S02.E07: Comic Sans

[David T. Cole]

Piper starts a prison newsletter with the help of Healy and a few other inmates; Vee launches an entrepreneurial enterprise.

[MizStaken]

Ok I forget, why is Poussey in there? Her back story was interesting.

[Happy to be here]

So are we thinking Fig doesn't know that the prison is leaking money like a sieve...and her husband is gay?  

 

Wanda Bell  and Scott (what is his last name)  two guards in love...good for them  

 

Black Cindy story was interesting.  

 

Polly and Larry?....ok.

 

I liked the advise Nicky gave Poussey.

 

Compassionate leave...that doesn't seem too compassionate to me when there is no one to take care of you and nowhere to go.  

 

Can I get a copy of that newsletter?  

 

The bad thing about Netflix system...is that I am trucking through season 2 so damn fast.  

Edited June 7, 2014 by ChaosTheory

[spidermiss2426]

The ending to this was so emotional.

[egavasc]

So are we thinking Fig doesn't know that the prison is leaking money like a sieve...and her husband is gay?  

 

Going off what happened last season, I'm pretty sure she's the one who's embezzling from the prison.  

[faceupandsing]

That ending got to me more than anything else so far this season. Even though I had to go look up her name (Jimmy apparently) I had really grown attached to the character The outside world will certainly be harsher to her than prison without anyone to look after her or anywhere to stay, I'm almost hoping she ends up back at Litchfield, at least then I won't have to imagine her starving and wandering the cold streets at night looking for Jack. 

 

Other than that I enjoyed the episode. Black Cindy wasn't a character I was particularly interested in before this episode, and I can't say she's become a favorite but I'm appreciating getting more depth to characters that were relatively minor last season. There's only a few characters of note that haven't gotten their time in the back story spot light and I imagine most/all of them will be explored in the remainder of the season. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

It's interesting that most of the back stories have made me sympathize with the characters but Cindy's is one of the few that didn't. She was an asshole at her job and she dumped her kid on her mom and she couldn't even be a responsible mother long enough to take her kid to get ice cream. She couldn't even be bothered to delete the stuff on the iPad she stole so she didn't care if her daughter knew it was stolen.

 

As soon as they showed Larry and Polly hanging out a few episodes ago, I knew they were going to hook up. Now it's just a matter of how long before Piper and the husband find out. Ha, but I loved that Polly's prelude to it was telling Larry that he was boring.

Edited June 8, 2014 by ElectricBoogaloo

[bravelittletoaster]

Heh, at least Polly's consistent.  She was trying to sell Piper on boring being an attribute in a partner when she married Pete.  We could see Polly and Larry's hook up coming and I've been rooting for it because I assume it's mostly a "moving the pieces around the board" chess move to push Piper back towards Alex, which serves my interests well.

 

Black Cindy was fucking perfectly cast as a TSA agent.  I agree she's not particularly sympathetic, but I think we've been overdue for that frankly.  It'd be a little too pat if every single person had a backstory that seemed to exculpate them.  She still "tickles me" as Nickols would say, but I kind of like that she's not particularly rootable all the same.

 

The Jimmy story was heart breaking.  I've been wondering where that was going, and I like how they've sprinkled that out through the season so far.  It was such a sad and efficient way of depicting the many cracks through which people fall in the system.

[Chaos Theory]

Polly and Piper look for different things in a relationship. Boring is a plus for Polly. Piper has always gone after the ones that made her crazy.

[RandomX]

Black Cindy was fucking perfectly cast as a TSA agent.  I agree she's not particularly sympathetic, but I think we've been overdue for that frankly.  It'd be a little too pat if every single person had a backstory that seemed to exculpate them.  She still "tickles me" as Nickols would say, but I kind of like that she's not particularly rootable all the same.

 

Amen to this. She seems like someone who hasn't had to live with the consequences of her actions -- until now, presumably.

[heatherchandler]

It's interesting that most of the back stories have made me sympathize with the characters but Cindy's is one of the few that didn't.

I was wondering when they were going to have an unsympathetic back story. This made me hate her. What a terrible person. Her poor daughter, and mother.

[ridethemaverick]

It's evil of me but I laughed out loud when Cindy molested that fine young man during the pat down. But yeah, I generally found her back story to be frustrating in the sense that I felt no sympathy for her. I just felt for her poor mother and sisterdaughter.

[Happy to be here]

I was wondering when they were going to have an unsympathetic back story

 

 

With Black Cindy I think that is kind of the point.  She had a good life.  A good job.  Working for the TSA is a pretty good job that pays pretty well but instead of working her way up she became the worst TSA agent ever.  I think Vee was spot on when she said Cindy had given up on life and kept taking the easy path.  I am not sure if that makes her unsympathetic or if it just makes her story sad. 

Edited June 8, 2014 by ChaosTheory

[Brn2bwild]

I know we give TSA agents crap, but would they really have such low hiring standards?  I can't recall ever being exposed to someone that incompetent, thank God.

[bravelittletoaster]

With all due respect, I've never gotten the impression that their hiring standards were unusually high.

 

"Hate"'s a pretty strong black and white word.  Cindy's story may be a bit less sympathetic than the cast average, but I always go back to what Fisher told Piper in season 1, that their positions could have been reversed if she'd ever been caught in some of her mistakes.  While I won't venture to guess that applies to all of us, I think it probably applies to more of us than not.  

 

I will say when she left the kid in the car I thought something really bad was going to go down and was relieved when that didn't come to fruition.

Edited June 8, 2014 by bravelittletoaster

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I thought something really bad would happen to her sister daughter too so I was relieved when she just came home reeking of pot.

[lumibutterfly]

That ending was just heart-wrenching. 

[DangerousMinds]

It's evil of me but I laughed out loud when Cindy molested that fine young man during the pat down. But yeah, I generally found her back story to be frustrating in the sense that I felt no sympathy for her. I just felt for her poor mother and sisterdaughter.

All I could think of when she was molesting that young man was how angry and humiliated I'd feel if a man did that to me.

[lumibutterfly]

Yeah, there's a conversation to be had about how we giggle about a young man being fondled but are horrified when it's a young woman. I just don't know if this is the place. Like, I'm with you but not wanting to run afoul of the rules. David?

[millennium]

The ending to this was so emotional.

 

It was like getting sucker punched.   We were so relieved when Jimmy turned up in the bar last episode instead of dying of exposure -- only to find out in this ep there's a fair chance she'll meet that very fate on the streets.   Well played, show.

[lumibutterfly]

I think this was the first episode to make me really angry. They threw out that poor old woman because it costs too much to take care of her properly. I hope this season ends with Figueroa in disgrace.

[Skittl1321]

 

I thought something really bad would happen to her sister daughter too so I was relieved when she just came home reeking of pot.

 

I agree. When she left that girl, I was terrified.

[bravelittletoaster]

It was like getting sucker punched. We were so relieved when Jimmy turned up in the bar last episode instead of dying of exposure -- only to find out in this ep there's a fair chance she'll meet that very fate on the streets. Well played, show.

Yeah, that was a perfect sucker punch. I think some shows I watch get in some cheap ones, but that was earned and real and hurt all the more for it. It was like they knew how relieved I'd been in the last episode and then were like, "oh, you thought that story had a happy ending?" Don't be naive, Chapman.

[Mya Stone]

Yeah, there's a conversation to be had about how we giggle about a young man being fondled but are horrified when it's a young woman. I just don't know if this is the place. Like, I'm with you but not wanting to run afoul of the rules. David?

I'm not David, but I am a mod, and we do not frown upon conversations that ebb and flow and may veer off on a tangent for a bit. As related to this show, I think they showed that to ask the hard question: why is it almost comic that Black Cindy was fondling that poor man?

I don't have the answer. I didn't laugh at it, though - I thought to myself "Wow, if the roles were reversed...Black Cindy would be stoked." And that's as messed up as laughing at it.

[bravelittletoaster]

tbf, it was part of a montage that showed she was a terrible TSA agent.  

[Skittl1321]

I didn't really find it that funny- it was uncomfortable really.  But what I did find a bit weird was that the guy didn't seem bothered by it at all. That 'lets' it be a bit funny.  If he was recoiling in horror, then it wouldn't be funny at all.

[ridethemaverick]

I didn't really find it that funny- it was uncomfortable really. But what I did find a bit weird was that the guy didn't seem bothered by it at all. That 'lets' it be a bit funny. If he was recoiling in horror, then it wouldn't be funny at all.

He was definitely uncomfortable. You could see his jaw tighten at one point. But the show seemingly played it for laughs given that it was part of a funny montage of Cindy sucking at her job.

[bravelittletoaster]

The double standard exists because historically men have not lived in fear for thousands of years of being raped and molested by the half of the species that is physically weaker and has less social, financial and political power than they have.  And while some of those power differentials have been ameliorated in the very recent past, I still think this scene plays out very differently from, say, when Pornstache took a good long moment to grab Chapman's boobs while "searching" her for the screwdriver in season one.  But YMMV.

[Skittl1321]

 

He was definitely uncomfortable. You could see his jaw tighten at one point.

 

Oh, well, like I said- I didn't really find it (or the constant stealing from the shops as she drove by) funny.  But I didn't notice his discomfort.

[Pixel]

The double standard exists because historically men have not lived in fear for thousands of years of being raped and molested by the half of the species that is physically weaker and has less social, financial and political power than they have.  And while some of those power differentials have been ameliorated in the very recent past, I still think this scene plays out very differently from, say, when Pornstache took a good long moment to grab Chapman's boobs while "searching" her for the screwdriver in season one.  But YMMV.

 

I agree, and while I was amused to watch this, it was more an amused disgust at A) how incredibly bad Cindy was at her job and B)that the guy had to put up with something so obviously inappropriate. I think it had the desired effect, at least on me. It wasn't just funny - it was funny and a little disturbing.

Edited June 9, 2014 by Pixel

[Boilergal]

Sadly i thought black Cindy's story, with the exception of groping the guy, was pretty right on.  She was put in a position of perceived power (TSA) and thought she was entitled to do whatever she wanted - who was going to stop her?  When she and the other agent were going through the bags, the other agent wasn't surprised by the theft, it was more like...hey good for you.  Adding it to the bag of other collected goodies...almost like it was a perk of the job.  Cruising through the neighborhood like she owned it - all because she had a gov't job - she had a inflated perception of herself. 

 

Very glad nothing happened to her daughter - I was afraid when she left her sitting in the car. Glad she left her daughter with her mother- kids deserve better

 

eta: i know how to spell afraid

Edited June 9, 2014 by Boilergal

[junemeatcleaver]

God, I'm sick of Bennett.  I didn't mind him last season, but I hope he's bounced out on his ass by the end od the season.

[DangerousMinds]

I think this was the first episode to make me really angry. They threw out that poor old woman because it costs too much to take care of her properly. I hope this season ends with Figueroa in disgrace.

Only in America. So shameful. Hard to believe the prison did not arrange for some kind of care for Jimmy before just releasing her to the streets to die.

Edited June 9, 2014 by DangerousMinds

[millennium]

How do you sleep with your fiancee's (ex or otherwise) best friend while she's in prison and live with yourself?   What kind of selfish sociopath does something like that?   And Polly.   What a traitorous skank.

[bravelittletoaster]

I dunno but as a remorseless Vauseman shipper I was cheering it on all the way.  :)

[purplemouth]

As someone with an irrational hatred of Comic Sans, the font, the line to Daya made me laugh out loud. Though not the same as a prison newsletter, nothing irks me more than seeing comic sans used in a professional setting.

[Cranberry]

I loved the debate about "could care less" vs. "couldn't care less." I was totally on the "couldn't care less" side (and I hate it when people misuse "literally," as well. I refuse to accept this).

 

I loved both of those comics, too, despite the comic sans.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I, too, hate Comic Sans and "I could care less" so the newsletter meetings were hilarious. I loved that Flaca, whose advice column replies are, ahem, questionable to say the least, is the one nitpicking stuff like that.

The misuse of literally always reminds me of that MadTV skit where they say, "There was literally more traffic in the parking lot than in Mariah Carey's vagina."

[heckkitty]

This was a very stressful episode for me, between worrying about Cindy's sisterdaughter and worrying about Jimmy.  I could (couldn't) care less about Polly and Larry.

[millennium]

Big Comic Sans fan here.   I have reproductions of the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence and the change.org petition to have Ben Affleck removed as Batman, all reset in Comic Sans.

[SNeaker]

With all due respect, I've never gotten the impression that their hiring standards were unusually high.

 

I travel fairly often and my experiences with TSA agents have all been pleasant -- or as pleasant as they can be. The agents themselves have always been polite. I was shaking my head at Cindy molesting that dude and wondering if they even allow that. I know that as a woman, if I set off the machines and have to have a patdown, they always ask me to step aside and call over a female agent to do it. Does it not apply the other way around?

 

The "I could care less" and "literally" conversation killed me, and I'm shocked at Piper taking the stance she did. Yes, language evolves, but we can still fight against words and expressions taking on their opposite meanings when the original meanings are also still in use. And the same goes for "nonplussed," dammit!

 

I was dreading Polly/Larry. No no no.

[MMLEsq]

I loved the debate about "could care less" vs. "couldn't care less." I was totally on the "couldn't care less" side (and I hate it when people misuse "literally," as well...

It was great finding out that Flaca (is that her name?) is a stickler for grammar.  When I hear the word "literally" I always think of Chris (Rob Lowe) on Parks & Rec.

 

Comic Sans doesn't bother me that much, but I wouldn't use it in my professional life.  One of my colleagues wants everything to be in Arial; I prefer Georgia.  But one of my real pet peeves is when somebody copies and pastes language into a document and doesn't conform the font, so you end up with a mishmash of fonts.   /// okay, taking a breath, rant over.... ///

[sunfleck]

The "could[n't] care less" conversation warmed my geeky little heart. I never much cared for Flaca, but that scene redeemed her.

 

 

I'm shocked at Piper taking the stance she did.

 

My interpretation was that Piper was trying to take Morello's side, either out of tribal loyalty or (more likely) because she knew that Morello was already feeling bad and had joined the newsletter to cheer herself up. She didn't need a grammar beat-down right at that moment. I wonder if Piper would have trotted out the "language evolves" argument if the tables had been turned.

 

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Cindy's back story. For once I was rooting for someone to get caught.

[Helena Dax]

I didn't think the moment when she was molesting that poor guy was funny. In fact, her behaviour at work made me despise her. I just hate people who abuse their power.

 

I'm not that interested in the guards, tbh. 

[Knittzu]

It's evil of me but I laughed out loud when Cindy molested that fine young man during the pat down.

 

 

That scene gave me ugly flashbacks of the last time I had to fly and when the same thing happened to me. I was humiliated, and utterly powerless in that hands of a smirking asshole who dragged me off to a "private inspection" room so he could make sure that I was REALLY pregnant. 

 

I hated Cindy. Yes, I know that in the grand scheme of things her horrible behavior is small potatoes, but everything she did infuriated me. She might be from from a historically disempowered group, but once she had a little power in her hands the gloves were off. Harassment, bullying, threats, theft, it's all juuuuust fine for Cindy

[DangerousMinds]

The "could[n't] care less" conversation warmed my geeky little heart. I never much cared for Flaca, but that scene redeemed her.

 

 

My interpretation was that Piper was trying to take Morello's side, either out of tribal loyalty or (more likely) because she knew that Morello was already feeling bad and had joined the newsletter to cheer herself up. She didn't need a grammar beat-down right at that moment. I wonder if Piper would have trotted out the "language evolves" argument if the tables had been turned.

 

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Cindy's back story. For once I was rooting for someone to get caught.

So do we think she got caught for stealing the pink iPad, or something else?

 

I too floved the grammar conversation. It's "could NOT care less," dammit, and I won't accept anything else!

[Kel Varnsen]

Before the season started I watched episode 12 of season 1. When Piper and Taystee were trying to translate what Doggett wrote, they asked Black Cindy for help and they mentioned that she was raised in the church. I thought that was kind of interesting when you compare it to this episode and see how her life turned out.

[RealityGal]

I think this was the first episode to make me really angry. They threw out that poor old woman because it costs too much to take care of her properly. I hope this season ends with Figueroa in disgrace.

Its just a credit to the show that they can make a show entertaining, but still have pertinent social issues.  People getting old in jail is now a very real threat.  With long sentences for drug violations, and wanting to put away people for "life without possibility of parole" or sentences that are 2500 years long, a LOT of people are going to get old in prison.  And what do you do?  There is also a problem with inability of the system to care for mentally ill patients.

 

 

tbf, it was part of a montage that showed she was a terrible TSA agent.  

 

I guess I should feel guilty, but that montage was funny to me - except for the party with patting down the guy, I wasn't offended by it, it just wasn't funny to me.  But I do think it was a little OTT for humor/dramatic effect.  I mean if we had seen her do even a little bit of her job with competence or honesty it might not have produced the desired result I think.

 

. 

 

Very glad nothing happened to her daughter - I was afraid when she left her sitting in the car. Glad she left her daughter with her mother- kids deserve better

 

eta: i know how to spell afraid

 

I know - I had visions of that vehicle getting t-boned while she left it on the street for hours, or some pedophile kidnapping her.  What I did take away from the story was that most of what Cindy did was just bluster, and a mask.  All her humor and big talking was just a mask for something, I would be curious to know how she came to be pregnant (ie - was it the result of a rape which is why she relishes being able to control men? did a man somehow trick her when she was very young?)  Its all speculation, but I'm curious.

[Totale]

Comic Sans doesn't bother me that much, but I wouldn't use it in my professional life.  One of my colleagues wants everything to be in Arial; I prefer Georgia. 

 

What bothered me is that the subject came up at all, when at no time are any of the women shown using computers of any sort.  There are a couple in the background of the shots at the library, but the chairs are always unoccupied.  I don't see any evidence that the cartoons were rendered on a computer.  It does seem that even the most cursory attempt at prison rehabilitation in the 21st century would include some basic training, and in fact that a newsletter would be an ideal way to teach typing, selecting fonts, etc.

[joanne3482]

It does seem that even the most cursory attempt at prison rehabilitation in the 21st century would include some basic training, and in fact that a newsletter would be an ideal way to teach typing, selecting fonts, etc.

 

In season one when Piper wanted to be a teacher in the classroom she was told that the classroom was closed due to toxic mold.