What I’m Watching: Orange is the New Black

Orange is the New Black: Season 6, Episode 5 “Mischief Mischief” (B)

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Luschek would get very into the Fantasy Inmate game, taking over as commissioner thanks to his digitization of the inmates and his upping of the excitement for the season. It’s entertaining in a way but equally disturbing, though far more unsettling is the fact that McCullough, still traumatized by being held prisoner during the riot, not only intervened but also smacked Maria in the face for no reason. She hardly seems like the least stable of the guards, but she’s going through a lot. Maria is experiencing a whole lot of misery, and I can’t imagine that she’s actually dead after being apparently drowned in a toilet by some unknown assailant, another odd instance of mystery for a show that doesn’t usually traffic in suspense. The mischief night before Halloween wasn’t terribly enticing, with Badison sticking cheese in Piper’s ears and prompting some jealousy when Alex was far more willing to work with her and rats being released all over, creating chaos and uncertainty everywhere. Linda and Fig meeting was pretty much as great as I had expected, and Linda took out her anger at Joe on him when he came to ask for help with Taystee, banishing him to a destitute existence in Missouri. It didn’t take long for Fig to point out that there was an unaccounted-for inmate missing, and Pennsatucky, one of this show’s most underrated characters, was smart enough to realize that she couldn’t run forever just to be locked up in the same kind of way that she’s always been.