‘Orange Is the New Black’: What We Already Know About Season 4
Once again, we’ve all managed to survive the long year since last we spent a weekend — OK, one sleepless Friday night — bingeing a whole season of Orange Is the New Black. That’s right, Season 4 is a mere couple of days away, and though it’s Netflix policy to keep all things OITNB under wraps until that first episode of the new season officially streams, we’ve got some scoop on what to expect in the season ahead, plus a refresher on where we left the Litchfieldians at the end of Season 3.
The State of Affairs at Litchfield
Season 3: The Litchfield guards went on strike just as the inmates found an opening in the fence that separates the prison from a lake and decided to indulge in a little beach staycation. The guards’ departure also happened just before dozens of new inmates were bused into the already-full facility.
Season 4: A tough new guard, Piscatella (Brad William Henke), butts heads with the inmates right away, and the overcrowded population promises to spark much drama between the newbies and the old-school inmates who have to share their bunk areas, TV room, and other resources with them.
Related: Netflix Unveils Binge Scale With Some Surprising Results
Piper (Taylor Schilling)
Season 3: She became the queen of the used panty biz, stealing underpants from the factory that employs Litchfield inmates and paying her fellow incarcerated to wear them, after which she and her brother would sell them on the Internet. And after finding out newbie inmate (and her new girlfriend) Stella had swiped funds from her, Piper got revenge by planting a shiv and weed in Stella’s living space and arranging for her to get busted.
Season 4: Piper wasn’t just getting revenge on Stella … she also meant her plot to serve as a warning to the rest of her panty squad not to cross her. And in Season 4, Ms. Piper is, hilariously, feeling all kinds of badass about herself and her position as a leader among her peers. Suffice it to say her peers don’t exactly view her the same way.
Alex (Laura Prepon) and Lolly (Lori Petty), and Frieda (Dale Soules)
Season 3: Alex came face-to-face with Aydin, Kubra’s minion, who got a job as a guard at Litchfield so he could get access to Alex and punish her on behalf of his drug-kingpin boss.
Season 4: That confrontation plays out quickly in the new season and involves both Lolly and Frieda, who delivers one of the funniest lines of the entire season while playing a role in the, um, ruckus.
Related: Ken Tucker Reviews ‘Orange is the New Black’ Season 4
Red (Kate Mulgrew)
Season 3: She worked Healy to regain control of the prison kitchen, just as MCC replaced the regular food with prepackaged (read: cheaper) goods so gnarly the prisoners could digest it only by sprinkling it with ramen noodle flavor packets. Red also grew a small garden to get access to real food she could actually cook, and, after advising sad-sack Healy on dealing with his cold mail-order bride, she became the new object of his affection … until she rejected him, telling him their “ships passed too late in the night” for one of them to change course now.
Season 4: Red’s feeling super territorial when celeb foodie Judy King (Blair Brown) begins serving her Litchfield stint for tax evasion, especially when King helps herself to samples from Red’s garden, and spends time with Sam Healy.
Suzanne/Crazy Eyes (Uzo Aduba)
Season 3: After becoming a prison literary sensation with her Time Hump Chronicles erotica — “It’s not just sex, it’s love. It’s two people connecting … with four other people … and aliens” — Suzanne fessed up that she was actually completely inexperienced with sex, something her new admirer, inmate Kukudio (Emily Althaus), hoped to change.
Season 4: Sometimes the real thing can’t live up to the fantasy version…
Related: ‘OITNB’ Star Uzo Aduba Talks ‘The Time-Hump Chronicles,’ How Crazy Eyes Became Suzanne
Taystee (Danielle Brooks)
Season 3: Her job on the prison janitorial crew kept her busy, but not as busy as her other work: keeping her family of friends from freaking out, on a regular basis, from encouraging Crazy Eyes to continue her writing career even after prison counselor Birdie deemed The Time Hump Chronicles too smutty to encouraging the new bond between her BFF Poussey and the oft-annoying Soso, who was accepted into Taystee’s group of friends.
Season 4: As the Season 4 trailer revealed, Taystee gets a new job, when Caputo makes her his secretary (and his reason for choosing her is one of many great lines in the new season). And, yes, of course, she cleverly makes working for him work very well for her.
Pennsatucky (Taryn Manning) and Big Boo (Lea DeLaria)
Season 3: The former enemies became close pals, with Boo helping Pennsatucky deal with (and get revenge for) being raped by guard Coates, who’d seemed to be genuinely interested in a romance with Pennsatucky.
Season 4: Penn and Boo are still close, which is a good thing, because Pennsatucky is still reeling from Coates’s violent act … and worrying that he’ll do the same to someone else. That may also lead to tension in the Boo/’Tucky friendship, as Boo is sure there’s only one way to handle a creep like Coates and can’t understand why Pennsatucky doesn’t immediately, and completely, agree.
Caputo (Nick Sandow)
Season 3: Caputo failed upward, becoming the new director of human activities — the equivalent of a warden — after MCC took over Litchfield.
Season 4: Things are definitely looking up for ol’ Caputo, who’s feeling a bit emboldened by his new position, a receptive attitude to his cost-saving ideas, and a new … someone.
Related: ‘OITNB’ Season 4 Photos: Are the Ladies Headed Into War?
Lorna (Yael Stone)
Season 3: She met and married Vince Muccio and had him and some of his friends beat up her alleged former fiancé/stalking victim Christopher.
Season 4: After a wedding night consummated in the visitors center vending machine room, Lorna vows to keep her marriage hot, even if she can’t make physical contact with her new hubs.
Poussey (Samira Wiley) and Soso (Kimiko Glenn)
Season 3: Poussey, who’d been dipping pretty frequently into her stash of moonshine, and Soso bonded after a depressed and snubbed Soso tried to kill herself with pills, and Poussey got her friends to help save Soso so she didn’t end up in trouble.
Season 4: Romance? Maybe. But we can tell you for sure that one of the two gets a backstory reveal early in Season 4.
Related: Martha Stewart Says ‘Orange Is the New Black’ Is ‘Not as Good as the Real Thing’
Gloria (Selenis Leyva) and Sophia (Laverne Cox)
Season 3: When Gloria’s son Benny began to do poorly in school, she ordered him to bring his homework to the prison every week so she could spend time with him and try to keep him on the right path. She got Sophia to arrange to let Benny ride with Sophia’s son Michael to Litchfield, but Sophia called a halt to the deal when she came to see Benny as a bad influence on her son. Gloria freaked and confronted Sophia in the bathroom, which led Sophia to push her, harder than she meant to, and Gloria to fall and hit her head. Gloria’s pal Aleida sought revenge on Sophia by spreading nasty rumors about her, which led to Sophia getting beaten up and tossed in the SHU, for her own protection, MCC claimed.
Season 4: There has been no happy ending when Season 4 starts, and Gloria desperately wants to right the situation she helped set into motion. But for Sophia, crushingly, things are going to get worse before they get better.
Orange Is the New Black Season 4 premieres June 17 on Netflix.