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Kate Mulgrew - Orange is the New black

Question.

When Alex tells Piper... "We all just saw her."... was she commiserating with the shock Piper felt... or was she making a deeper statement.

We all just saw her in the prison as "scenery" and not as someone to reach out to, someone to help?

Inquiring minds... :confused: want to know.

ETA: This is stopped at the appropriate time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs8FD_u1Z-s&feature=player_detailpage&t=513

This one isn't in the right spot, but if you go to 8min 33 sec you will find it. :)

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs8FD_u1Z-s[/yt]
 
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SPOILERS :eek:

SPOILERS :eek:

SPOILERS :eek:

Episode #11 Tall Men with Feelings

It's the day after Tricia's death.

Lets do the "Kreacher" (shameless Harry Potter reference) storyline first this time, ok?

Daya's Mom comes into the kitchen to buy "ginger gum" to settle her upset stomach. The skinny white kitchen waif challenges her before she will help, "what's my name?" Of course, the Hispanic lady doesn't know the white lady's name and is rebuffed. (Oh, its "Gina Murphy" in case you are playing a OitNB trivia game)

Enter Mama Red who sidles up to Aleida and apologizes for the PMS in her kitchen help. Red then makes an insightful observation... "Your daughter is pregnant" and backs up her reasoning with enough data that you realize Red should have worked for the KGB not for her husband's grocery/deli.

One thing led to another and soon Red is sitting at a table in the common room with Aleida, Gloria and Daya. Daya can't figure out why they are trying to play scrabble instead of dominoes.... Ay yi yi yi yi. :rolleyes:

Gloria feels the same as I do and thankfully cuts to the chase. Daya can't hold out hope that boyfriend Bennett's dream of granting Daya a furlough so she can leave the prison walls for a fake funeral (and some fake sex) will come to pass. Daya has to get Pornstache to have sex with her to throw suspicion on him as the father.

Daya is aghast. She will not betray Bennett.

Mama Red moves in for the kill. If she doesn't do this FOR Bennett, her lover will lose his job AND go to prison as a sex offender while she will most likely be sent down the hill to Max.

I guess this is the prison version of "Sophie's choice".

Daya agrees, how can you stand up to 3 determined women and that logic?

All it takes is a little flirting, a little batting of the eyes and soon Daya is back in Red's kitchen/ready room assuring Red that her date is "on". Red then goes graphic... "I didn't want to say this in front of your mother" about what she must get Pornstache to "do" and not to shower or pee after the act. She is to go directly to the prison nurse and start a rape investigation.

Daya agrees.

Unfortunately, in the final minutes of the episode we see Mendez is a LOT smarter than Bennett during his prison assignations. He has brought a condom... and he's sure to bring it with him when he leaves the closet. The first person Daya runs to is Red in the dining room to tell her of the failure to get the needed evidence.

The vengeful Red will not be deterred and simply tells the devastated Daya she better hope she was good enough that Mendez wants to have sex with her once more.
 
You're welcome, although I must admit this is a lot tougher than when I did the 6 years of Xena.

Thank God for whoosh.org and their transcripts, not to mention all the websites with screen captures which supplied my posts as I stumbled through 134 X:WP's and 3 HTLJ's eps.

Oh.. and thanks for 1 very helpful Possum!

JanewaywatchingXena.jpg


T.D does such good work! :bolian:
 
Tall Men With Feelings ... continues

Let's review the timeline.

We are one day after Tricia's death and that death was more than 1 week after Thanksgiving. We know this because Piper kept complaining in the last ep that Larry had not picked up the phone in over a week. Of course she was complaining to the woman she was having sex with for that last week... :rolleyes: ... a woman who was quick to point out to Piper that she didn't have the right to be "indignant" at his lapse. :rommie:

You remember Thanksgiving, right? Healy threw Piper in the SHU for dancing suggestively with Alex in a well lit room with 30 other women and at least 1 guard in attendance.

Well, Piper hasn't seen or spoken on the phone with him since before that fateful day.

She has spoken with her brother at least once, and knows that Larry is busy prepping for a radio interview with Maury Kind on NPR, but she doesn't know when its scheduled to be recorded, much less aired.

There's a lot of missteps going on in the 2 main romantic relationships this week which I'll get to presently, but I first have to discuss one relationship that has disappointed me to no end in these last 2 eps.

That's right.

I'm talking about Polly.

:scream:

Jeepers, girlfriend!

I KNOW you have given birth and are dealing with 2 am feedings and diapers and sterilizing everything that comes within 5 feet of your progeny, but where the hell are you????

Your best friend is in prison. She spent the holiday in solitary, and you don't call? You don't offer your shoulder to cry on? Your husband listens to her fiance record an interview on NPR about HER and you don't call to warn her about what he said? You don't call HIM to rip him a new orifice for the confidences he spilled on a national radio show?

Polly, Polly, Polly. :sigh:

I am so disappointed.

Girlfriend, she needed you, :( and you weren't there.
 
Tall Men With Feelings ... continues

Tiffany Doggett certainly needs someone. She's in the Psych unit... actually she's in a large cage as a Psychiatrist AKA a "hippy dippy doctor" tries to interview her about her religious fixation. Doggett literally climbs the walls of the cage as she acts out, and we realize there's a good REASON for having the patient so enclosed. The doctor leaves to get a sedative as Tiffany rails that JESUS HAS MY BACK! and she doesn't need any drugs.

When we see her again... she is in 4 point restraints on a bed in a room that looks exactly like the cell Piper was in when she was sent to SHU. The doctor is there and orders another 5 mg of valium which Tiffany tries to refuse.

I thought it was interesting when the door to the cell opened and we see Flores walk by with a guard. Flores was the woman who owned the cell phone that was hidden in the bathroom stall, the phone Piper gave up in a failed deal to reopen the running track. Now we know why we haven't seen her in weeks.

Tiffany tries to reassure the nurse giving her the shot, that she isn't crazy. Then appears to have a crisis of that faith she paraded for the doctor earlier... "Jesus, where are you when I need you?"

The nurse isn't buying Tiffany's claims that she "isn't crazy", simply saying, "If you weren't crazy, you wouldn't have to work so hard to convince everyone you're sane.

What's so neat about this "Tiffany tied down" scene, is that it comes right after the scene where Suzanne/Crazy Eyes explains what the Psych unit is like, to Piper.

Piper: Is Psych worse than the SHU?
Suzanne: Way worse. Scary. Its Bold. Cold. Old. Its real bad. I wouldn't wish it on the worst gremlin.
Piper: But they give you a therapist.
Suzanne: No! Nope, I mean, they give me medication and make me calm... but that just makes me sleepy. Sometimes when I'm real upset, they tie me down like a balloon so I don't fly away.
Piper: That sounds horrible.
Suzanne: Yeah. NOBODY comes back from Psyche...except me. :)

The next morning we see Piper have yet another epiphany (to discuss in full later) and she goes to Caputo to tell him she orchestrated the fake faith healing to convince Tiffany she had a gift, then sent Tiffany into the bathroom her to exercise said gift on the unsuspecting teen. For her transgression, Piper was put on 2 weeks night shift janitorial service, and at the end of the ep we see a newly released, bedraggled Doggett walk into the cafeteria and into the arms of her friend, fellow Appalachian meth head (blonde Leanne).

It was the only reason why Piper smiled after Larry's radio program played that day.
 
Tall Men With Feelings ... continues

What can one say about Suzanne?

In one episode, she goes from inscrutable Crazy Eyes to tragic heroine fighting the battle of mental illness and only sometimes winning.

We see her sing to Piper and Alex in the Chapel as she prepares to buff the floors, "Vanilla & Vanilla, swirl, swirl, swirl, swirl." (love Alex's face here) and then we see her give some very SPECIFIC dating advice to Alex re: the care of "wives".

Crazy Eyes: If you were still my wife I would tell you all the time how MUCH I like your titties, cause girls like that! And THAT (to Alex) is a tip... from me... to you! Alex seems to ponder that idea... and flashes back to Paris for "awhile".

The next time we see Crazy Eyes, she's buffing the hallway as Piper walks by. More to the point, as Piper slips and FALLS. Crazy Eyes tries to help her up but is initially rebuffed (no pun intended) until Piper realizes she hurts too much to get up alone. After helping Piper up, Crazy Eyes starts punishing herself for Piper's injuries, much to the blonde's chagrin. Piper allows Suzanne to escort her back to the cubical and even asks for a pillow to be positioned under Piper's injured knee AFTER reminding Suzanne not to consider this as permission to court Piper AND getting Suzanne to reassure Piper she would not pee on Piper's floor. (Trust me, it was funny!)

Crazy Eyes finally explains what her hand gestures mean, when she points to her eyes and away (They are a code signal to the guards meaning, "Its cool, I'm okay") and she bonds with Piper over their talk about the Psych unit and how Suzanne's sent there to "calm down". It was nice to hear how "Mommy and Daddy and the Lawyer have a deal with the warden" that allows Suzanne back with the minimum security population when she's "calmed". Nice because it reassures me her adoptive parents really are involved with her and didn't just tell the DOC "she's your problem now".

Of course, the one thing we ALL remember from this cubical scene, if not from the entire ep, is the laughing Suzanne suddenly turning serious as she asks Piper one last question.

Suzanne: Why does everyone call me... "Crazy Eyes"?

She looks so confused and so worried about what Piper will say... and we never hear the response, if indeed Piper gave one.

As sad as that scene was... it can't hold a candle to watching Suzanne listen to Larry Bloom's radio interview the very next day. :wah:
 
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Tall Men With Feelings ... continues


Black Cindy is supposed to be helping Poussey in the library, but she's more interested in reading the horoscopes. They're okay (P & BC)... but I miss Taystee!

Don't you just love Miss Claudette?

Of COURSE her sign is Taurus.. or as Black Cindy says... "You a stubborn bull, all right."

She's still keeping busy in the library looking things up, despite already sending her appeal off to the Feds. Black Cindy reveals Miss Claudette's horoscope suggests she will get positive news soon... but Black Cindy was kind enough not to mention the paper she just used to predict Miss C's future was 8 MONTHS old!

Loved the scene the next day when Jean Baptiste comes to visit again. She's such a school girl when he's around, and so hopeful about their future. She even let him "seduce" her into playing the "what will I do first" game when she's released from prison.

I love it when Miss Claudette smiles.

She WASN'T smiling an hour later, after Larry's radio program plays. :scream:
 
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Tall Men With Feelings ... continues

It's less than 24 hours since Tricia was found hanging in the utility closet, and the upper class white girls are working in the electrical shop, untangling Christmas lights. (Its about 10 days after Thanksgiving.)

Piper has tried once again to call Larry... but the call "didn't go through" (he refused it). Nicky, gossip that she is when allowed, tells Piper that her fella will be on NPR tomorrow. Evidently Lorna heard it while driving the transport van and told Nicky. (Obviously these two have also "made up" after a brief but vicious verbal fight before Tricia died.)

Piper is flabbergasted...

Piper: Maybe he's cheating on me with Maury Kind.
Nicky: Then you'd BOTH be gay! So "post modern".

...and takes it out on the tangled lights. When reprimanded by Luschek, using a vulgar allusion to Tricia's hanging, Piper nearly goes ballistic. Luckily Nicky is there to talk her down ( Didn't your vacation on the sunny island of SHU teach you anything? ) Piper than asks why the prison isn't having a memorial for Tricia and can't accept Nicky's response so she plans to organize it herself.

She does ask for volunteers, but no-one shows up at the chapel except Alex, which leads to one of the funniest NON-Crazy Eyes lines of the ep.

Piper: (Looks up when the door opens, then sees its Alex) Oh.
Alex: Okay, here's some advice, when a girl makes you cum like I do... you should always act thrilled to see her.

(She's just a "little" full of herself, isn't she? :lol: )

The girls have a heart to heart which brings up unpleasant memories of another funeral, and nothing is settled about Tricia's service.

Back in the barracks, however, Big Boo, silent Norma, Lorna & Nicky are gathering in the white suburbs as food is dropped off... first by golden girl Chang, then by Gloria and the younger girls (Marietizia &?) , then by Poussey and Black Cindy.

We learned as they went through Tricia's belongings, that Big Boo finally got hold of Mercy by phone and reassured her she would set aside some keepsakes for Tricia's former lover.

Since Poussey was "kind enough" to drop off some "toilet hooch" the girls decided to have an old fashioned wake (sans guest of honor). By the time Piper arrived, most were at least "1 sheet" to the winds".

Piper: So this is what you guys decided to do... instead of coming to my memorial? Huh? (looks at Alex as she accepts the booze bottle) Get drunk?
Sister Ingalls: Which looks like more fun?
Piper: Point, Nun.

and soon after...

Piper: (Takes a swallow) Why is having a drink so cathartic sometimes?
Big Boo: Booze helps you process. At least, where I come from.
Piper: My family just yelled at each other when they drank and then pretended nothing happened.
Big Boo: Ahh. This explains the wide eyed, ice princess, uptight thing.
Piper: I'm not uptight.
EVERYBODY ELSE: :guffaw: :lol: :guffaw: :lol: :guffaw:

As everyone laughs at Piper, they get a sobering reminder of the missing gust of honor as her effigy falls off the hook and gets (literally) hanged by a necklace. :eek: :cardie: :eek:

Lorna is so protective/sweet to Nicky in this scene... again, I guess hard feelings have been set aside after the Bora x 3 ep.

Speaking of sweet, the woman who hated Tricia for taking Mercy away is positively saccharine about her dead rival, showing the Nun the book Tricia kept of everything she owed other people.

Big Boo: How's that for karma.

1. Hinduism, Buddhism. action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation: in Hinduism one of the means of reaching Brahman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77IKJsSdEL8

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77IKJsSdEL8[/yt]
 
such a great episode! "crazy eyes" was great. I wonder if Piper answered her when she asked why everyone called her crazy eyes. And then of course when she was listening to the radio oh man I was tearing up. When he came to talking about Red I just kept thinking uh oh he better not say anyting bad. I don't think it occured to him that Piper still has to LIVE with these people. When Miss Claudette comes up to Piper I thought she was going to punc her or somthing. Instead she just had that really hurt look "is that what you think of me?"

At the end of this episode my husband and I were talking about how good this show is, and I don't mean just the plot. We were skeptical about it at first since it was a netflix original. But after watching it I can easily say it measures up with any HBO show out there in terms of quality
 
KaraBear said:
such a great episode! "crazy eyes" was great. I wonder if Piper answered her when she asked why everyone called her crazy eyes. And then of course when she was listening to the radio oh man I was tearing up. When he came to talking about Red I just kept thinking uh oh he better not say anyting bad. I don't think it occured to him that Piper still has to LIVE with these people. When Miss Claudette comes up to Piper I thought she was going to punc her or somthing. Instead she just had that really hurt look "is that what you think of me?"

At the end of this episode my husband and I were talking about how good this show is,

and I don't mean just the plot. We were skeptical about it at first since it was a netflix original. But after watching it I can easily say it measures up with any HBO show out there in terms of quality
Click to expand...

This show has so much going on all the time, that I really do need to step back and process it or all my recaps would simply say...

:bolian: It's Great! :scream: WATCH :scream: already!!!!! :bolian:

Speaking of processing...

Its time to get to the meat of the 11th episode. We've seen this car careening for 2 1/2 eps :brickwall: ... and its finally going to hit the telephone pole. :eek:
 
Tall Men With Feelings ... continues

The first scene we see of Piper in this ep, is a silent one. She's standing alone by the stainless steel looking utilitarian wall phones that appear circa 1968. She's already dialed, and you KNOW she's waiting for that crappy recording announcing "an inmate from Litchfield is trying to reach you." Lucky for us the scene switches before it plays, to the waiting room of NPR (National Public Radio). Larry is signing in at the desk as his smart phone rings. He pulls it out and we see the legend "LITCHFIELD" with a phone number at the top of the screen and the "accept" and "Decline" buttons at the bottom. He actually stops to think for a second before hitting "decline" then puts the phone away.

I'm sorry... "Team Larry"... but you lost about 500 points from me at that moment.

I loved it when the other guest made Larry feel about 3 inches tall (He did realize he should be embarrassed, right???) discussing everything he has to go through with his husband in Antarctica for nearly TWO YEARS. As I watched Larry claim he went upstate to see Piper "pretty often" I wanted to use my mother's fav line, "You can go to hell for lying, just as well as stealing", but with my luck he's a secular humanist like Piper and so that line would not hold any threat.

What a prick!

He couldn't be bothered to even call her after being sent to SHU. To ask if it was true that she'd rekindled her post graduate romance with the drug dealer. To ask if their engagement was off because she reunited with her soul-mate, or if like Morello, she was just enjoying some vacation time on the sunny island of lesbos? No... he could mope and cry about what Healy told him, OH and he could go on a program about long distant relationships and PRETEND he was still in one, but he couldn't once hit the friggin' "accept" button in the last 10 days. :scream:

Hell, does he even know that brother Cal told sister Piper that Larry was going on the radio to talk about "them" / HER?

An honorable man would have canceled on the kind Mr. Maury... but then an honorable man would miss out on the notoriety that this man craves. What good is being a furry sidekick (his description of himself, NOT mine) if you don't have your star anymore?

(Can you tell how much I'm pissed off :klingon: at him right now? And I don't even sleep with him! :lol: )

As noted above, Nicky tells Piper that the fiancé will be on NPR "tomorrow" which is, naturally, NEWS to her. Piper allows her rage at the man "not in her life" to be supplanted by her indignation at the lack of a formal memorial service for Tricia, the girl she barely knew. Of course, there can be just 1 remedy, Piper will organize one. Unfortunately, no-one shows up except Alex... and eventually Crazy Eyes.

I loved this ep because we finally get some serious flashback info on these two, info that explains not how they fell together... but more importantly, how they fell apart.

"Present" Alex is laughing at the self absorption that is Piper Chapman, as Piper pronounces the lack of public interest in the memorial to mean that ONLY SHE CARES for the dead woman. After laughing at her lover, Alex starts to get personal and the little digs are turning into serious jabs.

Alex: Because I think we both know that dealing with emotional chaos is not one of your strong suits. Which is why we're "not having an affair", we're just "being human", and why you are planning a memorial for a girl you barely knew.
Piper: (looks away from Alex) We talked. I did know her.
Alex: (she slams an uppercut!) Did you know her better than you knew my mom?
Piper: (looks sadly at Alex) That's not fair.
Alex: (Looks away then sighs and looks back) None of it was fair.

Suzanne eventually interrupts this tete e tete with that cogent advice for Alex on the proper care of your wife. (compliment her titties) Alex seems to seriously consider that advice as she remembers a fateful day in Paris, 8 (?) years ago.

"Past" Piper is trying to draw her lover's attention from the laptop and not succeeding. As she tries to leave, muttering about feeling like a pathetic housewife, Alex makes a "gesture". She offers to take Piper out clubbing that night. Piper doesn't seem thrilled, but it looks like its the best offer she's likely to get from Alex, so she accepts. Before she turns away, Alex makes her biggest MISCALCULATION in the game called "the courting of Miss Piper Chapman."

Alex: Hey... would you be up for a trip to Istanbul this weekend?
Piper: (Turns back all EXCITED!) Yes! Of Course!
Alex: Oh Babe, that's great. Thank-you! I think you should be able to get there and back in a day, so you won't even have to stay overnight. I'm gonna call and set up your ticket for you.

(Piper's face has gone from ecstatic to puzzled to disappointed.)

Piper: Oh my god. I thought for a second you meant we would go together... like a vacation... like normal people.
Alex: (Getting a little hot, and not in a good way) I need you to do this. I wouldn't ask if I had any other option.
Piper: (Talk about getting hot!) I specifically told you that I would NEVER do that again. Jesus... I am so stupid. I really am. I'm just another drug mule to you.

And here is where Alex Vause trumps Larry Bloom in the clueless lover camp.

Alex: (Raises voice) You are such a naïve asshole sometimes!
Piper: (Calls her raise) I'M an Asshole?
Alex: (I guess the Star can't make do w/o her furry sidekick) I'm drowning right now, and you won't even consider helping me!
Piper: I am DONE! I can't do this anymore, I can't be with you.
Alex: Are you serious? Where are you gonna go?
Piper: I don't know where I'm gonna go...I gonna go back to the States where I'm not your errand girl.

Their argument continues with Alex's accusations that Piper is secretly a straight girl & therefore her concerns are unworthy of consideration. Piper's rejoinder?

Piper: I guess that is easier than facing the fact that you are a drug dealer. And it is ruining everything good in your life.

Alex's comeback... "You knew exactly what you were getting into... (and here comes the guilt) I thought we were a team."

Piper can't believe Alex's response and turns to walk away.

Team Alex... you are now a 1000 points in the hole. :wtf:
 
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I'm loving your in depth reviews. I watched the series over three days last week, and became a new convert. The show is brilliant, simply put.
 
Seven of Five said:
I'm loving your in depth reviews. I watched the series over three days last week, and became a new convert. The show is brilliant, simply put.
Click to expand...


Thanks. :)

Rewatching it has given me an even deeper appreciation for the show and I'd recommend a slower viewing session "next time".

(I don't mean next spring.. we all know we'll mainline the darn thing next year the moment season 2 is released! :rofl: )

One of the thing I've noticed can either be seen as continuity issues OR opportunities for new flashback stories.

IIRC, somewhere Alex said she hasn't seen Piper in 5 years, but Piper said she hadn't seen Alex in 8 years.

So... does that mean Alex turned :alienblush: stalkerish 5 years ago???
 
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