History Fridge / OrangeIsTheNewBlack

** The scene where Bennett is told to kick the grenade away is set up to make us believe this could be how he truly lost his leg, and was lying about losing it in a hot tub incident. Instead, he ducks for cover, proving what was shown about his character throughout: by the end of the day, even when he has the perfect setup to be a hero, he's a coward. Maybe in another lifetime, he would've lost his leg doing the right thing.

* Morello helps Piper deal with the racial segregation by telling her to "pretend it's the fifties." Her accent, hairstyle, make-up, and general outlook on life (such as wanting to settle down and be a housewife) are old-fashioned. This is related to her interest in ''Film/WestSideStory'', set in the 1950s/early 1960s and focusing on race relations.

* Morello helps Piper deal with the racial segregation by telling her to "pretend it's the fifties." Her accent, hairstyle, make-up, and general outlook on life (such as wanting to settle down and be a housewife) are old-fashioned. This is related to her interest in ''Stage/WestSideStory'', set in the 1950s/early 1960s and focusing on race relations.

* During the Mother's Day Fair in season 3, Boo eases Pennsatucky's guilt about aborting her five babies by explaining what (statistically) miserable lives they would possibly have lived and how their horrible upbringing would have probably impacted society... while wearing a clown costume. While her costume is for the fair, the writers' decision to dress her so for that scene takes on greater symbolic and historical significance when one realizes William Shakespeare himself often wrote court jesters and clowns as the [[OnlySaneMan only sane men]] in a world gone crazy; deeply insightful and great tellers of truth masked [[ObfuscatingStupidity behind humor]]. Even historically, court jesters were known for using BrutalHonesty as part of their humor, and were the only ones who could be honest in {{Decadent Court}}s, and the only ones who could insult the king (or queen) without retribution. Whether or not one agrees with Boo regarding abortion, she does offer a [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped much-needed]] [[BothSidesHaveAPoint alternate perspective]] to ease Pennsatucky's guilt and help her slip away from the religious mask she'd been hiding behind most of the series. Plus, Boo looked like the Angel of Death.

* In season 3, Sophia has to watch her son become more and more of a criminal without being able to do anything about it, has to deal with constant bullying, misgendering and eventually transphobic violence at the hands of fellow prisoners (that leaves her all but mutilated) and is ultimately PUNSIHED FOR THE HATE CRIMES COMMITTED AGAINST HER by being sent to solitary confinement. Not only that, but when she is in confinement she tries to get out and get back at Caputo by both attempting to drown herself in her cell by clogging the toilet and starting a fire with a towel on a lightbulb. If the guards and Caputo had not come in time on both occasions she very well may have drowned or been burned to death and she wasn't terrified at all! Consider how broken the poor woman must be after all the abuse she has suffered...

* One of the sadistic guards in season 4 and 5 speaks/acts with relish in regards to torturing and psychologically messing with people in the prison. You wonder if he acted on his sick fantasies towards other people even before he came to Litchfield. That's not even factoring in the first episode of season five where Sophia has to tend to the guards leg injury after he was shot in the leg by an inmate and tears open his pants to get at his leg revealing his penis. Why would he not wear underwear? For easy access? So he could masturbate because he was getting off on the idea/act of torturing other people and making them suffer? Or he literally has no shame and got off of the idea that there was just one item of clothing on his part separating him from all the women?

* On LaxativePrank under "Daya": TV producers, are you going to ignore that extreme abominable convulsions can also cause miscarriages? Okay then.

* During the Mother's Day Fair in season 3, Boo eases Pennsatucky's guilt about aborting her five babies by explaining what (statistically) miserable lives they would possibly have lived and how their horrible upbringing would have probably impacted society... while wearing a clown costume. While her costume is for the fair, the writers' decision to dress her so for that scene takes on greater symbolic and historical significance when one realizes William Shakespeare himself often wrote court jesters and clowns as the [[OnlySaneMan only sane men]] in a world gone crazy; deeply insightful and great tellers of truth masked [[ObfuscatingStupidity behind humor]]. Even historically, court jesters were known for using {{brutal honesty}} as part of their humor, and were the only ones who could be honest in {{deadly decadent court}}s, and the only ones who could insult the king (or queen) without retribution. Whether or not one agrees with Boo regarding abortion, she does offer a [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped much-needed]] [[BothSidesHaveAPoint alternate perspective]] to ease Pennsatucky's guilt and help her slip away from the religious mask she'd been hiding behind most of the series. Plus, Boo looked like the Angel of Death.

* The plot of "Thirsty Bird" [[spoiler: is a direct reference to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma prisoner's dilemma]].]]
* Red's seemingly throwaway line in Season 1 about all the black girls being on heroin makes a lot more sense when it is revealed [[spoiler:that Vee is smuggling heroin into the prison, and probably had been doing the same during her previous prison stay.]]

* Early in season 3 when Caputo dons a track suit and it appears that he is going to train the new C.O.s in combat, this looks like a setup for an embarrassing joke on his part. However, he [[HiddenDepths takes down a guard much larger than him with ease]]. This makes a lot more sense later on in the season when it is revealed [[spoiler:that, not only did Caputo start off as a guard in Litchfield, but that he used to wrestle as a kid.]]

* Knowing what we know about [[spoiler: Lorna's actual relationship with Christopher makes one wonder if Nicky is entirely safe maintaining an on-again, off-again romance with her.]]
* Related to the above, [[spoiler:Lorna's relationship with Vince. It seems that she has nothing but love for him, but she appeared to feel the same way for Christopher before. And she has already tricked Vince into beating up an innocent man. ''And'' her flashback juxtaposed with their wedding scene clearly shows how Lorna cares more for the prettiness associated with things than for their essence; which had been also hinted before in her view of marriage. Looks like Vince is in for a fun ride.]]

* Alex's threat to 'fuck' Pennsatucky in Series one comes across to most of the audience as just an angry retaliation to her homophobia. [[spoiler: But we later learn that Pensatucky has been raped several times in the past]].
* From ''what'' age exactly had [[spoiler:Doggett]] prostituted herself and been occasionally raped, believing it was normal? And since she learned this philosophy from her mother -- what was the story of the conception of her and her siblings? And her later pregnancies?

* This Troper was put off by all the in-universe animosity towards Bayley after [[spoiler: Poussey's death]] for what was a tragic accident. Especially when Taystee and crew started talking about how it was cold-blooded murder (especially since nothing was cold-blooded in that circumstance). Then it hit me, while we the viewers saw exactly what happened, nobody else did. Guards were scrambling to clear the cafeteria and the inmates were fighting to protest peacefully over the insane conditions (i.e. fighting the guards). The ''only'' person other than C.O.s Bayley, [=McCollough=], and [[spoiler: Poussey]] that had any clear shot of what was happening was Suzanne, and she was freaking out. All any of the inmates saw until it hit that [[spoiler: Poussey died]] was C.O. Bayley kneeling on her. Coupled with all the C.O.s claiming afterwards that she had a weapon, and it starts to sound like a classic killing of a black "thug" by a racist cop and the system scrambling to cover it up.

* The word "Guilty" is muted out during Taystee's verdict, and Caputo later cuts Fig off when she's about to say it, because the show itself is saying she's innocent.
** Taystee tells Caputo that her trial feels like a game of charades. Muting the verdict forces the viewer to watch the trial in the same way that she does- a story told through body language instead of words.

* Speaking of said guards, how will Mendez react to them when he inevitably returns? The guy who will happily admit to being a rapist and deliver harsh punishments to inmates based on his own hunches. Will he be delighted that he no longer has to lie about or hide his own criminal activity because the others all follow PayEvilUntoEvil? Or will be up his game to reclaim his position as the scary one?

** Taystee tells Caputo that her trial feels like a game of charades. Muting the verdict forces the viewer to feel the trial in the same way that she does- a story told only in body language and not words.

** And that's without even taking into account how often transgender people have suicidal impulses stemming from depression or rejection by those they trust.