A few things came to mind while re watching the last few episodes of the first season of Netflix s women in prison dramedy Orange Is the New Black. First Wow this show is good. Second Taystee GIFs will never get old. And finally A year between TV show seasons is a really long time and it s easy to forget almost everything.
A more responsible TV watcher may have spaced out the 13 episodes but some of us flew through them the first week they were available last summer. And with dozens of storylines multiple flashbacks and more than 50 characters to recall it s a challenging task to figure out what s important on the brink of the upcoming second season.
Therefore here s everything you need to remember from the end of last season to make the return to Litchfield in Season 2 which became available Friday at 3 a.m. ET/midnight PT a more delightful experience. (See below for a character index for more reminders.)
RELATED Hank Stuever reviews Season 2 of Orange Is The New Black
The Piper Larry Alex love triangle. This whole thing imploded pretty much the moment that at Litchfield that Piper laid eyes on Alex the ex girlfriend that got her sent to prison in the first place. Needless to say the two resolved their issues in the form of one steamy night in the prison s chapel.
Meanwhile Piper s fiance Larry had grown increasingly paranoid that Piper would cheat on him with Alex (his fears were in fact very accurate) and tried to pressure Piper into marrying him. Desperate not to lose him and to get the destructive Alex out of her life for good Piper agreed. She told Alex things were over I pick him. I pick Larry Piper said. I love you too. But we both know I don t have the courage to freefall through life with you. Alex looked devastated Piper had been the love of her life and told her fuming You may never come to me again. Ever.
Undaunted Piper set about getting a marriage request form. That was more difficult than expected given that her counselor Mr. Healy hated her (not only is he deeply homophobic but they had several run ins throughout the season).
Luckily Larry had just given an interview to NPR about Piper s experience in prison where he said some very unflattering things among them that Litchfield cut its GED program switched to generic medication etc. The shady prison administrator Natalie Figuero ( Fig ) was not pleased and gave Piper a set of positive talking points about the prison she should give to Larry if he ever got the urge to talk to the media again. That s cool Piper said sweetly but she would be much more inclined to do so if Fig could give her a marriage request form.
Unfortunately it was all for naught Larry set up a meeting with Alex (for some reason curious to meet his fiancee s ex girlfriend) who spilled the beans about their chapel rendezvous. Larry dumped Piper who went running to Alex who as promised told her to get lost. And so Piper lost both of them.
Piper and Pennsatucky s showdown. Pennsatucky the crazy God fearing meth addict who became Piper s enemy last season decided that she was going to kill Piper. After all Piper disrespected her. After Piper found a dead rat in her room and Pennsatucky confronted her with a knife in the shower Piper was ready to go to authorities but her fellow inmates told her that it was the least productive way to deal with the problem and she was going to have to fight Pennsatucky herself. And Pennsatucky confronted Piper outside in the yard at the exact wrong time Just after Larry and Alex had effectively dumped her.
So when Pennsatucky came after her with a sharpened cross and said the words You ain t worthy of God s love you ain t worthy of nobody s love. I think it s time that you die is there any wonder Piper attacked her with all her might We ended last season as Piper was punching Pennsatucky in the face as hard as she could. (Meanwhile Mr. Healy came outside and saw what was about to happen and simply left. That should come back to haunt him this season.)
The Daya Bennett situation. An inmate and correctional falling in love might make a good romance novel but not when the C.O. gets the inmate pregnant. That s where things stand now as Daya is pregnant with John Bennett s baby. If anyone finds out he could go to jail for sleeping with an inmate so some of the women hatch a complicated plan. Daya will seduce C.O. Mendez (a.k.a. Pornstache ) and get caught accomplishing two goals 1) Getting the horrible Mendez fired and 2) Having people assume it s Mendez s baby so Bennett won t get in trouble.
Unfortunately even though Daya is forced to go through with it and they do get caught the plan isn t foolproof. First of all Fig doesn t want authorities finding out so she simply puts Mendez on unpaid suspension. Second Mendez took Daya s advances seriously and falls deeply in love with her meaning he will be far too excited if he thinks the baby is his. So they re back to where they started even though creepy Mendez is at least out of the picture temporarily.
Red s fall from grace. Well grace might be too generous after all the feisty Russian cook may have been Queen Bee but that just meant being the chef in prison. However she lost that perch after Mendez framed her making it look like she was smuggling drugs in through the kitchen. (While she had plenty of contraband items she flatly refused to take part in his drug operation.) So she was ousted from the kitchen and to get back at Gloria and the other women who took over she secretly sneaked in and poured tons of grease in the oven. Only Gloria didn t open the oven it s Red s friend Gina that was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got badly burned. Red felt horrible but it was too late. Her friends started freezing her out and the kitchen workers started to starve her out too.
Figuero is embezzling from the prison. At least it s heavily implied. The administrator made many shady moves throughout the season including quashing the Mendez situation and also ordering Bennett to not file a report about the drugs found in Red s kitchen.
But it all comes to a head when Fig gets a call from a reporter who heard Larry s NPR interview and was wondering Why was he describing how the prison had cut so many programs when budget documents actually show that Litchfield had received $2.3 million in funding over the last few years Where was the money going Fig smiled tightly and promised to find out hanging up the phone and getting into a shiny new Mercedes. Guess we have the answer but where will it lead
Character index here s a brief description of all the main characters from last season.
INMATES
Piper ( Chapman ) Lead character upper middle class hipster from Brooklyn sent to prison for 15 months for a decade old money laundering incidentAlex Piper s ex girlfriend got her involved in money laundering and drug dealingNicky The comic relief of the Litchfield crowd a former drug addict with a heart of goldSuzanne ( Crazy Eyes ) Brilliant woman who happens to be mentally ill made Piper her prison wifeTaystee Briefly got out of prison and had a miserable experience in the outside world and seems happy to be back at Litchfield.Poussey Taystee s best friendBlack Cindy Taystee and Poussey s other friend usually has a good one linerRed Feisty (former) head of the kitchen who virtually ran the prison before being framedLorna Talks incessantly about her wedding to her fiance Christopher though was sleeping with Nicky MendezSophia Transgender character who now works as the prison s hairdresserTiffany ( Pennsatucky ) God fearing meth addictMiss Claudette Elderly woman sent away to solitary confinement after attacking a guard when she was having (to put it mildly) a very bad dayDaya Having an affair with C.O. John Bennett pregnant once slept with her mother s boyfriendAleida Daya s absentee mother who will never forgive her daughter for sleeping with her boyfriendLeanne Pennsatucky s friend in the laundry roomSister Ingalls The nun have not yet heard her back storyMiss Rosa Battling cancer Piper s first roommateJanae Wildly talented runner who got mixed up with a terrible boyfriendBig Boo Also comic relief and tells it like it is was able to talk her way into getting an adorable therapy dogGloria ( Mendoza ) Mom of four kids in her previous life acts as the surrogate mother to many new head of the kitchenNorma The woman who doesn t speak a word but can let out a gorgeous Christmas carol if need beGina Norma s friend in the kitchen gets badly burned by Red s oven fireYoga Jones Has a very devastating backstory leads all the yoga classesChang Frequently seen not caring about anythingMarisol Attached at the hip to MaritzaMaritza Has a young daughter attached at the hip to Marisol
PRISON GUARDS AND STAFF
Natalie Figueroa ( Fig ) The evil prison administrator who is embezzling fundsJoe Caputo Figueroa s deputy pretty gross guy but also seems to genuinely want to help inmatesSam Healy Deeply homophobic counselor to the inmates seems kind at first but winds up being a horrible personC.O. Mendez ( Pornstache ) The worst creep of the bunch running a drug smuggling business that leads to the death of addict Tricia last season (but was staged as a suicide) framed Red for the drugs overall disgusting.C.O. Fischer Very sweet and kind to everyone was accosted by Miss Claudette last season object of Caputo s affection.C.O. Bennett Solid guy except he had an affair with Daya and got her pregnant also known for having a prosthetic leg after a hot tub incident
PIPER S FRIENDS/FAMILY
Larry Piper s fiance who seems to be a pretty lazy/lackluster guy starts exploiting Piper s prison sentence to get stories in the New York TimesPolly Piper s best friend they were going to start an artisanal soap business togetherPete Polly s husbandCal Piper s brother a man with nature
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