‘Orange Is the New Black’: Everything You Need to Know for Season 4
Can it possibly have been a whole year since we last shacked up in Litchfield Penitentiary, with its mattress-less bunks, garden shed full of secrets and Piper’s panties-making empire? If you’re like us, there’s a good chance that you gulped down Season Three of Orange Is the New Black faster than you can say “Admiral Rodcocker.” To say that Jenji Kohan’s addictive prison comedy/drama is highly bingeable is a huge understatement; but the downside is that 12 months down the line, we’re left with a hooch hangover and a blurry memory of what went down at the Litch.
With Season Four dropping en toto on June 17th, it’s time for a refresher. Here’s a quick rundown of what the women of Litchfield (and a couple of guys) got up to last year, in a season defined by explorations of faith, motherhood and corruption — and filthy, filthy outer-space porn.
Welcome to the Prison-Industrial Complex
With crooked warden Figueroa (Alysia Reiner) ousted at the end of Season Two and the comparatively levelheaded Joe Caputo (Nick Sandow) in charge, things were starting to get better — for about five minutes. The new boss’ reform efforts were cut short by the bombshell that the Litchfield was slated for imminent closure. Rescue came in the form of MMR, a private corporation that took over from the feds. But the new masters proved to be a thousand times worse than the devil we knew, hiring inept guards, using the inmates for sweatshop labor, and, in the season’s closing moments, turning all the beds into bunks and doubling the prison population. Caputo ultimately sold out for a promotion, which doesn’t bode well for the prison’s (or its inmates’) future.
Piper, Alex and Their Many Issues
Park Sloper-gone-bad Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) has been making increasingly Machiavellian choices ever since she landed in federal prison, and last season saw her evolve into a mob don-to-be. At the end of Season Two, she pulled strings to ensure that her newly freed flame Alex (Laura Prepon) wound up back behind bars and by Piper’s side. The two went from hate-sexing each other to briefly straight-up dating; but Piper’s dalliance with new inmate Stella (Ruby Rose) and her ruthless machinations while running a contraband soiled-panties ring led Alex to break things off. Piper sold Stella down the river for double-crossing her, and Alex spent her last moments of the season cornered by a guard under the employ of her former cartel leader, Kubra. We’re pulling for ya, Vause.