# Orange Is the New Black Season 3 \[Open Spoilers\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 12, 2015, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-is-the-new-black-season-3-open-spoilers/722349 "2015-06-12T12:32:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2015, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-is-the-new-black-season-3-open-spoilers/722349/81 "2015-07-01T14:35:41Z")
But her story (Piper’s that is) gets waaaay more interesting. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2015, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-is-the-new-black-season-3-open-spoilers/722349/82 "2015-07-07T20:55:13Z")
An interesting article from someone who considers Season 3 to be the best season (and the more I think about it, the better the season looks): > **[Orange Is the New Black's third season is the show's best yet](https://www.vox.com/2015/7/7/8901779/orange-is-the-new-black-best-season)** > > Vox is a general interest news site for the 21st century. Its mission: to help everyone understand our complicated world, so that we can all help shape it. In text, video and audio, our reporters explain politics, policy, world affairs, technology,... The entire article is well worth the read, but here is the main point: > [@](#): > > I enjoy Orange Is the New Black most when we’re just hanging out in the cafeteria with its characters, listening to them BS about how words are pronounced, some weird species of frog, or food they miss from the outside. I could listen to Taystee and Poussey banter about nothing all day long. > > And I’m most moved not by the show’s big twists, but by the small dramas, the relentless, step-wise way the prison system corrodes the soul of everyone involved in it. The struggle to be a good mother behind bars, the transient nature of prison friendships, the way captivity makes both captive and captor less human — that’s the stuff that gets me. ---
**Author:** ![Moonchild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@Moonchild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonchild)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-is-the-new-black-season-3-open-spoilers/722349/83 "2015-07-31T20:06:00Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > I think this was the weakest season but had some good stuff. The scene at the lake was great, nice to see everyone happy and having fun for a little bit. (Snip) My thoughts as well. The season really seemed to take its sweet time to get going – I almost forgot Piper was on the show – and I got to the point of losing interest, but thought it finished up strong. I’m a sucker for a (mostly) happy ending. So, can we assume that Alex has been offed? I sure hope so. Not because I don’t like her – although I never really cared for what she brought to the show and I wouldn’t miss her – but because it would be just be too cheesy if she somehow came out of that. PLUS, it sets up a potentially excellent Season 4. It will interesting to see if Piper goes into full-on Walter White mode or does her usual waffling, the latter somehow seeming more appropriate and I dare say even better for the show. I still see Healy and Red hooking up – hopefully right at the moment he fully commits to his Rushkie mail-order wife. Still a lot of contrivances on this show, characters going in directions and changing viewpoints seemingly on a whim (see Red’s change of heart, above), but viewed as a whole, mostly a great watch. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-is-the-new-black-season-3-open-spoilers/722349/84 "2015-07-31T20:59:08Z")
> [@mr.jp](#): > > - Interaction between Pearson and Caputo. Boring. Though I did like the romance twixt Red and Healy, which is odd because I don’t like either character. [QUOTE=mr. jp] - Bennett leaving all of a sudden. Seemed to sudden and unrealistic to me, given his previous behavior. [/QUOTE] I kept assuming he’d come back. Daya’s poor baby: not that she’d have been anything but richer necessarily with Mother Pornstache, but certainly it would have been better than with Cesar even before the raid. [QUOTE=mr. jp] - Stella and Piper. Makes me lose my last sympathy for Piper. Really seems like they are running out of ideas. [/QUOTE] I don’t have any sympathy for Piper, but did like the way she screwed over Stella as revenge for stealing her money. And while I’m pretty much 100% homo, Stella almost registers on my schwingdar. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-is-the-new-black-season-3-open-spoilers/722349/85 "2015-08-10T19:31:21Z")
We have one more ep for season 3. I’ve totally lost interest in the Piper/Alex story lines. I love you, I hate you, I love you again. It’s just soap opera in a prison setting. I like the backstories for the most part, but it seems like each scene in the prison is an excuse for the main actor in that scene to chew the scenery to her/his utmost. Guess that’s what happens when a series gains traction. At least they’ve gotten away from the whole “men are all rapists, violence-prone, racists, cowards or perverts, or a combination of those” meme somewhat, although it’s still a prevalent theme. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-is-the-new-black-season-3-open-spoilers/722349/86 "2015-08-11T03:47:02Z")
I finally did go ahead and watch the rest of season 3 after getting stalled by all the shit the characters were put through in the first three eps or so. Then it got better, with subplots developing that were fun and interesting. I really liked the subplot with Crazy Eyes writing the way out there erotica that enthralled some of the other prisoners. I kind of thought it was a shout-out to the erotica writers on Amazon. I could be wrong, but given that Amazon has dinosaur pron and stuff, it seems very possible. I also liked Piper becoming a heavy-duty prison mafia bitch. I think she will thoroughly get bitten in the ass by that, but we’ll see. And I do wonder if Alex will survive. I’m thinking maybe she gets shot but not killed because some unseen prison guard puts a halt to the assassin’s plans. I don’t care much whether the character Alex lives or dies, but killing her off so quick and easy is just too easy. Then again, maybe it’s a Game of Thrones influence. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-is-the-new-black-season-3-open-spoilers/722349/87 "2015-08-11T05:34:50Z")
Other than Piper, who has a federal drug conviction, I cannot see the crimes the other’s did to put them in such a place? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-is-the-new-black-season-3-open-spoilers/722349/88 "2015-08-11T16:56:06Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Other than Piper, who has a federal drug conviction, I cannot see the crimes the other’s did to put them in such a place? Three-strike laws, maybe, although I’m not sure if that applies to federal charges. A lot of the people in federal prisons are there because of drug violations. The nun chained herself to a federal facility, but I don’t see where that warrants more than a fine and probation. Some of the stories are sketchy, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-is-the-new-black-season-3-open-spoilers/722349/89 "2015-08-11T17:02:35Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Other than Piper, who has a federal drug conviction, I cannot see the crimes the other’s did to put them in such a place? Well, from vague memory: -Sophia committed credit card fraud. That’s federal, right? -Flaca’s drug scam surely violated federal drug laws. -Pennsatucky violated the [Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Access_to_Clinic_Entrances_Act#Penalties_for_violation). -Alex, y’know, international drug ring thing. -Red was involved in mob activity, probably met some nice FBI agents citing RICO statutes. -Same for Chang. -Norma committed murder at a spectacular outdoor location which may well have been a national park. -Miss Claudette likely went down for human trafficking. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2015, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-is-the-new-black-season-3-open-spoilers/722349/90 "2015-08-15T13:31:46Z")
Ok I only recently discovered OITNB and I’m 5 episodes into S3. Love the show. Hate Piper and Alex, but mostly Piper. Could the show survive without her? I think so. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-is-the-new-black-season-3-open-spoilers/722349/91 "2015-08-26T16:25:16Z")
I finally got through all of Season 3 and I give it an B+. The last five or six episodes saved it, because its rocky start almost made me give up on it. The hate-love-lust thing between Alex and Piper got old real quickly. I like that they finally gave Cindy some depth. Up until the finale, she has consistently played the loud and comical buffoon. Her converting to Judaism was unexpectedly convincing and touching, and it represented an opportunity to for us to really see what this actress could do. I noticed that the characters were wrestling with similar issues. For instance, Caputo, Red, and Piper–while experiencing different things–share one thing in common: the desire to reign supreme at something. All three have a need to feel important and have his importance validated by others. In the end, all 3 get what they want, with mixed results. (Taystee also finds herself in an “important” role, but doesn’t know what to make of it. I can’t see her abusing her power like the others, though.) Soso and Poussey wrestle with loneliness. Gloria and Sofia struggle with their sons. Multiple characters manage crises of faith. Boo, Doggett, Lorna, and Suzanne forge new and unlikely relationships. There were lines in the last few episodes that cracked me up. Like when Poussey went off out on the Amish girl and insulted her teeth. And “black people don’t know this song.” ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2015, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-is-the-new-black-season-3-open-spoilers/722349/92 "2015-09-27T04:16:55Z")
I finally finished this season. > [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > …Also loved Boo’s defense of Doggett’s abortions. It’s been interesting to see Doggett’s trajectory. Agreed; she’s actually become one of my favorite characters. She’s just so damn funny. > [@Lakai](#): > > …I think the Amish girl and Flaca are also in prison for different crimes than what we saw in their flashbacks. The FBI wouldn’t be interested in prosecuting anyone for selling drugs unless the drugs were transported across state lines. Don’t forget that Leanne cooperated the authorities and helped them arrest all of her Amish friends, hence her shunning. She’s definitely in prison for something she did afterward. > [@ISiddiqui](#): > > I kind of enjoyed the evolving of characters. As Piper’s brother said, Piper wasn’t Walter White, but its very easy to go down that path - especially since one you start a business in prison, you can’t be seen as a weakling. I actually thought her final actions of the season were at the same time horrifying and completely bad-ass. So I’m interested to see how that moves forward. And I can see Alex backing away due to seeing what this is going to turn Piper into… What is Piper even going to do when she gets out? She’s not going to be in quite the same boat as Stella (& wouldn’t Stella be immediately deported back to Australia). Her family hasn’t disowned her (& as bad as her mother is it’s still better than prison). > [@ZipperJJ](#): > > We were to be sad when we heard the baby died, then happy when we found out it was a ruse and Dayanara would be keeping her. Then sad to find out that it was all for naught because Ceasar got raided, and the baby presumably won’t be going to Dayanara or Mary Steenburgen at all. There are several things that struck me as odd abought that. Daya had everything all set up for Mrs. Mendez to adopt the baby even after she knew the truth, but her cousin was just able to show up and that was that? :dubious: So did she not bother making any attempt to contact her to let know to pick the baby up or what? > [@Helena330](#): > > I didn’t much care for the ending. I appreciate the “washing sins away” aspect, but while I know this is TV and it will take a lot of liberties, I like a little more realism. It would never, ever happen in a real prison. > … Speaking of things that would never happen in a real prison; how does the whole prison panty factor legal? 😕 I thought it was illegal in the US to use prison labor to make goods used in interstate commerce; they can only make stuff for other government agencies. > [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Monstro: the guards had walked out, and I believe there was a shift change so the new guards had already left. If you recall, no one was manning the front desk when the Martha Stewart lady came to turn herself in, either. > > If they hadn’t walked out, there would have been guards in the yard to stop everyone. It’s going to be so much fun watching Martha Dean in prison. 🙂 I can’t see how Caputo keeps his job after the lake fiasco though. > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Well, from vague memory: > -Sophia committed credit card fraud. That’s federal, right?..-Norma committed murder at a spectacular outdoor location which may well have been a national park. > … Gloria’s in for foodstamp fraud (it’s a federally funded program). I’m not quite sure how Norma was caught though. They were alone in the middle of nowhere, and her pushing him off a cliff like that leaves exactly as much evidence as him slipping & falling off a cliff. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-is-the-new-black-season-3-open-spoilers/722349.md?page=4)