Man, what an episode. “Mother’s Day” had its own quiet kind of charm, but “Bed Bugs and Beyond” was Orange Is the New Black firing on all cylinders. Plots were put in motion, stories were advanced, and nearly every character was checked in on. It wasn’t 100% successful, but it was damn close.
What struck me most about “Bed Bugs” was its redemptive nature. As in, this episode is going a long way towards getting me interested in stories I had long since stopped caring about. To wit: Daya and Bennett’s baby. Aleida, Daya’s mother, is visited by Mama Pornstache, aka Delia Powell, played by Mary Steenburgen. Steenburgen is so reliably great and charming that it’s no wonder she pops up on so many shows (Justified just did a great job with her in its final season). Delia drops a bombshell: she wants to adopt the baby, because of course she thinks it’s her son’s. She reasons with Aleida that not all her sons turned out like Pornstache; her two other boys are an art historian and a dentist. (Aleida: “So you raised a sadist, a dentist, and a homo.” A beat. “Two sadists and a homo.”) At first Aleida just wants money for herself and Daya, but gradually she and Daya both come around to the idea. Aleida is hard to like at best – remember, the first time we saw her she was slapping her daughter across the face – but when she drops the tough facade and actually acts like a grandmother, it goes a long way towards humanizing her.
It’s not secret that Orange Is the New Black utilizes tonal shifts pretty damn well, so after reading that paragraph above, you’d be forgiven for not believing me when I say that “Bed Bugs” is a surprisingly funny installment. Natasha Lyonne continues to be amazing, but after this she might be fighting for MVP status with Matt Peters, who plays Luschek. He and Lyonne have my favorite scenes – and lines – of “Bed Bugs,” and their chemistry is so great that I’m glad Nicky is a dyed-in-the-wool lesbian, otherwise the temptation to have them hook up might be too great for OITNB to resist. Nicky’s storylines have never shied away from darkness, so it’s a smart move on the show’s part to use her, for the time being, as a bit of comic relief.
I mentioned earlier that “Bed Bugs” made me care about certain stories I had lost interest in. As further proof, Piper is actually interesting! This is ostensibly an ensemble show, but Piper, who we first met as a free woman, is the audience surrogate and therefore the “lead.” Season three seems to be abandoning that for the most part, and it’s a good choice. Piper struggles for the entire episode with truth and lies; Red is mad at her for lying, and Alex is mad at her for telling the truth (but to be fair, Red is always mad at Piper). When Piper confesses to Alex that it was her who got Alex locked back up for parole violation, it’s the most likable Piper has been in a long time, maybe ever, even though what she’s confessing to is really shitty. Something about Taylor Schilling’s delivery seems to have changed as well; Piper seems more self-aware, as if she knows how silly and WASPy she sounds regurgitating facts about cockroaches and bed bugs. Director Constantine Makris, a veteran of Law & Order: SVU, frames Piper in sympathetic closeups, and when her dam breaks and she makes her “no more bullshit” proclamation to Red, it’s a wonderfully cathartic moment.
But I did say this episode wasn’t a total success. I’m thoroughly uninterested in Poussey’s subplot with Gloria and Norma (GloNo, sorry), and I hope we don’t see any more. And I think there was a throwaway conversation between Bell and O’Neill where they admitted responsibility for the bed bug infestation. Seems like that would have been a bigger deal. But you know what? I don’t care. You can’t win em all – but with episodes like this, Orange Is the New Black comes damn close.
A Few Thoughts
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We find out some nicknames in this episode. Taystee calls Soso “Asia girl,” while Cindy calls Pennsatucky “Forrest Gump”
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This was an immensely quotable episode. “I will potato her at a future time” was one of my favorites, as well as “I thought it was crabs!” “Me too…I miss Ian.” Also: “Someone’s grandma douches with disinfectant?”
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“I’m talking allegorically here.” “You wanna talk about Al Gore?” All hail Joel Luschek
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“The world is better in black and white. And red.”
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