The episode “Bunny, Skull, Bunny, Skull” gets its name from Ouija’s desire to have decadently decorate digits, but the nail designs might be the only thing pretty about this episode.
From abuse, manipulation, racist epithets, to some very unfortunate construction, episode ten of Orange Is the New Black gives us some pretty ugly realities.
Moral Outrage
“Is this how you want me to remember you?” — Aleida Diaz
Aleida Diaz is a free woman. She leaves Litchfield, hopefully never to return. Gloria and Dayanara are there to give her a supportive send off—not that CO McCullough is helping in that department: telling them the story of some other inmate who was set free, tried to walk to the closest town, and after being mistaken as a sex worker was sent to jail. From prison to jail, get it?
Aleida is picked up by Cesar’s baby-daddy who asks invasive questions about the slammer and takes her shopping for a new dress. Aleida gets pissed at her for not staying monogamous to Cesar while he’s in prison. Obviously, there’s an irony here since Cesar didn’t exactly “stay true” to Aleida when she was in the Big House, but Diaz has reasoning for that, “Men are stupid and their peckers all got ADD.”
Aleida stomps off and visits her cousin who’s basically stolen all the money from her savings and sold all of her clothes. Aleida realizes she has nowhere to go—except if she wants to sell stolen electronics. She returns to Cesar’s girlfriend’s place and comforts his child.
While Aleida is forced to backtrack on her moral stand, Blanca Flores is still literally standing up for herself. She has remained erect on the cafeteria table for two whole days, covered in piss, and it doesn’t look like she’s going to give up any time soon.
“I’m going to get the world record so I can be in that book.” — Blanca Flores
White Power chicks throw food in her face, which she eats. Piper feels— somehow —responsible as the voice of the inmates completely discarding the message branded warning on her forearm that she shouldn’t get involved in other folks’ business.
Going to See The Wiz
Piper goes to the man himself, The Giant Piscatella (who may or may not have a “button” down there given all his posturing), and expresses her moral outrage at this inhumane treatment. He tells her to shove said outrage up her ass.
Some of the drugs Nicky wrecked herself with came from the ass of one Angie Rice, who Red threatens to never sell to again—she tells her not to worry Morello’s shaming her was enough to turn her off rooting through her own shit for heroin. Nichols has promised Red she’s getting clean, but her lack of puke and sweat has Red suspicious. She decides to go all “man behind the curtain” and like she threatens Angie, she ensures no one else sells to her addicted daughter. No one does, that is until Nicky runs into Luschek. He only gives her weed, but also another apology. He lets the cat out of the bag that he stuck it in Judy King to get Nicky out of Max. “What are you in love with me or something?” Nicky asks. Well of fucking course he’s in love with her.
“I’m fake gay with a beautiful woman who’s making it rain for all of us.” Cindy Tova Hayes
Some love is less genuine than others. Cindy is still pretending to be in a relationship with Judy King so Caputo doesn’t punish them for the whole lesbian interracial photo shoot thing. King might be all cute and cuddly in the open with Cindy when times are good, but when bad times arrive during movie night—racial tensions rise between the White Power ladies—King runs away from that fight.
Coates shuts down the movie night given that Bayley points out—for the second time this season no less—that if these women decide to rise up against the guards, they don’t stand a chance.
All By One’s Self
“Do you ever feel like you’re a person without a country?” —Tiffany “Pennsatucky” Dogget
Sister Ingalls is in the SHU and trying to figure out a way to get a message to Sophia in cell B12. In a very impressive display of aim, the various prisoners shoot the folded messages from cell to cell using string and a paper clip. We see Sophia; obviously recovering from self-harm, yet alive read the message from her holy friend.
“The guards, they think they can do whatever the fuck they want.” — Flaca Flores
CO McCullough and Stratman notice Maritza puking in the bathroom. Stratman mentions how Humphrey was alone with her in one of the houses in the woods and wonders if she might be pregnant—but it’d be too early for that. McCullough raises a good point that even though they didn’t see anything they should say something, like when a date rape happens in a frat house. But it looks like the more typical frat house rules exist with these COs and Stratman impresses the importance that they all need to band together and that “Humps” is just their weird brother who likes to put cockroaches in the blender.
Maritza keeps what happened to her a secret — that is until Flaca gets her to open up about how Humphrey made her eat the baby mouse. She doesn’t want to tell anyone mostly because she’s ashamed and scared, and also because the two don’t feel like they have any power.
Let’s Get Physical
The power to travel back in time has come up several times throughout the season. It makes sense since there’s a literal fake time machine of Lolly’s make in the basement serving as a conversation piece. Suzanne and Morello get to chatting about where and when they’d travel back to, and the subject turns to sex.
Suzanne worries that she’s missed her one and only chance to experience sexual pleasure with another person. Maureen might be bat-shit crazy, but Suzanne wants to be touched. Maureen takes her up on her offer and gets her to the point where she’s just about the cum and then stops. “That’s what it feels like to be abandoned in the middle of the woods,” she says. Hm, not totally, but okay. Also do you remember when Piper’s fiancé was all into edging? It’s kind of like that eh? Also, if it’s called blue balls for men, what’s this called: blue lips?
Sorry, back to the recap.
“It was up a nun’s vagina.” — Joe Caputo
There’s more action happening in other folks’ twats with Sister Ingalls trying as she might to keep her secret cell phone jammed up her hoo-hoo. Unfortunately, she blows it when she sneezes and her kegels give birth to the Motorola.
Caputo’s called in and has the nun confess to her grand plans to get a shot of Sophia to be released to the public. Caputo punishes her by a sentence of a undetermined amount of time in Seg, while he completes her mission and gets the aforementioned photo to Danny.
Despite Caputo’s conscience getting the better of him, it’s clear Dixon has no such affliction, and after Piper gives a granola bar to the standing Flores, he orders her up on the table too.
While stands are made and photos leaked, construction continues for this dome thing. Piscatella makes an executive decision to dig up the garden and the hand of the murdered guard is unceremoniously unearthed.
“This aint gonna be pretty.” — Frieda Berlin
Out In The Yard
I mean, other than leaking the photo to Danny, which is all well in good, but on a day-to-day basis: where the fuck is Caputo? You would think that there would be one goddamn day out of the three where there are inmates standing in the middle of the goddamn cafeteria when he might do a walk through and see? He’s always going back-and-forth between wanting to help these women, to not giving a fucking shit.
What happened to Sikowitz? We saw her at the beginning of the season, but since then there’ve been no scenes with her at all.
Suzanne doesn’t think the Time Machine is legit given that people travel through wormholes—Obviously in her Time Hump Chronicles this was all explained. When Morello asks if this was just fiction Suzanne’s answer is hilarious, “The emotions were fictional, but the science was real.”