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queer_scribblingNotes from watching on 12 January 2024.
S1E6: Burner
Whatshisface on the board shares a copy of the reforms that Warden Masry wants to put in place with Maskins. [Anya Harrison is trying to get an endorsement from the Corrections Officers union, and Safiya wants to eventually implement changes that wouldn't be good for the C.O.s.]
Whathisface also agrees to transfer in a 'dangerous inmate' to Bellmore as a distraction for Aaron and Warden Masry. Cash - full name Cassius (cash-ee-us) - is from a Level Four prison [higher level than this prison], on his 21st year behind bars, and immediately starts running Bellmore. Cash finds out that Aaron has that burner phone and wants to make a call - telling someone to go after Frank Foster [captain who brought the steaks in]. He wants to use the burner again, and Aaron acquiesces to just giving the burner to him. [1]
Marie's father makes a visit. He doesn't give a specific reason that he's now dropping by to share the engagement ring he gave to Marie's mother [talked as if she's already passed] to Darius, but he is incredibly pushy about Darius getting a move on and officially getting married to Marie. It's revealed that Aaron didn't actually sign the divorce papers that Marie took him however many years ago, and Marie's father goes to visit Aaron to convince him to sign said papers.
(It's not that the audience is supposed to dislike the father, and even just on a narrative level, someone would have to be the one to actually talk to Aaron about signing those divorce papers. It's more that... Since the audience is supposed to empathize with Aaron and get more of his point of view, the way that Marie's father brings up some of his points winds up feeling worse than if we got the father's point of view. It also feels like Aaron's arrest and conviction have rewritten his perception of ever moderately liking Aaron. Like, in a conversation with Marie and Darius, he groused about whether any of the money he gave Marie to help her out during nursing school actually was wasted on Aaron's commissary fund. You know, years after the fact, in a rude way for the family actually supporting him presently, and in a very non-persuasive start to his supposed 'Marie, you should move on' conversation.)
Case wise, I think we mostly focused on an update for Aaron. He found a photograph labeled with 'Identified by C.I. #400092' or something along those lines. This establishes that the police were working with an undisclosed confidential informant, and they contributed quite a bit to the original search warrant. The prosecutors didn't do a Darden hearing, but the judge ultimately agrees that there was still enough information for the search warrant to happen. However, she also agrees that Aaron should have had the ability to cross-examine this C.I., and she forces Dez O'Reilly to turn over the unredacted warrant. It turns out that Angelo - Aaron's former friend and club manager/drug dealer - is the C.I.
This isn't going beat by beat, but I think we get an update on Anya not currently getting the C.O. union's endorsement, and her confronting her wife about it. The ending image is of Frank Foster getting home from a shift, and he finds his ailing father and wife sitting on the couch - mouths duct-taped and hands bound - with two unknown men sent to deliver a message from Cash. Ultimately, Cash wants the current drugs introduced to Bellmore to run through him and his network instead of Wild Bill [leader of the Aryan gang, that guy].
[1] This isn't really relevant to what's happening in the story itself, but if you happen to be watching old recorded episodes that keep the hyped commercials, Cash is played by 50 Cent and you really can't miss that.
S1E7: Do Us Part
Cash's influence now extends to getting people allied with him to guard the phones and restrict who can access them. Aaron has refused to eat at the same table [and ally with him] so far, so Aaron has to ask a friend, Jamal, to make a call on his behalf.
Aaron shares the copies of the photographs of the undercover cops at the club on the night he was arrested with Marie, but neither she nor Darius can really remember seeing them. (Marie didn't go to the club all that often, and Darius mostly remembers Aaron being arrested and restraining Marie so she didn't get arrested for interfering. It's also been enough years that he can't remember if those undercovers were in the club before.) Marie and Darius decide to pay a visit to Michael to see if he can remember anything about Angelo that might help Aaron.
He does: While he was doing his shorter sentence from his plea deal, Michael heard another inmate talk about Angelo lying on the stand in a previous case where he was a C.I. (Michael didn't find out about the C.I. aspect until after Aaron's trial). Angelo's not just a random one-and-done C.I., he was a "professional snitch" who helped with several cases, so this has the potential to help Aaron.
Due to the time sensitive nature of the case Aaron took on not being conducive to rescheduling, he needed to push his court date where he was going to subpoena Angelo from Tuesday to Friday [of the same week]. Unfortunately, Angelo is a no-show on Friday, and even though police were sent to his house, Dez O'Reilly can't actually produce him in court. (It's theorized that he might have fled the country, but the audience doesn't get a scene proving that.)
I wouldn't be surprised if this other case for an inmate was inserted here as a massage point for Aaron to think about his relationship, such as it is, with Marie and think about how long he can have her wait. Nathan Goodleaf is currently on year 13 of his sentence; if I remember correctly, he got the book thrown at him due to the neighborhood he was in when he hit and killed someone while intoxicated (instead of possibly getting four years). While he's not serving life, Nathan's girlfriend Tricia was diagnosed with stomach cancer a few months ago, and she's not really expected to last for as long as it might take him to finally get out.
Nathan asked for a dispensation, so he could have Tricia come into the visiting room outside of regular visiting hours for the marriage ceremony. Safiya originally signed off on it, but the board didn't. The main point of suing relied on an arbitrary standard, basically, since Aaron could point to evidence of someone who got into a fight in prison 2 years before his dispensation getting approved (and Nathan's altercation that was determined to be self-defense was 5 years before this). Aaron warned Safiya of his strategy to subpoena her, and she agreed as long it publicly looked like he was forcing her to answer. The judge ruled that the arbitrary standard had been meant, and Nathan was going to be allowed his dispensation.
Safiya tried to have a lunch meeting with - I think "Board Whathisface" is Jerry McCormack - in order to figure out how to smooth out the ripples of her reform suggestions, which could possibly help the C.O. union endorse Anya. McCormack didn't even focus in on what Anya was told was a sticking point - possibly needing less prisons in the next 15 to 20 years, which might entail shutting down some - and he suggested not rolling out what he called conjugal visits for a bit. It puts more work on the guards, or whatever. Safiya tried to go along, but she ultimately decided that the first family visit at Bellmore would go to Nathan and Tricia [2].
Also: Aaron signed the divorce papers and gave them to Marie. Safiya and Anya's 12 year old son was caught stealing a random piece of clothing from a store with other students, which was filmed and uploaded on a site, and there was this whole difference in how Safiya and Anya reacted to it. (Safiya wasn't going to fight him being suspended for a month because that was a lot better than him going to juvie, which she noted would have been the outcome if their son wasn't so white, but Anya talked to someone she knew on the school board and it sounded like he was back within a day or two. She also possibly had someone figure out a way to remove the post from whatever site it was on.) Unsurprisingly, Anya does not have the C.O. union's endorsement by the end of this episode.
[2] The use of 'conjugal visit' versus 'family visit' between these two characters. As far as I know, it depends on the prison system in question, but some people use 'family visit' because the rooms may be set up for significant others and children to visit with tvs, a kitchenette, and provided games instead of being solely rooms for a significant other to have sex in. (These visits can be in a dedicated room within the prison or in separate buildings on the prison grounds - trailers, cottages, or basically a small apartment complex.)
While I don't think Safiya is unaware that Nathan and Tricia might have sex during their family visit (or another inmate might do so), she stresses the family aspect because the two trailers at Bellmore aren't just about sex. [Technically, the first episode established that at least some of the inmates are already having sex with each other.] Safiya is more presented as approaching this from an angle that maintaining family connections and community connections is important for reducing recidivism.
S1E6: Burner
Whatshisface on the board shares a copy of the reforms that Warden Masry wants to put in place with Maskins. [Anya Harrison is trying to get an endorsement from the Corrections Officers union, and Safiya wants to eventually implement changes that wouldn't be good for the C.O.s.]
Whathisface also agrees to transfer in a 'dangerous inmate' to Bellmore as a distraction for Aaron and Warden Masry. Cash - full name Cassius (cash-ee-us) - is from a Level Four prison [higher level than this prison], on his 21st year behind bars, and immediately starts running Bellmore. Cash finds out that Aaron has that burner phone and wants to make a call - telling someone to go after Frank Foster [captain who brought the steaks in]. He wants to use the burner again, and Aaron acquiesces to just giving the burner to him. [1]
Marie's father makes a visit. He doesn't give a specific reason that he's now dropping by to share the engagement ring he gave to Marie's mother [talked as if she's already passed] to Darius, but he is incredibly pushy about Darius getting a move on and officially getting married to Marie. It's revealed that Aaron didn't actually sign the divorce papers that Marie took him however many years ago, and Marie's father goes to visit Aaron to convince him to sign said papers.
(It's not that the audience is supposed to dislike the father, and even just on a narrative level, someone would have to be the one to actually talk to Aaron about signing those divorce papers. It's more that... Since the audience is supposed to empathize with Aaron and get more of his point of view, the way that Marie's father brings up some of his points winds up feeling worse than if we got the father's point of view. It also feels like Aaron's arrest and conviction have rewritten his perception of ever moderately liking Aaron. Like, in a conversation with Marie and Darius, he groused about whether any of the money he gave Marie to help her out during nursing school actually was wasted on Aaron's commissary fund. You know, years after the fact, in a rude way for the family actually supporting him presently, and in a very non-persuasive start to his supposed 'Marie, you should move on' conversation.)
Case wise, I think we mostly focused on an update for Aaron. He found a photograph labeled with 'Identified by C.I. #400092' or something along those lines. This establishes that the police were working with an undisclosed confidential informant, and they contributed quite a bit to the original search warrant. The prosecutors didn't do a Darden hearing, but the judge ultimately agrees that there was still enough information for the search warrant to happen. However, she also agrees that Aaron should have had the ability to cross-examine this C.I., and she forces Dez O'Reilly to turn over the unredacted warrant. It turns out that Angelo - Aaron's former friend and club manager/drug dealer - is the C.I.
This isn't going beat by beat, but I think we get an update on Anya not currently getting the C.O. union's endorsement, and her confronting her wife about it. The ending image is of Frank Foster getting home from a shift, and he finds his ailing father and wife sitting on the couch - mouths duct-taped and hands bound - with two unknown men sent to deliver a message from Cash. Ultimately, Cash wants the current drugs introduced to Bellmore to run through him and his network instead of Wild Bill [leader of the Aryan gang, that guy].
[1] This isn't really relevant to what's happening in the story itself, but if you happen to be watching old recorded episodes that keep the hyped commercials, Cash is played by 50 Cent and you really can't miss that.
S1E7: Do Us Part
Cash's influence now extends to getting people allied with him to guard the phones and restrict who can access them. Aaron has refused to eat at the same table [and ally with him] so far, so Aaron has to ask a friend, Jamal, to make a call on his behalf.
Aaron shares the copies of the photographs of the undercover cops at the club on the night he was arrested with Marie, but neither she nor Darius can really remember seeing them. (Marie didn't go to the club all that often, and Darius mostly remembers Aaron being arrested and restraining Marie so she didn't get arrested for interfering. It's also been enough years that he can't remember if those undercovers were in the club before.) Marie and Darius decide to pay a visit to Michael to see if he can remember anything about Angelo that might help Aaron.
He does: While he was doing his shorter sentence from his plea deal, Michael heard another inmate talk about Angelo lying on the stand in a previous case where he was a C.I. (Michael didn't find out about the C.I. aspect until after Aaron's trial). Angelo's not just a random one-and-done C.I., he was a "professional snitch" who helped with several cases, so this has the potential to help Aaron.
Due to the time sensitive nature of the case Aaron took on not being conducive to rescheduling, he needed to push his court date where he was going to subpoena Angelo from Tuesday to Friday [of the same week]. Unfortunately, Angelo is a no-show on Friday, and even though police were sent to his house, Dez O'Reilly can't actually produce him in court. (It's theorized that he might have fled the country, but the audience doesn't get a scene proving that.)
I wouldn't be surprised if this other case for an inmate was inserted here as a massage point for Aaron to think about his relationship, such as it is, with Marie and think about how long he can have her wait. Nathan Goodleaf is currently on year 13 of his sentence; if I remember correctly, he got the book thrown at him due to the neighborhood he was in when he hit and killed someone while intoxicated (instead of possibly getting four years). While he's not serving life, Nathan's girlfriend Tricia was diagnosed with stomach cancer a few months ago, and she's not really expected to last for as long as it might take him to finally get out.
Nathan asked for a dispensation, so he could have Tricia come into the visiting room outside of regular visiting hours for the marriage ceremony. Safiya originally signed off on it, but the board didn't. The main point of suing relied on an arbitrary standard, basically, since Aaron could point to evidence of someone who got into a fight in prison 2 years before his dispensation getting approved (and Nathan's altercation that was determined to be self-defense was 5 years before this). Aaron warned Safiya of his strategy to subpoena her, and she agreed as long it publicly looked like he was forcing her to answer. The judge ruled that the arbitrary standard had been meant, and Nathan was going to be allowed his dispensation.
Safiya tried to have a lunch meeting with - I think "Board Whathisface" is Jerry McCormack - in order to figure out how to smooth out the ripples of her reform suggestions, which could possibly help the C.O. union endorse Anya. McCormack didn't even focus in on what Anya was told was a sticking point - possibly needing less prisons in the next 15 to 20 years, which might entail shutting down some - and he suggested not rolling out what he called conjugal visits for a bit. It puts more work on the guards, or whatever. Safiya tried to go along, but she ultimately decided that the first family visit at Bellmore would go to Nathan and Tricia [2].
Also: Aaron signed the divorce papers and gave them to Marie. Safiya and Anya's 12 year old son was caught stealing a random piece of clothing from a store with other students, which was filmed and uploaded on a site, and there was this whole difference in how Safiya and Anya reacted to it. (Safiya wasn't going to fight him being suspended for a month because that was a lot better than him going to juvie, which she noted would have been the outcome if their son wasn't so white, but Anya talked to someone she knew on the school board and it sounded like he was back within a day or two. She also possibly had someone figure out a way to remove the post from whatever site it was on.) Unsurprisingly, Anya does not have the C.O. union's endorsement by the end of this episode.
[2] The use of 'conjugal visit' versus 'family visit' between these two characters. As far as I know, it depends on the prison system in question, but some people use 'family visit' because the rooms may be set up for significant others and children to visit with tvs, a kitchenette, and provided games instead of being solely rooms for a significant other to have sex in. (These visits can be in a dedicated room within the prison or in separate buildings on the prison grounds - trailers, cottages, or basically a small apartment complex.)
While I don't think Safiya is unaware that Nathan and Tricia might have sex during their family visit (or another inmate might do so), she stresses the family aspect because the two trailers at Bellmore aren't just about sex. [Technically, the first episode established that at least some of the inmates are already having sex with each other.] Safiya is more presented as approaching this from an angle that maintaining family connections and community connections is important for reducing recidivism.
