Guillaume Tarrant

Guillaume Tarrant was a fictional character on the HBO prison series Oz played by Lothaire Bluteau.

Character Overview

Guillaume Tarrant was arrested for destroying a statue at a museum. He was very timid and hardly fit for life in prison. This made him an easy target for the other prisoners, however it allowed him to fit perfectly into a plan devised by Simon Adebesi.

Season 4

Tarrant was scheduled to be sent to Em City without any real thought gone into his mental state, his crime was very minor compared to the crimes of the other prisoners but nether the less, he arrived at the same time as Ralph Galino and “Desmond Mobay” and was sponsored by Jaz Hoyt who noticed his weakness and promptly mugged him.

Tarrant was understandably shaken by this event, and decided he wanted to be “left alone” for the rest of the day, however Kenny Wangler, had also noticed that Tarrant was vulnerable, and with help from Pierce and Poet, demanded that Tarrant “offered” his shoes to him, unable to defend himself, Tarrant did so – inadvertently making Wangler appear innocent to casual witnesses.

McManus was sympathetic towards Tarrant (although, not sympathetic enough) and suggested that he requested some new shoes from his family, Tarrant agreed, but knew that they would probably be “stolen” too. McManus also gave Tarrant some slippers to wear for the time being.

However, his fate did not improve, when Tarrant entered the basketball court, he was once again cornered by Wangler and his friends, who challenged him to a basketball game, knowing full well that his slippers would slow him down. The Homeboys initially taunted Tarrant knowing he could not keep up, but eventually resorted to physical abuse, such as deliberately tripping Tarrant and punching him. At the end of the “game” Tarrant lied injured on the court floor, while the Homeboys agreed that “it must be the shoes”.

Ryan O'Reily, realized what was happening and demanded that McManus transferred Tarrant to Gen Pop, but was ignored. Simon Adebesi also noticed Tarrant’s current state and realized he would fit perfectly into his plan to get McManus fired and to make the prison more “black”. He knew that if he could get a white prisoner to commit a serious crime within the prison the odds would be in his favor, and Tarrant was the obvious choice, it also had the potential to be rid of Kenny Wangler, whom Adebesi had grown increasingly tired of at this point.

Adebesi placed a gun (left to him by Clayton Hughes) in Tarrant’s bed, and the following day at mail call, Tarrant’s new shoes arrived and he was predictably tormented by the Homeboys once again, Tarrant warned them that he wanted them to stop, but they continued, and in a fit of anger Tarrant pulled out the gun and fatally shot Wangler in the chest. The other prisoners, including Pierce and Poet where unsurprisingly sent into a panic and scattered around the room, in attempt to seek protection, Tarrant, with revenge still in mind continued shooting and succeeded in killing Pierce as well. But was unable to control himself amidst the chaos, and ended up shooting a CO as well as injuring Chris Keller as the latter screamed in pain, Tarrant snapped out, and realized what he had done.

The SORT team were sent to bring back order and restrain or kill Tarrant, they informed Tarrant that there was “no way out” and he committed suicide. The exact reason for his suicide, be it over the guilt of his murders, the fact that his sentence would most likely be extended if he gave up, or because he thought the SORT team would kill him anyway is never made clear. [http://www.angelfire.com/realm/trasker/transcripts/C_and_B.txt]

References