Sister Peter Marie Reimondo aka Sister Pete is a fictional character on the HBO drama Oz played by Rita Moreno.
Contents |
In an article in The New York Times, Sister Pete was inspired by series creator Tom Fontana's older sister, who is a nun and worked in a prison.
A nun, she served as the titular prison's lead drug counselor and psychologist. She opposed the death penalty, supported much of Tim McManus' ideology, and cared to help the inmates become better people. She was formerly married, but her husband was killed when he was pushed off a truck by inmate Ron Bebe.
She also was involved in several issues throughout the series involving Tobias Beecher, Chris Keller, Dr. Gloria Nathan, Kareem Said, Ryan O'Reily and Vern Schillinger. She was especially fond of William Giles, a mentally disturbed inmate who solved her husband's murder.
Sister Pete's role in Oz is to evaluate the psychiatric condition of the inmates and provide counseling to keep them mentally stable and healthy. She's in charge of assigning conjugal visits until Governor James Devlin puts a halt to them. She also leads a group therapy session for former drug addicted inmates. When Tobias Beecher arrives, she learns he has the computer skills she needs for an assistant and hires him on the spot. After Devlin reinstates the death penalty and makes Jefferson Keane the first to be executed, Sister Pete loses her job for speaking out against the execution. She joins the protesters outside Oz. Although her beliefs are strong, she decides to return to Oz.
She tries counseling Ryan O'Reily after he becomes obsessed with Dr. Nathan. She then has to keep quiet about Warden Glynn's daughter's rape at his request. She soon discovers the mentally unstable, elderly inmate William Giles confined to solitary knows who killed her late husband. She's able to break through to him and learn exactly what happened on that day. She rewards him with a supply of his dental supplies (as Giles is an avid tooth-cleaner), for which he's eternally grateful.
This season, Sister Pete initiates a victim/offender program to help Rivera (the victim) and Alvarez (the offender) come to terms with Miguel's blinding Rivera. The program ends abruptly when Rivera and his wife decide not to return for more sessions even though Sister Pete seemed to make progress with Miguel. Next up, Keller starts counseling sessions to come to terms with his feelings about betraying Beecher. During these sessions, Keller turns the discussion's to focus on her. Soon her personal feelings and suppressed longing for those "fleshy" desires arise and she starts questioning her faith and commitment to being a nun. After discovering that Keller's been using her just to get Beecher back, she refuses to counsel him. In a confessional to Father Mukada, she explains her decision to leave the convent. After finding out about death row inmate Shirley Bellinger's pregnancy, Sister Pete examines Bellinger and recommends that Shirley be transferred to a mental institution.
Sister Pete decides to leave and asks for resignation papers to be drawn up for her. Cardinal Abgot visits Oz and has a conversation with her about her plans. He informs her that the decision is ultimately hers but that her feelings are not out of the ordinary. When Nat Ginzburg's condition worsens, he asks Sister Pete to request his execution be moved up. Sister Pete convinces Glynn to approve the request however, when the warden and COs' come to take Nat, they find that he's already died peacefully in his sleep. Remembering his last request to her, Sister Pete promptly sits down and proceeds to finish polishing Nat's nails. Sister Pete continues her refusal to treat Keller in group or individual sessions. Her trust in Keller has been shattered and she refuses to change her mind. She finally convinces Dr. Nathan to participate in the victim/offender program with brothers Ryan and Cyril O'Reily. The session ends abruptly. While sitting at her desk contemplating the session she tears the resignation papers to shreds and decides to stay.
Sister Pete continues her victim offender program. This time, her subjects become Beecher and Schillinger and she becomes puzzled when Schillinger begins quoting bible passages and claiming that he wants nothing but peace and happiness in his life. She also takes up William Giles's cause to be stoned to death for killing Bevilaqua only the Governor wants him executed by traditional means. The press gets a hold of the story and a petition is sent on Giles' behalf, ultimately causing his sentence to be overturned, about which Sister Pete is happy.
When Cyril's attorney reports that his unruly behavior is disrupting the proceedings, Sister Pete gives Cyril a hand puppet to help him cope. She aligns herself with Father Meehan (Malachy McCourt), Suzanne Fitzgerald, and Cyril's attorney, to pressure the state to overturn the death penalty. She believes Cyril's actions although violent are caused of his diminished mental capacity and he's not completely responsible. During a session Schibetta reveals that he was raped by three men. Sister Pete recommends he talk with Dr. Nathan to help him deal with his attack. At a later time, Sister Pete met with Adam Guenzel, a new inmate who is now completely under Schillinger's control. Her attempts to get information from Adam are to no avail, as he is too afraid of Schillinger's wrath to tell anyone about the abuse he suffers. She decides to ask the three inmates she knows have insight: Beecher, Said and Schillinger. When she asks them to speak up on anything they may know about Guenzel's case, none of them responds. Angry and frustrated, she dismisses them and refuses to see any of them for future sessions.
Most of the final season saw Sister Pete deal with Cyril's death sentence. She discovers that Cyril develops Dissociative identity disorder, or another personality through the puppet 'Jericho' that she gave him during his trial. When she asks for the puppet back, he gives it to her, but almost breaks her hand in doing so. She also oversees the evaluation of Keller, who's now on Death Row. When the governor lets Sister Pete know that Cyril will undergo Electroconvulsive therapy, to make Cyril "seem" normal enough to execute, she is distraught, knowing there is nothing she can do to stop it, and takes a walk in the meditative maze. She watches in horror when Leo Glynn stumbles to the Awards Ceremony, covered in blood and dies on the ground. Even though she and Warden Glynn often had disagreements, she agreed that he was "the best man for the worst job".
Finally, she evaluates inmate Lemuel Idzik (Joel Grey), who was sent to Death Row for killing Omar White. When he tells her that he killed Omar to intentionally be put on Death Row after he lost all hope in living after meeting Kareem Said who told him how the universe would ultimately be doomed, she views that as him being self-destructive (and a way of committing suicide) and successfully has his sentenced commuted. Finally, she witnesses the execution of Cyril O'Reily, along with Suzanne Fitzgerald (Betty Buckley), after his stay ends.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||