Headscratchers / Orange Is the New Black

• Weird question but why are the prisoners not allowed to wear makeup exactly?
  • Because it is absolutely a frivolous luxury.
    • And soda pop isn't?
  • Also, because it's part of their dress code and it keeps the inmates disciplined.
  • They are allowed some types of makeup. Nicky mentions that mascara is available in the commissary, and in Season 1 Piper buys Sofia some foundation as a thank-you gift. It seems that what's banned (loosely) are lipstick and eye shadow. Of course, this is very inconsistently enforced. Morello and Red particularly are rarely seen without their lipstick. Caputo appears to turn a blind eye to many makeup infractions as he has bigger fish to fry. He outright tells Red at one point that he thought her smuggled stockings and eyeshadow kept the inmates happy and distracted.
    • Is it lipstick they're wearing? I think they established in an early episode that it's fabricated out of some kind of red powder candy.
    • That was lip GLOSS.
• Why is Morello in the white contingent with her Hispanic name?
  • Morello is an Italian name, not a Hispanic name, as is evident from the pronunciation— if she were Hispanic, her name would be pronounced "mor-AY-o," as the double L in Spanish makes a "y" sound. Furthermore, the character's Italian background is explicitly stated on several occasions, during all three seasons.
  • Because she clearly passes and identifies as white and is a thoughtless racist towards Hispanics, meaning any potentially existing Hispanic heritage is probably minimal and ignored on her part?
  • Because not all people of Spanish descent are of mixed race and Morello is an Italian name.
  • Did you not hear her Italian-American accent which was thicker than a block of ice?
  • If her looks, name and accent weren't already a tip-off, her family in the flashbacks made it very clear that she's an Italian-American.
• On a similar note, why doesn't Rosa associate with the other hispanics?
  • Rosa is sick and anti-social. She doesn't associate with anyone much. Plus, she's considerably older than most of the others and probably doesn't feel like she fits in with them.
    • That makes sense, but in her flashback she seemed quite temperamental and otherwise quite outgoing when she arrived in prison. We don't know how long she had cancer (IIRC)and stopped caring, but one would think she still would have been part of a group from her younger days like Red or presumably Chang. It's understandable that she doesn't want to be part of the Golden Girls and it's not impossible that her attitude changed drastically once she got sick, but still she doesn't even seem to speak Spanish anymore for some reason.
  • We don't know that Rosa was never a part of the Spanish crew - it could be that she's out of the crew now because of her age, same as the "Golden Girls" no longer associate with their races. Red is implied to be old enough to be a Golden Girl, but she's still interested in the social goings-on of the prison (where the other Golden Girls just enjoy being invisible and out of the drama).

• Are people like Morello, Nicky, and Tricia lesbians or bi like Boo and Alex or are they just in homosexual relationships because it's prison and they're not fully heterosexual on the Kinsey scale?
  • Tricia, Nicky, Alex and Boo at no point in the series give any indication that they're bisexual, both before and after prison they're only seen with women. Morello seems to be the closest to heterosexual.
  • We see the pre-prison lives of the women who have flashbacks, so we can label them for sure: Red, Miss Claudette, Daya, Aleida, Janae, Pennsatucky, Gloria, Black Cindy, Rosa, Sister Ingalls and Vee are all shown to be either heterosexual or celibate, both outside the prison and inside. Lorna is prison gay, but otherwise heterosexual. Sophia is clearly a lesbian (no, we see her flirting with the prison RN in Season Five, so she's likely bisexual) . Nicky was almost certainly a lesbian before coming to prison, although we never see her with a woman. Alex, Tricia and Poussey have only ever been shown with women. Piper is bisexual.
  • Also, from Alex and Nicky's negative comments on bisexuality, we can assume they are both gay. Boo has been stated to be a lesbian. There's no indication that Morello couldn't be bisexual, since we've seen her genuinely interested in both Nicky and Christopher. Tricia and Poussey are the only characters whose sexual orientations haven't been indicated to be gay or bi.
  • As of season two, Poussey is shown to be a lesbian.
  • In season four, Nicky refers to herself as "a card carrying lesbo" when it becomes obvious Luschek has/had a crush on her.

• Why didn't Red try to say that the pills came from Mendez after he was fired? He couldn't rat her out anymore cause he was gone.
  • Because the word of an inmate with Russian mafia connections is nothing compared to the word of a previously clean guard (even a presently disgraced one) and trying to blame a guard already in trouble would be about as obvious and successful an excuse as 'I'm holding it for a friend'.
    • In that window between when he was caught and before she got caught for pills, she could have stepped in and said "He did this." Knowing that pills are gonna come in before being caught with them, gives you an advantage.
    • And they would have believed her, of course. The fact is, they were inclined to believe she was the one who brought the pills in, and she couldn't prove otherwise. It couldn't be proven in court that she was guilty, but they don't need that to take away privileges. Red was a trusty (not trustee, which is something else), an inmate who is given certain benefits and powers over other inmates as a way of delegating responsibilities that would otherwise need to be taken care of by an already undermanned staff, and also as a carrot to get inmates to behave.

• Why are Aleida and Daya in jail when Cesar isn't?
  • Because they got caught and he didn't. A situation exacerbated by their both being in a relationship with him for their own reasons, Aleida presumably out of some legitimate desire for him and Daya quite possibly because she was using him to protect and support her siblings (which he wouldn't be able to do in prison). From the drugs side of things, they were expendable, so nobody stepped in in the ways they might have if Cesar had been caught.
    • Aleida says multiple times she went to prison to take the heat for Cesar, and after he gets arrested, she is sure he’ll get off, because he has done so in the past and has really good laywers.

• What kind of idiot thinks that an article about ejaculation would fly in the New York Times? Did he confuse it with Penthouse? Also, what kind of idiotic freelance reporter only has one article idea when he meets with an editor?
  • A failing one. Hence why he was struggling and out of work, and had to take the quick and easy route of writing about Piper even though she said she didn't like the idea.

• It doesn't seem unrealistic that Taystee would go back to prison, but her parole officer should have ensured that she had a new place to go if her stated new place of residence was no longer viable because her cousin got evicted
  • I'm given to understood that parole officers are not obligated to do anything for the ex-convict they're supervising and can and will blame everything not up to standards in their charge's life on their charge, regardless of whether it was within their control.
  • This troper lives in a town with a medium security women's prison of the sort depicted in the show. One of the biggest concerns is that when the women are released, they have nowhere to go, not even a halfway house. With no jobs, no money, family often far away, and landlords who require references and a credit check, where are they supposed to go?
  • Setting aside what is supposed to happen in reality, take a long look at the authority figures on this series and tell me where on the Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism we are supposed to be.

• Where the hell did Boo get a dog? She has a vest like a guide dog or a dog being trained for that, but still?
  • This is a common program in prisons, actually. They get prisoners jobs training dogs as service animals or just as pets. The idea is that it's teaching a valuable skill and improving morale at the same time, because puppies are cute.
  • Kudos to answering your own question as you were asking it by the way.
  • And why the hell are people allowed to cuddle the dog and all when she brings it in? Not touching service dogs on duty is like the First Rule of Fight Club.
    • That only applies to service dogs on duty. It's perfectly okay to socialize with them when they aren't in business mode. Besides, many service dog programs get volunteers to socialize the dog and do basic training, before the real work begins. (though with how old Lil' Boo seems to be, that probably isn't the case here)
    • What the troper above said. Working dogs needs to be socialised, so they can learn the right and wrong ways to interact with people and other dogs while working. Such as not barking at strangers, only when the phone goes, etc.
  • No one said she was good at the training. And honestly, over 80% of dogs trained up to be service dogs don't make it, for one reason or another. What are your bets on Little Boo?
  • It could also be that the dog is being trained as a therapy dog, so touching is okay.
  • Agreeing with the above. This troper automatically assumed that Little Boo was a therapy dog, although assuming that Boo had the dog as part of her therapy. It's probably more plausible that she's keeping the dog to train it as a therapy dog than that though...

• How could they trust Morello with keys to a car? She must be a really good inmate
  • She's a trustee in a minimum security prison. In other words, yes, she is a really good inmate.
  • Plus, y'know, she explains that herself when Piper asks her the exact same question?
  • It's trusty. I know, the word we're familiar with in a legal context is trustee, but this is the word specifically for an inmate that they're trusting in whatever capacity. It's a little strange, though, because it doesn't seem like Morello's been there that long. Although, they do have a guard go along in the van with her, notwithstanding when the one guard left her alone long enough for her to go stalk Christopher.
  • According to the book the show is based on, the van driver was trusted, but due to that, was seen as being 'in' or 'cosy' with the guards. This meant the guards expected them to be a snitch, and other inmates tended not to trust them as much.
  • It's still weird considering the crime for which she is in and her not-so-reliable mental disposition. And it gets even weirder with Pennsatucky, who is also imprisoned for a violent crime and hasn't been a good inmate at all. I'd guess that their choice for the driver is a result of the staff's incompetence, as many other things.
  • While it makes sense on some level to entrust an inmate with driving responsibilities on the prison grounds, there honestly seems to be no logical reason to employ an inmate with off-campus driving duties. While on prison grounds, transporting new inmates is a job easily delegated to a "trusty" and shouldn't require any additional security details. Outside of the prison though, like with Rosa's chemo treatments, a guard is required to accompany Rosa anyway, and this leaves Morello unsupervised—even if being checked on regularly as should happen, she is still unguarded for long stretches of time. Why wouldn't the prison simply have the guard escorting Rosa drive the van and lock it during treatment?
    • We only ever see the two prisoners and one guard set-up when medical treatment is involved; such as Rosa's chemotherapy and Pennsatucky's dental treatment which is strange as you would think that only one guard would be needed to accompany a sick or incapacitated prisoner; it isn't as if they're in any danger of breaking their restraints and attacking the guard while they're driving. Although it's possible the guard is required to be available (aka not driving) just in case the the ill or injured prisoner takes a turn for the worst and needs medical attention. For example, if Rosa is physically sick from her chemotherapy or if Pennsatucky was vulnerable after having been sedated while having her teeth worked on, a guard who is driving wouldn't be able to immediately help them if they needed it.

• Wouldn't someone notice the gas Morello used for her "detour"?
  • General incompetence, Litchfield's guards are pretty notoriously incompetent, considering they allowed Morello the chance to ditch in the first place. It's not surprising that they wouldn't think to check the gas and do the math.
  • The fact it was Fischer who was on guard duty probably helped as well. She was so concerned with Rosa's well being that she probably just signed off on the gas used without really stopping to work it out.

• Why would Alex get a reduced sentence for naming someone lower in the distribution chain?
  • It's implied that Piper's name is just one of a long list. While I haven't read the book, in this article, Piper Kerman describes her former lover as "pointing fingers and naming names," so this probably happened all up and down the distribution chain.
  • Because a district attorney sometimes doesn't care about the importance of the person they're convicting as much as the number of convictions... and this was a case where they could get both. Offer Alex a few years off a long sentence, and snag another conviction by prosecuting Piper... who cares if it's just some woman who did one money run ten years ago? Looks good getting another conviction connected to the case.

• How was Flores charging the cell phone?
  • Possibly sneaking it out every so often and plugging it in somewhere remote. Keeping it in the stall 99% of the time would have drastically reduced her chances of getting caught with it.
    • It's later shown that others are charging cell phones in cut out books in the library, so that's probably how.
• On that note, who was paying for the cell phone service?
  • Her boyfriend, most likely

• And are we supposed to believe that this woman held long conversations in that bathroom stall, every single day for who knows how long, and NOBODY standing around understood what was going on? Her voice is conversational with many pauses. Sure she is speaking Spanish, and she is supposed to be a nut who talks to herself, but these women are prison savvy and it's hard to believe no one peeked at her just once to confirm what they should have known by the tone of her voice.
  • Plenty of people probably knew, with the whole story that she talks to the devil just being used to frighten newbies. It's just they didn't want to rat her out given how violently she reacted when the phone was taken, and how she's friends with the Spanish girls.

• How did Watson end up in federal minimum security for what looked like an armed robbery?
  • She's young, it was a first crime, the likelihood of her repeating it again is low, plus she might have gotten a better deal if she convinced the judge she was the bagholder and not the one with the gun.
    • The issue is that she committed a state crime, not a federal crime. Everyone else whose crime has been revealed so far was involved with either drugs or interstate crimes. Watson knocked over a store.
    • Is it ever stated where she committed that crime? If she was in Washington, D.C., then that could explain things. IIRC, felonies there go into the federal system.
    • It was in NYC, as the cop's uniforms states.
  • Was it a store that they robbed? If it was a bank or any other financial institution, that's a federal offense.
    • It was a convenience store. If it was privately owned, it may not have been a federal offense.

• Piper carried a suitcase full of money - once - from one European country to another. I haven't watched the whole series yet bu apparently the only evidence is the testimony of a disgruntled former lover who was most likely indicted on major drug offenses. I know the first episode explains that Piper took a deal to plead guilty and I am not a lawyer, or an American, but on what basis could an American prosecutor even charge her? I have to think that a criminal case needs to be based on more than one spurned-ex-lover witness - who is making a deal for a reduced sentence - saying "She like, totally did it, for real man!" Even if there was corroborating evidence, how would an American prosecutor charge Piper for carrying money around Europe? Is there a real legal basis for that? Could Piper really have such a bad attorney?
  • Piper never read the indictment, so we don't know that Alex's word was the "only" evidence they had. Indeed, once they have the Alex's testimony, they can surely find a lot of corroboration: airline tickets, visa stamps, hotel bills, etc showing that Piper was following Alex around the world. Once you are established as part of a criminal conspiracy under federal law, the charges can rack up QUICK so confessing to a simple charge can look like a fantastic deal to even a good lawyer. Moreover, the fact that her conduct occurred in foreign countries doesn't prevent her from being charged in the US, considering they were done in furtherance of a conspiracy to import drugs to the US.
  • Speaking as just a Criminal Justice major, not a fully trained lawyer or anything, yes, Alex's testimony (especially if she'd been giving up more important people in the chain) combined with the information mentioned above would be more than enough for a prosecutor to file a charging document. Given her situation, especially with a lawyer who didn't hate her, it's entirely possible Piper could have won at trial. This is one of the two major reasons prosecutors offer plea deals, the other being if it's an ironclad case with lots of evidence and they don't want to waste the time and money on a trial. Piper probably should have taken her chances with the jury, but given the situation, nobody probably told her that.
  • It's a tricky thing. The whole point of a plea deal is that the prosecution isn't sure they can get a conviction, and the defense isn't sure they can beat all the charges. Piper was potentially looking at a lot more time if she tried fighting it and was found guilty. This was covered in the pilot, I think, and Piper Kerman, the real life Piper, talked about her decision not to roll the dice and chance getting twenty years or something when she could be guaranteed of walking in fifteen months.

• Why are convicted murderers like Pennsatucky and Miss Claudette being held in the same prison as non-violent criminals like Piper, Janae, Sophia, and Sister Ingalls? Wouldn't violent offenders be placed in a prison with tighter security?
  • Pennsatucky and Claudette both were arrested for killing one specific person for one specific reason. They're likely considered to not be much of a real threat, and unlikely to repeat the crime again.
    • Does that really hold for Pennsatucky? If the court bought her "protecting the unborn" plea, she'd still be a threat to any OTHER abortion clinic employee out there.
    • Pennsatucky had really good representation, paid for by the church that represented her. She would have been coached to say how much she regretted the recklessness of her actions and so on.
  • Was it ever confirmed that Claudette was actually charged with the murder that we see her commit? As I recall, there were rumors that she'd killed someone, and another inmate denies that, saying that she was convicted of slavery, referring to the whole human trafficking maid service thing. I don't recall them discussing her actual charges when her case gets re-opened. Also, it doesn't seem like there would be much to re-examine in such a simple premeditated murder charge, but the human trafficking thing would be a lot more complicated.
    • They also gossip that the nun was a murderer and Claudette is a mystical voodoo priestess. Rumors and tall tales among inmates are not the same as fact.
    • Healy refers to Claudette's conviction as an immigration matter, so she wasn't convicted of murder.
    • Wrong for Claudette ; she was indeed convicted because she killed a man who was abusing one of the girls from her illegal cleaning service.
    • Episode, please? They show her cleaning up after killing the guy, true, but why would Healy say her case is back on the table with changes to immigration laws? She's given the impression that she feels she deserves a long sentence for killing the guy, but there's no indication she was ever caught/convicted for that crime, only for the immigration stuff.
  • Pennsatuckey took the gun in and fired a shot. It's not even established that the shot hit the nurse, let alone killed her. You can survive getting shot, you know. There were even doctors right there. If the nurse didn't die, it would be assault with a deadly weapon, maybe attempted murder.
    • It was birdshot that she used. Not the most lethal ammo.
    • It's also doubtful that she would get so much support from the Christians if she actually murdered the nurse, no matter how strong they feel about abortion. They also mention that she "only" stood up to the injustice.
    • If the nurse didn't die, she could testify that Pennabama was getting an abortion before shooting her, which would nullify her Christian defense.
    • Didn't they knew that she was getting the abortion anyway but were under the impression she was forced to do it?
  • Pennsatucky's fundie fanclub paid for her (implied) extremely expensive lawyer who specialised in such cases. He couldn't get her exonerated entirely, since she most definitely killed that woman, but if he was good enough, he could seriously get her sentence lightened.

• Why would an anti-abortion religious group choose to champion Pennsatucky when she committed her crime immediately after receiving her fifth abortion? I don't see how they could paint her as an anti-abortion crusader with that fact coming out in court. You'd think it would be much more effective to go the opposite direction and use her to argue that people who get abortions are evil.
  • Because the group protesting outside saw her storm out of the clinic and immediately go back in and fire up the joint. THEN they hired the best lawyer in the country to give her a shimmering public image. Her shtick was that she found Jesus, and all was forgiven. Which is kind of the appeal to Christianity.
    • Even Christians know what bad publicity is and would never choose a convicted murderer as some sort of redemption poster child. Hell, Christians distance themselves from the Westboro Baptist Church immediately after something controversial happens and they don't even kill. I agree with OP; as a Christian and a pro-lifer it would honestly make more sense to paint people who get abortions as unstable (horrible as it sounds).
  • Her supporters, assuming they knew about the abortions, (which probably came up in court) could've been led to believe that she regretted her abortions and found Jesus, and then shot the woman.
  • Not only was it a Women's Health Clinic and not specifically an abortion clinic (so the protesters may not have been able to identify her as an abortion patient), the lawyers may have had her reason for being there the first five times struck from the record, since they were "irrelevant" to her sixth visit (seconds after the fifth visit ended), so they could have an easy-to-control case and win over some public opinion and politicians. That "struck from the record" thing sounds ridiculous, but it happens.
  • Better question, what kind of terrible nurse, who WORKS at a clinic offering abortions, makes a scathing remark to a patient about how many abortions they had?! Surely any nurse working anywhere would know better to make any kind of judgemental comments to/about their patients in their hearing, and are familiar with th basic concept of "bedside manner". And if this nurse had issues with people getting abortions (given her remark was about someone having multiple abortions), why the heck was she working, not only in a clinic that provides abortions but being involved with those cases personally? Why not get a job in a completely unrelated field??
    • Rude and mean people exist. Besides, the nurse might not have had an issue with abortion in general, just thought Pennsatucky was irresponsible for having to go in so many times.
    • While it doesn't excuse anyone's behaviour, when it comes to Pennsatuckey (Why is she called that?) and being rude, it's quite possible the nurse didn't throw the first punch.
    • "Pennsyltucky" is a slang term for central Pennsylvania, a state commonly described as Philadelphia at one end, Pittsburgh at the other, and Alabama in between. Presumably, that's where the character is from.
    • Pennsylvania and Kentucky are both considered redneck, hick states. Pennsatucky is a redneck hick. Do the math.
    • Even so, as a nurse, thinking it is one thing, but she shouldn't be saying anything of the kind to the patient's face! An attitude like that could get her fired or even struck off the nursing register, surely?? Nurses are there to look after patients, no matter the reason why they're there.
    • You can be pro-choice and still think that after your first accidental pregnancy, your second, even your third, you'd take more precautions and not be as irresponsible.
    • And prison guards shouldn't molest inmates or bring drugs into the prison, but that's the kind of world the show takes place in. The clinic was likely a small-town affair with low standards.
    • There's a difference between a crooked guard, and a rude judgmental nurse!
    • Not really, no.
    • Classism and judgement for her drug use could come into play. There are people, who while socially liberal and pro-choice, will still look down on poor drug-users and what they see as "white trash". The nurse might have seen her as low-class and deserving of scorn and ridicule. Even in prison the "meth-heads" seem to get a special level of ridicule and derision. There have been cases of minorities and poor people speaking out about how their status often results in rude and condescending treatment from medical staff.
    • Speaking as someone who is liberal and pro-choice, I would have a really hard time not being judgmental toward a meth head who has had 5 abortions. The nurse shouldn't have said what she said, but it is really hard not to judge Pennsatucky for having that many abortions.

• Just a little question: what was it that Norma and Gloria were cooking up and then scattered on Vee? I figured it was some sort of homemade itching powder but its results didn't really show.
  • It was a homemade bruja curse.

• Why does the prison go on lockdown when a screwdriver goes missing, but Sophia seems to have unsupervised access to hair cutting tools?
  • Sophia has absolutely supervised access to hair cutting tools, the exact same way the cooking staff had access to food cutting tools, and the maintenance had access to more screw drivers. Security guards are constantly watching them, and they have strict check in/check out sheets keeping track of where and when everything is.

• Why does Morello's sister tell her (over the phone) that Christopher is getting married? Was her sister not at the trial? If you learned your sister was stalking and tried to kill some guy and his fiancee, why bring that up?
  • Maybe she thought it'd help her out of the delusion or Morello had got better by now?
  • Conversely, maybe she's a horrible person who wanted to make Lorna flip out.

• As heartwarming as Norma's song in the Christmas pageant may have been...if everyone at Litchfield thought she was mute, why did they put her in the choir in the first place?
  • Because she wanted to participate as a lamb.

• Why are people like Morello or Warren, who are clearly mentally ill (yet relatively harmless), locked up in prison and not in some kind of mental institution?
  • That, unfortunately, is Truth in Television. Sometimes, people who are mentally ill behave in a way that is "criminal," (such as Morello planting a bomb in Christopher's car) get locked up in prison (where they don't belong), then continue to act out against the prison rules, which adds more time to their sentences. The guards are not trained to deal with it and the mentally ill inmates don't get the psychiatric help they need.
  • Warren has been in the psych ward for a while. Presumably, she's in her best state, or at least good enough for the rather laid back system that runs Litchfield.
    • She mentions in season 1 that whenever she winds up in the psych ward, her parents call a lawyer and she's released from it fairly quickly. Evidently they can afford a good enough lawyer for her to have a relatively comfortable stay in prison.
  • It's also because most jurisdictions have pretty strict rules on sentencing around mental illness (to avoid someone from gaming the system by committing a crime and then claiming insanity to get an 'easier' sentence). There's quite a lot to it, but generally, the principle is that even if you're mentally ill in some way, if you're aware enough to realise that what you did was a crime and have a clear understanding of the consequences of your actions then you can be tried as normal, so to speak, since you are considered mentally sound enough to be able to take at least some responsibility for your actions. In Morello's case, while she clearly has issues presumably she was demonstrated enough awareness that planting a bomb in someone's car (which incidentally is kind of stretching the definition of "relatively harmless" a little, but that's another discussion) is still a crime and could have killed him to make a guilty plea and sentencing on the basis of diminished responsibility out of reach.

• Why on earth does Piper/Alex take up such an outsized portion of fan works when seemingly everyone who's anyone spends all of their time complaining about them as a couple.
  • Probably because they're by far the most prominent romantic couple in the show. A number of the inmates are lesbians/bi/gay for stay, but so far, most of their interactions have been flings. Fan artists often like romance.
  • Plus Piper was originally the main character, and based on a real person, so the show is sort of obligated to give her plots. Since Alex and her relationship is the reason she's in jail and arguably the most interesting of her plots so far (or one of the most interesting at least), it's probably going to be around a while.
  • There are also people who liked the pairing originally, but didn't enjoy the development, aka the drag.

• Near the end of Season 3, Morello manipulates a home invasion and assault on Christopher, an innocent man she has been stalking and violating for years. Season 3 ends with her happy wedding to a psycho, and it seems like their behavior is going to be written off, as hers has been for the previous 3 seasons. Where is Christopher's justice? Or should we expect it in the near future (Season 4)?
  • Vince isn't probably a psycho, he committed a violent act out of a misplaced sense of chivalry, but was deceived and doesn't know Morello's history with Christopher. Also, the wedding is subtly questioned for it's happiness when juxtaposed with Morello's flashback, so I'd expect some drama in the incoming season. I wouldn't bet on anyone getting his justice, though.

• Did Pennsatucky really kill that abortion clinic's worker? Anytime I can recall, that incident was referred to as 'shooting' not 'killing' the woman.
  • It's likely she didn't, or she would be in a higher security prison for murder.

• Piper's revenge on Stella for stealing her money. How can it be just that easy to get someone permenantly incarcerated? If you can just hide some contraband in someone else's bunk (and it's shown that it's pretty easy to sneak into someone's bunk and harm them, such as Leanne cutting Soso's hair), why don't the more hardcore inmates do that to people that they don't like more often?
  • Stella wasn't "permanently incarcerated," but she had more time added to her sentence and was sent to the Maximum Security facility. As for why they don't do that more often, it requires concerted effort and co-operation to pull off what Piper did.
• How old was Pennsatucky when she got her period? She barely had buds, and still had no curves. She looked no older than 8. Most girls have curves and breasts by the time they start. She seems to have bled enough to be a real menstrual period and not due to some other cause (or coming out of a different orifice altogether). But most girls of her ethnicity start when they are older tweens, probably closer to their teens. Or is this Fridge Horror hinting that there may be something in her environment leading to such an early bleeding, even without other puberty signs?
  • No. Her mother states outright that Tiffany is ten or eleven, which is a normal age for girls to start their periods. She's just small for her age. Taryn Manning is tiny, so it's appropriate they'd find a young actress with a similar build.
    • Apologies for the Squick, but it's implied that Pennsatucky's upbringing is less than ideal, with the possibility of sexual abuse. This is related to both early onset of menstruation and also to promiscuous sexual behaviour/increased likelihood of risk-taking, consistent with Pennsatucky's actions, beliefs and worldview.
• Why, for the love of God, is Lolly not medicated? It makes sense when she's homeless, because she can't afford it, but even the prison's indifferent health care providers should be able to see how batshit she is, and desperately in need of medication.
  • She doesn't want to be. She pretty clearly states to Healy that she doesn't like being medicated. She compares it to the prison of her illness and the literal prison she's in. And good luck getting someone non-compliant to take their medication. Add that to the fact that Alex, Red, and Frieda have been keeping Lolly away from authority figures, and none seem to seek her out, and you have the reason she's not medicated.
• Why is Frieda in a minimum security prison with at least four murders on her record? Plus (maybe) a cop? Isn't minimum security mostly for inmates with non-violent charges, usually drug or fraud related?
  • In Rosa's flashback, we see that Rosa started in maximum but was moved in minimum over time so I figured the same thing happened with Frieda. I'm assuming they got transfered either for good behaviour or because of their old age. It was hinted in season 2 that a lot of the older inmates are actually in for more violent or dangerous crimes.
  • That makes sense, especially given how crowded Max is.
  • I think Frieda said that she wasn't caught for murder but for something else.
  • Frieda was in Max. She tells Red during season 4 (with the whole dead body thing) that she “can’t go back to max, she just can’t”. And Piper tells Soso in season 2 (when Soso asks about all the older women in prison) that ‘a lot of them are doing long stints, and many came up from Max for good behaviour’.
    • Question answered in Season 6. She cut a deal to get to minimum.

• Given that this is a show very, very loosely based on a person's actual experience, are guards really allowed to act that way to inmates? Using the philosophy of Pay Evil unto Evil as a blatant excuse to abuse the inmates (example, pulling a weapon on them for getting a bit snippy) like those guys from season 4 do. Like, would they get away with it scot-free? I've no doubt that it does happen and it's unjust, to put it mildly, but would the corporations that run the prisons really go so far to to keep these unstable, vicious brutes on as to nurse their dangerous tenancies at worst and turn a blind eye at best instead of finding someone less...sadistic? I mean, one of them is a freakin' war-criminal. An answer from an experienced party (a real prison guard, an ex-con, ect.) would be especially appreciated.
  • I can't answer unequivocally, but there's a definite Stanford Prison Experiment vibe to it. Hopefully we have some tropers who can answer.
  • Interesting article here, with some links to articles about real life prisons who are doing the kind of things that the guards at Litchfield are. Terrible.
  • OP: Fascinating, but the question was are they allowed to do these things. Will the corporations go the extra mile to defend them if, God forbid, one of these ladies walks and presses charges against the guards for the abuse she suffered while incarcerated. Or would the case just be laughed out of court because no one cares about and ex-con, male or female? Don't guards typically at least get fired for groping female prisoners when they aren't beating them with nightsticks for sneezing wrong?
  • They are absolutely not allowed to do 80% of the crap that goes on in this show, but they do, because nobody cares. Even if an investigation does reach the court, are a jury going to believe the for profit prison's legal team, or the person who's probably being portrayed by them as a violent thug, thief, drug addict etc, and can't afford to have more than a public defender.
• Lorna Morello does not seem to be particularly techno-savvy. She did not even know what Pinterest was, and did not seem to do online stalking other than through email and Facebook. She does not seem to be particularly into gadgets- and other than the make-up, she does not really MacGyver anything. How in the world did Christopher MacLaren know that it was Lorna Morello who put that homemade explosive under Angela's car? It does not seem like something she would be able to come up with. Or was she found "not guilty" of this particular charge due to that exact same reason, and thus was convicted only of the lesser charges of mail order fraud and perhaps stalking and harassment?
  • For someone with a history of obsessive romantic stalking, it's not unlikely that they would go as far as to put a bomb under your fiancée's car. As for how she acquired it, she could have just used google or got it from someone else.

• So exactly how much time does Piper or other notable inmates for that matter have left before they are released? At the beginning of Season 1, Piper's sentence is for 15 months, and I don't remember anybody specifically mentioning how much time each season is supposed to represent (a month, a week?) so at the end of Season 4, does she have a year left? How much time does Red have left? Gloria?
  • Judging by Daya's pregnancy going from conception in season 1 to birth in season 3, we can assume the first three seasons take maybe ten months. If season 4 is on the same time schedule then probably about thirteen or fourteen months have passed since the beginning of the show so Piper's release (or possibly extension of her time to keep the narrative going) will most likely be a plot point in Season 5 (although it's [possible season 4 took place over a shorter period of time to exemplify how quickly things went to shit). Aside from her we have no idea how long everyone else is in for because they're crimes vary and it's up to the convenience of the plot.
    • For what it's worth, it's mentioned that Nicky spent ninety-four days in Max, so the time from mid-Season 3 to mid-Season 4 covers just about three months.
  • Piper states she's had more time added to her sentence as of the end of Season 4, and there was a bit of a Time Skip between the first and second half of Season 4.
  • Piper gets more time added after the start of season 2, when she lies about not knowing Kubrick, only for Alex to tell the truth and so proves Piper was lying while under oath. That counts as perjury.
• Why are so many of the inmates in Federal prisons, when they've committed what should be state-level crimes? Watson, for example, was convicted of armed robbery, which should have gotten her sent to a state prison rather than a Federal institution. Unless Lolly did something else we didn't see, she was apparently convicted of assaulting a police officer, which is also not under Federal jurisdiction. Interestingly enough, murder is also typically a crime that falls under state jurisdiction rather than Federal, except under certain circumstances. Some of the inmates convicted of murder or attempted murder could be placed under federal jurisdiction (Yoga Jones's crime was probably presented as a drug-related offense, Red was probably convicted as an accessory to murder under Federal organized crime laws, I'd be willing to buy that Norma's murder took place in a National Park, which is Federal property and therefore under Federal jurisdiction, Morello likely would have gotten some sort of terrorism-type charge with her attempted murder, since she used an explosive device), but that doesn't explain how, say, Pennsatucky or Suzanne are in a Federal institution rather than a state penitentiary.
  • Pennssatucky was probably also charged for terrorism related or hate crimes since an attack on an abortion clinic would be politically motivated. Maybe Suzanne was brought up on some sort of human trafficking/child abduction charges?
  • If the place Janae robbed (memory on exactly what it was is fuzzy) was a bank or any kind of financial institution, then that's a federal offense.
• Maritza was arrested for grand theft auto. Who thought it would be a good idea to put her on van duty?
  • She might not have been convicted of grand theft auto. She also could have argued that she was put up to it, or they could have decided to overlook her charge because of good behavior. Morello was probably in for stalking, and she still got van duty.
• Who in the Sam-hell thought that a school for rich white girls needed to do a production of Dreamgirls?! 90% of all the musicals in the world would have been a better choice, plenty of them with strong female roles, and a good few with strong belting roles for women.
  • Along with Rule of Drama, the theme of the episode was about how white people silence black people, and one of they ways this happens is by co-opting black music and culture. It was chosen (at least out of universe) precisely because it's a terrible choice of performance for those little white girls.
    • OP here. I get the Doylist reason for it entirely, was looking more for a Watsonian answer.
  • Because if the kids have any say, they are far more likely to choose the newer, flashier, cool musical, over an older one they might probably have already done before, either at school, or theatre/drama/dance school etc. Kids aren't likely to think 'this musical features all black people, maybe we as an all white school shouldn't do it'. This troper went to summer theatre schools and was involved in a production of Fiddler, when none, or very few of us were Jewish and none of us thought we shouldn't do it because of that.
    • Fair, but when I was in high school, the school had to approve any show we did. I'd imagine one of them would think about the idiocy of it, but maybe they just didn't care. Idk.
    • Exactly. They didn't care.
    • Given it was a school production, and so would only likely be seen by parents, siblings, other family, maybe a reviewer from a local newspaper, I'm guessing the teachers wouldn't care. As long as the kids are engaged and having fun with it, they aren't going to care if it's white kids doing a mostly black people musical, or a Jewish one or whatever. Besides, given it's an exclusive boarding school, most of them aren't going to realise the implications of it. See the girl who gives Janae the tour, she just thinks she's crying because the singing is emotionally moving, not because a white girl is playing a black woman and singing songs from a black group.
  • It would not be surprising at all if they justified it as teaching them about black culture and racism; I was once in a drama class that was about 80% white, and most of those people were trying to get a production of Hairspray going. It could also be a matter of one of the richest kids wanting to do it and her parents having enough money to make it happen for her.
  • I don't think it's fair to say that it's idiotic for them to do the show. It's just a school production and they should be able to do what they like. That's like saying it's idiotic for a school with mostly black students to do Les Mis. The problem isn't with the students doing the musical in and of itself. If there were more black students at the school and they wanted to do Dream Girls, but no black people auditioned or wanted to be a part of it, I don't think the situation would be looked upon as badly. The real issue is the dynamics of the school and how it reflects the community and promotes ignorance.
    • Comparing a predominantly white school doing Dream Girls to a predominantly Black school doing Les Mis isn't a fair comparison at all. There are literally hundreds of mainstream plays written by, for, and about white people and maybe a handful of mainstream plays written by, for, and about Black people. Maybe 'idiotic' wasn't the best word, but it was (and I think the show intended to portray it as) a highly insensitive choice and a form of cultural appropriation in which a historically oppressive culture (American white people) benefits from taking yet more from a historically oppressed culture (American Black people).
• How are the three inmates hiding in the time machine at the end of Season 5 if it was destroyed by Angie and Leanne at the end of Season 4?
  • The writers forgot about it between seasons.
• Why is it in episode 1 of season 1, Nicky comes back from SHU and is processed back in like a newbie (orange uniform, sleeping in the rooms, not the dorms etc), but when Watson and Chapman both go and return, in the same season, they both return straight into the dorms, with their usual beige uniforms and keep their jobs? Watson tells Chapman she goes straight back to dorms since there was a bunk free, but that doesn’t explain the uniform issue. We don’t know how long Nicky was in there but Watson was there for 2 weeks, and Chapman less than 48 hours - so it can’t be an issue of time spent there, a season surely 2 weeks would warrant putting her back in orange, even if Chapmans less than 48 hours doesn’t.
  • Healy broke several rules by sending Piper to the SHU, so it's understandable that Caputo would want to return her to a 'normal' prison life as quickly as possible to avoid any further complications. Additionally, the rest of the staff apart from Healy knew that Piper hadn't actually done anything wrong, so decided not to remove her privileges. Watson is a little more complicated, but it could be that there's a grace period where being sent to SHU when you're relatively new to the prison means you don't lose your job/uniform on returning. Or perhaps the same works for your first visit to SHU.

• Why does it say "B. McCullough" on McCullough's uniform shirt, even though her first name is Artesian?
  • This is just speculation, but it could be that she goes by "Artesian" but her legal first name starts with a B.

• Wouldn't the prison authorities have advised Lorna that her baby had died? I would think the hospital would have her information on file and contacted Litchfield to let them know an inmate's child had died.
  • It could be a case of wanting to let the family break the news, as Gloria has to find out about her son from family, as does Piper about her grandmother. Or just a case of Lorna doing what she always does and refusing to acknowledge the information as she didn’t want to believe it. We are shown that the rest of the season is one long descent into a mental breakdown over the news, including her getting photos of other people’s babies to upload to instagram to keep up the pretenders.
• Why couldn't Shani argue for needing asylum to stay in America when she was going to be killed in Egypt for being lesbian?
  • Sadly, at least in the U.K., a lot of cases dependant on LGBT discrimination get turned down/refused on the basis of not being able to prove their orientation, or being accused of faking it, or not believing that family members would kill a relative over them being gay. It’s very possible Shani did try that argument and lost, or was advised by her lawyer that it wasn’t worth bothering with that argument as it wouldn’t work at all. Look at the Latina lady who tries to argue that she and her sons needed to flee to the USA to save her sons from being forced into gangs or be killed. The judges reply is that just proves that her *sons* have reason to flee and remain in the US, not her as their mother (especially as her sons were now in foster care).
• Minor nitpick, but shouldn't Red's last name be Reznikova instead of Reznikov?
  • It's possible she changed her surname to Reznikov once she was in the USA so people would better understand that she and her husband were married, since most people in the English speaking world don't know how Russian surnames work, especially since they moved back in the 70s.