TV REVIEW: Orange Is the New Black, Season 2 (Episodes 10-13 + Season Overview)

Here is the last installment of episodic reviews of Netflix's Orange Is the New Black! These last few episodes really amp up the drama and provide quite the satisfactory ending. After my review of the thirteenth episode, I've included a note about the season as a whole as this first visit with season two of OITNB comes to a close (oh yes, there will be many more visits).

Episode 10 (Little Mustachioed S***s): What a title, huh? Anyway, we get some Alex and Piper flashbacks now that Alex is finding her way back into the fold after she got out early in the season premiere (and nope, I'm not over it). Unlike last season, when the late-season flashbacks focused on the crumbling of the relationship (who could forget Piper leaving Alex after the latter found out her mother had died?), this episode has flashbacks to the beginning of the relationship, specifically showing how, although it seemed Alex pulled all the strings in this relationship, it couldn't have started without Piper's brass attitude. We find out that Alex had another girlfriend when she started sleeping with Piper, which initially scared Piper (although I would also be scared if someone's partner left a bag of flaming poop on my doorstep), but soon we see that our favorite "lone wolf" knew what she wanted and wasn't going to back down because she was scared. Well, that's a tool that's gonna come in hand as the season starts to wind down. Piper has formed a business relationship with a journalist named Andrew who wants her to be his mole and get the scoop on what's really happening in Litchfield. Andrew divulges that Figueroa is essentially behind the whole thing, using fake contracts for the prison to get more money for her husband's political campaign. Piper was also busy dealing with putting the puzzle pieces together from the last episode where Larry told her he slept with someone else, figuring out it was Polly, and in a callback to the flaming poop incident, she sets the same thing up to happen on Polly's doorstep. Polly takes it like a champ, though, sighing "I deserve this," which actually made me happy that Polly recognized she wasn't innocent or undeserving of hate from her BFF. Elsewhere in the episode, Christopher (you know, that guy we thought was Morello's fiancé and then was actually the subject of her psycho-sexual crimes) shows up at Litchfield and accuses Morello of being the one who broke into his house, despite her being in jail. The COs don't pay him much attention, but I feel like he'll keep pushing and we might see Morello getting punished big time for her shocking actions. At least the prisoners don't seem to mind, especially Nicky, who says she'll love Morello no matter what. Speaking of Nicky, she does the right thing (phew!), and gives the heroin to Red (wait, what?). Yes, the right thing in this world of prison is not to rat out Vee and the girls but to give this evidence to Red, who surely will use this to her advantage. Poussey finds herself on the outs with Vee after getting wasted off her hooch (and not the good kind of wasted, the best kind of wasted being "chocolate wasted," of course) and trying to fight Vee in the bathroom, which leads to a really heartbreaking pounding from Suzanne to Poussey. It's sad on two levels; one, Poussey is trying to protect her friends from the monster that apparently only she can see, but two, Suzanne does not necessarily want to hurt Poussey, but does it because Vee has essentially corrupted her. And finally, as soon as we get Pornstache back, he's gone again. It broke my heart to see my favorite hardass out again after being back for, what, five seconds? But Bennett's "confession" to Caputo left him no choice but to have Mendez (that's Pornstache's real name, which hopefully you already knew, but it's important we don't pigeonhole him, people) arrested for rape. Still, as he as taken out of the prison, Pornstache proclaims his love for Daya which, although she doesn't like him at all, she uses as leverage against Bennett who won't say anything about his adoration for his...girlfriend? What exactly do we call these two? Are they boyfriend/girlfriend or just two people with a mutual attraction and some bad luck? Anyway, so Daya is still mad at Bennett and while everyone now knows she's pregnant, very few (read: the Latina family and the all-knowing Red) know it is with Bennett's child. You'll see as these episodic reviews become longer and longer that the drama is just getting poured into every episode near season's end, but every story is essential.

Episode 11 (Take a Break From Your Values): Season two of OITNB promised a lot of great things, but specifically, we knew we'd get flashbacks for characters we'd been dying to get an inside look at. After the start of the first season, that list, for me, included Taystee, Crazy Eyes and Morello, and those wishes were granted consecutively in the beginning of the season, but since we have a whole season to go, and not every episode needs a Piper flashback, we're treated to some unexpected flashbacks from less prominent players. Case in point: Sister Ingalls, not exactly as widely adored as the main cast, gets this episode to really shine. In previous episodes, Soso (you know, the tiny voice that reverberates through the halls even during the midnight hour) has organized a hunger strike to get the prison to cater to the inmates' demands. Initially, Sister Ingalls barked at the idea, basically calling  Soso an idealistic idiot (putting it a little lightly there, Sister). But she eventually jumps on board in the search for better benefits for elderly prisoners, such as herself, but we get to flashback to a time where Sister Ingalls was younger, full of life, and had ambition...and that ambition was not necessarily to follow in the light of Jesus, despite her title. Sister Ingalls sees that she has a close connection with a higher power, but feels she needs to do something more to make an impact on the world. At first, it's innocent stuff like going to a peace rally with some cool hippies (OITNB takes on the '60s!), but it soon escalates into multiple arrests and outlandish acts of notoriety, all because of the attention she earns from it. The idea that she's helping the world is overshadowed by, essentially, her wish to become well-known. I imagine that's something a lot of people can relate to, or even can see, like when your favorite underground band changes their sound to become more mainstream. Eventually, after writing a memoir called "Nun Shall Pass," Sister Ingalls is Sister no more; she is excommunicated by the Catholic church. Ingalls' ambition to receive attention is once again perceived in the present day, where she does less fighting for the inmates' rights, but rather for attention from the outside world. It seems all for naught, though, when everyone else in the hunger strike gives up (Leanne and Tiffany being swayed by pizza from the COs is great -- Leanne Pizzahands is the only way to refer to her from now on), Ingalls presses on and eventually lands in the medical sector, forced to eat. But at least she's got everyone's attention. Elsewhere in the episode, Pennsatucky gets a story! Kinda. Her and Healy are new BFFs and start a support group called "Safe Space" where the prisoners can talk about anything on their mind in a safe environment (although if the name wasn't obvious, you might not have anything to contribute to the group). Poussey signs up to join the group, but Vee thinks she'll use the opportunity to expose the tobacco scheme, so she sends Suzanne to the group to scare off Poussey because, umm, Vee is pure evil. Right. Healy also continues his quest for "Literally Just the Worst Ever" by informing Piper she has randomly been selected to be transferred to Virginia. And while the OITNB fan in me knows that there's no way she's leaving, I do get worried. We had a whole episode of Piper in a Chicago prison this season...might the show expand to new prisons, while still featuring the same ladies? Larry and Polly tell Polly's husband that they slept together and that she's leaving him, and if I'm honest, I'm over this storyline because it seems obvious, but because I'm not really invested in either character's happiness, although if Larry finds a way to get a silver lining out of Piper's prison sentence, then I guess he gets a happy ending that he deserves after having his fiancé ripped away from him. And of final note, Red's elderly ladies decide to stick up for their maroon-haired leader and devise a plan to...wait...kill Vee?! Oh, but it's too good to be true, because they end up attacking the wrong giant-haired black woman as Vee looks on. Now she knows Red's girls are after her...will Vee's girls be after Red soon? I really don't wanna see Taystee, Black Cindy, or Watson cross the line and get further screwed over by Vee.

Episode 12 (It Was the Change): Previous episodes teased a brutal storm heading toward Litchfield, and with some of the best natural disaster TV episodes in history, the hurricane outside was only matched by the storm brewing inside. The episode opens with the elderly ladies talking about non-Vee's attack, where Red easily spews one of the funniest line's in the show's history: "If you want to assassinate someone, vision is a basic requirement. It's like, step one: Pick a person. Step two: Kill that person." Kate Mulgrew's delivery is perfect. But she's got bigger things to worry about now that the accidental stabbing has Vee and her crew preparing for all-out war, even if they have worse things to worry about like their tobacco stash being destroyed by Poussey. Because of Poussey's actions, Vee takes it out on Taystee and kicks her out of the sisterhood. Taystee is desperate to be recognized by her friends and her "mother," but just like Cady Heron after she "confessed" to writing the Burn Book, Taystee is ignored. Black Cindy is too busy to care, she's obsessing about "standing on a bitch's head" if the flooding gets worse. And speaking of the flooding, it does get worse. The ladies are forced to evacuate their "ghettos" and basically have a giant sleepover in the common area/cafeteria with no power and buckets for toilets that have to be emptied when full. Charming! It does give Pennsatucky a time to FINALLY do something this season as her and Boo have a hilarious conversation about the "gay agenda," which Pennsatucky thinks is a real thing, and Boo goes along with for the fun of it. And even though everyone is gathered in the same area, the only thing we, the audience, can focus on is Red vs. Vee, which is totally on when they set up camp across from each other in the common area/cafeteria and have their families take turns keeping an eye on one another. We do have a few detours: We get Vee flashbacks in this episode that show exactly why you shouldn't cross her. We know Taystee's foster brother died in the flashback episode from earlier this season when we were first introduced to Vee, but we get some background tonight as to how it happened. Vee, a drug kingpin back home, learns that her foster son is now running his own business to compete with Vee, something Vee learns from a neighborhood cop/friend. Vee goes over to her son's house and ends up seducing him (!?!?!?!), while telling him to be safe. But when he makes a quick trip to the convenience store, he is approached in the park by the same cop, who calls in a fake crime and shoots the kid in the middle of a park, all at the hands of Vee. If you didn't already distrust her, this was the show's giant neon sign hanging over Litchfield saying "DON'T TRUST VEE." Piper uses the opportunity of everyone sleeping in the same place in the middle of the night to sneak into Fig's office and obtain the information pertinent to reveal her fraud. At the same time, Fig is ignoring the under water prison while at a campaign event for her husband, who she later walks in on kissing a male campaign assistant. I guess it's supposed to make us feel bad for Fig, but I don't. It just seems right that everything would come crashing down for her at the same time. Caputo does catch Piper walking out of Fig's office as the electricity returns, so it may not be victory after all. Poussey and Taystee are forced to go to the library and save books from the bottom shelf from water damage, and they finally have it out, verbally, and almost physically, before finally realizing how dumb they've been acting toward each other and who the common enemy is. Suddenly, everything starts coming together, but Red looks to throw a wrench in those plans when she attacks Vee, who is dumping the pee bucket outside. It looks like, for a second, Red might actually kill Vee, and I'm breathless until she lets go of Vee's neck and they declare a truce. Everything is so shiny between Red and Vee, but with Poussey and Taystee's problem resolution, I think Vee's journey to getting what she deserves is far from over. And then, lo and behold, we're duped once again when Red goes to clear out her greenhouse from storm damage and is attacked by Vee, who smashes Red's head in with a lock in a sock (is that a Dr. Seuss book?), and things are not looking good for Red. With one episode to go and the futures of Red and Piper in the balance, is OITNB headed for a huge shakeup?

Episode 13 (We Have Manners. We're Polite.): Last season's finale set up huge things for season two including the classic Piper/Pennsatucky battle, the Christmas pageant, and the fall in power of Red. But heading into this season's finale, there are almost double the question marks, which is why the finale takes 90 minutes to sort it all out, leading to one of the most satisfactory finishes to a television season ever. I think you'll be inclined to agree. But we'll start at the beginning of this marathon as the SIS (Special Investigative Service) from the Bureau of Prisons shows up to investigate Red's attack, trying to find the assailant. Of course, Vee is not going down for the crime, but she has no problem throwing one of her own under the bus for it, and this time, it's shockingly Suzanne who is blamed for the crime, partly on her own being since she tells the investigators that she doesn't remember being the person who attacked Red, but it might have been her anyway. Classic Crazy Eyes response, but it doesn't do well since the other prisoners who know nothing about the Vee-Red connection assume that Crazy Eyes would be that, well, crazy. At first, even Watson and Black Cindy go along with saying it was Suzanne, and the investigators seem to pin the whole thing on poor Suzanne, who doesn't know any better. When Red finally wakes up after her attack, she won't even tell the investigators it was Vee. Instead, she claims she doesn't know who attacked her. Red thinks that her silence is better than accusing Vee, since she knows Vee will get her revenge somehow. Eventually though, Sister Ingalls, who is still in the med unit on her hunger strike, convinces Red to confess it was Vee who attacked her, but Red says she'll only do it if Sister Ingalls eats and ends her hunger strike, something she is unwilling to do now that she has attracted a hoard of nuns outside the prison gates in support of Ingalls' mission. O'Neill, one of the COs, has some great scenes with the nuns outside, but of course, all the drama is on the inside. Piper shows Caputo the incriminating evidence against Fig, and when he confronts her, she tries to buy his silence with a blow job. Yep, they went there, and when I'm shocked that Caputo would drop this mission to get Fig exposed in exchange for some downstairs action, he is redeemed when he proclaims that he's already turned the evidence in and Fig has been fired. Caputo takes over her position and vows to make the prison a better place, starting by tying up the loose ends Fig left hanging like Sister Ingalls' hunger strike demands and Piper's prison transfer. But it doesn't look good for Caputo's "honesty is the best policy" future when Bennett comes to him and finally confesses that he was the one who got Daya pregnant, not Pornstache. Caputo tells Bennett to sweep that information under the carpet and never reveal it again. Meanwhile, Taystee and Poussey confront Watson and Black Cindy about turning on Vee, forcing them to realize all of the bad things she has done, capped off with beating Red to a pulp and making Crazy Eyes take the fall. The four "sisters" end up teaming together and go to the SIS officers, claiming that it was not Suzanne, who has sort of confessed to the attack, but rather Vee. The SIS officers try telling the ladies they're too late since Suzanne has already said she did it and Red has not yet told the officers it was Vee, but the last person you'd ever expect to stand up for the prisoners comes to their defense: Healy! He tells the SIS officers to listen to Taystee, Poussey, Watson and Black Cindy, and maybe, just maybe, starts to redeem himself. And while all of this is going on, Rosa and Morello road trip (accompanied by a CO, of course) to chemotherapy, while Morello hilariously tells the plot to her favorite movie, which turns out to be Toy Story. It's a funny moment in a finale filled with drama. When Morello and Rosa return to the prison, their accompanying CO hops out of the car when he hears the prison sirens going off. And why exactly might they be doing that? Vee, in a last ditch effort before being found guilty of attacking Red, returns to the greenhouse and lifts up the floor to find the underground portal Red used to receive contraband. Vee takes a dive into the portal and finds herself in the woods. Yes, Vee, our much-loathed villain, has escaped the prison. Back behind closed gates, the COs are looking for Vee in a panic, while Morello and Rosa sit in the van. With the COs distracted and the gas still running, Morello tells Rosa to make a go for it. Morello goes out of the car to pretend to talk to the COs about what is happening, while Rosa climbs into the front seat and hits the gas. The COs chase after her, but she is flying down the road, on her way out of the prison. Sister Ingalls and Caputo, who are going to confront the gaggle of nuns, run out of the way as Caputo yells "run, nuns, run!," in what has to be the funniest sight gag of nuns running out of the way of the speeding van that crashes through the gate and down the road, away from Litchfield. Meanwhile, we see Vee finding her way out of the woods and standing near the side of the road. Which road? It just so happens to be the same one Rosa is speeding down, and Rosa, mirroring the thought that is running through all of our heads, turns her wheel and slams into Vee, leaving her for dead on the side of the road, while muttering the now famous line, "Always so rude, that one." Talk about wish fulfillment! The episode ends with Rosa driving away, and while cop cars are heard coming for in the distance, this last moment of getting away with it reminds Rosa of her younger days and probably signals her last hurrah before her likely death from cancer.

So there you have it. A finale that tied up every story (well, almost every story) neatly and gave us the finish to a character we all loved to hate. Or did we just hate her? Yeah, probably the latter. Still, there is no denying Vee will go down as one of TV's best villains of all time. Ruthless, cold, and unwilling to sympathize with those she calls "daughter," Vee did everything in her power to maintain power, but her cold attitude is the one thing that ended up killing her. Lorraine Touissant played the role exquisitely, and while Vee is 99% likely dead, you can never say never to an evil force like that. But Touissant is just one of a plethora of actors who stepped up this season. Taylor Schilling, Danielle Brooks, Uzo Aduba, and Samira Wiley are among those who deserve the most praise this season, but really, everyone deserves recognition for a great season. The stories this season had a slow burn that led up to a great succession of final episodes. While the middle of the season dragged, it allowed time to highlight some of the background characters that did not get a lot to do in the final episodes that really focused mainly on Red's camp and Vee's camp. While some standout characters from last year got the cold shoulder this time around (Laverne Cox and Taryn Manning, who were seriously missed), we got to see breakout moments from Wiley and Adrienne C. Moore, to name a few. This is a show that started with a story of an entitled white woman landing in a female prison, but it has honestly grown into something much more, and much, much better than that. I'm already excited to binge this season at least two more times, probably more, and the countdown to next June begins. Comment below with your thoughts on this season!

Evan