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I thought this was a powerful, well-written episode. The Keller/Sr Pete scene was not "shocking", unless one is not a regular viewer. Despite my recent darkness, I had created one positive scenario for Keller & Beecher, but I must have posted it on another forum as I cannot find it here to refer to. I was surprised it was in the ballpark of what happened.

In Good Intentions, the Keller/Sr Pete exchange about his "nature" seems rooted in Romans 8. I have previously suggested that Keller experiences God's love through his relationship with Beecher, and that they have been separated.
Romans 8 ends with "What can separate us from the love of Christ? ... we have been treated like sheep for the slaughter, and yet in spite of all, overwhelming victory is ours through him that loved us. .... There is ... nothing in all creation tht can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." In my positive post, wherever it is, I paraphrased that as "There is nothing in Oz, not Howell, not Said, that can separate Beecher from Keller." Then my light grew dim, and my posts grew dark.

Why were we shown both Robson's and Keller's penises in this episode? Not for gratuitous purposes. Recall Hill's mono about some men make sex a crime, and others are convicted for love? The Robson shot reminded us of sex used as a crime against Beecher. The Keller shot reminded us of Keller's using sex as a crime against his victims and for manipulation, but also that he is capable of loving Beecher, and sex plays a positive role in that.

I must see this episode again. Offhand, besides specific relations to stories, Hill's monos might be about God's seeming impotence in the universe. As TF puts it, "Why does God seem to do such a bad job 98% of the time?" I had said one theme this season seemed to be "Does God act in the universe, and if so how?" The answer is yes. The force in his actions is that of love. But his love operates through our love. It is up to *us* to help make the universe better, not by sitting around hoping for miracles, but by acting through love for other people. This was a point of "Works of Mercy." And love must fight hate and other sins, which as we saw tonight, are hard enemies to combat.

I was baffled as to why we were never shown Keller's tattoo this season. The answer is that TF was saving up the crucified Christ symbol for another major story - Hill's. We were pointedly shown that symbol on Urbano's arm before the Redding/Hill scenes. Because God loved humans, Christ took the hit for man. Because Hill loved Redding, he took the hit for Burr. The McM exclamation "Jesus Christ!" was not a throwaway here. I do not think Hill's statement "I can feel my legs" was cheap sentimentality. There is a scriptural passage about Christ to the effect that "We are buried with him in his death; we are raised with him in his resurrection". I think Hill's final line refers to that. Also Christ served as the model for us as agents of God's love, another point of Works of Mercy. Now we should imitate Christ, not simply pray to him for miracles while we sit back.

I am devastated that Hill will apparently not be continuing the monologues. I never failed to be bowled over by Perrineau's masterful delivery of those.

I LOVED the sequence with McM walking through solitary.

That's enough for now. Except for one thing. Someone once suggested to me I should make more negative comments about Oz than I do. Well, here comes one. The cheesy music at the close of the Ryan/Cyril scene really blew its impact. Silence would have been better.