Is he? Humps is a sick bastard, maybe mentally deranged. But Piscatella doesn't care, and in fact is quite coldly and actively working to support and maintain the system that lets Humps and others like him victimize people.
Spoilers I found it interesting how we glimpsed the "old guards" out in the community. Donaldson bussing tables, Wanda Bell as a school crossing guard and hearing about poor Scott O'neill on dialysis because he couldn't afford to go to the ER for his kidney stones. I also thought of the Mary Sue moments we didn't have, especially after seeing Lolly rescue Alex, Judy "rescue" Nicky and Mama Red intercede with all her known contacts in the prison drug business. I was sure Alex was going to walk in and rescue Piper from the kitchen branding, or that someone, anyone was going to rescue Poussey, but it was not to be. Caputo has tried to succumb to the dark side and he has tried to redeem himself, but he is discovering you can't serve both god and mammon. Even when he stopped the new video press release to walk outside and call Poussey's dad, he still came back indoors to announce her death without saying her name, without acknowledging her humanness. I don't see Caputo lasting long in this job, but I see him hanging on long enough for MCC to blame everything on him as they throw him under the bus (or the van) on their way to Washington. (Litchfield is Federal, right?)
Just speculation on: Spoiler: Caputo at the end Is it possible that he knew Taystee was there, how she would react and what would happen, knowing that there was no way MCC could cover up a riot while the media were on site? It's giving Caputo a lot of benefit-of-doubt, but it's hard to reconcile going straight from talking from the dad, which obviously affected him, to not even mentioning Poussey's name in the statement.
I see Caputo as a person who cares about right and wrong but cares about his own career a lot more. So he will only do the right thing when it doesn't risk his personal ambitions. I think Humps is much worse than Piscatella. Piscatella's motivation seems to come from a strong disdain for criminals and absolute belief in order, and he is accustomed to guarding murderers and rapists in max so his attitude has been strongly reinforced by experience. Humps is just a psychopath. Spoiler: Caputo's speech My interpretation of Caputo's speech is that he sensed Baxley was being thrown to the wolves and tried to protect him.
Something I had almost forgotten about at the end of the last episode... Spoiler We see Caputo's girlfriend (can't remember her name) on the toilet somewhere in the prison. How will that play out with a riot going on? Will she find herself caught in the middle?
The lady on the toilet is named Linda. Spoilers... The show has been out 3 weeks, can we stop SPOILER tagging? (I've screwed up 4 times trying to tag tonight. ) Caputo is definitely protecting his CO, because MCC was going to railroad him and because earlier Piscateli (and much earlier, the "old" guards) reminded him that he was supposed to protect his men. Not necessarily from the inmates, but from the employers that seek to take advantage of them. The stupid thing Caputo did (one of many) was he said on TV that the CO was coming back to work, just 2 days after Caputo told the kid to run for the hills while he still had a soul to save. I still don't understand why Poussey had such a long sentence, unless that's the point, showing the racial injustice of her sentence vs Piper's. I hope Poussey's dad shows up next year. I'd like to see the Major (?) join forces with the disgruntled CEO's son and Crystal Burset to take down MCC.
That was odd. A six year sentence for a small amount of marijuana? I guess it was slightly over the line for 'intent to distribute'.
Well, I don't really care about ranking who is worse, but Piscatella is really bad. He is in a position of responsibility and authority and chose to use that authority to enable Humps's psychopathic behavior, instead of firing him so he could no longer abuse inmates. If he cares about order, it's not law and order, just his personal authoritarian order. If he hates criminals, it's not about their crimes. because he himself does illegal things and allows his staff to do likewise. Also, extended sleep deprivation is widely regarded as a form of torture. And will her purse pistol come into play? Yeah, I think Caputo coming out in support Bailey was mostly because he felt that was the only way he had left to thwart MCC's plans. They already admitted they had reached a dead end for blaming Poussey, and her side has some influence, so Caputo did what he could to keep the kid from being railroaded. A general now, apparently. I know the series takes dramatic license, but some things in the season were pretty shaky to me. How did nobody know the guard was missing? At first I thought he must have just slipped in wearing a uniform, but apparently he was a real employee. Also, the garden crime scene would have been gridded out and completely excavated, and there would be local, state and federal cops swarming all over the camp. Why weren't the media and the MCC crisis lawyers or whatever they were there for that story?
Because last season ended with all the old guards walking out in protest. They probably assumed he quit like everyone else, since none of them seemed to actually go through the motions of officially resigning first, and since Caputo spent almost half the season trying to catch up with all the bs that was left over from the previous administration, so probably never even looked into how properly the old guards' termination was handled.
I finished season s 3 and 4 a week or two ago. I had to muster the will to get back into the show even though I loved the first two seasons. Something about prison shows, I guess. And sure enough, one of my favorite characters, sweet little Poussey, gets killed. She had a really nice send off, though. I imagine that little hint she gave about a physical altercation in one of her flashbacks may have been pretty significant. I could not see the first two seasons as comedies, but season 3, I laughed my head off. The black inmate's quest to become Jewish went from hysterical to downright touching. Season 4, I thought returned the show to it's rather "grim" start. I despised Piscatella with a white hot boiling passion. That gorilla head with the beard...I wanted to see him get his ass kicked hard and long. Humps was right behind him. Prison gang leader, Maria, was damn scary. Like evryone, I thought Suzanne, and Lolly's backstories were so tragic. BTW, was the woman who played young Lolly a different actor, or was that FX, or make-up? In the finale, the two inmates who somehow confused Attica with "The Hungry Games", and To Kill a Mockingbird (Mockingjay") were great. So, what happened with "Peg Leg Bates"? Did the actor get fired? I really like Caputo. This is a guy who has tried to do the right thing all his life and has gotten crapped on as a result. I don't blame him at all for doing what he can to still be a good guy while still protecting himself.
Christina Brucato played young Lolly. Major kudos to her for adeptly aligning her performance to Lori Petty's. She even sounded like Lori!
No, the character got cold "foot" when he realized his fantasy of living with his baby Mama after her unfortunate incarceration meant having drug peddlers like Cesar as a father in law. One of the things I really liked this season was how Red once again called Healey out for HIS little fantasy of the perfect Russian wife. She knew, even if he refused to see, how inappropriate a "relationship" between them actually was. She realized he was partially "punishing her" with his elevation of Judy King over her, because of that refusal. I also liked having further evidence from his flashbacks, that his inappropriate behavior preceded prison, like the time he went on a movie date with a patient. Piper didn't know how right she was when she called him on his BS when he threw her in the SHU and Fig was right on before the season 1 Christmas concert when she told him to drop his lesbian obsession and get some effing therapy. He must have been galled to have Judy King pull her weight and get transferred from his patient list due to his inappropriateness. Healey really wasn't one of the "good guys" and I wish we could see the return of the black lady counselor from season 3 but having "good guys" in charge would limit the drama that bad guys lead the series into. Which, when I think of it, is another reason "peg leg" Bennett won't come back, because we don't need "good guys" on this show.
I have to hope that the next season will display more good guys and feel a little more uplifting, because this season really drained me emotionally. I had bad dreams about it. I know the goal is to portray prison life accurately, but I don't think I could continue to watch the show if it got even darker.
With the show being renewed for another 3 seasons last year, I suspect we'll be trudging through Mordor http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9oNXC0qCuJ4/T28yyomxdcI/AAAAAAAAA3A/mLyhLMXj864/s1600/Mordor.jpg for quite a while before it ends.
To be fair, I think the idea was much more to comment on current events in this country right now -- the last two or three weeks highlighting exactly the issue surrounding the events of the last two episodes. It's supposed to be disturbing, because a lot of what is happening in various parts of the US is quite disturbing, yet it feels like nothing is being done about it, perhaps because it keeps happening. If Jenji Kohan and her writers want to continue to use Orange is the New Black as a tool for further societal commentary, I'm all for it -- even if it's uncomfortable. I think that's very much the point.
I do understand that's the point, but it is still meant to be entertainment after all. If it gets so darkly realistic that people just don't want to watch anymore, then the important societal messages aren't reaching as wide an audience. I think the show benefits from maintaining the humor and some positive, uplifting stories. After all, those are part of reality too, just like the bad stuff.