Kate Mulgrew - Orange is the New black

[JanewayRulz!]

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

EPISODE #9 F*CKSGIVING

Whoa!

This was one heck of an episode, for a variety of reasons.

First, the negative. (yeah, can you believe it? )

For once, the writers were not only unclear re: timeline, they were either intentionally obtuse or just plain wrong. Specifically, did this show take place over one day, Thanksgiving morn to evening?

Or two days, and if 2 days was it Thanksgiving eve to Thanksgiving evening or Thanksgiving day to day after Thanksgiving?

Or "3 days..." Thanksgiving eve morning to the day after Thanksgiving?

Like I said, it was confusing and when I think too much it is more than a little irritating. My answer? I don't freaking care so I'm blowing it off.

Second, this is one of the few times that Larry not only stepped up to the plate, but hit it out of the ball park with his one man "storming the Bastille" homage in his attempt to get Piper out of SHU on Thanksgiving.

Too bad he geeked out over Maury Kind's radio show and simpered like a Trekkie at a Las Vegas convention, trying to get Kate Mulgrew's attention in the autograph line.

I could have forgiven him such a faux pas, but I was busy doing a double take over Maury Kind's interpretation of Larry in his "Modern Love" New York Times column as the "long suffering husband".

WTF?

No wonder Piper was so upset at the end of "last week's" ep that she sought out Alex in her sick room.

"Two prisoners, one sentence" indeed!

Piper should have taken Alex up on her offer to use her contacts to do away with Larry Bloom. (KIDDING! )

Third, the Hispanic story line finally tried to humanize Daya and her mother and continued to give Gloria a wonderful turn as the non-pitiful comedic source in this part of the prison. When she told Daya to drink the team then go outside to dig a hole, stick a BEAN into it, blow smoke from a cigarette into it and then cover it with a mound of dirt because she didn't have any angelica or gris gris oil... I wanted to howl! Especially at what she demanded in payment.

I did howl when Daya's mother came over later to tell her the tea wouldn't abort the baby, it would just give her diarrhea, I did howl. Silly teenager. (Do we know how old Daya is, she acts like she's barely 18 most of the time.) Her mother's acknowledgement that her children, EVEN DAYA, held the potential to do great things, made her believe her pitiful prison life still held worth.

Fourth, the Taystee / Poussey friendship story. Gosh I love these two kids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH_J3pr1xeM

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH_J3pr1xeM[/yt]

To be continued

 

[JanewayRulz!]

F*CKSGIVING continued AKA : Waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The show starts with Nicky hanging out in the kitchen, helping to peel potatoes. Mama Red is suspicious at all this volunteer help, but accepts the answer that Luschek is MIA and the electrical shop closed for the day.

The uncharitable among us would say after ratting out Red to Mendez last "week", Nicky is hanging around the kitchen to steal some free samples of whatever contraband Mendez will start shipping in those vegetable boxes.

I am not uncharitable.

The face that Nicky gives us as she watches Red curse at whatever she found in the box and stuck down her blouse, the face that followed Red out of the kitchen was the face of freaking doom. It was the face of a woman who knew her days were numbered... and sadly it looked like the face of a woman who would not protest when her end came.

What will be left for Nicky, when Red's love is withdrawn? Did you really believe her when she told Red that her other friends in prison were just as important to her???

Nicky isn't the only one waiting for the other shoe to drop. From the moment Red tossed those pills in the toilet (with a decidedly "Captain Janeway" shrug of her shoulders) Red knew her days were numbered. Correction... her hours were numbered.

I think we were all happy as Mendez pulled his zipper down that his only designs were upon the defenseless vat of gravy. Well, we were all happy until we heard that skinny kitchen helper mention she tasted it before pouring it out and that it "tasted fine." Was Red aghast at her drinking urine, or that she thought Red's gravy NORMALLY tasted like urine???

The one thing about this incident that I liked, was to confirm that Red was even more BUTCH than Big Boo, as she backed Boo away from the cafeteria line with the quiet question... "Are you complaining?"

To be continued...

 

[JanewayRulz!]

F*CKSGIVING... continues

We're in the visitation room again.

What can I say about Crazy Eyes this week?

Of course HER Grammy is dating someone in North Carolina and is too busy to come home for the holiday!

Next season I hope we meet Grammy, and while I DON'T want her to be Betty White, I want some one else just as vigorous / outrageous / old.

Hell yeah!

Mommy: "Suzanne!"

Crazy Eyes: (hits self) "Language."

And my favorite, long suffering spouse came to visit. NO, I'm not talking about Larry (see part 1 of recap) I'm talking about Crystal, Sophia's wife. She was being so upbeat, talking about her victory over shame by returning to her church, working in the soup kitchen, the welcoming pastor, how he introduced her to a money manager who has helped her talk to the bank.

Damn, Sophia's been in the prison 2 years and Crystal's been suffering not just social ostracism but financial ruin after the crap Marcus/Sophia pulled!

And what does the nice surgically created / testosterone deficient female has to say about this? After initially smiling as Crystal gives her news, she gets all territorial "I don't want some strange man around my WIFE, my SON."

Huh?

LOVED Crystal's comeback... "We don't get everything WE want now, do we."

Remember 6 eps (?) ago when Crystal begged Marcus to "keep it (the penis) for me." as he played dress up in their bedroom?

No, Crystal, we don't get everything we want. Lucky for Sophia... she has Sister Ingalls to set her on the right track.

(After being in a woman's prison for 2 YEARS, I can't believe Sophia said this!)

Sophia: I don't understand why Crystal wants sex... look at you.

Sister Ingalls: I'm a nun, I took a vow. Crystal married a man with a penis, I assume it was because she wanted to use it occasionally.

It was sad when Sister Ingalls told the woman who would be in prison another 3 years/8 months to let Crystal "go" and Sophia refused. It was heartening that with further reflection and nudging from the persistent nun, Sophia was able to change her mind and give her "blessing" on Crystal's need to find another man in her life.

I am going to be SO disappointed if Sister Ingalls turns out to be something "bad" instead of the political prisoner we think she is.

Which means, OF COURSE, knowing these PTB's, next season or the one after we'll discover she's a freaking pedophile.

tbc... yet again.

 

[KaraBear]

I felt so bad when he peed in the gravy. After Red was so proud that it was nearly perfect. And of course when that lady said it tasted fine, that was funny!

One thing I liked was when Mendez was approaching Red, the fear in her eyes. She acts all tough, but that was interesting. And props to Kate Mulgrew for doing it so well

 

[JanewayRulz!]

That was a great scene, wasn't it?

Here's a great interview with Pornstache / George Mendez himself...

http://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/tv-news/-...despicable-man--and-i-love-him-013240371.html

I didn't know, until I saw this article, that Orange is outdrawing BOTH Arrested Development which came with a built in audience, AND House of Cards, which had the huge movie star draw in Kevin Spacey.

Needless to say... I'M ecstatic!



If anyone is going to Vegas this weekend for the Star Trek convention, PLEASE ask Mulgrew if she's started filming season 2 yet? (I don't want them to forget about her as she gallivants around the country dealing with her Trfek fans.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

F*CKSGIVING... continues


It was interesting to see the interaction with Sophia, Sister Ingalls and Piper in the salon at the top of the show. The simple conversation about how much Piper missed "contact" with another human being since she's entered the prison.

Heck, if when she looks too long in one particular direction she risks her gaze being mistaken for a proposal, what would a casual hand on the shoulder be taken for? (Good thing Captain Janeway isn't here, she'd be married to 12 different women AND the assistant warden chick by now! )

Sr. Ingalls continues to be one of the prison therapists as she draws Piper out regarding the prospect of spending her 1st holiday in prison and the impending visit by Larry.

(She's such a sweetie... PLEASE oh PTB's, DON'T make her some kind of nasty criminal!)

Piper was in a much better mood in the common room as she helped to decorate for Taystee's (Not Tasty's) Bon Voyager party. It was nice to see Alex behave and banter with Piper as if they were 2 old friends.

As the guest of honor arrived and the music began, we saw these too old friends tickling each other's memories of old touches and old dances. The longer Piper and Alex danced... the more they remembered and the more familiar they became with each other, much to the hilarious enjoyment of most of the prisoners and vicarious enjoyment of one very disgusting mustached guard. The woman who only an hour ago bemoaned the loss of contact was having a rip roaring time.

Notice I said "most" of the prisoners enjoyed it.

Pennsatucky: (To Mendez) THAT's LESBIAN activity!

Moonstruck Mendez: (smiling) Yes it is.

Pennsatucky would not be denied, so she went in search of anyone else she could enrage with her observations... even if she had to lie about them.

Yes... they were dancing in the common room with 40 OTHER women.

NO Alex did not have her face up in Chapman's "Hoo Ha" this morning, but that's not what Healy thinks as he strides down the hallway to investigate the further debasing of his fantasy woman.

Healy: CHAPMAN!

Piper was lulled into complacency with Healy all these weeks. Even after learning that the WAC was a scam and that he was prejudiced against other races and sexual orientations not to mention his ignorance re: female ejaculation... she still found some respect for the man.

Until now.

Piper: (As Mendez applies the handcuffs) I have visitation today! Larry's coming to see me. You can't do this!

The woman who was bemoaning the lack of contact just an hour before, is now placed in a triangular windowless cement room with a bed, a blanket, a toilet with a combination sink and nothing else.

THIS is the part where I rail against the writers regarding their unclear timeline. At the party Poussey suggested Taystee was leaving the prison the next day, and Thanksgiving Day dinner actually occurs after Taystee leaves. We see Piper eat two meals, only one of which coincides with her cellmates. When Healy gets yelled at to release Piper, he tells Caputo that "it isn't even 48 hours..." and my ear hears him say "yet"... but who knows, maybe he was saying he only planned to keep her isolated 48 hours but it was still day 1 when Caputo gave the order to release Piper.

And who knows, maybe TPTB screwed with the timeline on purpose. Piper wasn't allowed to know night from day so why should we?

Piper's conversation with Healy was like watching a volcano explode after smoking for weeks. Her righteous ANGER at his illegal transfer to SHU was spot on, and her realization that all his niceties these last few weeks were not because she was white or was "rich", or because he "understood" her... it was because he wanted to know her in the biblical sense and by God SHE knew how to deal with THAT kind of unwanted attention!

Piper: (Talking to Healy through the 10 inch square window I the metal door) Did I make you jealous? You put me in this hell hole for no reason. WAKE UP Healy! Girls like me? We don't fuck ignorant pretentious old men with weird lesbian obsessions. We go for Tall.. Hot Girls.... (her face looks like she's about to be raptured) and we fucking LOVE it! So that leaves you... on the outside... living your sad, sad little life. YOU don't GET me... EVER! So go fuck yourself!

I have to say, I really loved Piper in that cell, and not just her explosive anger at Healy.

I loved how lonely she got so quickly, how disgusted she was over her moldy bologna, how happy she was when she made contact with the voice through the ventilation grate, (was I the only one who thought Piper was talking to Suzanne through that grate?) how indignant she became as she argued over "how the power that the "man" wielded over the lives of the female convicts" corrupted them.

(That was my fav, she sounded like she was on the floor of her freshman dorm room, having a Tuesday night bull session / study group.)

Then our Smith college graduate Piper ran SMACK into reality.

This wasn't a rhetorical question she and her roomies were parsing in their dorm room, this was her LIFE and the woman on the other side of the vent had lived this way for NINE MONTHS... maybe A YEAR!

(Notice the graffiti on the wall next to Piper's head during this revelation... "YOU FOOL")

Piper: A year? That's insane.
Voice: They keep the lights on so you lose all sense of time. Its not living. I mean yeah... you're breathing... but you ain't no person anymore. Its bad, you start to see shit that ain't there... you start to hear voices...
Piper: Oh my god.
Voice: They keep you here until they break you.
Piper: (Piper visibly gulps) I feel like I'm going to throw up. (She's think about the righteous anger she spewed at Healy through the window) Why did I do that? Why did I say those things? He's never going to let me out of here. (And the woman who crossed Red on her first day has an epiphany) I am so fucking stupid. I am SO FUCKING STUPID! What's WRONG with me?
Voice: Are you still there?
Piper: I swear to God... (says the atheist) that if they let me out of here... ... ... I will shut up! I will shut up, and I will put my head down and I will do my time...And I will smile at Healy and (crying) I won't go near her. I won't even look at her. I can do that. I can do that. (her voice wobbles) I can. Please... PLEASE don't leave me here. Please.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

F*CKSGIVING ... concludes




Big Boo: No gravy? Why is there no gravy?
Red: Are you complaining?
Big Boo: No. No, no.

Perception is a powerful thing.

Creative Cal, Piper's camp-trailer living brother has "spent {his} entire life savings" on a Heritage Turkey and slaved all day in the kitchen to prepare Larry's et al's Thanksgiving complete with wine, gravy and shark tchotchkies on his "table-scape".

Segue to the cafeteria line where the prisoners are eating turkey parts (50 cents a pound), corn on the cobb, white potatoes, white bread without gravy... but they are thankful for it & for even more thankful each other.

Segue to Piper in her cell, looking at a slice of "prison loaf" which looks like 3 meals smushed together and formed into a mound per out Smith grad's observation. She looks less disgusted by it than that moldy bologna she was served earlier, but she still can't swallow it. Her distaste for the loaf is overshadowed, however, when she realizes the voice in the wall vent is silent

Seque to newly released Taystee who has arrived at her intended address to discover her "cousin" no longer lives there and she must beg for a spot to sleep on the floor, in an apt with 6 other people she never met before and a mattress leaning against the window to keep the rapists at bay.

Perception.

Its why crap that happens to you in the depths/ darkness/ cold of November is so much worse than when the same crap happens in the sunny warmth of July. (Northern hemisphere)

Larry, the long SUFFERING fiancé who has fought the good fight today to release his fiancée from the SHU, has not only conned his brother in law to be into cooking dinner, he's also secured himself a spot on an NPR program. Not bad for an unemployed writer before his fiancee went to prison

Alex, who has publically humiliated Pennsatucky by (YUCK!) French kissing her in the middle of the cafeteria and praised Tiffany's mastery of oral sex "last night" is in turn beset upon by the Appalachian meth heads who steal her mattress and break her glasses to get "back" at the rich bitch that towers over them.

And that makes Alex laugh.

She wasn't the rich bitch growing up. Alex was the fatherless child who's mother worked 4 jobs to feed, clothe and keep a roof over her head. A woman who managed to keep her head up high even if she didn't measure up in the eyes of her daughter's classmates.

Alex was the teenager from the wrong side of the tracks, who went in search of her rock & roll drummer father and discovered, as his manager told her, "Some people are better in the abstract".

We discover, once we meet the manager, how Alex got involved with the international drug cartel.

We (and Nicky) also discover some of the practical reasons why Alex targeted the young, rich white girls to be her drug mules.

Nicky makes a faux pas, however, when she laughs and asks if that was who Piper was... just another of Alex's drug mule conquests.

Alex: No, no... Piper was different.
Nicky: (Is she a little indignant here?) Why.. because you loved her?
Alex: Because she was different.

When Piper is finally released from SHU... she has that "10 foot stare" look... the look of a woman who's been trapped in an 8 foot room and isn't sure how to walk.

As she shuffles along, we are led to wonder about what happened in that room. Was she tested in fire and did it consume her?

Or was she hardened by the experience, and like Nietzche did it make her stronger.

She walks down the hall of her cell block ignoring everyone round her almost aimlessly. But the farther she walks into this familiar territory, the stronger she appears, her back straightens, her speed picks up, and now she has a goal, a direction, a plan.

Nicky: Holy shit, Chapman, you're out!

Piper ignores her, she hones in on Alex and takes her by the hand before spinning on her heel and leading Alex back out of the dorm.

Alex: My god!
Piper: Let's get out of here.
Alex: Are you okay?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP8_gbTaR4k

No she's not. Not yet.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP8_gbTaR4k[/yt]

 

[KaraBear]

oh my god oh my god oh my god I just watched the last episode last night!!!

hurry up and get to it so we can talk about it!!

 

[KaraBear]

something my husband and I were talking about....lesbians

why are there so many? We know that Alex was a lesbian going in and Piper was bisexual. But it seems that most of the women there are lesbians. Is it that being all together makes them turn to each other? People still crave companionship, comfort and love and since they're in a group of only women are they just turning to each other for those things? Or are they trying to say that lesbians are more predisposed to commiting crimes?

 

[JanewayRulz!]

oh my god oh my god oh my god I just watched the last episode last night!!!

hurry up and get to it so we can talk about it!!

You know... we can "talk" about any ep at any time.

something my husband and I were talking about....lesbians

why are there so many? We know that Alex was a lesbian going in and Piper was bisexual. But it seems that most of the women there are lesbians. Is it that being all together makes them turn to each other? People still crave companionship, comfort and love and since they're in a group of only women are they just turning to each other for those things? Or are they trying to say that lesbians are more predisposed to commiting crimes?

I think the term is... "Gay for the stay".

All the articles I've read about diffences between the book and the TV show discuss that there wasn't much lesbian activity in Piper Kerman's experience in prison, so one assumes Jenji (sp?) added it for dramatic purposes the moment she decided to put Alex at the same prison as Piper.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6HCAr_xP0U

Long radio interview with Piper Kerman (Author), Laura Prepon (Alex), Jason Biggs (Larry) and Danielle Brooks (Taystee). Some spots with dead air, bear with it.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6HCAr_xP0U[/yt]

 

[JanewayRulz!]

TV guide commands you to watch OitNB!


http://www.tvguide.com/News/Why-We-Love-Orange-Is-The-New-Black-1069003.aspx

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Kate speaks!

http://www.webpronews.com/orange-is...nobody-will-mess-with-her-gravy-again-2013-08

Okay, so its not much but she DOES speak!

Here's more Kate...

http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2013/08/kate_mulgrew_orange_is_the_new.php

Loved this...

Even if you've only watched a couple episodes of Netflix's new women-in-prison series, Orange Is the New Black, one fleeting glance at a group shot of the ensemble of Jenji Kohan's comedy-drama based on Piper Kerman's memoir of the same name and you will remember Galina "Red" Reznikov. She's the one with the hard mouth and the permanent don't-mess-with-me expression. She's the one with a New Wave coif that looks like it was achieved with a hedge trimmer.

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SI: How about that both favor head-swivelingly distinctive hairstyles? Is that a crazy wig you're wearing on OITNB? </EM>
KM: [mock-insulted] That's my hair! I had to cut it. A wig may have been discussed for maybe a half a second. But even I said to Jenji, "It has to be real." Then it started, the evolution. I had long, thick, light brown hair. By the end of that day, it was spiked and magenta-eggplant red, and that's how it should be. It was short, spiky and it was something that would scream power within prison walls. In prison, colors are beige and orange. Colors are not often seen in prison. Against this canvas is this vivid magenta hair, nails and mouth, and I think Red has earned those colors and stripes.

SI: What kind of reception did your interesting new look get at home?

KM: My boyfriend looked at me -- I think aghast is a good word. I met him at a restaurant that night. He tried to get up from his chair to greet me out of politeness and chivalry. Then he fell back down. He said, "Is it going to be like this ... forever?" I said, [in a Russian accent], "Not if you don't fuck with me, pal."

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Interview with Lorna Morello's actress... http://junkee.com/yael-stone-on-orange-is-the-new-black-and-trying-to-making-it-in-new-york/16389

 

[JanewayRulz!]

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

SPOILERS


Bora, Bora, Bora

Yeah, problems are problems. We all make bad choices. Its just some of us got different bad choices to make.

Ain't that the truth.

There's a heck of a lot of bad choosing going down in this ep not to mention this entire series; from the crimes that led these women to jail, to the mistakes they continue to make while in jail, to the missteps they still take with those people they've left outside the jail.

The first "bad" choice of the ep was committed by, appropriately enough, Piper herself when she forgot something Alex told her while stuck in the dryer. They were never "friends". Piper was someone Alex loved, someone Alex loved to have sex with. Alex is decidedly NOT Piper's best friend "Polly" to whom Piper can confide her deep seated fears regarding.... LARRY.

Watch Alex's face during that flirtatious game in the common room. She's having the time of her life... laughing, teasing, grabbing Piper's hands, falling into Piper's eyes... then lapsing seriously into a discussion of their past and present feelings for one another.

Alex: Well, I think that when you have a connection with someone...it never really goes away, you know. You snap back to being important to each other because you still are.

Then watch Alex as she stops, rolls her eyes and looks away when Piper wonders if she should be worried that she hasn't seen/heard from her fiancée since their missed holiday visit over a week ago.

Alex: (looks pointedly at her cards before looking at Piper) I'm not sure that you're in a position to feel indignant right now, Piper. (So says the woman with whom Larry's fiancée is carrying on a torrid affair.)

Piper may have been the first, but she wasn't the last as we see a parade of bad choices wander through the ep, led by that teenaged, drug addicted, horribly tattooed anti-Piper herself... "Tricia".

"Hey Red."

The cold shoulder the Russian turned towards the newly detoxed blonde would have made the Borg Queen proud.

"I have 1 rule... no drugs. You lied to my face. You're on your own now."

That speech would have been more powerful if at that very moment Pornstache wasn't 5 feet away, in Red's walk-in refrigerator looking for the drugs she had set aside from the contraband he had smuggled in with Red's vegetables.



But this moment doesn't belong to Pornstache or Red, it belongs to Tricia and her backstory. We see her missteps on the outside as a street urchin stealing food to eat as she passes on her urban survival techniques to a friend, and her own personal theory of morality. Its okay to steal the hamburger today, if you plan to pay for it next Tuesday. Tricia is so serious about "what goes around, comes around" she keeps a log of her thefts and pays them back as the months/years go on.

If you haven't figured out yet that this story is going to end badly... you just aren't paying attention.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Bora, Bora, Bora is one of the eps that feels like, after months of set up, its finally paying off.

We knew that Pornstache was the prison drug runner, and now so does Red and Morello. Yes, the "West Side Story" fanatic can put two and two together and get four. Mendez's finally getting his stash safely into the prison again, but one of his customers is balking at the renewed supply. Unwittingly Mendez hit upon the right words to get Tricia to agree to sell his cargo... "You owe me. Sell this and we're even."

Tricia is nothing if not honest when it comes to paying off her debts.

We see "post SHU-Piper" come up against the "wall of silence" that has enshrouded the cuckold AKA her fiancé as he hides in the woods behind Piper's brother. Creative Cal is at least embarrassed to be the blind for the fiancé as he chastises Larry to call Piper and (gasp) communicate. Strange to think that this... man plans to go on a nationwide radio program in a few days to discuss his relationship with a woman he's refused to discuss ANYTHING with for over a week.

Like I said, Piper's brother is more embarrassed than Larry is at the situation as he responds to Larry's churlish question, "Did you ask her why she was sent to the SHU?" with the only answer, "No. That's none of my business."

The tete e tete with Tricia by the phones was heart rending. Piper couldn't get her fiancée to accept her calls because he was "busy" preparing to talk with Maury Kind on NPR... and Tricia couldn't get Mercy to accept her calls because...? Well, we never find out why and, like Tricia, we can only guess at the reason.

It was interesting to see the juxtaposition of the scene where Tricia is telling Piper... We all make bad choices. Its just some of us got different bad choices to make... with the scene of Piper's best friend getting dressed for her wedding. Piper can't imagine a "forever" with anyone and Polly scoffs because of the partners Piper picks.

Piper: The kind of girls that I date?
Polly: HOT girls who make you CRAZY!
Piper: I like hot girls, and I like hot boys. I like hot people. What can I say, I'm shallow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff9f7kCmly0

Polly actually does a good job at reorienting Piper to the beauty of discovering a mature relationship, one that she can count on to do more than just drive you crazy... although I'm not sure where on the Kinsey scale "knowing when to order Chinese" falls.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff9f7kCmly0[/yt]

I loved how Morello welcomed Tricia back from detox with a big hug, but I wondered why "big sister" Nicky didn't do the same. Tricia certainly didn't wonder on that score. She was sure Red had warned Nicky away from her and still asked Nicky to reassure Red that the drug addict would make good on her debt to the Russian.

Little did Tricia understand that Nicky stayed away because of her guilt over forcing Tricia to turn herself in for drug use. Later, when Nicky recognized the signs of active intoxication in Tricia, she stayed away because of her complicity with Mendez over smuggling drugs back into the prison.

In an episode littered with bad choices, it was nice to have a seemingly good one appear in the form of a friend not seen in 10 years.

Baptiste has arrived and is waiting for Miss Claudette in the visitation room.

Their hug was EPIC.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Bora, Bora, Bora did have lighter, happier moments than just that hug or need I remind you of a little improvisational acting class called "Scared Straight: The Litchfield Experience"?

Although I chuckled when Poussey and Black Cindy tried to trash talk Alex and PIPER leapt to her feet to insert her body between the black women and her lover... (Alex still isn't used to seeing a BUTCH version of her former hot house flower) the real laughter came when Crazy Eyes joined the proceedings.

Crazy Eyes: Other prisons get to do Shakespeare and shit. I want a role like Desdamona or Ophelia or Claire Huxetable.
Officer Bell: Tell you what...You can play whatever character you want, so long as that character's the stuff of naughty brats' nightmares.
Crazy Eyes: Yeah! I can do that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_x81wtgUAo

The knee slapping guffaws came when I saw Piper's face after Black Cindy told the delinquents to beware of Piper because she was a "Stone cold Lesbian." and later when the officer threatened to leave Dina in the prison overnight with "Chapman".

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_x81wtgUAo[/yt]

Did you notice how conciliatory Piper was towards the kids and downplaying all the negative aspects of prison life UNTIL she placed her hand on Dina's shoulder and the teen screeched... "DON'T touch me! DYKE, FAGGOT, BITCH!"

THAT did more to ignite Piper than everything the other prisoners and the officer said combined.

I loved Piper's whole smack down of the smug teenager, but the ending was truly awesome.

Piper: ...I can't get through this without somebody to touch, somebody to love. Is that because sex numbs the pain or because I'm some evil fuck monster, I don't know. But I do know that I was somebody before I came in here, I was somebody with a life that I chose for myself, and now...its just about getting through the day without crying. And I'm scared. I'm still scared. I'm scared that I'm not myself in here... and I'm scared that I am. Other people aren't the scariest part of prison Dina.. its coming face to face with who you really are, because once you're behind these walls there's nowhere to run even if you could run. The truth catches up with you in here Dina... and its the TRUTH that will make you her bitch!

When Piper turned and stalked out of the bathroom, she discovers the officers. prisoners and other delinquents all around the corner waiting for her. Its obvious they heard every word as Poussey pronounced... "Damn. You cold." and Piper, as stone cold as she can pretend to be, simply answers... "Bitches gots to learn." Heck, even Crazy Eyes looks like she has a new respect for Dandelion at this point in time.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Bora, Bora, Bora was also an opportunity to truly see in action, a woman we've only heard about for the last 10 episodes.

Alex Vause, master planner/manipulator extraordinaire.

A waif named Pennsatucky managed to get Chapman thrown in jail on Thanksgiving, something that Alex took exception to in a very unusual way "last week" by French kissing Pennsatucky in the cafeteria for all to see.

But the Appalachian meth head didn't stop there, the person who had locked Alex in a dryer has since broken Alex's glasses and stolen her mattress. For THOSE crimes she's going down.

Alex: You have to remember, I have a different way of dealing with things.

Tiffany = Pennsatucky = Doggett has taken to faith healing in the common room, and Piper can't believe it. She tries to heckle from the sidelines but Alex, strangely enough, tells her "Piper, chill." While the show goes on, a shill planted by Alex challenges the healer to heal HER knee. Doggett tries to refuse, but is seduced into trying and HALLELUJAH Watson's knee was healed! As Watson dances out of the room, she smiles broadly at Alex and Piper realizes a Sting is in the works... and can't wait for part two.

Part two is called Big Boo, who stops Doggett in the cafeteria and asks to be cleansed of her naughty thoughts filled with "Lesbian content". Again Doggett tries to refuse, but is convinced by Big Boo's sincerity and tells her to kneel before her...WITH her dog. Its hilarious when once again, Doggett succeeds, but this time the healed is having second thoughts and wants to be turned into a lesbian once more!

As the faith healing services get bigger and more boisterous, Piper has second thoughts and walks away from Alex to find a bathroom. We've already discussed above what happened in that bathroom... but not what happened afterwards. Piper left the crowd hiding around the corner and ran into Doggett. She told the power hungry zealot that someone was in the bathroom in need of assistance.

"Constipation?" asked the toothless wonder.

Piper: No, this girl needs a miracle.

The Scared Straight crew are finally leaving the hallway near the bathroom as Doggett goes in. Somehow they've all forgotten Dina and her wheelchair are still inside. Dina's screaming to get the crazy lady off her alerts the Officers and CO Bennett rushes in to save Dina and maces Doggett.

Doggett: (Clutching her eyes with one hand and thrusting the other into the air cries out) LORD they're BLINDING me. I AM your martyr!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTwriL8VJm0

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTwriL8VJm0[/yt]

As Bell alerts her fellow Officers that they "have a situation" and the kiddie tour is being canceled... she is alerted by young Officer Fischer to avoid B corridor... a second "situation" has been found hanging in the utility closet.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Bora, Bora, Bora also includes my least favorite story line... the Bennett/ Daya/ pregnancy line. but since Like Kreacher in the Harry Potter series...it will be important next "week", I felt I should at least mention it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR4T-rlSXAs

Why don't I like it? Well, even I hope that the newbie guard wouldn't be so STUPID as to start up a clandestine relationship as soon as he starts working. I laugh at the idea that he's dumber than Pornstache and doesn't carry a condom after starting said relationship, and I roll my eyes at Caesar's holier than thou attitude since HE was screwing his lover's DAUGHTER before she went to prison. He's probably "holier" because he was thanking God for not being the father, himself.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR4T-rlSXAs[/yt]

Finally... it drives me crazy that Daya thinks Bennett loves her. Hell... the man barely knows the kid, and maybe that's the point.

This prison isn't just for adults like Nicky & Piper, or "grown ups" like Red & Celeste, or even Golden girls like Chang.

Its for kids barely past 18... like Daya... like Tricia. Kids who don't have their heads on straight for one reason or another. Kids that have made the wrong choices in life and continue to make silly, stupid, monumentally wrong choices in prison.

Poor Tricia.

The kid she counseled on the street re: the art of the panhandle obviously got her life on track. In her final flashback, we see Little Allie proudly report a kitchen job, a section 8 apartment and a boyfriend. Instead of Tricia handing her a carrot and some candy to eat, we see Allie offer Tricia a place to stay, but the newly 18 year old addict can't handle it. The kid has SOME pride, although it can't be a heck of a lot since we know she's turning tricks for the same old white guy she ran off the year before. You remember him, right, the one she said looked like her rapist step father?

After detoxing in the segregation unit, the prison placed her back with her homies... but Mama Red turned her away. Sure, Morello welcomed her back, but she suspected (wrongly, as Nicky hotly told her!) that Tricia was the one who ratted Red's operation out to Pornstache. And big sister Nicky kept on the sidelines, not turning her away like Red did, but not taking her in her arms like Morello did.

The ONE person who treated her the SAME WAY after detox was Pornstache. As soon as he could, he tried to sell to Tricia... but the kid said "no". Why? BECAUSE Red wouldn't like it after she detoxed. Pornstache would not be denied, and he shoved the bad of drugs in her pants, telling her to sell it for him and deliver him the names of the customers so he knows who to hit next.

Talk about stupid. At least Daya and Tricia can plead ignorance on "youth"... but Pornstache can't. Lets call it the way it is... Mendez is F-ing STUPID for handing a barely recovering addict a bag of temptation.

Tricia: (wobbling about in the cafeteria) Yo Nicholls, I know you're probably not supposed to talk to me and everything, but could you do me a solid... and tell Red I'm gonna make it right.

One wonders... how she was gonna "make it right".

Was her karmic payback going to be with the Scared Straight kids? Was she going to pay back Red's help by paying it forward with the new delinquents? Was she going to turn the remaining drugs over to Caputo so Pornstache would be nailed? Who knows. Instead Pornstache put her in the closet to sleep off her high, he did it without even relieving her of the remainder of his stash. "What am I supposed to do in here?" she asked.

The teen who had nothing left but a dark windowless room and a bag full of drugs turned to the only friend she thought she had left... her last bad choice.

Pornstache's fear when he found the dead girl was palpable, and his plan to divert suspicion was inspired as he wrapped the extension cord around her neck and threw the end over the pipe in the ceiling.

Fischer: (On the radio) Copy that, but don't bring the kids down corridor B, okay.
Officer Bell: What? Why?
Fischer: (standing with Caputo before the open utility closet door) Um... we have a situation down here, too.

The thing that shocked me the most about the scene after Tricia's body was rolled away on the gurney, was BIG BOO turning to Nicky for a hug. Boo, who we all thought was going to kill Tricia a few months ago because the kid took Boo's last "wife" Mercy away, she couldn't handle it.

Healy's attitude to the hug did not shock me.

Healy: (To Caputo) There's a lot of touching going on down there.
Caputo: Healy, now's not the time.

I guess Healy's so insecure in his manhood that even a compassionate condolence hug stirs his righteous anger.


Piper: I just saw her.
Alex: We all just saw her.

I'm not sure if Piper sees him, in her shock, but its very telling to me that Healy sees Piper turn to Alex and fall into her arms.

I'm not sure if Piper ever told Alex about her interaction with Healy in SHU... if she did, Alex was very brave when she enfolded Piper in her arms in front of him.

Very brave... or very, very stupid.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Bora, Bora, Bora... concludes

Silly rabbit... no, I did NOT forget how this ep ended.

After all, the thread IS called Kate Mulgrew - Orange is the New Black for a reason.

Its night. Red has come into the empty kitchen where we discover she has a locked office. (Her ready room????)

She is very business like, unlocking the "screened" door, relocking it once inside, then turning to the far wall for even more privacy as Mama Red starts to weep.

A tearful Nicky arrives at the door, she whispers a quiet "Red." Mama wipes her tears away before turning to her other foster daughter to let her into her sanctum.

You can say a lot of things about Red... but you can't say she's a coward.

Red: Its my fault. I turned her away.

Or that she's not a good role model.

Nicky: No. This is not on you.

Red: (Looks away) I didn't mean she was out, forever. I just wanted to teach her a lesson. (she tries to control her tears as she looks back at Nicky) I thought she was stronger. (Her voice breaks as she looks away again)
Nicky: She was! She didn't hang herself, she OD'ed. I saw her wobbling around the cafeteria this morning.
Red: (Shrugs) So, she killed herself different way. (The Captain steps up.) I'm the one responsible. (she hangs her head in her hands)

Nicky: No. This isn't on you... its on me. I'm the one who finked to Pornstache about Neptune. (Voice breaks) I'm the reason why drugs are still coming in.
Red: (Mama looks up, aghast) Why?
Nicky: (She finally moves from the doorway and sits down across from Mama) Oh God... I don't know. I was just mad at you for always shitting on me. (she's crying)

Red: I only sent Tricia to detox because I thought they would start an investigation, to put an end to all of this.
Nicky: I didn't know that. (she's shocked at Mama's reason) You were right to not trust me.
Red: (That Russian accented Janeway voice drops a half octave) Nicky... I trust you more than anyone. I always have. I do now more than ever.

Nicky: Now? (complete disbelief) You got shit in your ears or something? I betrayed you. (LOVE Red's face at this moment)
Red: I know.......

(after several beats she leans closer to Nicky, to stare directly in to her eyes.)

And that's why I trust you. Because I know you will do whatever it takes to make things right... for Tricia.

(she starts to weave her magic spell about Nicky)

I was stupid to think that prison would ever look into things. Even if they caught Pornstache stuffing drugs down her throat,

(voice is dripping with disgust)

they'd do anything to avoid a scandal. Its up to US now, Nicky.

Nicky: What are you talking about?
Red: You know what I'm talking about. (Both hands reach up to caress Nicky's face) I'm talking about Mendez. I want that motherfucker. I want that motherfucker taken out!

switch to ORANGE SCREEN as music plays