S05.E07: Full Bush, Half Snickers

[Cranberry]

Black Cindy concocts a scheme to distract Suzanne when she spirals out of control. Taystee and Piper search for ways to honor Poussey's memory.

[Chairperson Meow]

Linda blends in with Boo.  Inmates trade for things as food runs low.  Poussey gets a memorial.

[Armchair Critic]

I may get flamed for this but I have had enough of the Poussey memorializing and am ready to move on. I am surprised nobody blames Suzanne at all for her death since she was the reason she got crushed.

[kissedbyarose]

No. I agree. I also can't believe the riot actually lasted this long. Not a fan of this season. I can't really articulate why.

[RealReality]

I like this season so far.  I wish piper hadn't shown up, maybe next season she can be released.

[Armchair Critic]

I hate the meth heads, they are trying to make them cute saying "funny" stuff but it's not working.

[Lady Calypso]

The one thing I do appreciate about this season is that the different groups are starting to mix, so we're getting to see more one-on-one scenes with the different groups. Such as Taystee/Piper, and Pennsatucky/Suzanne.

I do agree that this season is pretty weak. I get the idea that they had with having this season take place around the riot, and I understand what they wanted it to be like. Unfortunately, I'm not sure the execution has been done right. We're halfway through the season and I do feel like they're inserting filler plots because they don't really have any other ideas. It also isn't making any of the inmates look good. 

I think another part of the issue for me is that there's too much on characters I genuinely don't care about. There are too many scenes of the meth heads, and I don't particularly care for Frieda, Yoga, and their group. Also too many scenes of the Nazi group, and the Piper/Alex fighting is frustrating already, which has barely started. Also, Black Cindy does annoy me. I like everyone else now in that group, but Black Cindy is the only one who doesn't feel like a real character for me. Even though we've gotten backstory, she's only there to be the Funny Chick (except the rare time she's allowed to be serious). I don't even find her funny, either. I was entertained by Red/Blanca's storyline at first, but now I want it to end. 

I think I needed Janae to start interacting with others, because her scenes with Brooke are the first I've liked of her. Also I love the Taystee/Brooke scenes because of the tension between them. Clearly, both feel like their grief matters, but Taystee's under the wrong impression that Brooke's grief has to be less than hers, so she's been treating her horribly. I liked the memorial idea; it won't stick around for long, but it's a good idea that got Taystee to realize that she's not the only person to lose someone, and that there's someone who does care as much as her.

Caputo's going to have a hard time when he finds out his girlfriend screwed Boo. Or, well, Boo screwed his girlfriend. 

Blanca looked really weird in her new look. I didn't get used to it at any point this episode. Also, Nicky's look was weird. 

I think the ending was poorly done. I feel like they either went too subtle on the build up to the fighting, or they just didn't build up to it well. Suddenly, there's no coffee and that's what sparks the big fight.

I don't really feel bad for Lorna. She didn't expect Vinnie to take off at the first sign of him having to be stuck with her? Sure, ok. But it does suck for Gloria, to find out that her son may be gravely injured or whatever. 

[Armchair Critic]

32 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

I think another part of the issue for me is that there's too much on characters I genuinely don't care about.

The one latin chick with the bad teeth, I don't remember her from the other seasons but this season she is on all the time. I also don't care about the Nazis either.

[DoubleUTeeEff]

I gotta agree with everyone. This riot has gone on forever. I thought they weren't storming in because Judy King was there but she's left and everyone's still hanging around outside doing nothing. You'd think a private company would want to limit the damages to the prison. I like the concept of the riot being a time where we get to see the women being "free" to an extent and all the trouble making shenanigans but more than half of the season is just too damn much.

[chrissybk]

As soon as I read that the entire season was going to take place over the course of 3 days I knew it was going to be like this. I wish they would have done it differently. It feels like we have gotten nowhere and now we will have to wait a whole year for the next season, ugh. 

[Willowy]

My heart shattered with Poussey's cameo. I know Samira's busy with Handmaid's Tale and other projects, but I too hope we see more of her. She was my clear favorite and I miss her terribly.

I am SO over Suzanne. Her lunacy and outbursts are too repetitive and tiresome, and yes, it WAS her fault Poussey died. I get it, she's insane, mentally ill, and I'll admit there needs to be representation of that group in the prison environment. I'm just sick of her.

Taystee is amazing. I feel she's one of the best actors on the show.

[Negritude]

4 hours ago, Willowy said:

I am SO over Suzanne. Her lunacy and outbursts are too repetitive and tiresome, and yes, it WAS her fault Poussey died. I get it, she's insane, mentally ill, and I'll admit there needs to be representation of that group in the prison environment. I'm just sick of her.

Same here. Add to that the fact that Uzo Aduba's portrayal is so hyped up as "brilliant" that what started as a sideline character that really should've been on the same level as the meth heads, has gotten pushed to the foreground. 

[Helena Dax]

Loved what Soso did with the books. And the woman who did all those impressions? Amazing! She really sounded like Morello, Red and Nicky.

When this season started I wanted Linda to suffer, but damn, that woman is enjoying prison so much that it's hilarious. And she seems to be very smitten with Boo! I'm done with the guards being tortured, though, even if it's for Suzanne's sake. 

It was lovely to see all the inmates working together and having a great time with the coffee and everything else, but yeah, it was bound to end, sooner or later. 

[AgentRXS]

Quote

. And the woman who did all those impressions? Amazing! She really sounded like Morello, Red and Nicky.

Huh. I thought they just dubbed in the actresses voices over hers.

[tivofanatic]

It was her.  Try it at home. You can do those accents too.  Nice voice from Sankey.  I know she comes from musical theater.  Which one did the Color Purple on Broadway?

[tivofanatic]

I'm keeping a list of who's life is in peril:

Caputo and stripper guard from dehydration accelerated by diarrhea.

Diabetic guard from lack of insulin.

Suzanne's ex from face infection.  

Hump from infection or a stroke complication.

Leanne from a finger infection.

Anybody else?

[WhineandCheez]

The best thing about the whole series this season is the coffeehouse.  It was so funny when they all snapped their fingers instead of applauding, Beatnik-style. I wish the Meth heads would get axed.  They always ruin things.  My biggest complaint about this show is how few flashbacks they have anymore.  Since it's one year apart, I forgot most of who they have featured.  I thought they already did Taystee, now they go back to her and it got me connfused.

[KarateKate]

18 hours ago, WhineandCheez said:

... My biggest complaint about this show is how few flashbacks they have anymore.  Since it's one year apart, I forgot most of who they have featured.  I thought they already did Taystee, now they go back to her and it got me connfused.

They did already do a Taystee flashback (maybe season 2??), but I do like it when they came back and fill in more with flashbacks, or (especially for tertiary characters that should remain so) through conversational call backs. Like in the episode where Allison gets a flashback, but relates to conversational backstory of white supremacist chick. Or how we find out Skinhead #2 is in for hate crime poisonings. 

Some of the others have had multiple flashbacks. Janae had an arc with her as a HS (and college?) track athlete, and we got a fish this season showing her younger as a great academic student (which I don't remember being a focus on her earlier feature).

Poussey got at feature earlier in the run that was her family rejecting her sexual orientation, and I really thought that was a completely separate feature from The Last Best Day of Poussey Washington, Free Woman

With the cast having promoted so many players to features or even credit-named stars, it does feel like there is not enough time for either form of backstory exposition to really get filled in, though 

[leighroda]

I also kinda like that the flash backs this season were more related to the characters background and what makes them tick vs the other seasons that have mostly focused on the crimes that put them in jail... although I do like those also... maybe if they did both. During Frieda's flashback I kept waiting for her to kill her father or something because most of the flashbacks before were of their crimes until I think Poussay's last season.

[MakeMeLaugh]

Why bother to have Alex get a makeover when she looked EXACTLY THE SAME afterward (sorry for shouting but this made me scream at my TV). Just so stupid, this episode.

[Clanstarling]

On 6/13/2017 at 8:16 PM, tivofanatic said:

I'm keeping a list of who's life is in peril:

Caputo and stripper guard from dehydration accelerated by diarrhea.

Diabetic guard from lack of insulin.

Suzanne's ex from face infection.  

Hump from infection or a stroke complication.

Leanne from a finger infection.

Anybody else?

This list is one of the many reasons I'm having trouble with this season. You've got a doctor (or nurse) operating in a wing who is strangely go with the flow, and doesn't even seem to acknowledge there's anything strange going on.  Suzanne and her girlfriend have wandered off, and the fingerless meth head doesn't get attended to.

It's not so much that the full season is taking place during the totality of the riot and occupation for me. It's that the details don't make sense.

Little things like the food is spoiled in the guard's snack room fridge (I think) - but the milk's okay? And bigger things like actually getting fed. They have a single scene where inmates somehow expected breakfast to magically appear, and then flung all their crap over the walls. 

And now that Gloria, the only one who tried to deal with it, is hiding out, no one seems to care much.  I'm no expert, but the boxes they dropped off at the door didn't really seem to be a big enough quantity to feed all the people they were feeding - and still have enough to make that huge pile.

I don't understand the layout of anything - is Litchfield big enough to surround the outside area? Seems like that's a pretty penetrable area (as I recall, it was a pretty weak spot in their perimeter earlier on.

Though I actually enjoy the girls club downstairs, it doesn't make a lot of sense either.

I do agree there's too much focus on the women like the Nazis and meth heads for me to enjoy it. 

[Valny]

Quote

I do agree there's too much focus on the women like the Nazis and meth heads for me to enjoy it. 

I can't stand either group. The Nazis make my skin crawl and I never like the meth heads from day one.

 Is there any level headed guards working there?  They seemed to be written all as idiots.

I keep waiting for whoever to storm the place already.  I guess that's coming down the line?

[Nordly Beaumont]

1 hour ago, Clanstarling said:

Little things like the food is spoiled in the guard's snack room fridge (I think) - but the milk's okay? And bigger things like actually getting fed. They have a single scene where inmates somehow expected breakfast to magically appear, and then flung all their crap over the walls. 

Or that there's a room full of drugs and they aren't storming the castle to get to them? It's not like it it would be that hard.

And why are the guards so passive?

 

1 hour ago, Clanstarling said:

is Litchfield big enough to surround the outside area? Seems like that's a pretty penetrable area (as I recall, it was a pretty weak spot in their perimeter earlier on.

It doesn't seem surrounded to me. Seems like all the cops are sitting outside the front, doing nothing and not interested in doing anything.

[Dobian]

On 6/9/2017 at 6:26 PM, kissedbyarose said:

No. I agree. I also can't believe the riot actually lasted this long. Not a fan of this season. I can't really articulate why.

It's hard to put a finger on it.  They try to go dark comedy but it turns out more offensive than funny.  They want you to sympathize with the inmates but they have the inmates do crazy stupid things.  The show gets amnesia by throwing Caputo and the other guy into porta-potties and then leaving them there, what, two days now?  No water, baking in there like an oven during the day.  Hello?  In this episode they make it like the women are turning the prison into something good, then at the end it's back to the same old crap.  I'm not sure what the message is supposed to be.

[iMonrey]

Quote

 I thought they weren't storming in because Judy King was there but she's left and everyone's still hanging around outside doing nothing. 

That's a good point because that was the reason they gave for not just storming in a couple episodes back. Now there's no excuse. Also, I don't understand why the guards are putting up with Suzanne's shenanigans. If they're not locked up in the booth anymore why doesn't at least one of them make a run for it? Nobody's got a gun anymore. Don't know if word of that has reached them but nobody near them has a gun. I find it hard to believe they've been so easily subdued and willing to play "circle jerk" etc. with Crazy Eyes instead of just making a break for the nearest exit.

[Desperately Random]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

Also, I don't understand why the guards are putting up with Suzanne's shenanigans. If they're not locked up in the booth anymore why doesn't at least one of them make a run for it? Nobody's got a gun anymore. Don't know if word of that has reached them but nobody near them has a gun. I find it hard to believe they've been so easily subdued and willing to play "circle jerk" etc. with Crazy Eyes instead of just making a break for the nearest exit.

I'm guessing because the guards are outnumbered a hundred to one and they know it. One of them makes a run for it and he (or she) won't get very far before there are a group of angry inmates dragging them to the ground and probably kicking their ass. Lytchfield is a big place with most of the exits locked or currently guarded by inmates so it's not like they are just a quick sprint away from freedom . Now they could all try at once but this group of guards doesn't seem smart enough to coordinate something like that.  Even if they all managed to take off at once the odds are only one or two might find a way out before they were stopped.  The odds are not in their favor and I think they figure they are better off waiting until the negotiations are over and they are released.

[Guest]

Plus their wrists are zip-tied to each other in pairs, I think.  

I can see the authorities not busting in due to the hostage guards.  But it's ridiculous how they're doing nothing outside but standing around.  

I didn't understand why the women were scrounging for calories.  It's been a day or two.  Is the kitchen supposed to not have at least a week of food on hand?  

This ep did have some funny lines but the story overall is pretty stupid.  I liked "I miss Heroin Barbie."  And the makeovers were kind of funny.  

I thought Flaca's under-eye tears were tattoos in prior seasons, then this season they were like little curly-cues instead of tears, then this ep they were gone completely.  So those were supposed to be make-up all along?  

Edited June 20, 2017 by Guest

[leighroda]

5 minutes ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

Plus their wrists are zip-tied to each other in pairs, I think.  

I can see the authorities not busting in due to the hostage guards.  But it's ridiculous how they're doing nothing outside but standing around.  

I didn't understand why the women were scrounging for calories.  It's been a day or two.  Is the kitchen supposed to not have at least a week of food on hand?  

Plus commissary 

[Clanstarling]

37 minutes ago, leighroda said:

Plus commissary 

Someone was occupying the commissary, but I forget who. Maybe that was Frieda? 

[Guest]

On 6/16/2017 at 3:39 PM, Clanstarling said:

Though I actually enjoy the girls club downstairs, it doesn't make a lot of sense either.

I've been trying to figure out why a prison would have had an indoor pool, unless it's an old Holiday Inn or something?  Plus they discuss it like it's in a basement but there are clearly boarded up windows with sunlight streaming in, too.  

[ExplainItAgain]

1 hour ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

 I thought Flaca's under-eye tears were tattoos in prior seasons, then this season they were like little curly-cues instead of tears, then this ep they were gone completely.  So those were supposed to be make-up all along?  

Yeah, they are eyeliner. She told Ouija when the new inmates were transferred there on their first day. She said it was her "thing" to draw them on and then Ouija told her where she came from that meant something (I guess the "I killed someone" thing).

[iMonrey]

Quote

Someone was occupying the commissary, but I forget who. Maybe that was Frieda? 

Tiffany and Boo.

[tivofanatic]

3 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

I've been trying to figure out why a prison would have had an indoor pool, unless it's an old Holiday Inn or something?  Plus they discuss it like it's in a basement but there are clearly boarded up windows with sunlight streaming in, too.  

In real life, they are filming in a former children's psychiatric facility in Nyack, NY.  That could have happened in their fictional world too.  

[knaankos]

On 6/9/2017 at 7:10 PM, Armchair Critic said:

I may get flamed for this but I have had enough of the Poussey memorializing and am ready to move on. I am surprised nobody blames Suzanne at all for her death since she was the reason she got crushed.

She's not the first inmate to die in the show yet the others who died didn't get 5% of what Poussey has gotten. I get that Poussey was a popular character but it's extremely uneven. Plus it's pretty unrealistic for so many inmates to care about her death. She really only interacted with her group, the others wouldn't care one bit. 

 

Also I'm getting tired of Red's new constant state of franticness 

Edited June 21, 2017 by knaankos

[Goatherd]

The unreality and unanswered questions are pulling me out of the story as well. Like, what's going on in the other sections of the prison? Max? Psych Ward? Are those sections functioning normally? If not, can we get a visit from Lolly, please?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I actually like that the whole season is taking place over a few days. We are getting the riot almost in real time because not a lot of time passes in each episode. We are seeing the different stages from the exuberance at taking over and a brief period of people mostly getting along to the confusion of leadership and now the descent into chaos. I have enjoyed seeing everyone (for the most part) trying to create a better society, but I knew it wouldn't last. The violence over the coffee cart was just the first sign that things can't stay this way forever.

On 6/13/2017 at 8:09 PM, tivofanatic said:

Nice voice from Sankey.  I know she comes from musical theater.  Which one did the Color Purple on Broadway?

Danielle Brooks - she was nominated for a Tony for playing Sofia. Kimiko Glenn also has a Broadway/musical theater background. She was in the first national tour of Spring Awakening and last year she starred in the original Broadway cast of Waitress.

On 6/20/2017 at 10:56 PM, knaankos said:

She's not the first inmate to die in the show yet the others who died didn't get 5% of what Poussey has gotten. I get that Poussey was a popular character but it's extremely uneven. Plus it's pretty unrealistic for so many inmates to care about her death. She really only interacted with her group, the others wouldn't care one bit.

I think this is due to several factors. The first and foremost is that although it's been several episodes for us, in OITNB time, Poussey was killed only a few days ago so to me, this hasn't been a long drawn out mourning. It's very fresh for the inmates. Secondly, Poussey did have interaction with other prisoners because she worked in the library so even if she wasn't BFFs with everyone in the prison, her death feels more personal to a lot of people because they interacted with her, even if on a superficial level. But I think one of the biggest factors in so many people being upset about her death is that yes, other inmates have died on the show, but Poussey was the first one who was murdered by guard in front of almost the entire prison population. The prisoners know that the guards are dicks who abuse their power, but I don't think any of them ever expected to see a fellow prisoner killed right in front of their eyes.

[GreekGeek]

On 6/10/2017 at 1:13 AM, Armchair Critic said:

The one latin chick with the bad teeth, I don't remember her from the other seasons but this season she is on all the time. I also don't care about the Nazis either.

I'm having a hard time with so many characters now. I wish the show would focus on the core cast, with the occasional addition or subtraction here and there.

I know the riot has gone on for only a few days, but in dramatic terms it is too drawn out. We've already had two memorials for Poussey, two impromptu talent shows, and so many scenes of the guards and Caputo being humiliated. We get it--the tyrannized will become tyrants given the chance.  Time for something new to happen.

[tennisgurl]

I think my favorite thing about this season is that the riot has allowed the characters to mix it up outside of their standard groups. You get Nick and Alex getting makeovers from Flaca and Maritza, the Red and Blanca team, Janae and Brooke, Piper and Taystee, and Frieda and Gloria getting high together.

Other than that, this riot will just never freaking stop! And there are so many damn characters, a lot of whom are mostly played for dark laughs (especially the Nazis and the Meth heads) and I just don't care about them. This show has always had a big cast, but with such a huge sprawling cast, it means we just get glimpses of everyone, and no one is really getting much development.

I wish we knew more about the actual mental illness Suzanne has. It seems like sometimes its schizophrenia, but the symptoms seem all over the place, and they seem afraid of actually giving it a name.. It kind of seems like they just have her being generically "crazy", which allows her to just be weird and "quirky" all of the time, without any real context behind her behavior. It seems rather old fashioned for a show that prides itself on being so Woke.

Edited July 7, 2017 by tennisgurl