"A Word to the Wise" is the sixth episode of the first part of the fourth season and the thirtieth overall episode of the HBO television series Oz.
Plot:[]
Narrations:[]
There's all kinds of slang words for prison. The joint, the slammer, the big house. But my personal favorite is, the clink. That's because the word comes from the sound the chains made back in the 1400's. They had these big-ass motherfucking iron chains. The prisoners weren't allowed to talk, so when they moved around the dungeon, all you heard was "clink".
People in love sometimes say that they're "head over heels". But if they knew what the phrase really meant, I'm not sure that they'd make the claim. Back in the bad old days, as a warning to criminals, judges would order malcontents to be hung by their ankles, heels over head. The phrase came to mean a state of helplessness, confusion. Now that I think of it, that is being in love.
For centuries, part of any punishment was humiliation. In England, they'd hang a criminal inside a cage a few feet off the ground in the middle of the town square. The guilty fuck sat in his cage looking like a canary. Like a parakeet. So people started calling them jailbirds. Only the kind of chirping we do in Oz, ain't all that pretty.
A long time ago, if a man stole another man's cow or lamb or pig and butchered it, and was found with the animal's blood on his fingers, he was said to be caught "red-handed". Of course, if the robber was too cocky to wash his hands, maybe he deserved to get busted.
To seal one's fate. Years ago, the death sentence could not be carried out unless the death warrant had the judge's official seal affixed to the bottom. Imagine, the only thing standing between you and death is a little lump of melted wax. But that's the thing about life. The big changes all come because of little lumps of wax.
Deaths:[]
Nat Ginzburg: Succumbs to AIDS shortly before his execution.
Patrick Keenan: Murdered by Ryan O'Reily by crushing his head with a weight.
Crime Flashbacks:[]
(There were no flashbacks in this episode)