Orange Is the New Black 1.09

Fucksgiving

It is Thanksgiving.

Taystee gets out but before that happens her fellow inmates throw a party for her. Vause and Chapman get caught dancing together, by Pensatucky who tells Healy about it, shows it to him. He has Chapman locked up in SHU, solitary, for lewd dancing. That's where she spends most of the episode. She goes a bit around the bend. She goes off on Healy when he comes to visit her. In the end she gets out because Larry raises a stink and starts calling all sorts of people.

Vause tries to get back at Pensatucky but that backfires. Vause gets the backstory spotlight. Her father was in a rock band. Her mother was a single mom because dad didn't stick around. She didn't have it easy growing up. She didn't meet her Dad until she was in her late teens or early twenties. That is also where and when she was introduced to the world of drug smuggling.

Dayanara tries homemade remedies to get rid of the that which is growing inside of her. It is probably a little too early to call it a baby. She gets hoodwinked and the potion she takes just makes her feel a little sick. In the end she decides she wants to carry on with the pregnancy. Her mother is very happy with her decision.

Crystal, Burset's wife, wants her blessing to pursue a relationship with a man, a pastor. She balks and at first refuses to give it. Burset talks to Ingalls, the nun, about it. Ultimately she gives her blessing.

Red finds a bag of pills in the grocery delivery. She flushes them down the toilet. They were for Mendez. She still doesn't know that Nichols is the one who told Mendez how she was getting stuff smuggled into Litchfield. Mendez returns the favor by pissing in the big pot of gravy.

The episode ends with two crucial moments. Healy calls Larry and presumably tells him about Piper's lesbian leanings. The scene ends mid conversation so it isn't clear exactly what he tells Larry but the implication is clear. Once Chapman gets out of SHU, after about 2 days, she find Vause, pulls her into the chapel. The two start making out and tearing off their clothes.

There was at least two moments that got me choked up. One of them, Taystee waving good-bye to Poussey, was understandale. The other moment was much more subtle. It was when then showed the spread at the Thanksgiving meal that Larry hosts. I don't recall what immediately preceeded it but it was definitely a scene from Litchfield.

This was a crazy good episode. There's just 4 episodes left in season one and I'm eager to see how and in which direction the various plotlines develop from here.