Orange is the New Black - Hope is a dangerous thing.

Orange is the New Black: 1x04 Imaginary Enemies. 

Everyone in the prison has some kind of strategy of survival, a number of small rituals that keeps them alive, but in a way, the big thing that seems to keep everyone going is the idea of getting out: the number of years left, the number of years already behind them. In the aftermath of Suzanne’s revenge against Piper’s blatant disregard of her feelings, it becomes obvious that Ms Claudette, Piper’s reluctant cell-mate, is different. She is so fiercely protective of this environment, and insists on keeping it clean and drama-free, because the thought of getting out isn’t what is keeping her alive. Without knowing what her actual sentence is, she seems to have been there forever, and has no prospect of getting out. These few square metres are her home, and she has carved out a place as comfortable as it possibly can be – she cooks, she is widely respected (a respect that is, as usual, mostly based on fear), she makes the rules. The thought of returning to the world outside hasn’t even occurred to her; she has never had visitors; she has no dreams of a life other than this one, which is why everyone interfering with her space is met with so much disapproval. 

Her position is a result of her story, which is told in the episode. She came to the US as an illegal migrant (presumably from Haiti), worked her way up in an organisation that essentially forces young women to work as domestic helps to pay off their debt for being smuggled into the country, and reacted violently when she discovered that one of the girls she was responsible for was abused by a client. There is no deeper insight into her reasoning, no politicizing of the situation – she saw the bruises, and took revenge. At the same time, the only person she had an emotional connection with in the U.S., Baptiste (presumably one of the first people she laid eyes on when she came here), is married to someone else and out of reach, so her isolation in prison from her life before is complete. It’s a stark contrast to the other story of the episode, Mercy’s release. Mercy has finally reached the point that everyone else is hoping for, but it also comes with fears about whether the bonds forged in prison are going to hold outside. Tricia, her girlfriend, as happy as she is that Mercy is getting out, and as many promises as they exchange that they will wait for each other, fears that life outside isn’t compatible with life inside, that the outside reality doesn’t correspond with the alternative one that exists in prison. Her fear goes far enough that she attempts to plant drugs to keep Mercy inside, but Ms Claudette catches her in the act and stops her, showing more empathy than expected from her tough exterior (“Love is not an excuse”). 

The idea of mental health and counting days returns in other stories as well. Piper desperately tells Nicky that she wakes up every morning with a few seconds of not knowing where is, “and then I do realize, and I can’t breathe. And I wanna cry, and throw shit, and kill myself. When does that end?”, and Nicky responds that she’ll “let her know”, warning her that the feeling isn’t going to go anytime soon. Later Alex shares her feelings with Nicky as well.

Nicky: Should we plan an escape? Where do you wanna go?
Alex: I don’t even know anymore. I used to. I had grand plans. Now I can’t even get the swirling darkness in my brain long enough to land on anything.

Everything changes for Ms Claudette when she receives a letter from Baptiste, telling her his wife has died – suddenly there is an opening for a future, a picture of something outside the walls in her mind, so she goes to Healey and asks him about her opportunities. It’s dangerous to lose the ability to picture yourself outside, but, as Ms Claudette says herself, “hope is a dangerous thing”. 

Random notes: 

Taystee: You ain’t stepping on The Goblet of Fire. Don’t be fuckin with Harry Potter. Now you can step up on Ulysses, everyone says it so genius but I call it bullshit. No one wants to go through all that rambling, ain’t nobody got time for that.

Piper is very much on the fringes of this episode, and it’s a first sign that the show does very well when it relies on other characters contributing most to the stories. 

Piper, rather than being allowed to teach, as she hoped, starts working in the electric shop of the prison, which sets off one of the bigger storylines of the season: She accidentally smuggles a screwdriver, followed by a prison-wide search for the potential murder weapon, and thus starts the travels and travails of Chekhov’s rifle, for now reduced to a makeshift dildo but soon to be of vital importance for the plot…

Piper: What are you doing?
Nicky: It’s an art piece, representing the futility of blue colour labour in the technological age. And vaginas. 

Nicky’s fascination with Alex’ and Piper’s history is a thread that runs through all the episodes, but this one is a first indicator that her feelings for Alex might actually go deeper than just a soapish obsession with someone else’s tragic love story.