Chris Keller - Season 4

Season 4

Keller and Beecher's renewed relationship does not last in the face of Vern Schillinger's machinations. In the season premiere, Keller was shot in the shoulder and Beecher pulls him to safety and his shooter kills two inmates and one guard, setting the alarm before Keller got hit; the shooter then kills himself. Sister Pete, upon hearing that Keller desires to see Beecher after his discharge from the hospital ward, tells Beecher that Keller is "a manipulative, sociopathic liar." Unbeknownst to Beecher, Schillinger contracts his son, Hank, to kidnap Beecher's children, Gary and Holly. Mad with fear and grief, Beecher believes false rumors claiming that Keller is responsible for the kidnappings. An attempt on Keller's life in retaliation ends their brief reunion, and the two spend the rest of the season attempting ways to hurt one another. Beecher delves into promiscuity, and Keller kills Beecher's lovers, including inmate Mondo Browne, to discredit the new manager of Em City, Martin Querns.

After killing Browne, Keller takes up with his former cellmate/lover, Ronald Barlog, to hurt Beecher. Barlog then secretly makes a deal with FBI Agent Pierce Taylor to give evidence against Keller and have him convicted of three murders in exchange for his own freedom. Beecher is immediately suspicious of Barlog and warns Keller, who dismisses the warning as mere jealousy. But Keller soon starts to have his own suspicions and eventually murders Barlog, snapping his neck while receiving oral sex from him. Just before killing Barlog, Keller confesses that he had indeed committed the murders the FBI suspected him of, and that his victims — all young, gay men — represented something within himself that he hated. When the police discover that Schillinger's other son, Hank, had been murdered and that the hit was ordered by an inmate from within Oz, Keller takes responsibility for the crime to protect Beecher and his family. He is then sent to Massachusetts to stand trial for this murder.