SPOILERS 
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
Episode #7 Blood Donut
In the previous ep, when Piper was making up with her BFF Polly on the telephone, they shared a "moment" over Piper's feelings for the drug importer, Alex.
Piper, nice
WASPY lady that she is, felt like she should apologize to the
drug runner... I presume for thinking "ill" of her because she
assumed Alex ratted her out.
Then Piper realized she needed to apologize to more people than "just" Alex.
"Piper Chapman... the Apology Tour" was how she decided to bill her new quest because there were so many people she'd wronged in her life.
This ep was the start of that "tour" and who better to start it with than...
Watson.
Watson has arrived at the prison, straight from her TWO WEEKS in the SHU for having the temerity of asking for a female guard to frisk her and for fighting off the male guard who hustled her from her first day in the electrical shop.
As she stands in the prison yard, arms outstretched and eyes closed with a smile on her face, Watson draws attention from both people within the prison building and out in the yard.
She
doesn't care.
Later we see Watson and Chapman crawling through the ductwork looking for a break in an electrical line. As Chapman tries to bond over Watson's experience in the SHU and her return to "civilization", Watson catches a clue as to why Chapman is being so nice. PIPER caused her to be sent to the SHU. Piper refuses to take the whole blame, but is sorry none the less before asking if Watson was going to turn her in. "I ain't no snitch" the kid proclaims before dismissing the white woman.
Watson's flashbacks were sad... not because her mother neglected her (we never saw her), not because she had no options in life (colleges were fawning over her to give the track star a scholarship) but because she was lonely. Lonely as a preteen... lonely as a high schooler. She wanted friends, wanted to belong somewhere, and when someone finally invited her to stop by a rocking party... the host threw her out! The thug, the head of this gang was willing to buy her shoes, whatever she needed to get into college but he didn't want her hanging with his crew. HE didn't want her demise on
his soul.
Wow.
Talk about
integrity and that night was the
first time he met her. (Unlike, let's say...
another drug runner of our acquaintance.)
Unfortunately not all young men can espouse that philosophy and before we know it she's robbing stores with her new boyfriend and watching him run away when she's caught.
So Watson
is well aware that people can leave her hanging. Piper
wasn't the first and
won't be the last.
Miss Claudette has finally left the library and showed up for work in the kitchen, much to Red's relief. Red admitted she tried to make Miss C's coconut cake but it turned out so badly Nicky pronounced it cocoNOT! When Miss C asked what punishment Nicky suffered for such a review, Mama Red laughed and admitted the kid was right and avoided the Russian's wrath.
It was such a nice bonding moment between these two old war horses, women who learned long ago "how to do their time". Red knew Miss C was studying law books.
I wonder if Red was worried she might lose this old friend to parole?
Speaking of bonding moments, the show opened with Nicky and Alex laughing over a childish dare that Alex accepted and lost. With a mouth full of saltines sputtering over Nicky's shirt, Alex looked less like a drug runner and more like a woman having a ball with a new friend.
Speaking of having a ball... this ep also had the first meeting of
the WAC (Women's advisory Council). We discovered how little it takes to buy off the cooperation of the elected/not elected members... a couple of Dunkin Donuts and the promise of "real" coffee. The girls didn't get anything from the prison that they asked for, but Taystee got
2 offers from her fellow WAC members to lend her "50 Shades of Grey" so she was well satisfied.
Watson wasn't satisfied. The track was closed while she was in the SHU and she exercised through the night between walking rounds by the guards, much to the displeasure of her fellow inmates (which include Taystee, Miss C and Piper). None of the ladies can shut Watson down, so NATURALLY
Yoga Jones shows up to talk to the young woman. Lord that woman has patience... and a MEAN right cross when Watson goes one step
too far.
Did you notice Miss Claudette's curiosity when she watched her fellow killer walk away?
Speaking of apologies... Piper thinks she has a way to turn her empty words into meaningful action and it DOESN'T require chewing jalapeños. She asks Healy to reopen the track, showing him that allowing the prisoners to exercise will cut down on inmate health costs.
He is unimpressed and blows her off, but not before his boss Caputo comes in and diss'es Healy in front of Piper.
A dejected Piper decides to bring her clothes to the laundry and runs into Alex who tells her its "closed." Piper tries to leave but Alex does her a "favor" by taking the bundle of clothes anyway and wordlessly hands her a receipt. Piper tries to walk away again, but turns back to reassure her former lover that she's "over" the negative feelings that Piper was spewing the first 3 weeks of prison... and she magnanimously offers to be "friends".
As Piper looked away during this little speech,
Alex smiles and rolls her eyes... but I'm not sure how to take it. Is this the experienced con, recognizing her "mark" is
ripe for the picking? Or is this the former paramour loving / lamenting over Piper's fumbling's?
Either way, Piper missed the look and walked away from a now silent, non-smiling Alex.
The next day, when Toothless Tiffany = Pennsytucky is railing against Piper's evil theft of the WAC election, Alex shuts her down with the most
unusual threat I've ever heard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0WHobjF3GI
Hmmm.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0WHobjF3GI[/yt]
Maybe she's not (?) acting the part of the con.... this time.
Speaking of cons...
Piper tries to get Healy to sign onto re-opening the track.
Healy tries to con Piper into finding the cell phone sending updates to prisonpoon.com Piper tries to con Healy with a cellphone that has been cleansed of identifying markers, leaving the naughty pictures behind. Healy welshes. Piper discovers a kindred spirit in one of the new
female guards and tells her how to save the prison money.
Healy presents the cleansed cellphone to the
assistant warden who doesn't care who owned it, she only cares its been confiscated as she brandishes it in front of
Caputo.
Caputo has lost some of his power over searching guards and retaliates by taking an idea from a
female prison guard he has designs upon, and reopens the track which takes away some of
Healy's imaginary power over the inmates.
Healy is no fool, he recognizes the argument behind reopening the track, and realizes his prized prison protégé is working around / against him.
He scowls as he watches Piper run around the track, while
she smiles as
Watson speeds by her... reminding Piper, "This doesn't make us even."
"Piper Chapman... The Apology Tour" continues next week.
towards the WASP) at this point I the story? 
