Andrew Schillinger

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Andrew Peter Schillinger, played by Frederick Koehler, is an inmate on the HBO drama Oz.

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[edit] Character overview

Raised with his brother Hank by his racist grandfather Heinrick and equally racist father Vern Schillinger, Andrew has supported the ideology of the Aryan Brotherhood throughout his whole life. As a result, he lands in Oz for his part in a hate crime murdering a black man through the dragging off of a pickup truck (very similar to the James Byrd murder in Jasper, Texas).

Andrew, however, has a problem that makes his commitment to the brotherhood questionable: he is a full blown heroin addict. Andrew's addiction causes problems with he and his father in Oz that eventually results in his death.

When he and Hank, his younger brother, were 12 and 10 years old (respectively), Vern nearly murdered a black drug dealer from whom they were trying to buy marijuana, the crime for which he was incarcerated.

[edit] Season 3

Andrew arrives in Oz for his part in a hate crime murdering a black man. When in Oz, he looks for drugs immediately and is supplied by Irish inmate Ryan O'Reilly. He has been moved to Emerald City purposefully by unit manager Tim McManus, who hates his father Vernon Schillinger, the head of the Aryan Brotherhood, serving time in Oz's unit B. When Schillinger begs Warden Glynn to move Andrew to Unit B, Glynn refuses as he remembers Vern's past obstinance.

In the cafeteria, Vern sees Andrew drugged out courtesy of O'Reilly and then gets CO Len Lopresti to take him to the isolation ward for using. Because of Andrew's addiction, Vern tells the brotherhood to ignore him until he is drug free, as the Aryans in Oz oppose the use of drugs. At the same time, the other inmates, including the blacks, who are sickened by his crime, do not make any murder or rape attempts on Andrew out of fear of Vern's wrath. When Andrew gets back to Emerald City, he is cut off from O'Reilly's drug connections, who claims that Andrew is burning through his supply too fast. O'Reilly then points out that the other dealers in Oz are of other races, who Andrew couldn't buy from based on his Aryan beliefs.

In drug rehab, Andrew is very disrespectful to Sister Pete and his attitude starts a fight between inmates Chris Keller and Tobias Beecher, which they later reveal was staged. Beecher then befriends Andrew, a move that McManus, the staff, and other inmates question, given Tobias' hate for Vern. Over a period of time, Tobias helps Andrew get drug free and then he begins to associate more with Beecher, Keller, and O'Reilly for non-drug related reasons. As all three are looking to exact revenge on Vern, Schillinger becomes worried that his son will be murdered or raped by any of the three, especially after Beecher taunts Schillinger in the mail room about it. In drug rehab then, Andrew states he is glad to be clean and as he becomes clean, he starts to abandon the ideology that was taught to him by his family.

In the cafeteria, Vern speaks with Andrew and hugs him, happy that he is drug free. He claims that he wants have a better father-son relationship then they had growing up, but Andrew rejects him, angered by everything that his father stands for. Vern hits him and Andrew retaliates and the COs, led by Lopresti, take Andrew to the hole. Vern, heartbroken that his son has renounced him, arranges for the COs to take Andrew a package of heroin, as a way of "renouncing" him as Andrew renounced his father and the Aryan beliefs. Lopresti delivers the heroin to the hole. Andrew at first resists, throwing the package away, but breaks down and then overdoses on it. As the COs carry Andrew's personal effects out of his pod, Beecher, O'Reilly, and Keller reveal that this was their plan all along and it went perfectly, though the realization that his plan worked changes Beecher.

[edit] Season 6

His spirit, along with Hank's, narrate the episode "4giveness".

[edit] References