Orange Is the New Black: Mother's Day
June 12, 2015 12:34 PM - Season 3, Episode 1 - Subscribe

Caputo's kinder, gentler new regime includes organizing a Mother's Day fair for the inmates that brings up a LOT of mixed feelings about family.
posted by schnee (13 comments total)
 
This episode really drove home to me how unlikely it is that Suzanne will ever receive the kind of mental health support/counseling she needs to get out of the system, and I always enjoy seeing Sophia interact with her son. Whatever it is that I think they're going to talk about or how she'll respond to his questions usually ends up being wrong, and I really appreciate the show's unpredictable moments.

Poussey's facial expressions while she was watching others spend time with their moms really broke my heart. I hope she can find some happiness and a way to harness her intelligence for something other than basic prison survival skills.

Looks like Bennett is never going to be anything but The Man to Daya's family, and the sooner he realizes that and backs off, the better.

Between Aleida losing her youngest daughter, Caputo's mom butting into Daya's pregnancy and Boo's Freakonomics abortion parable with Pennsatucky, this episode could've been subtitled "why America's prison industrial complex is a self-perpetuating sick system."

Still, this premiere felt a bit boring after the fireworks they launched at the end of last season. Did we get any plot traction here, at all? Felt more like a "duck duck goose" game of checking in with the characters, and that's it.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 2:36 PM on June 12, 2015 [2 favorites]


The Cedric Diggory line was the most forced Harry Potter reference in the history of forced Harry Potter references.
posted by phunniemee at 6:35 PM on June 12, 2015 [9 favorites]


I thought it was a good episode. It's prison, it can't all be fireworks. I like the mundane side of things just as well, the flashbacks, the little conversations, the horrible moments, the sweet moments like at the end with Poussey.
posted by bleep at 11:34 AM on June 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


OH! Just realized you can watch it dubbed into French, Spanish and German! I am so excited, this is my favorite thing.
posted by bleep at 11:36 AM on June 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


I thought this episode was great - fantastic acting and a very moving story. But incredibly sad. The focus on the other characters rather than Piper is a plus, in my opinion - in a way I feel like the themes of the show are better expressed through their storylines and she is kind of an outlier because she comes from so much privilege.
posted by mai at 2:05 PM on June 13, 2015


Yeah, the banality of prison even when it's something once-in-a-year like a Mother's Day visitation day.

Loved Boo's cheering Pensatucky up, but I get the feeling that Boo has very little respect for her and did it to mess with her rather than to genuinely help 'tucky.

Pornstach's mom (Mrs. Mendez) getting involved is interesting. Bennett's situation is sad.

Don't really get why Piper is still all lovey-dovey with Alex other than being a "only person on earth" "connection to the past" thing?
posted by porpoise at 5:02 PM on June 13, 2015


Because she's there and it feels nice to have a girlfriend?
posted by bleep at 6:00 PM on June 13, 2015


Don't really get why Piper is still all lovey-dovey with Alex other than being a "only person on earth" "connection to the past" thing?

I think it's mainly "connection to the past". She doesn't have any friends left that knew her on the outside. (with good riddance to Larry and Polly). Also, she might be trying to compensate for the fact that narc'd on Alex and got her thrown back in prison. The least she can do is to be there for her.
posted by donajo at 12:45 PM on June 14, 2015


I totally didn't get that Pennsatucky was the kid chugging Mountain Dew at the beginning of the show until I read the AV Club review.
posted by donajo at 12:56 PM on June 14, 2015


That's why she's pouring out Mountain Dew for her babies at the end. Poignant but very Pennsatucky.
posted by tracicle at 7:54 AM on June 15, 2015 [1 favorite]


In hindsight, it makes so much sense.
posted by donajo at 9:25 AM on June 15, 2015


Ok, can we just decide that Poussey is the best person on this show? Watching her tear up at the end seeing the Calvin & Hobbes cartoon was so touching, and she went to so much trouble to make sure everyone else had a nice mother's day. Have we seen Poussey ever really do anything that was wrong or against a prison moral code? (Note: i have only just finished watching the first episode - so i may be proven wrong later on)
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 6:07 AM on June 17, 2015 [9 favorites]


Agreed that Poussey is the best.
posted by lucy.jakobs at 12:31 PM on June 17, 2015


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