived shortly after and Jia Kenmin then plotted with him to put the O’Reily brothers on Death Row. He persuaded inmate Glen Shupe to lie to Cyril about Chen raping Suzanne after coming out of his coma. Cyril then stabbed and killed Chen defending Ryan but stands trial for murder. The O’Reily family decided that Cyril is too mentally scarred to live, so they did not oppose his trial. O’Reily, in the meantime, shared a cell with Father Daniel Meehan, an Irish-American priest imprisoned for his part in a violent protest, who helped prison psychiatrist Sister Peter Marie fight for Cyril's life. Kemin constantly berated Ryan about his brother, and after finding out that Shupe was paid to lie, O’Reily then plotted for revenge. Seeing the hate that Enrique Morales had for Kenmin, O’Reily made a deal with the Latinos. The Latinos agreed to horribly injure Shupe, making sure it wouldn't be traced back to O’Reily while O’Reily agreed to have Kenmin die without it being traced back to them. The Latinos took off Shupe's arm, and O’Reily provoked Kenmin into a fight where he ended up aiding the COs as they had trouble restraining Kenmin. He convinced officer Robinson whom he backed up during the restraint set up that Kenmin talked badly of the guards and as a result, the COs killed him in solitary. Motivated by the previous bad blood he had with the Aryans, O’Reily with Poet announces in the cafeteria the "ghetto gums" that Aryan James Robson had surgically implanted. Robson is kicked out of the Brotherhood because of his now "black blood."
With Meehan's guidance, O’Reily opened up about his childhood traumas and, after a while, finally joined the effort to save Cyril, who was nevertheless sentenced to death. O’Reily vowed to be there in the appeal process.
[edit] Season 6
O’Reily forced Shupe to tell the truth to Cyril's attorney Arnold Zelman, who was unable to get him to testify after it was concluded that Shupe was a compulsive liar. Shortly afterward, Meehan died and Peter Schibetta was rumored to have killed him by giving him "the evil eye"; as revenge for O’Reily killing his father, Schibetta vowed to curse everyone O’Reily loved. O’Reily went to Chucky Pancamo for help, and the Italians had Schibetta killed. Throughout this season, Zelman appealed the case with not too much luck.
Jahfree Neema, a former Black Panther, was sent to Oz and turned out to be connected to Suzanne. He initially hated O’Reily, who tried to get Redding to murder him. Neema, however, told Ryan that he wanted to save Cyril and he organized every inmate from every gang to protest the execution, resulting in a last second stay of execution. Meanwhile, their father, Seamus, arrived in Oz and tried to kill Neema, but ended up in the hospital instead. As Cyril finally died, Seamus finally made peace with his sons.
