Season 4 (2016)
Created by: Jenji Kohan
Starring: Taylor Schilling, Danielle Brooks, Taryn Manning, Uzo Aduba, Kate Mulgrew, Laura Prepon, Laverne Cox
Rating: TV-MA
Watch Orange is the New Black on Netflix
In Netflix's original series, Piper Chapman was convicted of an old crime and sentenced to jail. She acclimates to prison culture and finds friends and enemies alike.
In season four, the prison is for profit and the population has been doubled to maximize profits.
Verdict:
This is a solid season. It's not as humorous as previous seasons, far from it. This season is full drama with more than a few emotionally manipulative moments. It also explores dynamics between inmates and the guard, and from the first few episodes you know chaos is imminent. Will it be the guards or the inmates that snap?
Watch it.
Season 4 Review
Last season ended with the prisoners escaping en masse, Alex potentially meeting her end, and Piper having transformed to a ruthless criminal. Are more inmates and characters the way to go on a show with an already overflowing cast? The jail population is doubling, but is the cast doubling?
The new characters are restrained and the season does a good job of not throwing too many characters into episodes. The first episode is a great opener with a few good jokes and numerous seeds for future drama. The successive episodes aren't as funny, but delve into consent, racial inequality, racism, and police brutality.
Episode six is the definition of doing a lot with a little, using a pair of emotionally manipulative scenes.
Episodes eleven through thirteen are all strong, setting up and continuing to the finale. It's tough to watch at times, casting a somber mood on the entire season. It's a stark contrast to the ending of season three where the inmates escape and going swimming in a big party.
Stories and plots are integrated well, strung through the entire season with momentum increasing. This is a strong season. I wouldn't call it top tier television but it's certainly entertaining and some of the best Orange is the New Black.
Chapman was only supposed to serve fifteen months, shouldn't it be close to release? With Netflix already renewing the show through season seven earlier this year, it's either going to have to find a contrived reason to keep her or let her go. I think the show should let her go. It's easy to shuffle old characters out and new ones in. This season is proof that she's a minor character. Leaving her and her contrived drama out of episodes made the show better, and it would be a bold move in storytelling.
Season 4 Recap
Episode 1
I forgot Judy King, the Martha Stewart parody was in this. Double the inmates, double the fun now that Litchfield is a for profit prison.
Alex is on the hook for a murder, but as of yet no one knows. She killed the guy hired to kill her.
Chapman flaunts her newfound arrogance. She's a gangsta with an "a."
Frieda schools Alex on "murder math" and how to dispose of the body.
Episode 2
Chapman stumbles into looking like a kingpin in gen pop, but is dogged by her roommate. Is this setting up a situation where a group of new inmates want to take her down to prove their power?
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| TV personality and new inmate, Judy King. |
Caputo proposes housing guards on campus in dilapidated houses to save enough money to hire new guards. The houses need more than paint, and talk about pulling that out of left field. The houses would be a complicated story line so I expect they'll simply that. Is it a good idea to cheap out on guards?
And how does no one notice a CO is missing?
Episode 3
Taystee becomes Caputo's assistant.
Poussey overcomes speaking to Judy King, when Judy stereotypes her.
Alex deals with the murder and Lolly.
Episode 4
Chapman's business is in jeopardy Healy is irritated that Judy King doesn't like him. It's hard to like Healy. He's such a child, jealous over everything, but you need people you don't like.
Healy has always fallen for the people he's helping. He's almost a predator, with a position of power where he can control people and punish them if they don't conform to his wishes. He forces Judy King to start a cooking class, but gets removed as her advisor.
He's had similar tendencies with Chapman.
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| Alex and Lolly know about a dead guard. |
Alex recruits Red to stop Frieda from killing Lolly, but Red comes to the same conclusion that it needs to be done. Healy stops Lolly from going to the mental ward and counsels her.
Episode 5
Everyone has a scheme. Taystee wants to sell Judy King photos, Chapman wants to end her rival Maria's business, and Maritza is trying to find distribution for Maria.
Chapman really is the most annoying character in this. She's best as a side character. Any episode that gives her more screen time becomes a drag. Chapman tries to start a community snitch group and it ends up becoming a white supremacist group.
Episode 6
Chapman's ploy could have consequences for her own contraband business.
Sofia's still in solitary and not taking it well. It's a tough scene when Nickles has to clean a blood smeared cell she knows is Sofia's. Even though they don't know each other well, it's a powerful scene for the viewer that of course leaves us hanging.
Judy King runs a crazy game on Luscheck. It's amazing how manipulative she is, but why? Is it just a game?
There's a certain criminal element to this and despite that, there is a lot of talking in this show and not a lot of violence. Will it escalate? It seems like it should. How does no one plan to go after Chapman when she ended the Maria's business and added years? Maybe a longer sentence is deterrent enough, that and being sent to maximum security.
It would be a crazy turn to kill off Chapman. It really wouldn't hurt the show. She hasn't been a main character this season. It would be an interesting arc to her story.
Nickles returns just to manipulate emotionally at the end.
Episode 7
Nickles is back just to make us reminisce about old times.
Some of the actors in the flashbacks don't look any different. Did just a wig make that big of a difference for Lori Petty? Could it be a different actress? I'd believe that.
Could Lolly snap? Something big is poised to happen.
Is everyone Healy tries to save a stand in for Healy's mother? Is the show going that deep?
The entire show is predicated on jail is horrible for the cute white blonde girl, and this season really moves past that. I never root for Chapman. She's arrogant and self centered too a cartoonish degree, but being tied up and tortured by Maria was terrible and unsettling. The brand they marked her with was even worse.
Episode 8
The show found a way to make us feel bad for Piper, I wasn't sure that was still possible. The big question is when will we see the brand?
Gloria is getting out but her dreams are dying when Daya provides a healthy dose of reality on what it takes to succeed in the real world.
Piper's spiral downward could be a really interesting story if the show is willing to commit, but it went right back to Piper's self pity.
We've gotten a few hints that Linda might be crazy and I'd say she definitely is. Caputo needs to watch out for his new girlfriend who also works for the owners of the prison.
As if Piper's first branding wasn't bad enough, they're going to do it again to hide it. This story feels ripe to lead to her getting an infection.
Episode 9
What's the deal with the Sister Ingalls? She's trying to get punished, but why?
Judy King and Cindy are now a couple, at least to protect their story predicated by the photo they sold. The show isn't completely devoid of humor.
CO Humphrey goes full on crazy. That's been hinted at, but this is bonkers. He wants Maritza to choose between eating flies or a baby mouse because he heard her playing a game with friends. Though technically, he's been at work all night so how would he have this set up already? The mouse would be dead.
Episode 10
Gloria got out. I figured something would stop it, but she did it. Sister Ingalls plan was to find Sophia and get the word out she is in solitary. The prison is denying it.
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| Blanca's punishment. |
After getting years added for the panty business, Maria is now smuggling drugs in.
With the construction of a new cell block, the garden has to be dug up which uncovers the dead body put there back in episode one.
Episode 11
Lolly is again in the cross hairs when the guards start questioning inmates about the body in the garden.
Again, how did nobody realize a guard had been killed?
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| Everyone that knows about the dead guard, except for Lolly. |
The inmates break up the fight, not the guards.
Crazy Eyes's backstory was highly manipulative.
Red gives up Lolly, but it was the smart play. Lolly ends up in the psych ward.
Episode 12
Caputo suspends Humphrey but Piscatella undermines him. If Humphrey is suspended, Piscatella will pull the entire staff. Caputo backs down.
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| New guard captain Piscatella slowly became an overbearing villain this season. |
When Piscatella throws Red around in the dining hall, Blanca and Chapman start a protest, followed by everyone else.
Inexperience leads to Poussey's death when a guard detains her while fending off an attack. It's a heartbreaking moment, but at the same time I was expecting the inmates to start getting violent. How do you not rise up after a situation like that.
Episode 13
Piscatella's trying to spin the story, but Caputo's having none of it. Caputo references Piscatella's indiscretion at his previous job at the mens' max prison.
With this being a for profit prison, Caputo's 'do the right thing' attitude can't go over well. He's suspended Piscatella, but Humphrey is taking the lead in doctoring the story of what happened.
Humphrey convinces the other guards to let him carry a concealed handgun into the prison. There's only one place this goes.
Judy King is slated to be released.
When the owners of the prison can't paint Poussey as the villain, they denounce the guard. Caputo goes off script and defends the guard. The prison goes insane with all groups rioting.
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| What happens next season? |
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