Season 4 of the hit Netflix series Orange Is the New Black premieres June 17, and we’ve got some excellent ideas on how to put together a kickass Orange viewing party as you binge on the first few episodes (or all 13 episodes if you wanted to turn the party into an all-nighter).
First, let’s recap what happened with the folks at Litchfield penitentiary in Season 3:
Caputo (Nick Sandow) is trying his best to keep Litchfield open as the new warden. He ends up having to work for a private company, MMR, who buys the prison and starts to make drastic cuts, especially to the full-time CO’s. Caputo has to find inexperienced part-time CO’s to cover the shifts, which doesn’t turn out well. After Caputo takes a promotion from MMR, the guards decide they’ve had enough and walk. Will they return?
Alex (Laura Prepon) and Piper (Taylor Schilling) give it one more try after Alex returns to Litchfield, but Piper messes it up – again — with new inmate Stella (Ruby Rose) who, in turn, screws Piper out of money she made from her side prison panty business. Piper gets her back by planting contraband on her just before Stella is supposed to be released. Off to maximum security for her, as well as Nicky (Natasha Lyonne), who is sent there for heroin possession. Oh, and Alex’s paranoia that the drug kingpin she screwed over wants her dead is true. Last we see her cornered in the greenhouse by an “assassin.”
Red (Kate Mulgrew) uses Healy’s (Michael Harney) infatuation with her to get back to running the kitchen, but it’s bad now with the budget cuts. The mute Norma (Annie Golden) becomes a mystical guru of sorts but her “followers” bully others, including Soso (Kimiko Glenn), who tries to kill herself. Meanwhile, Morello (Yael Stone) finally gets the husband she always wanted when she marries boyfriend Vince inside Litchfield. And Pennsatucky (Taryn Manning) thinks she has an easy job driving the van – until one of the new part-time CO’s rapes her. Big Boo (Lea DeLaria) vows to help her seek revenge.
Taystee (Danielle Brooks) realizes she’s the now the gentler, kinder “mother” of the crew; Poussey (Samira Wiley) falls into a depression but comes out of it stronger after she saves Soso and lets her into the African-American group; Black Cindy becomes Jewish; and Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” (Uzo Aduba) gains popularity when she writes serial sci-fi erotica but quits it when it gets too much and ends up with a real girlfriend.
Daya (Dascha Polanco) struggles with her pregnancy, especially after Bennett (Matt McGorry) disappears, but she has the baby and ends up keeping it, despite Aleida’s (Elizabeth Rodriguez) attempts to sell the baby. But complications arise when Aleida’s boyfriend is arrested and the baby is taken into social services. Flaca (Jackie Cruz) butts heads with Mendoza (Selenis Leyva), and Mendoza nearly ruins Sophia (Laverne Cox).
Then, in the last episode, a construction mishap allows all the prisoners to escape to a nearby beach and play in the lake, but as the prisoners are having a well-deserved break, construction crews convert the prison’s beds into two-tiered bunkbeds, doubling the prison’s capacity, and several busloads of new prisoners arrive at Litchfield. Uh-oh.
Caught up? Good, now let’s talk about the party!