Easily the best season since 1, maybe even better. I was more invested in the show this season than any other. Some thoughts:
- Once Piper's story started picking up this season, I actually started feeling for the character more than I had in 3 seasons, but it leads nowhere and it stops right when it was getting interesting.
- Lolly was my favorite character this season. Her character might annoy many, but it's so distinct and her flashback episode was the most effective one for me. I truly feel bad for her but I also know that there was no way her story could have ended well. I think I missed something in the later episodes because I forgot where Healy ended up after outing her, so when the junkies were about to trash the "time machine" I thought they were gonna find Healy's body, discovering that he committed suicide.
- The race "wars" that scattered throughout many episodes wasn't that great, and there were moments where it felt like the show could have done without as much as it had, such as at the end when the white supremacists make an awful comment as Poussay's body is being put in the ambulance.
- Burset's return almost felt non-existent. It seemed like the show was already balancing all the other stories so that hers couldn't be focused on, so they just sort of reeled us in for an interesting setup but then she just returns like not much happened.
- By the middle of the season I realized that almost everyone's story was so dark and depressing, then I remembered the weird Judy and Cindy fake romance plot and I was thankful that the show kept at least one sub-plot funny and lighthearted so that the entire season wasn't completely dark.
- I feel kinda bad for Caputo. He makes some shitty decisions, but you can see he's trying to make the inmates' lives better. The system just never allows it and he just keeps getting beat up because of it. I hope he doesn't end up completely defeated and disappears from the show because I want to see him have his moment of redemption. He's very clearly in the middle of all this and doesn't take either side, which might be his ultimate downfall. Once he tries to stick up for one side, whether it's the inmates or the system, he has to cater to the other.
- That finale was ridiculous, in a chaotic great way. That brief moment where Aleida is watching the conference on TV made the entire finale scene that much more significant in having Daya be the one who picks up the gun.
- I think the P flashback was there to directly parallel the chaos that her death caused in the prison. During most of that flashback, she's sort of lost and on her own, but finds her way through it and meets some good people along the way. She clearly had something going for her and makes a good impression on everyone she meets in that flashback. She's looking out directly at NYC wondering where she's gonna go next, with this great future expected to be ahead of her, meanwhile in the present her body is literally just rotting in a prison cafeteria. It's so fucking dark and tragic, however that last moment where she smiles paralleled with the prison riot cliffhanger seems like almost some strange blessing that she doesn't have to deal with any of that and is at peace, meanwhile all the inmates are the ones who are going to have to face the consequences and further their struggle.
- Once Piper's story started picking up this season, I actually started feeling for the character more than I had in 3 seasons, but it leads nowhere and it stops right when it was getting interesting.
- Lolly was my favorite character this season. Her character might annoy many, but it's so distinct and her flashback episode was the most effective one for me. I truly feel bad for her but I also know that there was no way her story could have ended well. I think I missed something in the later episodes because I forgot where Healy ended up after outing her, so when the junkies were about to trash the "time machine" I thought they were gonna find Healy's body, discovering that he committed suicide.
- The race "wars" that scattered throughout many episodes wasn't that great, and there were moments where it felt like the show could have done without as much as it had, such as at the end when the white supremacists make an awful comment as Poussay's body is being put in the ambulance.
- Burset's return almost felt non-existent. It seemed like the show was already balancing all the other stories so that hers couldn't be focused on, so they just sort of reeled us in for an interesting setup but then she just returns like not much happened.
- By the middle of the season I realized that almost everyone's story was so dark and depressing, then I remembered the weird Judy and Cindy fake romance plot and I was thankful that the show kept at least one sub-plot funny and lighthearted so that the entire season wasn't completely dark.
- I feel kinda bad for Caputo. He makes some shitty decisions, but you can see he's trying to make the inmates' lives better. The system just never allows it and he just keeps getting beat up because of it. I hope he doesn't end up completely defeated and disappears from the show because I want to see him have his moment of redemption. He's very clearly in the middle of all this and doesn't take either side, which might be his ultimate downfall. Once he tries to stick up for one side, whether it's the inmates or the system, he has to cater to the other.
- That finale was ridiculous, in a chaotic great way. That brief moment where Aleida is watching the conference on TV made the entire finale scene that much more significant in having Daya be the one who picks up the gun.
- I think the P flashback was there to directly parallel the chaos that her death caused in the prison. During most of that flashback, she's sort of lost and on her own, but finds her way through it and meets some good people along the way. She clearly had something going for her and makes a good impression on everyone she meets in that flashback. She's looking out directly at NYC wondering where she's gonna go next, with this great future expected to be ahead of her, meanwhile in the present her body is literally just rotting in a prison cafeteria. It's so fucking dark and tragic, however that last moment where she smiles paralleled with the prison riot cliffhanger seems like almost some strange blessing that she doesn't have to deal with any of that and is at peace, meanwhile all the inmates are the ones who are going to have to face the consequences and further their struggle.
