Augustus Hill
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Augustus Hill is a character, played by Harold Perrineau on the American television show Oz. Mentored by his stepfather Burr Redding, Augustus has been selling and using drugs since his teenage years. In 1995, the SWAT team came after him on a drug warrant on a tip from an associate of Augustus' named Kevin Ketchum who gave up his location to avoid going to jail on an old warrant himself (this wasn't revealed until the fourth season of the show). During the arrest, Augustus, fearing for his life, murdered a SWAT team member as they had his building surrounded. In retaliation, he was thrown off the roof of the building by another cop and was left paralyzed from the waist down.
Hill served as the narrator of the show, appearing in surreal segments where he would give monologues addressing some theme of the episode. In prison, as Augustus was drug free, he remained a neutral figure until Burr Redding showed up and took charge of the Black inmates. As he was bound to a wheelchair and not associated with any gang members, Hill remained as one of the more consistently decent characters on the show, struggling to avoid moral compromise while staying alive in the dangerous world of Oswald Maximum Security Prison. In the fifth season finale, Hill was accidentally murdered by the Italian inmates, although he continued to show up in narration segments.
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[edit] Season 1
Augustus is one of the inmates let into Em City. Confined to a wheelchair, he poses no threat to any inmate or CO and manages to remain a neutral figure in the Prison getting along with everyone for the most part. In Em City, he works in the dress factory with inmates such as Bob Rebadow and Tobias Beecher. Hill does not really like Beecher too much as he was a lawyer on the outside, a profession that Augustus despises. When conjugal visits are allowed, Augustus sleeps with his wife Annabella for the last time. Being paralyzed he has no sensation below his waist so he cannot determine the pleasure received during intercourse. When Simon Adebisi asks him why he even wants to have sex with his wife without sensation, he claims that it is all for her. Augustus also takes place in drug rehab and is clean for almost two years now. He takes a break from this however when his hero NBA player Jackson Vahue arrives in Oz and encourages him to use drugs. After using one time and seeing how much of a bad person Vahue really is, he stops using drugs and admiring Vahue. Hill admires new inmate Eugene Dobbins who has a gift for playing the Cello violin. When Dobbins is harassed by Vahue for no apparent reason, Hill tells him stop and recognize the gift that Dobbins has. Meanwhile, the tension in Em City erupts into a riot where Muslim inmate Kareem Said leads the takeover. Hill forces Vahue to carry out the wounded Dobbins who gets stabbed by a Black inmate during the riot and then hides with the rest of the prisoners as the SORT team recaptures the unit.
[edit] Season 2
The inmates from Em City are transferred to Gen Pop as the unit has been destroyed through the riot. Law School Dean Alvah Case investigates the causes of the riot and asks Hill several questions pertaining to its causes. Hill is then told that Eugene Dobbins died and the unit that the inmates stay in becomes overcrowded. When Em City is reopened, Hill is let back in as an "Other" inmate with Bob Rebadow, Agamemnon Busmalis, and his new cellmate Tobias Beecher. Hill is angered and thinks Unit Manager Tim McManus should have classified him as one of the Homeboys, the Black gangsters in Oz. Augustus is also weary of rooming with Tobias Beecher who has a psychotic history while serving time in Oz. Hill does not room with Beecher for long though when inmate Chris Keller arrives and replaces him as Beecher's cellmate. In the Em City council, Hill represents the Others. Augustus then sees that his judge during the trial has been sentenced to prison for receiving bribes during the sentencing of various inmates. Angered, he gets Kareem Said to represent him as a means of becoming free from Oz. Said speaks powerfully in Augustus' favor but the judges and defense attorneys conclude that Augustus' judge had fairly sentenced Augustus as no mention of a bribe occurred during his trial. Frustrated, Augustus spends the rest of the season figuring out ways of escaping Oz...
[edit] Season 3
In this season Augustus faces a major conflict. Inmate Malcolm Coyle confesses to Hill that he murdered an Italian American family for fun and never got caught for it. Hill looks up and is sickened to find out that he is telling the truth about the murder. Augustus then talks with Kareem Said about what he should do pertaining to Coyle. After listening to Said, Hill convinces Coyle to send up a video tape proving his guilt. Hill with Said then tells Warden Leo Glynn who immediately contacts the local DA. Scheming for revenge, Kenny Wangler and the Homeboys look to murder Hill who is placed in Protective Custody. Said sees this and then convinces Antonio Nappa, Carmen Guerra, and even Vernon Schillinger to have their respective gangs help the Muslims protect Hill. All three agree and then Nappa makes Hill's protection easier by murdering Coyle before his trial. Wangler then sees not to touch Hill at all getting a loud and clear message about what will happen. Simon Adebisi then comes back and takes over the Homeboys. In taking over the Homeboys, he stirs up racial issues in Oz to the point that the inmates in Em City lose their pornographic magazines. Adebisi then urges Hill to take a confiscated magazine in order to earn a trip to the hole. This trip to the hole causes the Black inmates all across Oz to shout "Set Hill Free" and organize to take over the prison. As this happens, Oz is locked down by Glynn.
[edit] Season 4 Part I
After three weeks of lockdown, Glynn tells the inmate separately to stop with the racial issues. Let back into Em City, Augustus sponsors and rooms with inmate Desmond Mobay, a Jamaican drug dealer. Unknown to Hill, Mobay is actually an African American police detective named Johnny Basil who is looking to put a bust to the drug trade in Oz. Mobay asks Hill who to buy drugs from and he points to Kenny Wangler and Junior Pierce. In the visiting room, Mobay is visiting his girlfriend while Hill visits his wife. Augustus thinks he recognizes Mobay's girlfriend (who is indeed an undercover cop) and states this to Mobay. Mobay tells her to stop visiting for a while as a result. Hill then states that he thinks his wife is losing him as the visits seem more and more meaningless. Later, a shootout in Em City occurs killing Kenny Wangler and Junior Pierce amongst others. An intimidated White inmate Guilliame Tarrant shot them after Simon Adebisi placed a gun in his pod. This shooting stirs up issues in Em City that lead to the firing of Unit Manager Tim McManus and the pressure to hire an African American unit manager from both Black inmates and community leaders. Meanwhile, Mobay is snorting excessive amounts of heroin and must kill a random inmate to get in the good graces of the gangster inmates. Mobay asks Hill to help him and Augustus refuses but is manipulated to do so and watches as Desmond pushes inmate Bruno Goergen down an elevator shaft. Mobay also accidentally loses his accent one night and this grows suspicion of Hill. Em City meanwhile is now being managed by Martin Querns, an African American who empowers drug dealing heads Simon Adebisi, Chucky Pancamo, and Enrique Morales as unit trustees. Several other changes occur in Em city such as the addition of inmate Supreme Allah and several other Black inmates, all followers of Adebisi. The drug dealing is ignored by Querns who turns a blind eye to the immoral behavior of the Black inmates as long as no violence is occurring. More Black inmates and COs come into Em City all followers of Querns and Adebisi which has the Muslims inmates led by Kareem Said worried. Said then goes to Tim McManus who is managing Unit B, the gen pop unit to devise a way to bring down Adebisi. Before Adebisi is brought down, Hill recognizes Mobay as a cop and convinces him that he is an immoral fraud who breaks the law to enforce the law. He also recognizes Mobay's supposed girlfriend Kina as a uniformed officer who was present during the night of Augustus' arrest. Furious, Mobay beats Hill out of his wheelchair but gets the message and turns himself in for murdering Bruno Goergen. Shortly afterwards, Martin Querns is fired and Simon Adebisi dies after making an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Kareem Said.
[edit] Season 4 Part II
Em City is running back to normal as Tim McManus is rehired as the unit manager. The Homeboys meanwhile are in disarray and out of the drug trade due to the death of Simon Adebisi. Things look up though when Augustus' stepfather Burr Redding comes to Oz and immediately takes control of the Homeboys from current leader Arnold "Poet" Jackson. Augustus is glad to see Burr and becomes more involved with the Homeboys as a result. Chucky Pancamo the leader of the Italians and Enrique Morales leader of the Latinos look to stomp Redding who intends on taking their power away from them in the drug scene. Supreme Allah whom Redding despises is then released from Solitary and offered a third in the drug trade from Pancamo and Morales. When Augustus asks why Redding hates Supreme, he tells Augustus the truth about his arrest. Burr tells Augustus that on the night of his arrest, Supreme Allah was arrested on an old warrant and gave up Augustus' location to the police as a means of beating the charge. Redding states "If it weren't for Supreme Allah, you wouldn't be in that wheelchair, you wouldn't be in Oz." Furious Augustus attempts an attack on Supreme who merely throws him out of his wheelchair and kicks him to the point of hospitalization. Angered, Redding calls in Tug Daniels, the brother of the man Supreme Allah killed and is serving time for. In the visiting room, Tug uses a toothbrush shank supplied by Poet to try and kill Supreme who nevertheless lives. This is a positive development for the Homeboys though who get a new solider with Daniels. Burr then plans to eliminate all the enemies of the Homeboys, a move that Augustus questions. Augustus does not want any one to die, so he alerts head CO Sean Murphy of Redding's plan who gets the SORT team to break up a murder attempt on the Italian and Latino inmates. Redding feels that Augustus has betrayed him and casts him out of the gang. He further points out that their history is the only reason Augustus is not being killed. Meanwhile Augustus sabotages the parole of Jackson Vahue whom he feels has no remorse and should not leave Oz. As the war between the Homeboys, Latinos, and Italians escalates, Supreme Allah out of the hospital decides he wants to be allies with Augustus. Augustus feels he is insincere and is right as Supreme is only trying to use him to kill Redding. For snitching on Redding, Augustus is harassed by Tug Daniels whom is told to back off by Supreme. Tug shortly dies afterwards when Redding has discovered that he is a traitor and Supreme warns Augustus that they are next in line to die. When Supreme is set to kill Redding on his own, Augustus remembers some information critical to Supreme's health. After paying an orderly to see the medical records, Hill sees that Supreme has a life threatening allergy to Eggs. With this information, he informs Poet who works in the cafeteria who then with the other Homeboys mixes Supreme's food with a heavy concentration of Eggs. Supreme dies in the cafeteria and Burr forgives Augustus for what has happened and lets him remain an ally of the Homeboys once again. Em City then is blown up in a gas explosion which forces all the inmates to move to Gen Pop.
[edit] Season 5
As Em City is reopened, Augustus is let back in and is awaiting a visit from his mother Eugenia. Eugenia is coming to warn him that his wife wishes to divorce him which puts Augustus into disarray. She dies though when the visitor's bus crashes but Augustus finds this information out from a letter sent by Annabella's lawyers in the city. Distraught that his wife is divorcing him and his mother has died, Augustus is a complete wreck who cannot let go of the bad things happening.
Augustus then goes to Poet wanting some heroin to relieve his pain. Augustus snorts a toxic amount of heroin and goes into septiscemia, a kidney disease as he forgets to clean his catheter. In the hospital Augustus nearly dies and Dr. Nathan informs Unit Manager Tim McManus that everything has been caused by heroin which has engulfed Augustus' blood. Furious, McManus attacks Redding for he believes that Redding is responsible for selling Augustus the drugs. Redding then explains he had nothing to do with it and will bring down the men responsible for drugging Augustus.
Poet is his first accusation who naturally lies about being responsible. Poet then gets Agamemnon Busmalis, a witness with no vested interest to say that Salvatore DeSanto, an Italian inmate sold Augustus the drugs. Angered, Redding who now runs the cafeteria has Poet put a fatal amount of LSD in DeSanto's food causing his brain to fail. The food is cleaned up though and the staff thereby has no evidence to convict Redding of the murder. In the hospital, Tim McManus interrogates Augustus as to who sold him the drugs. Augustus will not give up Poet but does state that the Italians are innocent of selling him the drugs. McManus passes this information to Redding who demands to see Augustus. McManus then refuses to let Redding see Augustus as he does not want to help Redding kill the men responsible for drugging Augustus.
Angry Redding searches for Busmalis to find the men responsible. Poet coerces and forces Busmalis to then say Carmen Guerra and the Latinos sold Augustus the drugs. The Homeboys are allied with the Latinos during this time but that alliance dies when Redding angrily accuses Guerra to Latino leader Enrique Morales. Morales and Redding both go to the hole and upon their release Augustus is released from the hospital. When released Poet begs him not to snitch which is something Augustus would not have done any way. Redding then has a long talk with Augustus stating that he is sorry for ever encouraging Augustus to do or sell drugs in the first place. During this talk, the Latinos and Italians renew their alliance and a condition of it is for the Italians to kill Redding. Frank Urbano charges at Redding with a knife but is stopped in the way by Augustus who dies defending Burr. The death of Augustus puts Burr in complete disarray and causes him to have the Homeboys drop out of the drug trade in Season 6.
