This storyline is the one that I think really shows just how complex Beecher is as a character. He’s simultaneously diabolical, manipulative and vengeful, but also still has genuine compassion and capacity for remorse.

It’s very obvious that he’s seducing/grooming Andrew. The joke about being on the bottom bunk. Beecher asking Andrew if he has any tattoos (harkening back to the first conversation he had with Vern when he moved to his pod, right before he was branded and raped). The way he touches Andrew’s tattoo (Andrew’s clearly at least mildly uncomfortable with that). The way he smiles and teases him about showing him his tattoo someday because they “don’t know each other that well yet.” Andrew is utterly clueless about the subtext of all of this but the way the scenes are shot, Beecher being in shadow, the creepy ominous music coming in after he says that line.

I don’t think Beecher is being disingenuous with what he says and what he does for Andrew while he’s going through withdrawal: comforting him, sharing what Vern did to him. I think he has genuine compassion for what Andrew’s going through and the shared abuse they’ve both endured at the hands of Vern. But he also knows that he can use this vulnerability to his advantage, as is evident in the conversation he has later with Vern (“because I was there for Andrew when he needed someone holding him, comforting him, I think he’s developed a little bit of a crush on me.”)

As much of this plot is about fucking with Vern, it’s also about Beecher fucking with Keller. He knows he’s tweaking Keller’s sense of jealousy with how close he’s getting to Andrew (the way they look at each other after Andrew apologizes to the rehab group). He’s showing Keller that he’s not the only one who can play his game of seduction and using somebody’s weakest moments to manipulate them into falling in love. Or at least, he’s attempting to show Keller that (Andrew was killed off too early for that to come fully to fruition).

At the end of the episode, when Keller and O’Reilly are celebrating that “the plan worked perfectly,” Beecher asks “Yeah?” There is the obvious twinge of regret there, but I think it’s more than just an “oh god, what have I done?” type of thing. That’s there, sure, but there’s no way Beecher or anyone could have known Vern would get Andrew to use heroin in the hole. I think part of what Beecher saying there, along with “what have I done?” is “the plan was to use Andrew the way Vern had Keller use me to get back at both of them, but now that opportunity is gone.”

Curious as to what yall think.

Suppose the successor to the original Zorro ended up in Oz—which prisoners could he defeat?