Behind the walls of Litchfield
We recap “Orange Is the New Black.”
Much of Season 6 of “Orange Is the New Black” (available now) was spent dealing with the fallout from the prison riot that consumed much of Season 5. A number of the Litchfield ladies were transferred from to maximum security, where they had to fend off additional charges (and face longer sentences) for their involvement in the uprising. They also had to adjust to new cell-block politics and abusive new guards. (Who amused themselves by playing Fantasy Inmate, complete with draft night.)
Let’s sort through what we learned from Season 6and figure out which questions remain unanswered.
WHAT WE KNOW NOW Who killed Piscatella?
Prosecutors tried to pin the murder of the authoritarian guard (Brad William Henke) on Red (Kate Mulgrew), Cindy (Adrienne C. Moore) and Taystee (Danielle Brooks), but none of the women pulled the trigger. That’s not to say they didn’t at least think about killing him: Red considered torturing him and Taystee even held the gun to his head.
However, once they realized the riot squad was on its way, they let him go. He was instead taken down by friendly fire: A member of the SWAT team accidentally shot him in the head. The team later moved Piscatella’s body and fired more bullets into him to make it look like one of the inmates did it.
Will anyone get extra time?
Taystee: She pleaded guilty to inciting the riot, faced trial on second-degree murder charges for the death of Piscatella and was convicted. So she’s probably looking at some additional time, even if she’s cleared of murder.
Daya: The saddest woman in all of Litchfield (played by Dascha Polanco) accepted a murder plea for shooting a guard during the riot. To cope with the reality of spending the rest of her life in prison, she begins running (and getting hooked on) heroin.
Her addiction became clear to her mom (and former inmate) Aleida when she giggled and nodded off during a visit. Worse yet, Daya’s heroin was being smuggled into the prison by Aleida’s own boyfriend, the lead guard in the maximum security wing.
Look, even on her best day, Aleida is a piece of work. She knows he’s giving Daya drugs to sell (but didn’t realize she was using them). There are lines even she won’t cross: “A Latin mother would never sell drugs to her own kids!”
Where’s Alex?
Piper (Taylor Schilling) and her girlfriend, Alex (Laura Prepon), tried to lie low during the riot but that plan went out the window when Piscatella tried to torture Red in front of them and broke Alex’s arm. They spent the rest of the riot in a bunker and got engaged about 10 minutes before guards stormed the prison. At that point, they were separated, and Piper spent the first few epiosdes under the false impression that the love of her life was dead, misinterpreting a message from Red that said “the tall one died” during the riot.
In reality, Alex had been taken to a hospital to have a botched shoulder surgery and then another to fix the first one before finally reuniting with Piper.
Lost and found
Linda from Purchasing: The manipulative staffer (Beth Dover) from Management & Correction Corp. was in a restroom at Litchfield when the riot erupted and survived by latching on to Piper and Alex and later Big Boo, even going to far as to sleep with her. You might think that after witnessing the living conditions that she helped force on her protectors, she might have an attack of conscience. Not our Linda.
Staffers finally figured out where she was three episodes into Season 6, but not before a guard shaved her head.
She did do one good thing: arrange for Sophia’s (Laverne Cox) early release and settlement offer – not so much out of the goodness of her heart as a desire to dispose of a lawsuit MCC would almost certainly lose. And lest you think she had changed, her final scene showed her announcing that MCC was about to tap into a new market: immigrant detainment centers. So, yeah, she may be the worst person in Litchfield.
Tiffany Doggett: Halfway through Season 6, prison officials finally figured out that Pennsatucky (Taryn Manning) had escaped during the riot. Sexually abusive guard-turned-boyfriend-material Charlie Coates (James McMenamin) smuggled her out in the trunk of his car, unbeknownst to passenger and fellow guard Lee Dixon (Mike Houston).
Eventually, she came out of hiding and the trio resumed a bucket-list road trip. But it fizzled once police put out the “wanted” notice, causing Dixon to take off and the couple to choose camping over hotels. Coates tried to convince her to run off to Canada with him, but she left while he was asleep, heading to the nearest police station to surrender.
Sophia Burset: Litchfield’s former beautician turned up in maximum security. Near the end of the season, she was offered and accepted early release and a $300,000 settlement in exchange for not suing the prison contractor for wrongly sending her to solitary.
Also on the early release list: Blanca (Laura Gomez), who can now try to get pregnant with Diablo. However, she seemed to panic at the prison gate and we never actually saw them reunite.
WHAT WE DON’T KNOW What will Piper do without Alex?
Much to her surprise, Piper got out early. But that freedom came at a price, paid by Alex. She agreed to run drugs for her cellblock queen in exchange for keeping her fiancee’s bratty cellmate “Badison” from sabotaging said release. In doing so, Alex finally atoned for having landed Piper in jail in the first place.
Before Piper left Litchfield, the couple fulfilled one of her wishes, getting prison-married in a sweet but possibly nonbinding ceremony officiated by Nicky (Natasha Lyonne) with a very pregnant Lorna (Yael Stone) providing their something-old-something-newsomething-borrowed-something-blue in the form of a shiv. (Lorna then appeared to go into labor, but was later seen being bleeding as a guard dragged her to the infirmary.)
Justice for Poussey?
Maybe, but not yet. Though manslaughter charges seemed applicable for Baxter Bayley (Alan Aisenberg), the inexperienced guard who accidentally suffocated the fan-favorite character played by Samira Wiley in Season 4, none have been filed – much to her friends’ anger, and his astonishment. Bayley left town in Season 5. Prosecutors referenced him briefly in Season 6. We’d like to think that means they still might charge him.
How did Red end up in prison?
It’s long been suggested that Galina “Red” Reznikov (Mulgrew) landed in the gulag thanks to her family’s involvement with the Russian mob, but we’ve learned few specifics.
A shopkeeper on the outside, she and her husband found themselves in debt to Russian gangsters after she assaulted one of the mob wives. When the Reznikovs were unable to repay the woman’s medical bills, the local crime lord offered them a tradeoff: They could let him store dead bodies in their freezer.
During a guard gossip session from Season 4, we learned that bodies were found in that freezer, though we never saw Red’s arrest. So it’s implied she took the fall for murders she didn’t commit.