What a weird season premiere. I don’t mean that “Mother’s Day” is a bizarre episode – it’s no stranger than any other installment of Orange Is the New Black – I just find it strange that OITNB would start its third season with such a quiet, unassuming hour. Especially after the breathless conclusion to season two.
This might be the best way to get reacquainted with everyone, though. “Mother’s Day” is more or less a solid hour of hangout time with all the characters. There are only a few new developments: Caputo is running a “kinder, gentler” Litchfield; Alex returns to the prison (the amount of times she and Piper cross paths in America’s vast, Kafkaesque prison system is starting to beggar belief); and there’s a new counselor, Rogers, who Healy feels threatened. Plot developments are minimal, which was a great choice on the show’s part. OITNB has a hell of an ensemble, and episodes like this, where nearly everyone gets a chance to shine, are routinely among the show’s best. Don’t get me wrong, though: “Mother’s Day” is a slow burn that goes nowhere. There are no huge revelations, no dramatic fireworks, nothing to send you to Twitter or Facebook, the twenty-first century’s versions of the watercooler.
But truthfully, I didn’t mind all that much. Once you stop waiting for something to actually, well, happen, it’s easy to sit back and enjoy “Mother’s Day.” In terms of conflict, it’s one of the more relaxed episodes Orange has ever done. And the performances were top notch across the board, particularly in the supporting cast. Taryn Manning, as Pennsatucky, and Lea DeLaria, as Big Boo, have always been good at playing characters I never wanted to see, but they share my favorite scene of “Mother’s Day,” where Big Boo, in full clown regalia (“Jesus, you look like the angel of death,” Pennsatucky remarks) talks to Pennsatucky about Freakonomics and sparing society the scourge of any children. It’s a small, humane scene, and it perfectly encapsulates everything that this show should be about.
Natasha Lyonne impressed the hell out of me too. She’s perfected her wiseass delivery, and has a way of using the word “fuck” that is truly enviable. Samira Wiley, as Poussey, gets her time to shine as well. Poussey has always been the sad puppy dog of Litchfield, but Wiley finds humanity in what could be maudlin, melodramatic storytelling, and it’s her tendency to underplay her character that makes her moments land, especially the closing shot of the episode, when Poussey finds the Calvin & Hobbes comic printed on the inside of a pinata, of all places. It should be eyeroll-inducing, but instead it’s a gut punch.
It’s tough to get an idea of Orange Is the New Black‘s third season from “Mother’s Day.” It’s not like other episodes; this show is many things, but “quiet” isn’t often one of them. But episodes like this are a welcome respite from what’s usually a pretty breakneck narrative.
A Few Thoughts
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“I’m just trying to find some fuckin peace”
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I hate the intro to this show. And it’s not cause of the Regina Spektor song, which I actually don’t mind. It’s all the closeups of mouths
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That balloon floating away was a little on the nose, don’t you think?
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