Orange Is the New Black Review: Brown Is The New Orange (Season 7 Episodes 1-4)

It’s literally the beginning of the end of our time peeking inside the lives of Litchfield Penitentiary inmates on Orange Is the New Black Season 7 Episodes 1-4. But everyone’s experiencing a new beginning of some kind. 

It’s difficult to decide from the first four episodes how these new beginnings will lead the characters to their endings. But at least we are out of the cell block war mess that is Orange Is the New Black Season 6. 

Orange Is the New Black is great at exploring institutional oppression of all kinds and all of the consequences and chain reactions that come with it.

The characters viewers have grown to know and love over the years are a big part of why the show has done this successfully. 

Shipping half of those characters away or stripping them of the bright personalities viewers once knew is what makes Season 6 so forgettable.

So, it’s heartening to see that one of the goals of Orange Is the New Black Season 7 will be to help us remember.

The flashbacks of Piper’s past on Orange Is the New Black Season 7 Episode 1 “Beginning of the End” are done well. It’s nice to see Polly (Maria Dizzia) and Larry’s (Jason Biggs) faces and flashbacks are a quick way to remind us (and Piper) of where she started. 

She was a privileged rich white girl starting an artisan soap business and now she’s, well…a privileged rich white girl freshly released from prison. 

One of the reasons the flashbacks work is because one of them is from Piper’s time in prison when being with Alex was easier and perhaps more romantic.

She’s not the same person that thought happiness began and ended with Larry and overpriced soap.

There is a way to find joy at Litchfield. Piper did, and quite frankly I hope someone finds it again. 

Let me make something very clear, though. I have no empathy or sympathy for Piper in particular.  

How can anyone that truly understands privilege? By the end of Orange is the New Black Season 7 Episode 4, “How to Do Life” she’s sitting against a break room wall in the office where she works for her dad, eating a (technically stolen) cookie cake and drinking alcohol against her probation.

By contrast, Taystee’s hanging from a bedsheet after a failed suicide attempt, and a failed appeal of her wrongful conviction for murder. And Blanca and Maritza are detained by ICE. 

Institutionalized oppression is real and makes new beginnings difficult for all former inmates. But if you don’t see that the system makes rebuilding harder for inmates of color — you need to look harder. 

Of course, her race isn’t the only annoying privilege Piper has had throughout the entire series. 

Let’s talk about the fact that she’s not a mother. Her choice is a right. But as the first part of the season suggests, it definitely makes her life easier. 

When we meet Lorna on Season 7, she’s a new mother and by Episode 4 she’s a grieving mother who has returned (perhaps they never actually left her) to the safety of her delusions to ease the pain of her infant son’s death. 

We see via flashbacks that Gloria left daughters behind when she came to the U.S. with the intention of bringing them over when she had built a better life for them. 

Maritza, currently stranded in ICE  after discovering she’s not a U.S. citizen after all, and her mother had lied to her for her whole life — is also a mother. 

As of Episode 4, viewers don’t know her fate — but something tells me she isn’t going to anchor a new Real Housewives franchise. 

She comes so close to a better life, and she deserved it. 

If I haven’t mentioned it yet, it’s good to see Maritza and Blanca.

As an Orange Is the New Black fan it’s good to know that we are going to see old, beloved faces and as of Episode 4, newer ones that never made the impression they were meant to on Season 6 are gone. 

Series evolve and that’s understandable. Orange Is the New Black is ready for this final bow. Saying goodbye to the characters that gave the show its heart makes the end more sweet than bitter. 

I’ve tried very hard to see certain storylines like Taystee being framed for Piscatella’s death not as real, not make-believe, because the system makes mistakes and people frame others and get away with it. 

But the ICE detention storyline feels different because it is happening to people right now. It’s not just a puzzle pieced together that is happening to someone somewhere. ICE arrests are being reported on the news right now. 

This show (and all shows) is most impactful when commenting on current events and politics.

It’s time to move on to another horror that happens in prison though. Because despite trying to be good — Alex finds herself back in the drug business again. 

Guards abuse their power and force inmates to act against their will. That is happening somewhere in a real prison right now. 

Only future episodes will tell us how Vause and McCullough’s arrangement will work out. It’s the most ludicrous storyline right now. McCullough can grow without abusing Alex, her backstory is there. The point of what she’s doing is so…merky.  

But let’s talk about the fact that there’s a new warden at Litchfield. 

Warden Figueroa would’ve been more of the same. It’s unclear whether any of Warden Ward’s policies will actually be a catalyst for change. But at least she’s trying. 

Having a warden that sees inmates as humans is the first step to something better for Litchfield inmates.

If she changes one life, it’s going to be most exciting to watch her first success story than her fifth or sixth,  so for that reason, the timing of Ward’s appointment works. 

As for the pressure a woman of color feels in a position like that — it’s always going to be there. I don’t care how or why Tamika got the position. She’s controlling who gets a seat at her table now and she should be proud of that. 

There are going to be learning curves and we’ve already seen her navigating them (or not) on the first few episodes. 

Cross your fingers for Taystee. I’m not quite sure there’s hope for an acquittal right now.

It’s just that even though pain is a constant reality for some people and shows have a responsibility to reflect that, Orange Is the New Black had a joyous spirit through the pain that made fans fall in love with it. 

It’s been gone for a while and still is, but something about Season 7 makes me hopeful that it’s not completely lost.

Shades Of Orange 

• I’m really proud of Suzanne for beginning to figure out that the system isn’t fair and she may not deserve her sentence. 
• “Florida” needs to be abolished from the United States of Litchfield. It only serves to isolate the characters’ storylines. It was unnecessary on Season 6 and still is. 
• I’m loving the return of a little bit of unity via the kitchen. Of course, it doesn’t feel exactly the same. But at the end of a series, you have to appreciate honest attempts. 
• I needed to see Flaca and Maritza reunite, even if it’s tinged with so much sadness. 
• Why is watching Fig and Caputo being domestic so satisfying? 

What did you think of these episodes of Orange Is the New Black? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Orange Is the New Black Season 7 is streaming on Netflix.

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