New warden Caputo ( Nick Sandow) finds himself in over his head while trying to accommodate twice as many prisoners, not to mention Piscatella ( Brad William Henke), his new, extremely harsh captain of the guard. The prison is overwhelmed with new inmates, space-conserving bunk beds, and new guards who were hired mostly because - as military veterans - they come cheap.Īt first, the Litchfield power struggles run in separate but parallel spheres. The fourth season picks up immediately afterward, throwing everything the show previously established out the window as it sifts through the aftermath. Who has power? Who doesn’t? Who wants it?īut the most important question, in the eyes of everyone from the prisoners to the guards and beyond, might be: Who deserves it?Īt the end of season three, a complete collapse in Litchfield’s administration resulted in the entire prison getting taken over by a for-profit corporation. Power inside the walls of a prison is an intrinsically fraught concept, so it’s never been far from Orange Is the New Black’s mind. Ruiz (Jessica Pimentel) lets Piper (Taylor Schilling) know she’s not the force she thinks she is. Orange I s the New Black deeply understands power struggles. This latest set of episodes is a powerful reminder of why this show was, and remains, so hypnotizing.Īfter so much time spent closely with these characters - whether new, old, beloved, or reviled - Orange I s the New Black’s fourth season digs deeper than the show ever has before, and proves incredibly hard to shake.
It was so brutally hard to watch sometimes that knots would form in my stomach and stay for hours - and yet I couldn’t stop. Season four of Orange Is the New Black is incredibly bleak.
#ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK SEASON 1 AND 2 RECAP SERIES#
Orange Is the New Black may have felt immediately and distinctly different from every other show on TV when it premiered, with characters and storylines other series wouldn’t dream of putting onscreen, but as its phenomenon grew, its ability to surprise faded. Maybe you’ll put an episode on, listen to the clanging chains that open the theme song, then make some toast while you wait for it to wrap up. Those 70 seconds are some of the most striking on television.īut now that we’re a few years into the series - with Netflix dropping the entire fourth season on June 17 - it’s become far too easy to forget that every episode of Orange Is the New Black starts with this emphasis on the sheer will it takes to withstand forced confinement. "The animals, the animals," Spektor bursts, "trapped, trapped, trapped, 'til the cage is full." Regina Spektor’s "You’ve Got Time" has opened every episode since the show premiered in 2013, over a stark montage of close-ups on various inmates’s worn - but defiant - eyes. Orange Is the New Black ’s theme song is a powerful and insistent earworm. Warning: This review contains spoilers for the entirety of Orange Is the New Black’s fourth season.