orange is the new black season 4 musings

SPOILERS AHEAD!

I'm enraged, I'm heartbroken, I'm fucking devastated. Shit, I think you can sum up my entire twitter feed while I was live tweeting watching as one long tweet that goes "NONONONONONONO" (One because I'm bad at tweeting and two because WTF HAPPENED THIS SEASON?). I'm going to have a hard time with this one guys so let me start off with something easy. The past 3 reviews I kept meaning to bring up a few things but then I'd forget and so I guess I could just start with those. The theme song for one. I am a huge fan of Regina Spektor (#ReSpekt) and I just think it's awesome they even have opening credits. Most shows don't have those anymore, just a flash of the title, and back to the story. But there's something important about opening titles/theme song/what have you. It tells the basic story and sets the theme. In this case, OITNB theme song is beautifully sung by probably my favorite artist of all time. This song, just like all of Regina's other songs, is gorgeously written and put together, with layers in the lyrics. She's telling a story about prisoners and reminding us that they are people. People who made mistakes and done terrible things, but people. Take the time, get to know them. So with that over shots of various inmates' eyes, mouths, faces etc, it grounds you and shakes out what you know or what you think you know. Prison isn't a place for bad people. Prison is a place where people who have done bad things go. They are not one in the same. We all make mistakes, varying to the degree of severity, but we don't all get caught. We're not THAT different. I think it's important to remember that. Another thing I keep meaning to mention is how fucking awesome the casting is. Not just the main cast but for the flashbacks too. I mean shit, I've seen 1 zillion shows and it's hilarious how younger versions of characters are cast. I mean, it's just impressive and it's important because sometimes when it's cast terribly, it takes you out of the show and reminds you it's fictional. I mean I know it's fictional but it's nice to see that they take such pride in the show and in these characters that they look for someone who could grow up to look like Daya or Rosa or whoever. Those little things aren't lost on me and I really do appreciate them.

Me too, Lolly, me too girl.

Anyways, where we left off last season the girls had just escaped through a hole in the fence which lead them to the lake where they all had a metaphorical, and in one case a literal, baptism. But they came out of the water, not shiny, new, and clean but grimy, cold, and uncomfortable. That's pretty much the trajectory of this season. In the past, the show focused on Piper and her fucking stupid ass love life a lot and often smoothed over some common issues in the prison system, such as race. This season takes that issue head on and makes no apologies. It's tense and stressful and needed to be done. So obviously in the past there were cliques of the different races, they ate together, they lived together, they didn't necessarily get along with the other races but there weren't gangs and besides Vee or Pennsatucky during her Christian phase, it didn't feel THAT dangerous. Well that all changes with the influx of the new inmates, there's a new majority, the Latinos (Latinas?). Piper, high on herself, thinks herself the new HBIC of Litchfield but the new majority thinks otherwise. We FINALLY get a Ruiz episode (and Maritza and the crazy unibrow girl with Diablo... considering how many Latina girls there are on the show, they didn't really focus on them too much previously, huh?) and there's a very important shift that takes place.

Woof, man this shit got rough. I mean, I almost always root against Piper because she's obnoxious but I was kinda getting down with her whole Walter White persona. She doesn't take Ruiz challenging her lightly- she hires a guard, raises wages, and oh yeah starts off the whole fucking race war. Ruiz is coming up on her turf so she goes to the new head guard (okay guys, I'm going to be really real with you, that new guard up from max, the giant bearded Norse god? Yeah I am super into him. He's horrible and destructive and terrifying and that is probably why I am feeling that shit. I love my men scary, what can I say?), we're going to call him Sexy McBeardFace, and tells him that she's afraid of gangs and he suggests she starts a snitching club, which SURPRISE! Only white people go to and it turns out it's a new gang, white power people, which is probably the worst kind of gang there is. I don't know why that is, maybe it's because of their super effective bloody history but hands down it's one thing to have pride in your heritage, it's another thing to be a fucking skinhead. Ohhh my God, this makes me want to vomit. Ruiz gets in a shit ton of trouble because of Piper, adding more time to her sentence (my first thought was of her little girl, Jesus fucking Christ, Sexy McBeardFace, you do NOT fuck around) and so Ruiz retaliates with the worst thing she could do, brands Piper with a swastika. I mean FUCK! The whole next episode (the one where Piper does crack, Jesus this fucking season was just HEAVY) I kept thinking, what the fuck is she going to do? She can't fucking wear long sleeves for the rest of her life! Red comes up with branding her some more so it's not a swastika anymore and makes me realize that I would not fucking do well under pressure. Seriously if that's me I would wear long sleeves forever. Things escalate and escalate until...... well I'm going to put that off because I don't feel like crying right this minute and I WILL cry when I write about it.

"You're going to marry me? OH 'bury', well that seems like less fun, Maria!"

I guess now is as good a time as any to go on my regularly scheduled Healy hate-rant. We don't see much of him this season, which is probably partially why I like this season so much, so I actually don't have THAT much material to hate on him with.... LOL JK I totes do. I mean he wasn't in it much but when he was, he was a fucking jackhole (jackass/asshole combo). This season we get to be acquainted with Healy, SuperRacistCounselor. I mean, we already knew he was racist between some of his interactions with the inmates and his inferiority complex with Berdie but now the cards are all out on the table. He's chatting it up with the new inmate, Judy King (aka Nina Sharpe from Fringe!!!!!!!!!!!) and he tells her she's not supposed to be in that area (with Poussey, Jesus fucking Christ I'm crying already) because it's a little urban. I love when people say that, like they are trying to be polite but everyone knows they are being weirdly fucking racist. But Healy clarifies, he doesn't hate black people, they are a nice people individually but get them together... I want to stab him in the throat so I don't have to hear his white-baby-boomer-sexist-racist-homophobic-piece-of-shit EVER talk again. Maybe I'm pulling a Healy and projecting all my anger on him but I'm pretty sure he's supposed to be a loathsome little cockroach (quote cited: Hermoine Granger, Prisoner of Azkaban) and represent everything that's wrong with the patriarchy. Healy finally gets his own episode this season, called Dr Psycho, which is so perfectly named for a bunch of reasons. One, he fancies himself a doctor of sorts because he's a counselor to these ladies, two, his mom be cray and he grew up with that clusterfuck, and three, Dr Psycho is a DC villain known for being a misogynist and hating the SHIT out of women (I had to look that up, I'm no comic book expert guys, remember?). So pretty much his whole deal with women started when he was a little nugget and his mom was deemed crazy and was like I don't want to do shock treatments anymore, they make me forget who I am and Healy is a little prick back then and was like well they help, you're better this way, when you are a shell of a person now go make me some shit I can eat, and then obviously his mom runs away because who wouldn't when you've got a preteen tyrant in your house. It's like that whole moment shaped his entire life. He didn't become a misogynist once he started working at the prison, that's just who he is baby, since Day 1. He thinks women are crazy who can't make sound decisions and need a big strong man to make those decisions for them. Just look at when he goes on a date with ONE OF HIS PATIENTS and is like lets keep this going and the patient is like UM this is a terrible idea and I'm going to leave forever and he gets super aggressive. He really likes controlling women, he's fucking gross. Then he thinks he helps Lolly, which was kind of nice to see him not look like a total ass nugget (people should have layers, you know) and then when he finds out later, she wasn't crazy, all that shit she was talking about was real and he's just a REALLY SHITTY counselor, he's like "oh I'm going to end it all, because this shit like everything else, is all about me". I love when Red calls him out on his bullshit, she told him "You don't get to have a crisis right now" because he's circling the drain when he's supposed to be the plug for everyone else. God, he sucks and he sucks at being an alpha male too.

But Sexy McBeardface can tell me what to do AYYO

Pennsatucky has been really awesome to watch. I mean just a few short seasons ago I wrote how she was one of my least favorite characters and while she's not my favorite (top 2 forever: Taystee and Poussey) I'm very excited her growth as a character and in her story. She could've VERY EASILY been relegated to a over the top caricature with some sort of catchphrase (like Sheldon from BBT, terrible character, terrible writing, terrible fucking show) but they went out of their way to not let that happen. To have her character change and evolve organically and seeing her this season is very, very important. It's crucial to see the aftermath of the rape. They could've just washed their hands of it last season like most shows would but the thing with rape is, it never leaves. And here she is, locked up with her rapist still in control of her, her still powerless. I was so impressed with her gathering her strength to call donut-rapist guard out for doing the rape things. He was shocked because it  never even crossed his mind that that is what happened. This very, very, VERY important exchange happens:

Coates: You think I raped you?

Pennsatucky: Yeah. I mean, what else do you call that?

Coates: But I love you. I told you that. And I said it when… when… I said it.

Pennsatucky: So?

Coates: So that makes it different.

Pennsatucky: But that didn’t feel any different.

This is important because so rarely does rape get to be called rape. Sure, a stranger in an alley kidnapping you, no one has a problem calling what happens then rape but when you know the person, even if you like them or have a crush on them, that's not giving the person consent, and people will hesitate to call it what it is. He never stopped to think of her before, during, or after. He said "I love you" so that makes everything he did fine. That's not true and it's not okay. Pennsatucky realizes that and refuses to call it anything but what it is. THAT IS SO IMPORTANT! After everything, she's not angry, she's sad and she's tired of feeling sad and getting upset when she sees him. She makes a choice to forgive him which is big and brave and how she made this choice is even more of a testament to her character. She had turned to the Bible again and instead of being embracing her persona as everything that's wrong with Christianity, she embraces the Sister Ingalls way and channels everything that is good of Christianity. A million high fives to all the writers, that is exactly how you write a character, a story, with change and growth, and pathos, and keep it interesting!

So this season was incredibly dark and if there hadn't been Judy King (or as I like to call her, JUDY QUEEN because she's the fucking best), there may not have even been any humor this season at all (Taystee also got less screen time than in the past, though I expect that will change next season *starts crying for the rest of eternity*). I really enjoyed her friendship with Luschek, and I think he did at first until she made him bang her. You know what I love about this show? How many other shows/movies/books/reality do you see a guy do a favor for a girl and then come to collect with a BJ or butt stuff or something? But you very rarely see it in the opposite. I mean, in a perfect world, we wouldn't live with women being sexually objectified but it's not a perfect world so all I look for is equality. Men should be equally objectified. Judy Queen is cut from the same cloth as me and I love it. I love her tabloid romance, she's game for anything as long as she benefits in some way. Isn't that the American Dream? Judy King: The Capitalist Queen. (Okay, we're not from the same cloth but I can aspire to be! Minus the racism)

Okay so there's no more putting it off. We have to talk about what happened with Poussey. You know what, I should not have been surprised by her death, I mean I graduated summa cum laude from the Joss Whedon School of Death and Heartbreak, and all the signs were there. She had Soso, Judy King was put in this same prison, she got to cook with Judy King, and she started looking towards her future. Most of all, Poussey was pretty happy this season so from a writer's stand point she obviously had to die. But there's layers to all this shit anyways. First off, they killed off a black lesbian, which minorities within the LGBT community are more likely to be targeted in a hate crime than any other group and so while it's grounded in realism, I just wonder if killing off a black lesbian in a show does more harm for relations. I just sit and think about this shit and all the roads that led to her death. It was an accident and it wasn't accidental. The dude, in his hearts of hearts, did not mean to kill her but he did. It happened, it's real, she was a person and now she's just a body. Caputo, who did his best this season toeing the line between being a company man and having a fucking soul, tried his best in the situation which he was set up to fail. He had told MCC when they first took over, that these guards need training, on how to deal with the inmates, how to subdue them, what is appropriate, etc but MCC sees that as time lost and so here we are dealing with a guard who couldn't properly subdue Suzanne or Poussey or descalate the situation and now there's a woman dead. MCC is looking for a villain in the story, that they are clearly the villain of, which says a lot about our culture. If you have money and power then you have the ability to dictate what happens and after the fallout, "what happened". Caputo is horrified that MCC is taking their sweet fucking time and is told to sit tight, while she lays there on the floor of the cafeteria. I still can't decide what part of this is worse, and since I'm writing about this moment, I'm going to say this was the worst part: Poussey laying dead for hours on the floor and nothing being done. It's disgusting, it's beyond fucked up, it's inhumane. It straight up makes me feel nauseous. No this is the most disgusting thing, MCC looking at Poussey to be the villain in her own murder. Going through her pictures, trying to find something to make her look like a thug, as if she looked like a thug she deserved to die. Caputo broke the company rules and contacted her father because NO ONE EVEN BOTHERED TO DO THAT (because she's not a person) and then gives a press conference defending his boy in blue. I feel like I've seen this before, I've been on this ride, I know this nausea. I see where Caputo wants to defend Gerber, he truly didn't mean to kill Poussey, he was a good person, but someone died because of him (similarly to Suzanne's back story this season, yet she's in prison.....) and that someone was a PERSON with A NAME! MCC and Caputo were in the position to tell this story and Poussey's side was silent. Death truly is the great unifier, as we are all the same in it, and some bridges are crossed during the huge race war going on. This shit was all so "taken from the headlines" that it stung just that much worse. So I read somewhere someone explain Black Lives Matter compared to All Lives Matter and I want to share it here because it's really great. A big group of people go out to eat and everyone besides Bob gets a plate of food. Bob says "Bob deserves food" and everyone else goes "Everyone deserves food" and goes back to eating. "Everyone deserves food" is true but it does not change the fact that Bob doesn't have any fucking food. Poussey is disregarded in her own death, she is a black lesbian woman in prison, she doesn't matter, BUT SHE DOES. She matters to Taystee, to Soso, TO ME and she should not be written out of her own story. I liked how the last episode focuses on her happy and out, I don't know if that's the past, a rewritten past, some euphoric heaven, some sort of combo. but it was perfect to see Poussey get her story, her happiness, on her terms. Everyone deserves happiness, yes, but Poussey deserves it too.

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My brother has been bothering and bothering me about finishing up this post because I promised him I would watch Game of Thrones next. Now I'm not sure if I'm going to write about each season individually or one super long post about the whole show. I really don't even want to watch it (because everyone tells me to watch it and I'm a hateful asshole.) Worst case scenario, I hate it but can mock it and troll people more accurately, best case scenario I love it. (Or maybe that's the worst case scenario... I really don't want to like it.) ANYWAYS, if I do write about the whole show instead of by season it may be awhile for another post, I know yall are dying for me to post more but you will just have to DEAL, until then hopefully this will hold you over: winter is coming, red wedding, hold the door, joffrey is a dick, lots of unnecessary boobs and no dingdongs. GoT fans are fucking assholes. Can you guys wait like 30 seconds before spoiling it for EVERYONE? I fucking hate you guys and I haven't even watched the fucking show yet. God, I really hope I hate the show, my rant will be epic.....