Lots of wrap up and lots of flashbacks but there is no one character that gets the backstory spotlight. There are instead lots of little flashback moments, like in 3.01, including one to Healy's youth and another to Watson as a teen.
Daya returns to Litchfield. She is upset because Cesar came and picked up her child. She was hoping to place it in Delia's care. She doesn't want to make up with Aleida but she does. Cesar doesn't have the child for very long. The DEA shows up to arrest him and Daya's child is placed in the custody of family services.
Poussey turns to Taystee for help with Soso. Poussey fears that Soso is dead, but she isn't. Taystee and the others get her to puke up some of the pills she took. They keep an eye on her and accept her into their group. Soso flashes back to when she was a girl practicing piano.
Cindy is intent on converting to Judaism. She gets Rabbi Teitelbaum to return to Litchfield and talks him into allowing her to convert. It seems to be all about the food but Cindy tells a very emotional story about what her life was like when she was little that sells her intention to the rabbi. Her story is backed up by a flashback.
Flaca begs Chapman to let her back into the crew. Her mother has lymphoma and she desperately needs the money to help her. Chapman reluctantly agrees to let her back in but at a reduced pay rate. Cal come to see Piper. He tells her about Neri's scheme to increase production by faking the juices with her own concoction.
Cal is also there to tell Piper that someone withdrew all the money from her bank account. Piper immediately suspects Flaca but it turns out that the culprit is Carlin. Chapman doesn't find out until after Carlin gives her a tattoo that says Trust No Bitch. Chapman stews about it and then does something. She plants contraband in Carlin's bunk. Carlin was due to be released in a couple days but instead she is sent down the hill to the higher security section of the prison.
Vince visits Morello again. He is ready to end things with her when she proposes to him. He accepts and they get married. Red is her maid of honor. They get one hour together after the wedding. They spend (at least part of) it having sex against the vending machine.
Boo and Pennsatuckey didn't go through with their plan to rape Coates. Doggett just wants to forget about it but it isn't long before Coates is trying to get her alone while she is driving the van. She fakes an epileptic seizure and messes up the van. She is promptly removed from driving duty. Ramos is appointed as the new driver
The cult of Norma implodes after Leanne claims that a piece of toast looks like Norma. It works for a little while but Poussey bursts in on one of the cult's meetings and calls them out for the way they treated Soso. Leanne tries to stay loyal to Norma but Norma doesn't want to be near her anymore.
Healy is feeling pretty good about himself. He agrees to let his wife get her own place because in a moment of sanity he sees how she feels like the prisoners at Litchfield do. He wants to believe that he and Red have something special together but she shoots that down pretty quickly.
Vause does her own things. She still doesn't want to have anything to do with Piper. She is getting tired of Whitehill's conspiracy theories. Everything seems to be kind of boring for her when a new guard, who is a hit man sent to kill her, shows up.
Danny and Joe have a sit down meeting with Danny's father. They try to talk him into releasing Burset from the SHU. Danny's father is more interested in tasting brandy. Danny loses his cool and quits. Joe gets promoted into Danny's job but he doesn't take it until after he has another bedroom chat with Fig. The guards who have been at the prison for some time are disgusted by him and walk out on the job.
Judy King shows up at Litchfield ready to begin her sentence but there is no one at the front desk because a large number of the guards have walked out.
A couple maintenance men cut a whole in the fence surrounding the field. They are getting ready to fix it when a large number of inmates rush through it. There are no guards around to stop them because a large number of them have walked out.
The episode ends with more prisoners, a lot more prisoners, arriving at Litchfield.
Bennett and Nickels do not return for the season finale. Burset is also not in this episode.
Thoughts
The arrival of more prisoners seems to be how Joe was able to get Danny's father to agree to his demands. He gets the resources only if he takes on more responsibility. That was my first thought but then I remembered a scene early in the episode where Red said something about them getting twice as much food as usual. I think Danny's father had already decided to increase the population at Litchfield, possibly after closing another prison. Most likely this is another cost savings measure.
I thought this was an excellent end to the season. It is long (90 minutes) and it felt a little overloaded but as I mentioned above it also wrapped up a lot of story bits. There are also a few things left open like the final fate of Vause. I was a bit surprised that Chapman's business didn't implode yet. Hopefully they are just saving that for the next season.
I'm interested in watching season 4 and hopefully it won't be too long before I give it a try.
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