Episode Report Card Aaron: B | 791 USERS: C+ YOU GRADE IT Baldness <> Death
By Aaron | Season 6 | Episode 6 | Aired on 2003.02.09
Betty Buckley arrives at this point, and does what any good mother would do by pretending not to notice the stench her two boys have whipped up in the confined space of their cell. Ryan calmly asks if she's heard any news from the lawyer, but the instant she steps into the cell to take over the Cyril-watching duties, he bolts out into the hallway and immediately pukes into the nearest bucket. Was it the smell, or merely the tension? You be the judge. While Betty teaches Cyril a short prayer he can say during the "ECT session," Ryan wipes his mouth and offers the guard in the hall a fairly large bribe in exchange for a copy of the notes he's been taking. The scene seems to give the impression that the guard says no, but he does pocket the money, and we later see Ryan reading something that could easily be the notes, so I guess it's sort of ambiguous. After it's announced that their time is up, both Betty and Ryan give Cyril a final hug. If you weren't crying by now, the childlike grin on Cyril's bald head as he engages his brother in a lengthy embrace was probably more than enough to put you over the top. And just in case it wasn't, here comes the guard with Ryan's treasured football jersey, which he's left for his little brother to wear. Cyril gleefully pulls on the shirt, and millions of Americans ponder how to explain to their spouses and significant others why a show that's primarily about anal rape and shankings has suddenly left them sobbing on the living room floor.
Hill lectures some more. Sigh.
We now begin a long inter-cut montage of scenes leading up to the big finish. On death row, Father Mukada leads Cyril to the execution chamber while reciting the 23rd Psalm. Down in Em City, meanwhile, Neema signals all the inmates that it's time, and everyone gets up to return to their pods. Once there, they all begin banging en masse on the pod doors, creating a tremendous racket as Ryan is led out to spend Cyril's final moments in Timbo's meditative maze. As civil disobedience goes, it does provide an impressive glamour shot for Ryan as he walks out past the frantically pounding inmates, but it's also such a blatantly improbable and obvious attempt to tug at my heartstrings that it kind jerks me out of the moment. And then that problem is only compounded further when an ovary starts wailing about sorrow and lost opportunities on the soundtrack, because unlike the sunlight we saw earlier, the unexpected addition of music is way too anvilicious to provide any real sense of gravitas.