Tim McManus

Tim McManus is a fictional character on HBO's prison drama Oz, played by Terry Kinney.

Character overview

McManus, the idealistic manager of Emerald City, is unlike the rest of the staff members at Oz as he has never been a CO, has a college education, and generally believes in the inmates as people more than the rest of the staff. Throughout the series, McManus believes that he can rehabilitate the prisoners hoping to turn them into better citizens. McManus is often questioned by Warden Leo Glynn with some of his motives but he usually comes on top of any situation he encounters. McManus also has multiple sexual relationships with several female staff members throughout the series which ends up being problematic in season 3. Overall, McManus has an equal number of positive and negative traits. From a negative standpoint, McManus is over-zealous, egotistical, overly idealistic, naive, and self-righteous. From a positive standpoint, McManus believes in justice, morality, the goodness of people and is helpful and persistent to the point where his idealism can work. McManus loves Emerald City, the unit he manages as he wants to make it an ideal prison where people of all groups learn to live together and improve themselves.

As a Unit Manager

As a Unit Manager, McManus strives to rehabilitate prisoners with a very persistent attitude that doesn't give up that easily. On one episode, McManus claims that he has dedicated his life to Emerald City, and this is seen throughout the show. His goal is to make inmates in his unit become more productive citizens even if they are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole. As he believes in the inmates more than the rest of the staff, he is somewhat naive at times believing that he can help the inmates even if they are plotting against him. This is the point at which McManus' idealism gets him in trouble as he makes himself prone to set ups. McManus however does take steps in the right direction as a unit manager by setting up GED programs, assigning the inmates in his unit to various work details, setting up an Emerald City council with one inmate from each of the ten groups, promotes drug and substance abuse counseling programs, and does what he can to make inmates in his unit eligible for parole. While he doesn't see eye to eye with Warden Glynn on several issues, Glynn admires his vision and often allows McManus to do what he wishes in managing Emerald City. While McManus is sometimes lax in disciplining inmates, he is sometimes successful in pushing inmates to better themselves.

In Relationships

McManus has several sexual relationships in Oz with almost every female staff member there except for Sister Pete. He first dates Dr. Nathan as she is separated from her husband and then CO Diane Wittlesey followed briefly by Claire Howell. Dating Howell turns out to be problematic as she sues him for sexual harassment as he no longer wants to date her. He then attempts to get with Wittlesey again buying her an engagement ring only to be rejected when she gets married overseas on a vacation from Oz. The break up with Wittlesey puts Tim on a self-destructive path that results in him being fired as Unit Manager of Emerald City. Later McManus goes out with a woman from the state department that is helping some Chinese refugees get situated in Oz. In Season 5 we learn that McManus was married to Eleanor O'Connor who left him because he became too self-righteous when things did not go his way.

Relationship with Staff

Throughout the series, McManus while respecting his coworkers questions the CO actions more than the higher ranking staff members. Throughout the series he seems to get along best with Officers Sean Murphy, Jason Armstrong, Joseph Mineo, Rick Heim, Diane Wittlesey, and Andrea Phelan. He finds dissent from Officers Mike Healy and Eddie Hunt who are arrested and killed while working at Oz. He also conflicts with Claire Howell whom he broke off a sexual relationship with and Adrian Johnson when it is discovered that he helped kill Warden Glynn. Amongst the rest of the staff, he finds support from Sister Pete and Dr. Gloria Nathan on most issues but is sometimes seen as being too self-centered and idealistic when pertaining to some specific issues. Nevertheless, McManus is given autonomy when managing his cell blocks regardless of mutual agreements between him and the COs he supervises.

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McManus is given complete control of cell block 5 aka Emerald City by the state prison commissioner. While in charge of Em City, he selects various inmates he wishes to possibly rehabilitate to fill his population. He is a liberal college educated man whom the rest of the staff often sees as too naive and idealistic. He never moved up through the ranks of Oz as a Guard either and is not fully respected by some of the staff members as well. When dealing with issues such as stopping the drug traffic, McManus believes in more rehab classes as opposed to shakedowns and lockdowns as he believes fighting addictions is the best way to salvage his inmates. Throughout the season, Governor James Devlin, a right winged politician who both McManus and the inmates hate passes several laws denying the inmates basic rights such as smoking privileges and conjugal visits. With all that is happening from the government, McManus predicts that a riot will occur in Oz. Adding to the fear of a riot is new inmate Kareem Said, a Black nationalist who intends on turning the African American prisoners of Oz (78% of the prison population) on the prison taking it over. McManus watches him carefully throughout the season. Additionally McManus must also watch over a war going on between the Black Gangster inmates The Homeboys and The Italians. The war is rooted in the drug trade and general racism that exists between the two ethnic groups. When Dino Ortolani nearly kills the gay brother of the Homeboy leader Jefferson Keane, McManus looks to stop what is happening but as a result several inmates die, Keane gets the death penalty, and the FBI investigates Oz's inmates and staff. After the investigation, McManus and Warden Leo Glynn warn the Italian and Black inmates to cool off on the war. McManus goes against Italian leader Nino Schibetta to stop in the drug trade by transferring all of his Italian gang members besides him out of Emerald City. Also in the drug trade, Kareem Said suggests that the COs themselves are dealing and one of them Mike Healy, a CO with a low opinion of McManus is caught dealing to Ryan O'Reily.

In the meantime, McManus begins a sexual relationship with a female CO Diane Wittlesey who is also the supervising CO of Em City. This relationship concerns some of the staff members, mainly Warden Glynn and invites ridicule from the inmates. Later when inmate Donald Groves makes an attempt on Warden Glynn's life, he instead kills CO Lawrence Smith and gets the death penalty. In the time between the murder and Groves' execution, several COs hospitalize various inmates in retaliation for the murder of Smith. McManus and Dr. Gloria Nathan want these COs fired but staff members such as Lenny Burrano push for them to go unpunished. Warden Leo Glynn resolves this by temporarily suspending several COs without pay. As new COs come in, one of them gives Kareem Said a gun secretly. Before this happens, McManus in fear of a riot calls for a shakedown that finds almost every prisoner except for Said is armed. McManus takes away the inmates privileges for two months as punishment adding to the tension within Oz. Meanwhile, inmate Tobias Beecher who has become a sexual slave and object of ridicule to Aryan Brotherhood leader Vernon Schillinger attacks Schillinger blinding and defecating on him in the process. McManus then has Schillinger transferred to Gen Pop where he shortly afterwards begs McManus to stay in Em City so he can make parole.

After this happens, McManus is off to lunch and a fight breaks out between two biker inmates over a game of checkers. The fight causes other inmates to join in and soon enough a full blown riot erupts. In the middle of the riot, Said shoots his gun in the air as a means of organizing all the inmates. COs Joseph Mineo, Vic D'Agnasti, Jason Armstrong, Diane Wittlesey, Eddie Hunt, and Anthony Nowakowski are taken hostage along with Father Ray Mukada. McManus wants to resolve the riot through negotiation and agrees to go into Em City on his own with food for the prisoners as a means of checking on the hostages. In Em City, inmates Kareem Said, Miguel Alvarez, Ryan O'Reily, Scott Ross, and Simon Adebisi are the riot leaders. The inmates send out a list of demands for ending the riot, most of which McManus and Warden Glynn find harmless. Governor James Devlin is one way in all of this and calls for the SORT Team to recapture Em City with force. When checking on the hostages, McManus tells Said a childhood story about growing up in Attica, New York during the time of the Attica Prison Riots as a means of warning them over what will happen. As this story ends, the power is turned off and the SORT team with gas and machine guns recaptures Oz.

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The aftermath of the riot is investigated by Law School Dean Alvah Case who is handpicked by Governor James Devlin to lead it. During the riot, McManus was shot by Scott Ross and ended up in the hospital. CO Diane Wittlesey took revenge on Ross by using a gun supplied by SORT team member Rick Heim shooting him in the brain, heart, and genitals deliberately ending his life. Throughout the investigation, Case pries at this but Warden Leo Glynn eventually convinces him not to file charges against Wittlesey. This does not die easy however as inmate Vernon Schillinger witnessed the shooting and will use it as blackmail against the staff. As the investigation is concluded, Case does not recommend filing charges as the riot was the direct result of Governor Devlin's office taking away numerous inmate privileges before the riot. This also leads Devlin to state that Case will not get the Attorney General position he was promised, which Case does not care for any more as he announces he will run for Governor himself. Emerald City is reopened after 10 months of being closed however allowing McManus to once again run his unit.

In the reopening of Em City, McManus states some new changes will be in effect. First the ten inmate groups, the Muslims, Homeboys, Italians, Latinos, Aryans, Bikers, Irish, Gays, Christians, and the Others will each have four inmates in Em City at a given time, no more no less. Second a Seg Council will be established with one member from each group present. Finally, a mandatory GED program is in effect for all those inmates who have not yet completed high school. The Muslims initially give McManus a hard time about the Council meetings but they eventually give in when McManus states how much he wishes for things to be different and how much he wants his prison system to succeed.

In the high school program, McManus gets inmate Jonathan Coushaine a Christian inmate and former high school teacher to teach the GED classes. In recruiting inmates to be in the program, McManus notices Arnold "Poet" Jackson and his gift for poetry. He wants Poet to succeed and offers him a secret conjugal visit if he gets through the program. While Poet is doing well in the class, Kenny Wangler a fellow Black inmate is causing numerous discipline problems. It turns out the Wangler is illiterate and McManus vows that if he learns to read, he will be a much better off human being. For a while, Wangler's reading skills pick up but Simon Adebisi, his gang leader is not pleased with this and forces him to stop appeasing McManus. Wangler's behavior then deteriorates and he is not allowed to attend the graduation ceremony causing more discipline problems in class such as harassing Poet. Poet however does very well in the class to the point that McManus and Kareem Said put their differences aside to help him get published. Poet gets published, becomes class valedictorian and even gets early parole. Poet's parole is unfortunately short lived as he spends all his book money on drugs and shoots down a drug dealer who comes to collect a debt. Things get even worse when Governor James Devlin announces that the state budget has decided to eliminate the GED program from prisons a move that angers McManus severely.

In other issues this season, McManus sees a new war brewing between Simon Adebisi and the Italians led by Peter Schibetta, Nino's son. McManus and Glynn are not quick to investigate acts of violence between the two and as a result, Adebisi rapes Schibetta without being punished for it. Staff Investigator Lenny Burrano and the new Italian leader Antonio Nappa get revenge on Adebisi though taking away heroin from him and getting him sent to the psych ward. Vernon Schillinger's parole is cancelled courtesy of Tobias Beecher who gets him set up on a conspiracy charge. Schillinger then gets Kareem Said to act his lawyer, a move that shocks everyone in Oz. Schillinger intends to bring up the Scott Ross murder again and as a result, McManus is faced with a dilemma. McManus sees that if he does not testify against Wittlesey, he is going against his beliefs about justice but if he does, he convicts the woman who saved his life. As a result, McManus transfers Wittlesey to supervise another Unit as he cannot live with a daily reminder about the shooting. Wittlesey is then replaced by Karl Metzger, a CO with ties to the Aryan Brotherhood who helps Vernon Schillinger and new inmate Chris Keller cripple Tobias Beecher. This angers McManus who starts to view Metzger with skepticism. In the meantime, a CO Eugene Rivera is blinded by Miguel Alvarez, an inmate McManus thought he could help. Finally, Kareem Said is offered a pardon during the month of Ramadan but publicly refuses it from Governor Devlin as he feels it is a cheap way of gaining Islamic voters. McManus is shocked but somewhat impressed that Said publicly humiliated Devlin.

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A lawsuit has been filed against the staff at Oz courtesy of Kareem Said due to the results of the Season 1 riot. The staff then faces the possibility of being hit for over $40 million dollars. McManus then appears investigating Officer Karl Metzger. There have been a series of attacks that the Aryan Brotherhood has been involved with and all of them have occurred under Metzger's watch. When inmate Agamemnon Busmalis is attacked by Metzger for making a tunnel that killed two Aryan inmates, inmate Bob Rebadow informs McManus that he must take action. McManus notices an Aryan tattoo on Metzger then states to him that he realizes who and what he is. Furthermore, McManus finds out through a friend in the FBI that Metzger once belonged to the White Supremacy Warriors while living in Montana. When Warden Glynn and Sister Pete are informed of this, Glynn states that he refuses to take action until someone testifies that Metzger is working hand in hand with Aryan leader Vern Schillinger. McManus then states the inmates are too afraid and one of them will most likely die before legal action is taken. Furthermore, he states to Glynn, a Black man that Metzger considers him as nothing more than a "Nigger" as a means of pushing him. This move draws interest in firing Metzger from Glynn who is angered at currently having no legal ammunition to take Metzger down. Chris Keller shortly afterwards testifies and Metzger then dies undetected at the hands of Tobias Beecher.

With Metzger gone, McManus wishes to hire a CO from the outside as his head CO so that he can come to Oz with an unbiased opinion about specific inmates. He requests that Sean Murphy, who works at Attica, be hired, and Glynn says yes. Murphy immediately helps on arrival by setting up an inmate boxing program at the request of McManus. He also helps the O'Reily brothers Ryan and Cyril deal with the Aryans. Cyril is mentally retarded and arrives in Season 2 for murdering the husband of Dr. Gloria Nathan at the orders of Ryan. Because of this McManus is uncaring as to their problem with the Aryans who raped Cyril and turns a deaf ear to every situation they get involved with. Murphy enrolls Cyril in the boxing tournament where he beats James Robson, one of the Aryans who raped him in the first round.

There are other new COs hired this season that McManus must deal with. First is CO Clayton Hughes, the son of deceased CO Samuel Hughes who was also Leo Glynn's best friend. Hughes has trouble adjusting as a CO and gets into a mix up in Em City with the Latinos where he uses a stun gun to attack inmate Raoul "El Cid" Hernandez. Glynn transfers him to the library from there for the duration of the season. Second is Claire Howell, a female officer who McManus ends up having a sexual relationship with. When McManus no longer wants to have sex with her, she is transferred to another unit and upset, she sues him for sexual harassment. The case is settled out of court and McManus must deal with her for the rest of the season threatening to sue him. McManus is seen differently from the staff as a result of Howell's accusation and inmate Simon Adebisi takes advantage of this and convinces inmate Kenny Wangler to sue him for sexual harassment as well. While Wangler's claim is in no way credible, Glynn begins to wonder if McManus is in fact sexually abusive. Adebisi complicates further telling a news crew about this and then starts organizing the Black inmates throughout Oz.

With the championship boxing round approaching, the racial tension in Oz is very high. Making the situation worse is Cyril O'Reily who is white is facing Hamid Khan who is black. A fight breaks out between the Aryan and Muslim inmates making Warden Leo Glynn consider postponing the fight indefinitely. After Ryan O'Reily and Khan talk with Glynn, the fight occurs and ends in tragedy as Khan is left permanently brain damaged. This stirs up the racial issues even worse and a fight then breaks out between Wittlesey and Howell as Wittlesey is angered over the sexual harassment charge. They end up hospitalized where Glynn says McManus is not taking responsibility for his actions. McManus then angered at Glynn says he never has supported him in any event especially those relating to any situations involving anyone who is Black. He states that Glynn has automatically taken the side of Clayton Hughes, Kareem Said, or Kenny Wangler based on their color alone. To attempt to put an end on the racial tension, Murphy and McManus confiscate the inmates' pornography magazines as a way of telling them to behave and clean up their act. Adebisi takes advantage of this further by getting Augustus Hill sent to the hole giving the Black inmates a reason to stand up and riot. Oz is then locked down by Glynn who fears for racial violence.

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The lockdown is ended with a warning by Warden Leo Glynn but Adebisi is not yet finished. He goes to Glynn requesting that Poet, Pierce, and Wangler come back to Em City, a move that McManus shows his dissent over. In Em City, McManus thinks order is maintained until the three of them bully around a new inmate Guilliame Tarrant. Meanwhile, McManus decides to buy Diane Wittlesey a wedding ring and ask her to marry him upon her return from vacation time in England. However, during her vacation time she marries a Royal Guard while there and subsequently quit work at Oz. This puts McManus into disarray as he begins spinning into a self-destructive alcoholic state. Adebisi has also gotten a gift from a Black CO that no one knows about- a gun. Adebisi stirs up trouble with it then giving it to the bullied Tarrant who then shoots Wangler, Pierce, and several other Blacks while in Em City. This incident causes Warden Glynn to strongly consider firing McManus as he is a candidate for Lieutenant Governor. Glynn still however believes in McManus until his self-destructive behavior is made present at the funeral of Officer Joseph Howard the Black CO who died in the shooting. At the funeral, McManus makes an idiot of himself and begins singing De Camptown Races, a racist dialect song that ridicules Blacks angering Glynn and the other African Americans present at the funeral. Under pressure by the Republican office and offended by McManus' idiotic and racist behavior, Glynn now has all the reason he needs to fire McManus and does so suggesting that he go to therapy and get his act together.

While McManus is fired, Sean Murphy is temporarily named Unit Manager. This move angers McManus who thinks that Murphy should have quit when he left. However, Tim undergoes psychiatric counseling and then is ready to return to work. When he is gone, Glynn hires Martin Querns to run Em City and subsequently offers McManus a job in Unit B which he reluctantly takes. In Unit B, he doesn't push the rehabilitation programs that he had in Em City as there are more inmates he does not believe in serving time in this unit and it is a general population cell block. In the lounge room, he then notices that Joseph Mineo, Sean Murphy and Jason Armstrong have all been replaced in Em City. When McManus asks why, they claim that Querns, an African American has replaced all the Non-Black COs in Em City with African American COs. McManus then states that they come work for him and he then informs Glynn of this who has Claire Howell transferred into Em City.

Emerald City while McManus is gone undergoes several changes that he is unaware of. First Querns and Adebisi make a deal- Adebisi and his followers may do whatever they wish as long as no violence occurs and order is maintained. In the meantime, Querns turns a blind eye to all the illegal drug use, alcohol use, and sodomy that is occurring at the hands of Adebisi. Secondly to maintain order with followers of Adebisi, virtually all the White and Latino inmates are transferred out replaced with Black Homeboy members. After Vernon Schillinger states to McManus that his prized unit has turned into a ghetto, he sees this and is aghasted. McManus states at the staff meeting "At What Price" should no violence occur as Em City has deteriorated rapidly. He then fills out resignation papers in receiving and discharge where Kareem Said stops him. Said states that he plans to bring down Querns and Adebisi but needs McManus' help as he is the only one out there who cares about what has happened in Em City. Shortly afterwards two more events happen- Glynn drops out of the election race as Clayton Hughes tries to assassinate Governor Devlin and an undercover narcotics detective posing as a Jamaican inmate turns himself in for murder. The arrest of this detective Johnny Basil causes an argument between Querns and McManus over their policies on the war on drugs that almost gets physical. After this two inmates Nate Shemin and Mondo Browne die, both inmates of Emerald City and McManus urges Glynn to step in to stop Querns. Glynn does nothing until Said gives McManus a videotape of what has happened in Em City. Glynn sees the rampant drug use and partying in Adebisi's pod and immediately fires Querns rehiring McManus to run Em City. As McManus comes back, he begins transferring out several of the Black inmates who have ties to Adebisi. While this is happening Adebisi makes an attempt on Kareem Said that backfires ending Adebisi's life.

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McManus testifies on Said's behalf acquitting him of the murder of Simon Adebisi. A television crew then comes to Oz to do interviews over what happened during Adebisi's reign of empowerment in Emerald City. Worried about being shut down, Glynn, Murphy, and McManus do their best to cover up what has happened and the story is then not aired after Cyril O'Reily assaults the newsman Jack Eldridge. Also a new inmate Omar White comes to Oz and proves to be very troublesome over the season. White goes to solitary and back several times once for stabbing McManus who still refuses to give up on him. McManus also makes a major addition to Emerald City known as the Cage. The Cage is an isolation cell inmates reside in in full view of the public. Throughout the season, several inmates get sent to the Cage instead of Ad Seg for punishment.

Adding to the mix also is Burr Redding, an elderly Black inmate who McManus feels will bring the Homeboys back into the drug trade. Redding starts a war with Pancamo and Morales which lasts throughout the whole half of the season even after McManus forces them to call a truce. Redding is at one point framed for murdering an Asian refugee that Oz has been asked to hold. The Asian refugees are all illegal aliens whose boat crashed and Oz has been asked to hold them temporarily. The man who arranged for them to come over Jia Kenmin comes to Oz and gets into a brawl with both the Latinos and Irish inmates. Cyril O'Reily nearly kills Kenmin and McManus asks for him to be transferred to the Connolly institute as a result. He is not transferred but his behavior does worry the staff still.

Also this season, McManus offers Jackson Vahue, an NBA player incarcerated for assault a position in Em City once again if he agrees to play a best of three Basketball scrimmage against McManus. McManus plays with CO Dave Brass who does so well that he gets looked at by an NBA scout invited to play on the Sacramento Kings. The Latino inmates are angered that Brass had them lose a bet and arrange for his achille's tendon to be cut leaving him in a permanent limp.

In other issues this season, the Aryans and Muslims nearly go to war first over a comment made by James Robson, then over the death of Black inmate Leroy Tidd, and finally over the parole of Tobias Beecher. The result is a threat of a permanent lockdown and a severe beatdown and stabbing on Robson and Schillinger by Kareem Said. Finally, IRA member Padraig Connolly comes to Oz awaiting deportation and with the help of Ryan O'Reily builds a bomb intended to detonate in Em City. While the bomb itself proves to be a dud, however, Em City and a large portion of the prison are gutted by fire when a CO tries to light a cigarette in the kitchen next to a stove O'Reily forgot to turn off in a rush to prevent Connolly's bombing.

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Emerald City is reopened and the inmates are allowed to see their families and respective visitors for the first time in months. This however ends in tragedy when a bus accident occurs killing relatives of inmates Enrique Morales, Zahir Arif, Augustus Hill, and Vernon Schillinger amongst others. A state liaison is hired from the governor's office named Eleanor O'Connor. When Sean Murphy asks McManus why he is not asking her on a date like every other women who has worked at or for Oz, he states that she is his ex-wife. This is made evident throughout the season as they get into miniature arguments over the slightest subjects. At the end of the season, it is revealed over why they finally divorced as she states he becomes too punishing and self-righteous when he realizes not everyone can fit his ideals.

Omar White and the solitary inmates are released into Em City as there are repairs being made in solitary and he states to McManus that he wishes to be on good behavior. White's actions don't prove this however as he is still a major discipline problem fighting with the Latino inmates amongst others. McManus and the staff are also wary of a war that is brewing between the Muslims and Aryans. He notices that Said especially is becoming more violent and as a result, he asks him to contain his anger by guiding White. The war is also put on hold through various interaction sessions started by Sister Pete with Beecher, Said, and Schillinger. The Aryans start another war though with the Italian inmates as Schillinger learns that Chucky Pancamo ordered the murder of his son. This war hospitalizes Pancamo, puts Peter Schibetta who has been released from the Psych Ward back in, and leads to an alliance between the Homeboys and Latinos who are interested in full control of the drug trade.

Also this season, Ryan O'Reily's mother works community service at Oz starting a performing arts program. McManus uses this as an opportunity to help Omar White stay off drugs. O'Reily's mother causes a threat from Jia Kenmin that causes Cyril to murder an Asian inmate. McManus finally states that Cyril is now either going to death row or the Connolly institute as he has became too much of a discipline problem even though he killed this inmate in self-defense. This angers Ryan who McManus turns a deaf ear to. As White continues in the program, he begins driving Said crazy as he is becoming somewhat of a nuisance to stay off trouble and then gets caught dealing drugs for Burr Redding. McManus keeps him out of solitary however as he sees White is not using and is behaving much better. White comes through in the singing program and looks to be on good behavior permanently until he attacks Wolfgang Cutler, a man who had conspired to kill Kareem Said. This angers McManus who gives up on White sending him to solitary permanently even though his intent in attacking was to save Said's life. In other rehab programs, a seeing-eye dog program comes to Oz where Miguel Alvarez succeeds in training a dog for Eugene Rivera, the man he blinded. This motivates McManus to recommend parole for Alvarez who is nevertheless denied and sent to solitary.

In this season, inmate Bob Rebadow's grandson is about to die from Leukemia and McManus does what he can to help. When Rebadow asks the injured officer Dave Brass to buy him a lottery ticket which ends up winning the $2,000,000.00 jackpot that Brass runs off with. Murphy then has a speech to McManus stating two things- 1) Of all the inmates to rip off, Rebadow is one that did not deserve to be, 2) McManus was not responsible for Brass' injury. Murphy tries to get Carlos Martinez to admit his guilt in slicing Brass' tendon and McManus helps Rebadow search for another cure. Unfortunately, Rebadow's grandson Alex Jr. dies right before Brass decides to do the right thing, give Rebadow the rest of the lottery money.

On drug related issues this season, Augustus Hill ODs on heroin and nearly dies and as a result, McManus angrily accuses and confronts Redding whom he believes is responsible demanding to know who got Hill drugged. This angers Redding who cares deeply for his stepson and in recent years would never let him touch drugs. Burr promises to find the man responsible who in actuality is Poet, his first accusation who gets competent lies to accuse the Italians and Latinos of drugging Hill. This move kills Italian inmate Salvatore DeSanto and ends the alliance between the Homeboys and Latinos. The end in the alliance accidentally kills Hill when the Latinos renew their alliance with the Italians who promise to kill Redding. As Redding is walking, Frank Urbano approaches him with a shank and Augustus gets in the way and subsequently dies protecting Burr.

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This season starts out with the bi-annual solitary review to determine whether or not the solitary inmates should be released. At this review, McManus begs for Miguel Alvarez to be released but does nothing for Omar White whom he believes he cannot save. Alvarez comes back into Em City where McManus then warns Latino inmate Carmen Guerra. Seeing that Guerra and Alvarez are enemies and that Guerra has been in some way tied to every discipline problem that has occurred with Miguel, McManus states that if anything happens to Miguel, Guerra will be held responsible. Surprisingly enough, Miguel and Carmen call a truce and for the time being there is no internal conflict between the Latinos. McManus helps Alvarez further by getting Luis Ruiz, the head of the parole board to eventually meet with Alvarez.

Augustus Hill's death stuns McManus who paints a maze in the gymnasium and finds a journal that has been kept in Augustus' footlocker. The journal deals with everything that has occurred in Oz during Augustus' stay and legal issues arise when they try to publish it. Kareem Said takes care of these issues by starting a book publishing and binding business in Oz with the help of the other Muslims. However, Said shortly afterwards goes to talk with a man Lemuel Idzik who shoots him in the visiting room. Said dies and Idzik comes to Oz. Other businesses develop in Oz though when a telemarketing firm wants to use prisoners to campaign for a senator who wishes to be re-elected. Burr Redding has the Homeboys do this as he no longer wants to be in the drug business as it is what got Augustus killed. The Homeboys aren't too enthusiastic though and eventually figure out a crooked way to sell drugs while on the job. Redding is thrown in solitary as well once it is discovered that he destroyed the Muslim's printing press to repopulate the telemarketing business.

A city mayor Wilson Loewen comes to Oz for involvement in a 1963 murder that creates a lot of controversy. First Loewen is the reason that Governor Devlin got elected in the first place, so Devlin demands that he go to prison safely. Second, the murder was that that assisted the Ku Klux Klan so Loewen must be placed in a part of Oz with none of the Black inmates who are 78% of the population. Third, Loewen blackmails Devlin for a pardon that ends up in murder. Devlin handpicks homicide detectives to clear him of the murder but as Glynn and McManus see that CO Adrian Johnson was paid by an African American assistant to Devlin to cause these murders, Glynn is targeted for murder as he knows too much. As Glynn dies, McManus finds his killer Lionel Kelsch courtesy of inmate Henry Stanton. After informing Kelsch of the realities of serving time in Ad Seg where the COs who were at Glynn's command are free to starve Kelsch amongst other things, Kelsch asks for his alternatives which are only to give up the people who hired him to kill Glynn. Kelsch gives up Johnson who gives Loftus, the Governor's assistant and then has all the evidence he needs to charge Devlin. Devlin then tells the new warden Martin Querns to fire McManus immediately, but he gives him a month's notice instead as Devlin may be incarcerated.

Finally, the season ends with Beecher and Keller. Beecher's parole is ruined by Keller who is then coerced by Schillinger to eliminate Beecher once and for all. Keller turns the tables on him though in the prison production of MacBeth giving Beecher a real knife to use in the acting scene. Schillinger's death is accidental but Keller isn't finished. He has a package of an unknown poison sent in that kills all of the Aryans working in the mail room. This causes an evacuation of Oz which will be reinhabited some day.

External links

* [http://www.hbo.com/oz/cast/character_mcmanus.shtml Official character biography at Oz website]