Orange Is the New Black 1.10

Bora Bora Bora

What an intense episode. Things are starting to come to a head.

Vause enlists the aid of a few other inmates to pull a long con on Pensatucky. They convince her that her so-called faith healing abilities are real. By the end of the episode she believes so strongly in her gift that she tries to make a wheelchair-bound visitor to the prison walk. She doesn't get thanked but she does get pepper-sprayed for assaulting the visitor. I had hard time figuring out how this was going to play out in the end. I was pleasantly surprised with the direction it took.

Chapman talks to her brother about Larry who hasn't called or visited since Thanksgiving when she was locked up in SHU. There is a brief backstory spotlight on Larry and Piper that shows how they met. Everyone seems to know that Chapman and Vause are an item now. She tries to deny it but she likes it. In a way her story kind of takes a back seat to or at least shares the spotlight with some of the other stories running through this episode.

Bennett gets a visit at home from Cesar who tells him that Dayanara is pregnant. It was tense for a moment there where it looked like Cesar was there to do more than talk and that Bennett was about to reach for a gun. Bennett confronts Dayanara about being pregnant. Aleida joins the conversation. The big upshot of this conversation is that Bennett didn't lose his leg in combat but after he got out of the military. Dayanara still plans to keep the baby even though Bennett could go to prison if it is discovered that he's the father.

The other backstory spotlight is on Miller. In the present she's back from detox. In the past she is shown living on the streets, doing what she has to do to get by, stealing from a store and getting caught red handed doing so. She didn't have it easy then and she doesn't now. In the present, Mendez tries to get her start using again. She refuses and he insists that she distribute drugs for him. She starts to and then has a moment of clarity and does something drastic. Before she does it she says something about setting the record straight or words to that effect. When I head her say that I had a bad feeling about how this episode would end.

Miss Claudette gets a visit from her old friend who was last seen in flashback in 1.04 and she hasn't seen in over 10 years.

Some teenagers in the Scared Straight program are brought to the prison for a visit. A group of prisoners do their best to mess with the girls. One of the teens, who is in a wheelchair, seems tougher than the rest. Poussey tries to scare her but she is a little too respectful of the wheelchair. Chapman has a little more success with scaring the girl in the wheelchair.

In the aftermath of Miller's actions, Nichols goes to Red and tells her that she was the one who told Mendez about Neptune. That's where the episode ends, with Red vowing that they will get back at Mendez for what he did to Miller.

Intense, beyond belief. This is an excellent episode which set things up nicely and has me hungry for more. I really want to see what's going to happen with Red and Nichols and Mendez.