So close, guys. “Pissters!” was so close to being the turning-point moment in Orange Is the New Black‘s weirdly low-energy riot (for a season that has so far taken place over the course of a few hours, there’s very little sense of urgency). Unfortunately, the show decided to prove me right; last episode I complained that OITNB will give a flashback to anyone, and while I was wrong about Frieda, I was decidedly right here.
Don’t get me wrong: I like Linda Ferguson. Beth Dover is such an engaging performer that it makes it easy to overlook Linda’s flaws, inconsistencies, or puzzling actions, like in “Pissters!” when she seems staunchly opposed to spending even one minute worried for her safety in the middle of a prison riot. But does Linda deserve an entire flashback episode? Definitely not. Characters like Linda work best on the periphery of the show; there’s a reason we never got flashbacks for Fig, Pornstache, or Larry, although if they were still on the show we absolutely would. And whoever decided that giving Dover the Rachel haircut would make her pass for 20 was very wrong; too often in her flashback she looks like she’s playing dress-up.
And it’s not as if the flashback tells us anything we don’t know. We know Linda was in a sorority because for three episodes now, she hasn’t shut up about it. And we know she’s done bad shit in her life, because, well, she’s getting a flashback, and those are almost always used to show the bad shit someone has done in her life. Linda’s transgression was leaving her sorority president Meggan (a very cartoonish Stephanie Leone) outside in the snow, where the girl fell asleep drunk and froze to death. There’s so much to question about this development, though; for instance, Meggan had only shown outright disdain for Linda, so when did she decide that they’re the titular “pissters.” It’s mentioned that Meggan was Linda’s big sister (in the sorority sense, not the familial), but she never came across as that either. Meggan was a shitty person who died in a way she didn’t deserve, and Linda is an equally shitty person who decided to capitalize on Meggan’s death to take over the sorority. Unless this foreshadows her doing something similiar at Litchfield – in her guise as Amelia von Barlow, the “Counterfeit Cunt of Connecticut” (her words) – it seems like an unnecessary way to pad the running time of the episode.
If only “Pissters!” hadn’t devoted so much time to Linda’s backstory, it would be solid across the board. Orange is doing a good job of showing how quickly things are deteriorating at the prison, and how the inmates come together to unify and pull their riot out of a tailspin. Tensions are considerably cooled when Alison announces that everyone should write down their suggestions for demands to make, although Taystee is dismayed that Bayley’s arrest is only number nine on a ten-item list. You and me both, Taystee; sometimes she reflects the viewer’s fatigue with the unfocused nature of the riot, and how little anyone seems to care about Poussey or Bayley. Danielle Brooks is terrific this season, in her weariness and frustration, and works well as an audience surrogate. Watson and Cindy have a nice moment of clarity as well, when they both admit that they know the takeover is destined to be short-lived; the inmates’ demands for amnesty will likely fall on deaf ears.
“Pissters!” like “F***, Marry, Frieda,” is a nicely character-focused episode; the flip side of a cast this big, though, is that not all characters are created equal. Taylor and Rice, for instance, are given nothing to do, and are quickly outliving their usefulness. They decide to dress up as COs and go around pulling peoples’ pants down; there’s a nice, fleeting moment after they first pants each other when they regard each others’ bodies, and you wonder if the erotic subtext between them is going to become text, but ultimately “Pissters!” uses them as unnecessary and ineffective comic relief. Orange Is the New Black is a pretty funny show in its own right; it doesn’t need designated comic relief.
Far more effective is Suzanne’s entry into the cafeteria, where she orders people away from the spot where Poussey died. Suzanne has become one of the show’s most sympathetic characters – her second-season arc as a villain notwithstanding – and the show has done itself a huge favor by no longer playing her for laughs. She doesn’t always know what to do or how to react, but when she decides on a course of action she commits to it, and that’s why it’s so touching to watch her set up a perimeter of trays and mugs, so no one can trample on what she calls “sacred ground.” She, Soso, and Kukudio set up a vigil, and Gloria, in a moving show of respect, doesn’t breach the trays in order to hand the women their dinner.
I’d previously expressed concern about Nichols and her constant sexual overtures towards Morello. Orange addresses that nicely here; Morello overhears Nichols talking to Soso about how in love with Morello she is, and what makes it so sweet is that Nichols knows Morello can hear her. This is her go-for-broke moment, and it seems to have worked. It helps that Nichols, known for using other inmates for sex, genuinely cares about Morello, and she knows this. Yael Stone, and her magnificently expressive eyes, does some great facial acting in “Pissters!” especially at the end, when she tosses and turns in her bed, twisting her wedding ring as if she’s considering taking it off.
There are some issues with the way Orange Is the New Black is presenting the changing of its guards, because in the back of our minds, do we really expect things to change that radically? Do we expect new guards, or even Hot Cheetos and Takis in the commissary? This is a show that excels at shaking things up, but everything outside of Taystee’s crusade seems destined to return to normal.
A Few Thoughts
- Luschek was great in his one scene, trying to come up with an escape plan through his knowledge of prison-themed porn, and exclaiming, “Leonardo DiCaprio is a character actor, he’s not a leading man!”
- That food fight was pretty inevitable, as was Flaca and Maritza starting it. I can see why Taystee is getting so frustrated.
- Daya will not stop telling people that she doesn’t have the gun. This is what I call Spider-Man 2 syndrome, when you tell your biggest secret to anyone with ears. I haven’t seen a case of it this bad since Sons of Anarchy.
3.5/5
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