S3 : Ep.7-9

October 22, 2015 by cknippy 1 Comment

In “Tongue-Tied”, “Fear and Other Smells”, “Where My Dreidel At?” we began to see a completely new side to Piper Chapman, not the weak Piper, nor the crazy Piper, but the greed driven Piper. Piper has generally been one to hate the prison life so much, often resorting to any god behavior just to make the time easier. But somehow she has come to the conclusion of starting a business over selling used panties. I was honestly surprised to see this idea and vision come out of Piper Chapman, someone who seemingly wishes just to get by in the prison. Maybe it comes from her fathers words to her of being 30 and having done nothing in her life to show for it. Is this her way of showing the world she can still do something with her life and be successful? By selling used panties? Who knows but one thing for sure is that this will not end well for Piper.

After the prison was bought by a private business there have been pretty evident changes to the way the system runs things now. Its clear that these changes are only implemented just to benefit the private business owners, they don’t care at all for the inmates but only see them as an investment opportunity. Even subjecting them to, as quoted by Piper, “slave labor” using their imprisonment as a way to manufacture Whispers panties and barely make a dent in paying the women. Very common working conditions and experiences as to those in developing countries that private businesses often abuse because of their situations. The fact that they aren’t even willing to take time to train the many new officers they recruited shows that they literally could care less about the inmates and for that matter even the officers. Letting them be subjects to their own downfall.

Along with new things in the prison interestingly a new faith has popped up, one of pure kindness and trust in the sole mute of the prison that has us all wondering more. Norma has some how been able to get a lot of inmates to believe she is this type of higher being, giving her special treatment because they believe she has “magic powers” to help their life just like God. From Norma’s past we know that she has constantly been in the background and because of her insecurities regarding her stutter she’s never been able to comfortable speak or communicate with anyone. With this new group that have put their complete faith in Norma seems like she enjoys a lot. From being constantly in the shadows for her life she is finally looked up to or almost worshiped and she didn’t even have to use her voice to do so. But like all faiths I believe there’s going to be complications to come and people will begin to doubt Norma and her “special abilities”. But for Norma’s sake I hope it doesn’t crash too hard.

Now finally my most favorite topic about the last few episodes is the new keen appreciation of Suzanne. I feel that for many Suzanne has always been a character that creates mixed feelings. However I absolutely love Suzanne though she does have Crazy-Eyes tendencies she’s an overall fun and energetic character who maintains this childlike innocence. Now granted she’s created a fantasy smut for the whole prison for the last two in a half seasons she’s always one to need an authority figure, like a parent, to watch over her and to appreciate her. She often creates interesting games or uses her imagination to enlighten the imprisoned experience. In an interview for Google Talks Uzo Aduba(Suzanne) states that her character was to be “like an innocent child that you were afraid of” and this is possibly why I believe she’s on of my most favorite characters/actresses. And I’m finally glad that in season three Suzanne is finally getting the love she deserves from the other inmates and even gaining praise over her intelligence and creativity. Its good to see a very misunderstood character finally gain that bit of acceptance and I honestly hope it never ends for our dear Suzanne.