Orange Is The New Black: Final Season

[JirinPanthosa]

I couldn’t find the old OitNB thread so here’s a new one,

Anyone else hyped up? I’ve been rewatching through in prep, I’m currently in season 3.

The biggest question is the fate of Taystee. Actually being executed usually takes years and years so it’ll probably focus on appeals and her experience on death row.

Also I know Piper is recurring this season but I wonder how much we’ll really see. If Polly tries to reach out and salvage the friendship. Or the obvious path of having her write a memoir of her time in prison. If she’ll stay stupid insane in attempts to be with Alex.

Also Kubra must have figured out by now she’s still alive. I wonder if they bring that angle back.

Then of course Morello’s baby which looked in serious jeopardy. And how insane she’ll go if she loses it.

Other than that all the season six stories seem wrapped up and we’ll see new directions for the characters in season 7. Maybe we see Ruiz’s attempts to stay moral in the face is f her extended sentence. Badison probably tries to become big dog with the sisters dead and sets up a clash with Daddy and Diaz. Clearly Taystee is the star but I hope we get some kind of glimpse into all the lost characters and their fates. Like it feels like Soso might have become suicidal again. Either that or she’s out. And would be great to see if the nun recovered from her pneumonia.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

My biggest question, other than Taystee's fate, is whether we actually see Maritza again and if she gets reunited with Flaca.

Also I know Piper is recurring this season but I wonder how much we’ll really see. If Polly tries to reach out and salvage the friendship. Or the obvious path of having her write a memoir of her time in prison. If she’ll stay stupid insane in attempts to be with Alex.

This is Piper, of course she'll try to do everything for Alex. Meh. Piper has always been my least favorite character so I don't really care what happens to her.

Then of course Morello’s baby which looked in serious jeopardy. And how insane she’ll go if she loses it.

Yeah, Morello is one of my favorites and I'm seriously worried for her. She doesn't deserve that to happen to her.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I'm less interested in Piper than I am in what the show has to say about prisoners reintegrating. Also I just want to see all the story threads tidily wrapped up. Just I'd be more interested in the logical extension of season 1-2 scared rich girl Piper than season 3-6 entitled lunatic Piper. If Piper flaked on Alex it wouldn't be the first time. Is she truly loyal now or when she gets comfy as a free person again does she fall back on her old habits?

Also I think there's some comic potential in her running into the guard who was fired in season 2 (Or any of the guards who got screwed over when the prison was privatized) and having an awkward conversation.

Another thing I want to see is Bursett on the outside dealing with her son and reuniting with the nun, when their last interaction was her sacrificing herself to get her out of solitary.

We don't have a good look at which characters have how much time left on their sentences.

Most of the characters who went to the other prison were by design the less interesting half, but I think it'd be great just to see something of what's going on in the other prison to see what's going on with a few of the characters like Norma, Boo, Soso, Watson, Maritza, etc. I'm hoping they do go in the predictable direction of Piper writing memoirs and have her interview her former jailmates just as a way to resolve dangling threads.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Yeah, I definitely want to see more of Sophia and Sister Ingalls. I always felt like they were underutilized, especially Sophia (but I guess than can be chalked up to Laverne Cox's growing stardom in the case of Sophia).

Most of the characters who went to the other prison were by design the less interesting half, but I think it'd be great just to see something of what's going on in the other prison to see what's going on with a few of the characters like Norma, Boo, Soso, Watson, Maritza, etc. I'm hoping they do go in the predictable direction of Piper writing memoirs and have her interview her former jailmates just as a way to resolve dangling threads.

Yeah, I was kind of mad that a whole bunch of my favorite characters were shuffled off to the other prison and we didn't get to see them at all (except for Boo once). I guess it was because the cast got too large and they wanted to sharpen their focus. Hopefully we'll get some variation of your suggestion and we'll at least get proper closure for those characters.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Maybe a better way to express my thoughts on Piper.

I'm not that interested in Piper Chapman, the character, but I am interested in Piper Kerman, the person she's based on, and hope to see more of her and her experience readjusting to the outside world. We haven't really seen a lot of Piper Kerman since the first season.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I’m currently watching the season 3 finale, and noting how little I remember of season 4 besides how it ended and that it’s when Piscatella has his reign of terror. Truly the weakest season.

And I’m not sure how Chapman faced no consequences for what she did.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

We finally have a trailer!

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[Sparkle Fabulosa]

Wait. Is that THE chicken!?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Oh, damn, I forgot about the chicken's history and lore! I was too busy being excited to see Boo and others we didn't see much of last season.

Also, I forgot to mention that I love this exchange:

"What is it you really want?"

"Ice cream...and justice."

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I rewatched the season six finale as a refresher for the final season tomorrow and I'm really glad I did. I forgotten about so much from the last season.

Vox's Emily Todd VanDerWerff published a wonderful write-up for the show as a whole and why, even now, it's still a significant show. She doesn't explicitly review the final season but she largely praises it. I can't wait!

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I'm four episodes in and my heart is already breaking...

Spoiler: First four episodes

Lorna's baby, despite surviving a premature C-Section birth (which Lorna was handcuffed during ), ultimately died. And now Lorna is in complete denial, reverting back to her season 1 self, lying to Nicky about Sterling's death and showing her photos of babies online. Like I said earlier in the thread, she didn't deserve this and now she's fallen back to her old ways.

I got my wish and Maritza has finally returned! Sadly, while briefly got the taste of freedom, ICE scooped her up and because she was unable to obtain a legal ID, she's now in indefinite holding at PolyCon's new immigration holding, along with Blanca. The good news: She's partially reunited with Flaca who is on kitchen duty for the immigrate prisoners. The bad news: Turns out Maritza's mother lied to her all of these years and she's not actually a US citizen, having been born in Columbia.

Taystee is understandably at her wit's end, shunned Suzanne's attempts of reconciliation with her and Cindy, and has decided to follow-up on her threat to Caputo to end her life. Daya made it difficult for her to obtain the right amount of drugs for an overdose, so instead she has tried to hang herself...and it looks like she has failed. Will she find a new lease on life?

Like I said, I'm already in tears.

The only good thing so far this season is Tamika Ward unexpectedly becoming warden, leapfrogging Hopper (how appropriate) in the process. and bringing in Caputo for the education reforms that Taystee demanded for during the riots. I can only hope that the system (and PolyCon and Linda in particular) doesn't grind Ward's high hopes as they did to Caputo, and maybe even Tayste will become involved with the education reforms?

Because, really, we can't end this show on such terrible downer notes, right? Right?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

One episode in right now.

Spoiler

The most evil guard forcing the drugs on Alex and literally forcing a condom filled with heroin down her throat. Also was shocked Daddy died so instantly.

Going heavy on the dark aspects of the show so far. Hopefully this season has some of the quirky fun aspects of early on. Though I get why they’d want their final takeaway to be “No, really, the prison system is extremely terrible.”

 

[JirinPanthosa]

One positive note you find out so early I don’t think it’s spoilery. End of last season it sure looked like Lorna was losing the baby. But the baby lived and just had to be removed prematurely.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Finished the season today. Oof, that was depressing. Not without hope, but a lot of downer moments and outright fury.

Spoiler

Poor Lorna. She never properly accepted the truth of Sterling's death, even when Vince had her fake Instagram account shut down and confronted her in person. Something simply...snapped...inside and she never fully recovered. Nicky finally learned the truth from Vince and even she couldn't reach Lorna. Now she's left to rot in the Not Psych Ward where she'll simply be given pills and not given any proper psychological care. Oh, and we find out she accidentally killed a newly-engaged couple in a flashback. Huh.

Poor Maritza. She finally found her place in the world, by helping others in the "detention" center get in touch with lawyers...and ICE fast tracks her deportation to Columbia. She didn't even get to say goodbye to Flaca.

Right until the end, I still thought Taystee was going to kill herself, even when there were better opportunities available for her. I'm glad she finally got there in the end, partially thanks to Suzanne and Tamika and even Caputo. But what really pushed in the right direction was the tragic and needless death of Pennsatucky. That was the wake up she so desperately needed and that finally got her on the path of helping others in Poussey's memory. And the Poussey flashback! I won't lie: I cried when I saw her one last time, even if the episode foolishly spoiled Samira Wiley's return in the guest credits.

My heart broke the most for Pennsatucky. Which is really saying something considering I hated the character in the early days. She's come a long way since her dumb methhead days, proving that deep down she does have a good heart and even smart mind. She had a shitty upbringing that pushed her way down to the point she fell into drugs and into crime. She slowly climbed her way out of her hole, first thanks to Boo and then later Suzanne and Taystee. And she was so close to really achieving a personal success...and then fucking Luschek forgot to do the paperwork to allow her to have more time on the GED test because of her dyslexia (and of course I misspelled it). She flipped out and did the best she could, but she decided she was a failure once again....and fell right back into her old ways and overdosed. And worst of all, she actually passed the test.

And if that wasn't enough heartbreak, for the season, Red slipped deeper and deeper into dementia. She lost her ability to cook and then eventually large chunks of her own memory, failing to recognize people she's known for years, even forgetting how she was estranged from her own family. It comes back in bursts, like when she suddenly remembered Frida and what she did (I...uh...have forgotten what happened between them ). In the end, she's left with the same fate as Lorna. And Suzanne. And Lolly. And everyone else PolyCon doesn't what to spend any money trying to help. Just lock them and make a profit.

I wish I could criticize the show for its two-dimensional portrayal of ICE and the detention center, but as anyone who pays attention to the news knows, the level of cruelty ICE is doing to immigrants, even those who are in the country legally, is quite real and perhaps even watered down for this show. Crammed into small spaces, fed poorly, given absolutely no resources for legal aid, even deliberately and directly preventing them from receiving aid. Hell, forcing children to represent themselves in immigration court! None of what we saw this season was fictionalized and that makes me fucking sick. While I'm glad the show decided to focus a large part of this season on these issues, every scene filled me with fury. So much hateful, unnecessary injustice and cruelty. We viewers can celebrate that Blanca got a happy ending, but Karla, Shani, and all of the other women who were forcefully held by ICE did not have happy endings and not simply because they were forced to their country of origin.

It's a testament to how fucking godsawful both ICE and PolyCon are that Figueroa becomes kind and good-hearted person. She has slowly progressed into this person throughout the show and certainly her desire to become a mother has softened her, but it's still remarkable to see how different she looks in comparison to ICE and PolyCon. I loved how she decided to slip an abortion pill to the one detainee who was raped by her coyote but ICE refused to give her an abortion (). Small things like that made me really like her in this final season which, again, is saying something considering I hated her so much in the early days like Pennsatucky.

And then there's fucking Piper. What else can I say about her final season other than of course it was dripping with white privilege from beginning to end, never more emphasized than when she consumed weed, popped her drug test, and wasn't sent straight back to jail. Ugh, fucking Piper. And then, of course, we got Ugh, Larry, again. Meh. The only good thing to come out of her story line was Alicia Witt.

I didn't think it would happen, but it was really nice how in the closing moments of the final episode, we finally got to check in every so briefly with our missing inmates who were sent to Ohio after the riot in season 5, including some of my favorite characters like Soso, Boo, Jones, Gina, Norma, and Alison. We even had sporadic check-ins with other characters throughout the season, most notably Sophia, although I wish it was her own story and not within the confines of Piper's story. Alas. In some alternate timeline, Sophia was one of the main characters of the show from beginning to end. And sadly, we got no Sister Ingalls.

Oh, my. I just noticed how much I've already typed, even though said to myself "I don't have much to say..." I guess I'll stop for now.

 

[Finn]

Spoiler: Who's that?

Who's the guy on the kitchen floor playing drums with the pots, with the little girl in one of the tribute shots towa d the end in the finale?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Spoiler: Who's that?

Who's the guy on the kitchen floor playing drums with the pots, with the little girl in one of the tribute shots towa d the end in the finale?

Spoiler

Pornstache with Daya and Bennett's kid that he thinks is his own.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I'm only four episodes in. This season is playing a game of "Beat up on every character".

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Wow, so not only

Spoiler

does Maritza presumably die on the streets of Colombia, looks like they are giving Red some kind of dementia?!

Does anyone in this season actually do okay in the end?

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

This was a great final season. It definitely makes up for the last three seasons. Although it ripped out my heart in the process.

Spoiler

I was so sad for Maritza and Cardova, and obviously Doggett. Heartbreaking for Shani as well. I’m really hoping that somewhere down the line Taystee gets released. Out of everyone, I’ve always been cheering for her to have good things happen.

I’m happy that Piper and Alex are still together. I like to think that when Alex gets out, they’ll be okay. I was happy that Blanca was freed and reunited with her boyfriend. Suzanne seems to be fairly stable so that’s good. I’m glad Cindy is making amends with her mom and daughter. I feel bad about Morello and Red.

Also Caputo and Fig with that little girl reminded me so much of Taystee, and that’s why they most likely adopted her.

All in all it was a very emotional, sad, and also uplifting last season, for some of the ladies.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

On one hand I think it’s appropriate to leave on a really dark note so not to water down the impact of the activist content. On the other hand I miss the quirky humor it was balanced with in previous seasons.