Episode Report Card Djb: D | 14 USERS: C+ YOU GRADE IT Yawn. Look, Another Penis.
By Djb | Season 4 | Episode 6 | Aired on 2000.08.16
Murphy stands behind the reception desk at the entry to the hoosegow and attempts to greet a resurgent McManus with the proper amount of politeness as stipulated by his new job description. McManus asks just what the hell Murphy is doing at the reception desk, and Murphy reiterates for the benefit of next week's "Previously On" section that he and Querns have experienced a "parting of the ways." But Murphy isn't loving reception, and he fears for his future at Oswald. But McManus somehow hears something in Murphy's dire admission that sounded to him a whole lot like "but enough about my disastrous unemployment prospects, Tim. How can we make this all about you?" And so McManus launches into a prepared speech which appears to fall roughly into the genre of "apology," which includes the absolution, "Given my behavior at the time, how could I pass judgment on what anyone else did?" Murphy tells McManus he sounds enlightened and asks if he found God. "Better," McManus volleys. "An affordable shrink." McManus invites Murphy to dinner so he can talk about himself more. What Murphy doesn't know is that he's the affordable shrink McManus has talked so much about. And by affordable, he means "free, sucker. Now pass the ketchup and heed my whinin'."
Over in Cellblock B, McManus enters his office and engages a typically cynical female guard in conversation concerning the activities of the night before. Quiet night? "If you count two fist fights and some anal penetration as quiet, then yeah." A quiet night at the Rodman/Electra residence, maybe, but McManus isn't going to stand for this kind of violence on his watch. The fights were between Hoyt and Keenan (Gloria's assaulter), and when the cells doors slide open for morning count, the two experience another fancy-meeting-you-here clash and the fighting erupts anew. McManus looks on forlornly as if to say, "This never happened in the halcyon days of Em City. Except, of course, for when it happened every freakin' day."