S05.E11: Breaking the Fiberboard Ceiling

[Cranberry]

Red and the others weigh their options. Gloria wrestles with her conscience as she moves forward with a plan. Lorna takes over the pharmacy.

[Armchair Critic]

Way too much Suzanne. ugh

[Lady Calypso]

Too much still of characters I don't care about. I don't even remember Ouija or her friend from last season, but there's been way too much of them this season. 

Good for Taystee to actually be doing something and keeping in mind of the bigger picture. 

I'm really feeling for Gloria right now. The phone call she made to her son was pretty heartbreaking. They've been doing well with her, and I liked her conversation with Maria. Oh, speaking of Maria, we get an update with Yadriel and Pepa. I love his dedication to her, even though he's not visiting Maria anymore.

It sucks for Boo to find out about Linda, but it was going to happen sooner or later.

[Willowy]

Gloria's really blowing me away this season. She does inner conflict so well, and her emotions are raw and relateable.

Ugh, Suzanne.

[NoWhammies]

This is the first episode that actually hooked me and pulled me in. Yeah - Suzanne's crazy can be difficult to watch, but Uzo Aduba knocks it out of the park. She's a fantastic actress. And there wasn't much of the meth heads in this one, so that was a good thing, as well. Overall, I've been pretty meh on the season until this episode. Hoping they get it together for next year.

[Helena Dax]

Wow, Piscatella's a monster. I'm glad there's clear evidence against him: I wanted revenge, but sending him to prison as an inmate is fair enough. Also, was the torture porn really necessary? I can get why he hated Red so much -some of the things he says makes me think he's got serious mommy issues-, but it was so over the top. I don't know, he doesn't feel real like Pornstache or Vee or even Humps do. The fact that he had superpowers à la Jason Voorhees for a while doesn't help either. 

Yadriel is supercute.

I know Cindy has good intentions, but I'm not sure lithium is going to help Suzanne. What a mess. 

[snowwhyte]

I was hoping Suzanne would recognize that they weren't the pills she usually takes and refuse to take them. Black Cindy is selfish but she's not unintelligent. She should know better than to give someone pills randomly and guess at the dosage. The other girls should have tried harder to stop her.

[cryptaknight]

Ouija et al were part of the Dominican group that came in last season when MCC decided that adding more inmates to an already overcrowded prison was a great idea. 

I liked that in this episode instead of a flashback, we got a little glimpse of the people these women have on the outside. 

I wonder how Lorna will react to the negative pregnancy test. I'm irritated with her "pills are bad" speechifying. Some of those women are severely mentally ill, and need the medication to prevent them from harming themselves or others. We're already seeing how bad Suzanne can get.

They need to put the dead guard back in the medical wing. Does anyone know where the doctor went? He wasn't with the meth heads anymore. Maureen seriously needs medical attention, or they'll have another death on their hands.

[kieyra]

10 hours ago, cryptaknight said:

Ouija et al were part of the Dominican group that came in last season when MCC decided that adding more inmates to an already overcrowded prison was a great idea. 

I liked that in this episode instead of a flashback, we got a little glimpse of the people these women have on the outside. 

I wonder how Lorna will react to the negative pregnancy test. I'm irritated with her "pills are bad" speechifying. Some of those women are severely mentally ill, and need the medication to prevent them from harming themselves or others. We're already seeing how bad Suzanne can get.

They need to put the dead guard back in the medical wing. Does anyone know where the doctor went? He wasn't with the meth heads anymore. Maureen seriously needs medical attention, or they'll have another death on their hands.

I had to look it up because I haven't had cause to use them myself many times, but I'm pretty sure those double lines meant positive (pregnant). She did sleep with Vinnie after their wedding. I think some sticks show a double line for positive, some show a plus sign, depends on brand. 

Example:

 

That said, once I figured this out, I was retroactively confused about Vinnie running away from Lorna after the pregnancy announcement. I didn't know/forgot they had sex, so I thought she couldn't be pregnant and he knew it, and therefore he was running from her obvious insanity.

But since he did have sex with her and presumably knows how procreation works, the pregnancy announcement shouldn't have been such a huge shock that he literally drove his car over grass in his scramble to get away. And he seemed devoted to her prior to that. So his reaction makes no f'n sense.

[cryptaknight]

Hrm. It depends what brand she used. The one I used when I was pregnant with my son had the straight line as a negative, and it turned into a plus when it was positive. There were two windows, one with the straight line as the control. The second window had the result. A second straight line, not pregnant; if it became a plus sign, pregnant. I'm trying to remember what Lorna's looked like now.

[kieyra]

10 hours ago, cryptaknight said:

Hrm. It depends what brand she used. The one I used when I was pregnant with my son had the straight line as a negative, and it turned into a plus when it was positive. There were two windows, one with the straight line as the control. The second window had the result. A second straight line, not pregnant; if it became a plus sign, pregnant. I'm trying to remember what Lorna's looked like now.

It had two straight vertical lines.

Spoiler for future episodes:

Spoiler

She is indeed pregnant.

(I'm really not sure if this is a spoiler. I couldn't find an example of a pregnancy test where two lines did not equal pregnancy. On the other hand, I did have to look it up because I wasn't sure. So maybe they intentionally chose one that is ambiguous to at least some viewers so you don't know for sure until it's confirmed in a later episode?)

Edited June 15, 2017 by kieyra

[possibilities]

On 6/10/2017 at 1:50 PM, Lady Calypso said:

It sucks for Boo to find out about Linda, but it was going to happen sooner or later.

When I saw the phone, I wondered why Linda didn't call out and tell someone she was trapped inside. I guess she has no friends or allies who would notice she's missing? I wonder what percentage of her change of heart about the horrible conditions and the human rights of the inmates will turn out to be sincere vs just an act she was putting on to get by.

[MakeMeLaugh]

8 hours ago, possibilities said:

When I saw the phone, I wondered why Linda didn't call out and tell someone she was trapped inside. I guess she has no friends or allies who would notice she's missing? I wonder what percentage of her change of heart about the horrible conditions and the human rights of the inmates will turn out to be sincere vs just an act she was putting on to get by.

Yes, wouldn't she call her boss--she was there on business, right?

[possibilities]

I guess she made the decision to hang out with the prisoners rather than be confined in the bubble with the guards. Calling would not have really changed that, but it actually might have given her some other kind of leverage, like she could have reported to outsiders on what was happening.

I guess if they knew she was in there but not being held, she could have "surrendered" the way Sophia did, though. So she actually chose to stay.

I realize they chose this route for storytelling purposes, but I'm still curious if they will write her as being truly changed by the experience, or if they will have her revert back to her previous attitude of dehumanizing prisoners.

[Clanstarling]

On 6/12/2017 at 9:28 AM, NoWhammies said:

This is the first episode that actually hooked me and pulled me in. Yeah - Suzanne's crazy can be difficult to watch, but Uzo Aduba knocks it out of the park. She's a fantastic actress. And there wasn't much of the meth heads in this one, so that was a good thing, as well. Overall, I've been pretty meh on the season until this episode. Hoping they get it together for next year.

She broke my heart when she asked if the medicine would make her good. For all her crazy, just like Lori Petty's character, I can't help but feel sorry for her. She wants so hard to be good and not crazy. It is beyond her capabilities to react normally, especially without meds. Cindy singing to her choked me up just a little bit.

On 6/13/2017 at 9:41 PM, cryptaknight said:

I liked that in this episode instead of a flashback, we got a little glimpse of the people these women have on the outside. 

I wonder how Lorna will react to the negative pregnancy test. I'm irritated with her "pills are bad" speechifying. Some of those women are severely mentally ill, and need the medication to prevent them from harming themselves or others. We're already seeing how bad Suzanne can get.

I liked that too. I guess it was Ouija's son who saw her yelling at the guards? Actually, it might be pretty riveting to have more family members react to what's happening.

Lorna's speech, it seemed to me, was more about herself than Suzanne. She knows she's mentally ill too, but is in denial. She's just more functional, overall, than Suzanne.

Gloria knocked it out of the park. I teared up for her as well.

[Queena]

On 6/14/2017 at 10:09 PM, cryptaknight said:

Hrm. It depends what brand she used. The one I used when I was pregnant with my son had the straight line as a negative, and it turned into a plus when it was positive. There were two windows, one with the straight line as the control. The second window had the result. A second straight line, not pregnant; if it became a plus sign, pregnant. I'm trying to remember what Lorna's looked like now.

I think that those are the $1 test. Effective, but cheap. 

 

I never got a positive pregnancy test, even at 2 months using those test. 

[WatchrTina]

The very last scene of this ep -- with Gloria on the grass in front of the cut fence being held back by that other woman -- was the image they showed when I started streaming this episode.  Which effectively spoiled Gloria's whole story line.  Great.

I also hate, hate, HATE that no one is guarding boogyman Piscatelli in the swimming pool.  I don't care that he is drugged and tied up.  You keep an eye on the bad guy.  Then again, making good choices isn't really what this group is known for.

[knaankos]

Really stupid of Gloria to tell Maria her plan. She's looking out for herself and planning to trick everyone, so what does she expect Maria to do?

 

things are getting good right now. The season is heading toward an exciting conclusion.

Except one thing. Suzanne. I really worry that the writers will insist upon putting her front and center of some kind of climax. With everything else happening this season I feel like this would've been a good season to put Suzanne on the sidelines (they've done this with other characters before in other seasons) but it seems like they are going to insist upon having her hog the spotlight again. Hope I'm wrong but I doubt it. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 6/24/2017 at 0:27 PM, WatchrTina said:

The very last scene of this ep -- with Gloria on the grass in front of the cut fence being held back by that other woman -- was the image they showed when I started streaming this episode.  Which effectively spoiled Gloria's whole story line.  Great.

I also hate, hate, HATE that no one is guarding boogyman Piscatelli in the swimming pool.  I don't care that he is drugged and tied up.  You keep an eye on the bad guy.  Then again, making good choices isn't really what this group is known for.

Yes to all of this! Why does Netflix want to spoil a major plot point before I've even clicked on the episode?

Doesn't anyone who has ever watched a movie know never to leave the hostage alone? Sheesh!

Ha, I loved Cindy's smartass sister catching their mom in a lie. "Oh, really? She got transferred?"

ETA: And we got some timeline info in this episode - it's been two days since the riot started and Fig has been there for twelve hours.

Edited July 5, 2017 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Misstify]

On 6/13/2017 at 2:54 AM, snowwhyte said:

I was hoping Suzanne would recognize that they weren't the pills she usually takes and refuse to take them. Black Cindy is selfish but she's not unintelligent. She should know better than to give someone pills randomly and guess at the dosage. The other girls should have tried harder to stop her.

Yes.  Now they are doing just what Lorna said of all mental health treatment--they are giving her something because her behavior is inconvenient.  Cindy thinks the pills might make her go to sleep for a while, and has no idea if they will help or harm her.  It's awful.  Of course, they would be giving her proper treatment if Lorna had allowed access to Suzanne's medicine, so Lorna also helped to make her accusation a reality.

[Paloma]

On 6/18/2017 at 1:43 AM, possibilities said:

On 6/10/2017 at 1:50 PM, Lady Calypso said:

It sucks for Boo to find out about Linda, but it was going to happen sooner or later.

When I saw the phone, I wondered why Linda didn't call out and tell someone she was trapped inside. I guess she has no friends or allies who would notice she's missing? I wonder what percentage of her change of heart about the horrible conditions and the human rights of the inmates will turn out to be sincere vs just an act she was putting on to get by.

They seem to be portraying Linda as actually being attracted to Boo and not just using her for protection, but I have a hard time believing that the Linda we've seen both with Caputo and in sorority house flashbacks would be (a) suddenly finding her inner bisexual or lesbian and (b) attracted to someone who looks and acts like Boo. If Linda actually was bi (or could be potentially), I could see her hooking up with someone like Alex or Piper (i.e., someone pretty who would not seem out of place in Linda's sorority), but not with Boo.  Just another of many plot elements this season that seem more unrealistic than usual.

Also, do we know who cut the hole in the fence and how the guards got out of the porta-potties so they could escape?

Edited July 15, 2017 by Paloma
omitting "not" changed the meaning

[Hanahope]

On 7/15/2017 at 1:52 PM, Paloma said:

If Linda actually was bi (or could be potentially), I could see her hooking up with someone like Alex or Piper (i.e., someone pretty who would not seem out of place in Linda's sorority), but not with Boo.  Just another of many plot elements this season that seem more unrealistic than usual.

Also, do we know who cut the hole in the fence and how the guards got out of the porta-potties so they could escape?

At first, Linda appeared to be hanging with Boo as a way to 'blend in'.  Later, when another girl threatened her with a small knife, Boo defended her with a big knife.  That seems to have really attracted Linda to Boo, having someone come to her defense.  It is possible that Linda never had a man defend her like that.

I believe we are to presume that Maria cut the hole in the fence and let the guards out, as that was the plan that Gloria told her.

Even assuming Piscatella stays subdued and eventually gets put away, I'm sure Freida is going to lose her secret bunker.

On 6/14/2017 at 11:07 AM, kieyra said:

But since he did have sex with her and presumably knows how procreation works, the pregnancy announcement shouldn't have been such a huge shock that he literally drove his car over grass in his scramble to get away. And he seemed devoted to her prior to that. So his reaction makes no f'n sense.

I think he bailed because if she is pregnant, he'll be on the hook to take care of the baby after she gives birth (presuming Lorna is still in prison).  He probably didn't mind being married to a prisoner, because he was still free to do whatever he wanted while she was in prison.  But having to suddenly care for a baby is a complication he didn't plan on.  He should've used a condum.  He'll probably try to disappear like Daya's baby daddy did.