Worst to Best
Orange Is The New Black
Season Two

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7 40 Oz. Of
Furlough (2.9)

One of the biggest issues with later Orange is the New Black is the tonal inconsistency. The drama will often be so bleak that humour will be used to lighten the load, but the humour present will be so forced and contrived that it never anything that resembles real people doing realistic things. This strain between the two elements of comedy-drama can be seen here to an extent, where the sitcom antics of a fully-amped Pornstache and Piper's ludicrous brother contrast badly with the horrific, almost unwatchable beating of Red in a flashback.
      The season DVD boxset contains a short documentary about Vee, with Sian Heder, one of three story editors, confessing "bringing in Vee was a way to bring something that wasn't our show into our show, and see how it shook everything up." It definitely causes some jarring moments, such as Taystee threatening Poussey, but one element that seemed out of left-field is actually a return to the original characterisation: Boo's betrayal.
     While season two had used Boo almost exclusively as comic relief and saw her as part of the "family", the very early episodes of season one showed her desperation to be accepted by Red and her subsequent rejection, along with her vengeful side, as she plotted against her ex-lover with possible violent intent. Consequently Boo's Judas moment isn't so out of character at all; rather, her eight-episode stretch as lovable light relief was the left-field choice.

6 A Whole
Other Hole (2.4)

The Vee story arc takes something of a backseat as Rosa is elevated to a main character, and the flashback story reveals that Lorna's entire relationship is a figment of her imagination, and that she's actually a stalker. Lighter moments come with Nichols and Boo having a repellent "sex competition", Nichols describing herself as a "bean-flicking Mother Theresa". Elsewhere, the series breaks TV taboos by talking about the "pee hole", giving the episode its name.
      Despite being a strong episode with lots of different elements, there are some odd continuity clashes, whereby characters seem to be retooled to fit the plots, rather than the plots being driven by the characters. While viewers haven't been privy to every conversation between Poussey and Taystee, having Poussey suddenly revealed as a lesbian and Taystee remarking that she'd rejected her sexual advances in the past ("we've been through this") seems out of left-field. A rewatch of season one just reveals maybe a tentative hug between the two, but precious little else to flag up this development.
      Season one had Poussey referring to Piper's sexuality without any reflection on her own, but here the episode begins with her admission that "I've been up close and personal with my share of pussy", followed by Taystee's repelled reaction. The whole thing seems there to engineer Vee's hold on the group, exploiting Taystee's slight homophobia in order to ostracise the more headstrong Poussey.
      Another odd clash between what we know and what the show is telling us occurs with Caputo remarking that drugs being let into the prison led to a girl dying. Yet this is in direct contradiction of Pornstache making it look like Tricia had committed suicide, and the body being cremated without an autopsy. While this is a strong episode of OITNB, there are some fairly major continuity clashes while it changes narrative gears.

5 Looks Blue,
Tastes Red (2.2)

Continuing the divided state of the series, OITNB returns to Litchfield Prison with no Piper in sight. With a flashback episode for Taystee, we learn how she got her name, and see her first meetings with future prisoner Vee. Lorraine Toussaint's Machiavellian, militant and power-hungry character has her detractors. There are those that think the Vee character took the series down too dark a path, and it's highly notable that, post-season two, the series has artificially contrived more comedy into episodes, leading to the nadir that was season five. The Guardian ran a piece describing it as one of the five biggest TV let downs of the year, yet, conversely, another article where she was regarded as one of "TV's most complex villains".
      Personally, Vee is loved here at the Anorak Zone. Although her earlier, chess-like manipulations eventually give way to more overt violence, the character succeeds in a way that no other "big bad" ever did. 2018's offering was enjoyable enough for later, post-prime OITNB, but considering the action was transferred to a maximum security prison then the "top dogs" of Carol, Barb, Daddy and Badison would have been eaten alive in 50 seconds flat by Vee and her radicalised gang members. Throughout season two, the plots and intertwined flashbacks are always well-constructed, and Vee is electrifying whenever she's on screen.
      Elsewhere, it's amazing how Big Boo ever became such a popular character, as her antics, while humorous, are also completely repellent: here we get a bestiality routine as she realises how "Little Boo", the prison dog, can make the best use of peanut butter. (Written because the dog involved kept falling asleep during filming, so had to be written out). Also of note is that while OITNB is a series that can be said to feature excessive, arguably exploitative female nudity (including here, with Polly walking around with her breasts exposed), this is the only time we get to see male full frontal nudity, as Larry is taken by his dad for a talk... in a gay sauna.

4 We Have Manners.
We're Polite. (2.13)

If there's one thing that typifies season two, it's the writers' hand in events. Whether intentional or not, the season flags up "God's hand in events" in a way that few other series do. Occasionally it can feel contrived and illogical, but this feature-length episode ends with a karmic retribution for Vee and the payoff that she needed to learn manners in the most vital way. Sadly, the way the prisoners deal with Vee - they all decide to grass, basically - does feel like something of an anti-climax given all the scheming built up throughout the previous dozen episodes, and, once more, a little too contrived.
      Possibly the most repugnant scene in the whole of OITNB is the moment where Caputo tricks Fig into giving him head, under the belief that he won't give details of her embezzlement if she does so. After she's finished, he reveals that he's already given the evidence to the warden, which basically means it's rape. In an interview with Vulture, Fig actress Alysia Reiner stated "As funny as people may find it, I couldn't find it very funny. I had to just go for the experience and not the comedy."
     What's so disturbing about the scene is that not only did Fig and Caputo enter into a consensual relationship afterwards, but it undermines Caputo's moral outrage over Pornstache. In fact, it makes Pornstache's breast grope seem less terrible in direct comparison, and, while Fig is an unpleasant person, that doesn't mean she deserves to be sexually assaulted, particularly when it's presented as light relief.
     

3 Hugs Can Be
Deceiving (2.3)

A crucial episode, where Red first bumps into old nemesis Vee, and Vee uses her manipulation to empower Suzanne. Piper's return from max coincides with a new intake of prisoners, including Brook Soso (Kimiko Glenn), a mixed race blabbermouth with Japanese ancestry. A lesser series would have Soso as inane comic relief, but, while the character begins as the kind of unbearable, oblivious comic relief so common on TV, she grows to show more depths. Yet the real highlight of the episode is a flashback to the end of season one, which shows a very different take on events.
      The episode features another commentary track with Uzo Aduba, Danielle Brooks, Vicky Jeudy, Adrienne C. Moore, and Samira Wiley. Rather than anything particularly informative, it sees a packed commentary booth laugh among themselves and interrupt each other. While again not essential listening, the experience of listening to it is like watching the episode in the company of friends.

2 Low Self
Esteem City (2.5)

Early OITNB is so good that sometimes the contrived plotting can pass by unnoticed. Here the flooded "Spanish showers" lead to a confrontation between Gloria and Vee, which results in Vee agreeing to share the "ghetto" showers in order to get two of the black prisoners installed in the parcel office. As Red says to Gloria, "she played you", but if the showers hadn't flooded in the first place, then what would have been Vee's next move? It's passable, because Vee is that most delicious of creations - a villain who gets by not with shouting or escalated violence, but via pure chess-playing manipulation.
      It's a clever episode with a backstory for Gloria that shows her belief in magic and her abusive relationship with a boyfriend, as well as revealing more about Caputo. Not only does the episode give us the first appearance of Sideboob, but it also shows the first inkling that this is a man who cares, and not just a pervert who likes to be left alone in his office while thinking inappropriately about the women. There's also Nichols getting all the good lines, observing that she's been too ambitious in trying to seduce a guard as part of her sex competition: "It's a classic story of hubris. I'm like Icarus, whose wings melted before he could fuck the sun."
      Trivia, and some more of the incredibly bad continuity that plagues the series is in evidence during the scene where Piper is visited by her mother and brother... a back shot where Piper is bent over the table with her hands to her face immediately cuts to a front shot with her sitting back with her arms at her side. Also look out for some poor looped dialogue from Healy in the scene where he gives Piper furlough.
     Trivia fans might also like to note that this is the shortest episode of the season, lasting just 49'18 minutes. The runtimes of the season were less strict than before, with a fairly wide variance of up to 57'36m for a couple of the longest episodes. The season concluded with an 88 minute special, the first time a season resolved itself with a "feature length" edition, but not the last.

1 It Was The
Change (2.12)

An intensely claustrophobic episode, as a storm knocks out the lights at the prison and Vee waits for a clearly fearful Red. Season two is immersive and was full of genuine danger on first viewing. While a second glance may dissipate the tension of the unknown, as well as flagging up some of the plot illogicalities, this is still a sequence of growing unease.
      The final fight sequences are exhausting to watch, and left both actresses feeling emotionally raw. However, for such a hard-going episode, there is some of the series' trademark wit, such as Red's discussion on how an elderly, would-be Vee killer stabbed the wrong person in the previous episode because she wasn't wearing her glasses: "you want to assassinate someone, vision is a basic requirement. It's like 'step one, pick a person to kill. Step two, kill that person.' [...] "We tell [Vee] it's a warning shot. 'Don't fuck with Red.'" "Or a 79-year-old woman will shank somebody you've never met?"
      One last point of trivia is that this is where Boo and Pennsatucky's odd couple friendship springs from, an event which brings out the best side of them both. While it may seem incredibly unlikely, it happens because neither have any other friends to turn to, something that gets forgotten in later seasons.

 

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