The new season of Orange is the New Black dropped a last week, so naturally, I binge-watched the whole thing.

I enjoyed this season, I think this has been one of the most enjoyable seasons to watch. I felt last season’s riot was really dragged out and from what I remember before then I wasn’t really into gangster Piper or the brief appearance of Ruby Rose.

This season brought the ladies of Litchfield down to MAX. A place we heard lots about but didn’t know anything other than it was horrible.

But I have to say that halfway through the season I was thinking they don’t have it that bad in there. I mean they’re still allowed to roam around pretty freely and get library books and commissary. Even yard games and an aerobic class.

So MAX is basically the same as what they had before but with cells and less freedom in jobs.

Plus this season the guards seem to pay basically no attention to the inmates. At the start, before they were moved to GenPop the guards were harsh. They were abusing the inmates they believed to have caused the riot. But that soon stops it seems and we just begin to see the guards less in general.

Then there was the Fantasy Inmate thing. Which again kind of fizzled. I wasn’t really that interested in it but at least we got to know more about the new guards.

The new guards aren’t really anything special.

I did like that Luschek really embraced his role as an aerobics teacher. That was fun.

And then there was McCullough who was struggling with PTSD after the riot. I wish they had shown more of her and her struggle because it was hardly shown. I mean we saw her in the toilets burning cigarettes into her leg but it never went anywhere. I need more on this.

The only other guard worth mentioning is the one who was dating Aleida. I don’t remember his name. Can’t believe he was willing to smuggle drugs into the prison for Aleida. Not really sure where that will go, well actually I know in the end Aleida is gonna dump him because she’s only using him so she can smuggle the drugs. I don’t think she’s actually in love with him.

Speaking of Aleida, let’s talk about the inmates. First of all, I don’t understand why they focus so much on Aleida. She was really annoying. I guess they needed her because she still has a connection to prison because of Daya but also the drug thing. Either way, I probably could have done with seeing less of her.

Another inmate who was on the outside of a while was Pennsatucky. I totally forgot she escaped last season with Coates. I never liked their relationship but it was nice to see her on the outside having fun. And I think it was smart of her to turn herself in again in the end, I was wondering if they were going to notice she was missing.

I wish they had shown Coates again though when he woke up in the forest and Pennsatucky was just gone. I mean who knows what happened to him? Is he gonna disappear from the show like Bennett did? Because I ain’t about that, I need closure.

Next, we’ll talk about Frieda, who conned her way into Florida for protection. She was very paranoid. I mean it makes sense, you were in MAX once before and screwed over the two biggest mob members and so obviously people are out for revenge. But at the same time, it wasn’t very interesting, I just felt bad for Suzanne as she was being used.

Okay, now we can talk about C and D block. It took me most of the series to figure out the difference and I’m still not sure if I do. But basically, we have two sisters Carol and Barb who each runs their own block. The two sisters have had rivalry ever since arriving at Litchfield.

I thought their story was interesting. Two sisters who originally conspired to kill their younger sister together grew to hate each other. I wish there was more backstory. But I guess that’s all the backstory you need?

So the whole season is building up for this big fight between C and D block which is spearheaded by the two sisters. And you think it’s going to be really dramatic but it actually turns into everyone just playing kickball.

Meanwhile, the two sisters are nowhere to be seen at the fight as they have snuck off together to try and get into Florida. I was actually surprised by this, I didn’t see it coming.

Sadly, their plan fails as they begin to fight each other instead. I suppose I wasn’t too surprised that the two ended up killing each other, as you could see that’s where it was heading. But I am sad it had to end this way. Of all the new characters, they were definitely the most interesting. I mean they built these two up so much through the whole season just to have it end this way…tragic.

So I guess we won’t know any more about them in the new season, and Freida can rest easy at night.

Another new character who I thought was really interesting was Daddy. Yes, that’s the name she goes by and I don’t think she’s ever called anything else. I thought she had an interesting backstory and I hope we see more of that. She was Barb’s right-hand woman and the supplier of drugs for D Block. She also plays the love interest to Daya, who becomes addicted to the drugs Daddy gives her to deal with the pain she suffers from being abused by the guards.

Daya changed pretty quickly this season, giving into the drug addiction and getting her mom to help her sneak drugs into prison. Didn’t think she was going to be the type, but I suppose prison makes you do things you didn’t think you would do. I didn’t really know what to think of her relationship with Daddy, but I know it’s only happening because Daya is lonely. Can’t see it lasting long but I guess we see.

It’s also weird to see Daya acting like a thug, again she doesn’t seem like the type. Then again, neither did Piper when she was running that panty business but anyway…

Other people in D Block, we had Nicky and Lorna. We didn’t see very much of Lorna, but we know she is pregnant and doing okay for herself, keeping out of trouble. Sort of. When Nicky joined Barb’s gang as a sober companion, Lorna kind of got drafted in too. She was willing to fight even though she was pregnant. Luckily, Nicky kept her safe…

Or did she? While everyone else is out playing kickball, it looks like Lorna goes into labour. Although we could see there was blood on her clothes, so I’m going to take a guess and say the baby doesn’t make it.

Which I don’t think Lorna will be able to handle.

I wish we had seen more of Lorna and also see her husband visit her. I felt like of all the people to have visitors, she definitely would have them. Because I kept wondering if he was visiting her during the whole pregnancy thing, I like to think he did even if they didn’t show it.

I found Nicky to be a bit annoying this season. Not sure why though. I mean I enjoyed watching her try to stop Barb from attacking C Block because she wanted to protect Red. But other than that, I don’t know, there was something about her that bothered me.

Oh! And there was the radio show with Cindy and Flaca, again something I wanted more of just because it was interesting. But Cindy was going through her own issues because of her lying about the riot and causing trouble for Taystee’s trial.

Poor Taystee, she was taking the blame for the whole riot due to her fellow inmates ratting her out and she was determined to fight for the truth. I thought it was brave of her to step up, but after everything, we know she just wanted justice for Poussey. I was so sad to find out that she lost the trial. I had hope that maybe she would win by some miracle but looking at the facts, there wasn’t a chance she would have won.

I think it was nice to see Caputo fight for her though. I mean it’s great Caputo was still willing to fight the good fight after everything that happened. And I have to admit, he and Fig are cute together.

Moving on to C Block, we had Badison… I don’t know what to say to her other than she’s probably the worst new character. I first I thought she would be interesting, she had some kind of reputation but honestly, she’s just annoying. Her backstory wasn’t even that great. Wasn’t really sure what her deal was with Piper other than she didn’t like Piper taking charge of kickball. I don’t know. She wasn’t my favourite.

Then Piper and Alex. As usual, Piper really annoyed me, I mean her being worried about Alex while everyone else is trying to cover themselves from the riot. Typical Piper. I suppose she was pretty quiet this season other than talking about her wedding to Alex and the kickball thing. But still doesn’t make me like her more.

I did think it was cute she had her prison wedding with Alex before her release. If anything it gave me hope for the relationship. I did think Piper was gonna get annoyed that Alex was going behind the scenes to get Madison to stop bullying her and that was gonna be the end but they made it through.

That being said, I wonder how the relationship will go with Piper on the outside and Alex on the inside. I mean Alex is getting involved with the gang, and Piper isn’t a fan but Piper has never been able to control Alex. Meanwhile, Piper will have her freedom again and I wonder how she will adjust back to normal life.

I feel like Piper will very easily cope on the outside. But will she keep coming back to visit her wife? I think she will, plus she’ll probably want to get more opinions on the memoir she’s writing.

Alex will probably still do the mob thing if it means she’ll be protected. Though after kickball and the death of the C and D Block leaders I don’t know if the rivalry and gangs will continue. But at the same time, gangs usually form in the prison and I imagine Daddy and Badison will keep the gangs alive. I can already tell Daddy will probably be a better leader than Badison. But I guess we see.

I think the only other person to talk about is Red. I felt bad for her being thrown under the bus by everyone else. She has done so much for the other girls and they just turned on her. But she soon fell in with Carol’s gang with the intent of taking down Frieda. I feel like because Red had nothing left she was just spending all her energy on Frieda.

Though I thought it was out of character for Red to just attack Frieda on her way to visitation, especially when she was about to see her grandchildren for the first time. I guess her rage took over when she saw Frieda, causing her to act out.

I wonder what this will mean for Red when she comes out of the SHU…I imagine her family will not forgive her for missing the visitation. But I think there is potential for her to come back and help Lorna deal with the baby situation. Or she’ll come back and be a gang boss because we know she’s good at being a leader. There are endless possibilities.

I think the only other thing to mention is Blanca not being able to get her early release. I think Blanca was one of those characters who is always overlooked. But this time, we were kind of excited for her because she wanted to get out of prison and start a family with her boyfriend. She was so close to being free too.

It was really just the moment when Diablo was standing there with the flowers and he didn’t see her. It was heartbreaking.

And so I think that wraps up all of the things that I wanted to say on the new season of Orange is the New Black. I feel like I am probably missing some things but these are the things that stuck out to me or I felt like I needed to mention.

I am excited about next season to see where it goes. Though I don’t imagine we will be seeing many more seasons after this with Piper being released from prison, after all, the whole series is based on a memoir written by Piper. So with her no longer being in prison it kind of makes you wonder when the end will be.

Either way, I’m interested to see where we go from here and how everything will wrap up. I always hope for a happy ending but with this kind of show, I feel there will be happy endings but also sad ones for some people. So I guess we wait and see who will be treated well and who won’t.

In the meantime I am going to have to find some other shows to fill the void now that I have to wait yet another year for a new Orange is the New Black season. If you have any recommendations, let me know.

~ Courtney x