Orange is the New Black season 5 episode 12 review: Piper, Alex and the ultimate commitment
Is Gloria going to get a chance to see Benny before he possibly dies? This is the big question mark right now on Orange is New Black, especially after the last episode where we saw Maria take Gloria’s plan, and enacted herself releasing all of the hostages through hole in the fence then escaping herself leaving Gloria behind. We’re getting to the end of the series now, so the riot should be wrapping up shortly since we can’t see this going into another season (also, the ladies are out of bargaining chips with no hostages, no gun and a dead CO). If Benny dies and Gloria can’t get out to see him before he passes it will just be another heartbreak and a season full of heartbreaks.
Gina’s video of Piscatella breaking Alex’s arm is all over the news, so while the inmates may have lost all their hostages, the gun, and they have a dead CO (pretty much all their bargaining chips) they do have this and the media is running with it. Not only do they have the media support they also have the support of the community who are protesting the abuse of the inmates. This seems to have worked, because the Governor is willing to give them pretty much anything they want to wrap this up.
The one problem though that they’re facing is that the prosecution of CO Bayley is a separate legal issue and for Taystee that’s not good enough. Because Taystee doesn’t know that all of the hostages are gone, (and she’s now seeing the support of the public and the media) she’s willing to push the Governor further to make sure that CO Bayley is punished. Is she going to lose this deal for everyone at the prison? It’s starting to look like it. When Maria marches the hostages up to Nita and Figueroa they assume Taystee is accepting the deal, but Maria takes all the credit. She tries to negotiate more time off her sentence for doing the right thing and Nita says that she will see what she can do. With Nita knowing that Taystee isn’t negotiating (and all the hostages are safe) she sends in a team to take the prison back with force.
Lorna has taken every single pregnancy test that exists in the prison and every single one of them has come back telling her that she’s pregnant. Now that she thinks Vinnie’s not interested in having children (which still doesn’t make any sense to us considering that he’s married her and was interested in building a life with her) she’s really scared. As mad as Nicole has been with Lorna for stringing her along, she’s assuring Lorna that they will figure out a way to do this together and we hope that this is the beginning of a real Nicole and Lorna relationship. Instead Nicole takes this as an opportunity to show Lorna exactly how much she loves her by calling Vinnie, telling him that the baby is real and that it’s not another mind game like he thought was happening (so that answers that mystery).
Throughout 5 seasons of Orange Is the New Black we have seen Piper and Alex’s relationship yo-yo back and forth from being together to messing it up. Alex has ratted on Piper for a chance at freedom and Piper acts completely selfish almost constantly including after what they just went through with Piscatella. Piper is finally done with the back and forth game and just wants to be with Alex. If you’ve been waiting for a proposal to happen (like we have been) we finally have it! Piper proposed to Alex and she excepted. We may not have Poussey as our symbol of hope anymore, but it’s nice to see Alex and Piper step into that role for us. Now we just have to see if they’re going to be able to survive the prison being taken back by force. Episode grade: A-
With only one episode of Orange Is the New Black season 5 left, how do you want to see everything end? Leave us a comment in the box below with your thoughts on what you think should happen in the season finale.