Orange is the New Black: The 21 craziest moments thus far

Alex throws Piper under the bus — again

At the beginning of season 2, Piper is estranged from her husband and all tangled up with Alex again. However, they have an opportunity to free themselves when they are brought to court to testify about their experience trafficking drugs. They make a promise to each other to testify in the same way, truthfully, in order to stay together at Litchfield. As they are separated off into different holding facilities, Alex decides to bail on the plan while Piper sticks her neck out. This results in Alex’s freedom and a prolonged sentence for Piper.

This is one of many such moments in Piper’s trajectory — we see her harden and improve as a prison inmate, then she falters in these moments of weakness for the people she attaches to (in season 3, seems like she learned that lesson with Stella, but we’ll get to that later).

It’s moments like these that I find myself frustrated with Piper all over again. Why does she have to be so naive and trusting? A girl came at her with a sharpened cross, after all! Of course, if this didn’t happen, then the show would be over, so ultimately it is good… and again, I like seeing life steamroll her sometimes in this show. She is an amalgam of all of the most annoying qualities of New York gentrifying transplants (I should know, I am one) so I like watching her get throttled by prison.