Photo Source: Vulture
Episode Synopsis:
Boo comes to Doggett’s defense; Janae tries to console Soso; Lorna hits on Nicky; while Alex lays low, Piper takes a stand.
Doggett’s Trial
Cue the Law and Order music, because Penns gets a trial for letting Coates leave and causing Leanne to get her finger shot off. Boo tried to defend her, but Penns decides to take matters into her own hands. She decides to plead her case by telling the truth and let the inmates decide her verdict. In the end, Penns ends up getting community service, which I thought was pretty tame. It makes me think that if all matters were done like this in Litchfield, more inmates wouldn’t have suffered, like ahem… Piper getting branded.
Taystee
We got more backstory into Taystee life, and these flashbacks in particular really resonated with me. We knew that Taystee didn’t have a great life before entering prison, so we see that she’s living in a foster home type situation. She gets a letter from her birth mother, and she decides to meet her. When everything seems like it’s falling into place, we see that Taystee’s mom has a family of her own and hasn’t told them about her first child. That scene really got to me because even though I didn’t have a tough childhood myself, I did get adopted when I was a baby. You kind of never think of the fact that if you decide to contact your birth parent, that the experience might go south quickly. And the fact that that parent probably has a family already, which might include other children. So I really felt for Taystee in this scene, because she thought that things were going to start looking up because her mom was willing to include her in her already existing family. Sadly, the situation does go south very quickly, because at the end of it all, Taystee’s mom decides that it wasn’t best to include Taystee in her existing family after all. That’s really a blow to the heart. Of course, things get worse from there and Taystee ends up at Litchfield. But what makes the flashbacks well worth it, is we get to see Poussey again. That was a nice way to include Poussey again into the series, besides hearing about her death.
Bayley
Baxter is really suffering now and I’m really feeling bad for him. He’s kind of stuck in this limbo and he doesn’t know what to do. I mean, he should get some kind of punishment for killing an inmate, but he himself, can’t even convince people outside Litchfield, that he should be put in jail. He tells several people, including his parents, that he’s depressed and he even tried to kill himself, but everyone keeps on saying that he will be fine. My thoughts are that he should just go back to Litchfield and be punished there or go to MCC and have them figure out what they should do with him. Now that I think about it, I guess MCC is the reason Baxter is in this situation, because they made it seem like he did nothing wrong; so it’s hard to think of a way for Baxter to get what he wants. Maybe a lifetime of therapy is the way to go.
Nicky & Lorna
These two are all over the place. I’m kind of sick of seeing them get together and then regret their decisions because as long as Vinnie’s around, Lorna’s going to stick with him. Of course these two decide to have a little fling, but later, Lorna realizes that she’s pregnant. This totally confused me because when was the last time Lorna had sex with Vinnie? Seems like forever ago. I’m pretty sure Lorna would have been showing by now.
Demands
Things were looking up for the inmates because some of their demands were met. They got their Cheetos, Takis and tampons, so hurray! But of course there was a reason behind this. Taystee and the girls get a call from Governor Hutchinson’s office, and they were wondering when the inmates were going to release the hostages. The girls knew right away that getting their demands met was a bribe, and they weren’t having any of it. With a little help from Piper, the girls decide that they couldn’t be played and took all the Cheetos, Takis and tampons, and burned them in front of all the news crew and security outside. That was amazing! That was girl power all the way. I know that everyone else was happy, but this riot is all about fixing things at Litchfield, so it makes sense that more of their demands need to be met.
Aleida
Aleida finally arrives to the news station and she was a mess. Her friend told her the worst advice about what to do on camera and she looked so awkward. Of course she was her usual Aleida self, but she could have made more of an impact by talking about the inmates and what goes on inside the prison.
Bunker
Poor Freida was getting super lonely in her bunker, so she decided to invite some friends. At first, everyone wasn’t too sure about the bunker because it seemed super small and claustrophobic, but once Freida showed them the rest of the place, aka the empty pool area, the rest of the inmates were sold. This new area is actually really cool. I wonder when Freida found the place and I’m glad her character is being showcased more this season. She really cares about her friends and she’s not as menacing as she seemed in previous seasons.
