Episode Synopsis:

Carol and Barb prepare for war. Linda auditions inmates for a prison PR video. Alex makes a deal with Badison to keep Piper out of trouble.

 

War- The war is finally happening now, which feels like we’ve waited an eternity for, but inmates are finally recruiting and plans are being made. On one side, Barb is gathering as many girls as she can, to defend her; and on the other side, Carol is having her trusty #2, Madison, make shives for her girls, so that they can be used while playing kickball.

PolyCon- Ok, so this came across super randomly, but I guess that it makes sense that MCC would go away and be transformed into a new company, in order to hide the skeletons in the closet. I’m definitely siding with Figueroa at this point, and just going with the flow, because Linda is going off the deep end. The corporate video was already a huge lie, so nothing new was really done, except that now, inmates are being ranked. That’s definitely the wrong way to go about things, because we can already see, that rankings can be changed willy nilly.

Piper & Alex- The things these two were trying to accomplish, were way opposite of each other. Piper was trying to do the right thing, by telling a guard, that Madison was trying to sabotage her, by putting drugs in her shoe, and funnily enough, it ended up working in Piper’s favor, without her knowing. She just so happened to pick Hopper as her second choice, and since he’s already trying to cover up his wrong doings, he decided to get on Piper’s good side, so that he wouldn’t get caught. In the end, we saw that Piper is getting an early release. And then poor Alex has pretty much signed away her life to the devil, aka Carol. In order to protect Piper, Alex decides to get on Carol’s good side and ask if she could get Madison to back off and stop messing with Piper. She ends up revealing that she has connections with certain people, so Carol ends up putting Madison in her place. That was a great scene, because even though we’re meant to somewhat fear Madison, we see that she even has to answer to someone. She can’t always have her way. I especially liked that Carol threatened Madison, by saying that Alex might take her spot.

Caputo & Taystee- I’m feeling terrible for Taystee. Things aren’t going her way, and even though Caputo is trying his hardest to get justice for her, I don’t know if it’s going to be enough. It’s a one step forward, two steps back, kind of situation. I’m glad that Caputo is doing everything in his power to help Taystee out though. He truly cares about her and won’t back down without a fight. I had some hope, when they showed Taystee making some progress, while she was on the witness stand. She poured her heart out and put herself in a positive light. She explained why she participated in the riot and that she was doing it just to get justice for her friend, not to harm people. And behind the scenes, I was happy to see that Tamika came in to support her friend.

McCullough- Continuing with the effects of the riot, McCullough is still having a rough time getting over it. She has severe PTSD and I think it’s important that the writer’s put this into the show. Sometimes shows don’t show the real trauma that people go through after a huge event, and it’s interesting that the writer’s are showing that McCullough is having a hard time coping. We saw that when the kickball popped outside, it immediately set her off and she went into survival mode. It was scary and it’s kind of sad that she’s not seeking help for it. It would be nice if somehow, her and Ward became friends and she had someone to confide in.

Red- I’m pretty sure Red is losing her mind and is turning to the dark side. All she can think about now, is getting revenge on Frieda, which is understandable, but I couldn’t believe that she tried to choke Frieda, when she saw her in the hall. She would sacrifice seeing her grandkids, for the chance to kill her friend. I don’t know if this friendship will ever be reconciled, and my guess is that it won’t.

Gloria- Even though we didn’t see much of Gloria in this episode, she blew the lid off of fantasy inmate. She found Luschek’s score cards and now she’s out for blood. I’m wondering how she’s going to use this to her advantage, but on the flip side, she’s already gotten into trouble.