Orange is the New Black: Season 2/ Episode 6 “You Also Have a Pizza” – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

Overview

With the focus being on Valentine’s Day and Poussey, we witness love and its complications.

Review (with Spoilers)

With many prisoners leaving lovers behind, it makes Valentine’s day a bit of an awful holiday. But while the prisoners surely hate the day, so do the staff as well. They feel just as much prisoners in their lives as those incarcerated, but what can everyone do but continue to survive with the help of friends?

Topic 1: Complicated Friendships –Poussey, Pennsatucky

Despite what I thought last episode, it seems Vee in fact is trying to, and perhaps succeeds, in driving a wedge between Poussey and Taystee. This isolation is almost like a trigger for Poussey and leads to us being introduced to her backstory when she was in love with this German white girl while her father was stationed in Germany. Poussey was deeply in love with the girl, but being that the girl’s father didn’t approve of the relationship, he seems to find a way to get Poussey’s dad re-stationed to keep the two apart. Then, to add insult to injury, the German girl’s dad dares says to Poussey that there are programs made to fix Poussey homosexual inclinations, and this damn near leads to Poussey taking out a gun and shooting a commanding officer on an army base. Luckily though, her dad stops her before she does something that stupid.

As for Pennsatucky, with her ego becoming more annoying than usual and Leanne gaining confidence, Leanne finds a way to usurp Pennsatucky as leader of their little group. Thus leaving Pennsatucky without a faction, and oddly enough relying on Healy for some type of support. Something which helps Healy recover from Brook saying the ladies of the prison don’t like him. Not to his face mind you.

Topic 2: Complicated Alliances – Healy and Piper; Red & Vee

Pennsatucky isn’t the only one who finds Healy useful however, Piper still has use for Healy. You see, Piper is in the process of trying to help Larry steal Andrew’s article, so she has been asking around why there isn’t a gym, when were things last fixed/ upgraded, and etc. Thing is, the people she asks don’t keep their mouth shut and eventually Healy wants to know why is she asking so many questions? Piper’s excuse? Well, she wants to start a newsletter to make the prison feel more like a community, something Healy buys, sort of, but only because he wants to matter to someone, especially with Katja not speaking to him.

As for Red and Vee, with Vee finally having a supply line established, as does Red, they recognize they are perhaps competition, or maybe both simply suppliers. Either way, there is the chance for a war to come between them, and considering Vee already has a messed up relationship with the Spanish girls, the last thing she needs is another faction against her. But, for now, it seems her main focus is keeping Suzanne a good lackey and keeping Taystee under her wing and not gallivanting off with Poussey.

Topic 3: Complicated Love – Daya and Bennett; Caputo and Fischer; Poussey

But while most people are dealing with quite a bit of drama in the episode, some are actually experiencing love. For while Nicky and Big Boo maybe competing for sexual partners, Daya and Bennett try to show the traditional kind of love by being sweet to one another, as well as getting a little love making on the side. But things get a little bit tainted as porn-stache sends a V-day card, reminding them of their cover’s one issue. Though considering how all the Spanish girls are making Bennett into a mule, and are having him bring things in from the outside, perhaps the two have more important things to worry about than porn-stache.

But Bennett may not be the only one in a full-fledged relationship on the show, outside of Wanda and O’Neill, Caputo seems to want to maybe date Fischer. Thing is, while Fischer may admire Caputo, she seems to have something going with Luschek (Matt Peters). Which becomes apparent to Caputo when she brings Luschek to the set Caputo invited her to and they seem more focused on each other than him.

However, it doesn’t compare to what is happening between Poussey and Taystee. With Poussey really having 0 love for Vee, especially when she gets Taystee reassigned from the library, Poussey lets it be known that they have beef. In fact, she threatens Vee’s life if she dare gets Taystee in trouble, but recognizing she isn’t likely to win this fight with Vee, and with Vee’s words noting that Taystee will never love her like she wants her to, Poussey seems ready to move on to her favorite flavor: vanilla. She even ignores, and is kind of snippy, with Taystee too. Making it seem their friendship may not be what it used to be. Something which saddens me deeply.