Claire Howell - Season 4

Season 4

Howell begins season 4 working as the main officer in solitary where she witnesses one inmate commit suicide (by eating himself up) and one get killed during recreational time. At a black guard's funeral, she is seen giggling when McManus is singing "Camptown Races". She is then transferred to Em City by Warden Glynn who notices that no White COs are left in the unit under Martin Querns' command. While on duty in the cafeteria, Howell steps in to break up a fight involving Ryan O'Reily. She tells the other officer that she'll take him in herself. Howell actually has other plans for Ryan as she leads him into the bathroom where she proceeds to perform fellatio on Ryan. This leads to Howell and Ryan's frequent and well-hidden sexual relationship - thanks to Howell's position as a guard, she can often force Ryan away from the public areas of the prison and into hidden rooms for sex. After a while, Ryan's mentally handicapped brother Cyril and then-roommate is able to deduce what is happening between Ryan and Howell, and guilts him into breaking the relationship later in the season. During the height of their sexual relationship, Ryan requests that she kill Nikolai Stanislofsky, who had become a problem for Ryan. Howell offers a bathing Stanislofsky (a bath had been the condemned Stanislofsky's last wish) a handjob and, during the distraction, she throws a hair dryer into the tub, killing him.

After Cyril tells Ryan he knows about Howell and his relationship, Ryan decides to call it quits with her to protect his brother. She threatens him by claiming she'll decide when it's over and later tells Ryan that she's been considering Cyril for her next conquest. She approaches Ryan with a deal that she'll stop forcing sex onto him in exchange for the rights to molest Cyril. Ryan becomes enraged, deciding to plan another way of getting Howell off his back. After Querns is fired, Howell is transferred to Unit J (the unit for incarnated law enforcement officers). Ryan convinces inmate Alvin Yood to let Howell have an "accident" in exchange for extra food. While Howell and Yood are walking down some stairs, he trips her up, she falls and breaks her pelvis, which puts her out of commission for a while.

Howell returns to Oz after taking the fall down the stairs. Following this, Howell goes back on duty to solitary confinement.