Orange Is the New Black, Season 2, Episode 2: “You Also Have a Pizza”
Written by Stephen Falk
Directed by Allison Anders
Released Friday, June 6 on Netflix Instant
“Would the moon do this?” Larry asks Polly as he kisses her, trying to prove to Piper and the world that he carries his own light and not just reflecting other people’s. Usually, if you have to ask that question, then the answer is yes, the moon would do that, and you are looking desperate trying to find a way not to be the exact parasite you are. But at least taking some action is something to move forward with, if only for an inch—and that’s what seems to be happening with a lot of Orange Is the New Black’s story lines this season. Little by little, inmates and officers are trying to move through the world around them, all at their own, limited pace.
Does this make good TV, though? So far, I can’t say that this season compares well to the last. Last season there was always some excitement and terror of what’s coming around the bend to drive the story forward. Much like Jenji Kohan’s other series, Weeds, it was incredible to be introduced to this new world and navigate our ways through it and its parameters. Now, though, it feels like that work is done, and suddenly it’s just a matter of “waiting for the other shoe to drop,” as Aleida so succinctly puts it. Red needs to re-start her contraband business, Vee needs to create hers, Daya’s pregnancy needs to progress before people start talking, and Alex is nowhere to be seen to provide the emotional stakes for Piper we had during downtimes last season. This episode is still good, just unfortunately part of a structure that drags it down.
On the plus side, Valentine’s Day is a fun, depressing subject for a women’s prison, and we get a party scene, which is always pleasurable, especially when it involves hooch and Boo scarfing down cookies. We also get a peek inside the past of Poussey, who has stronger feelings for Taystee than I once presumed, but has the ability to shut down those feelings, to a degree, or at least make them obscure only to blow up later.
The gun she almost pulls on her lover’s father in the flashbacks makes Poussey a more dynamic figure than she has seemed, because her threats to kill Vee can be taken seriously. At the same time, like most of this season’s stories so far, I feel like this was more of a Part One than something to totally grasp on to. We still don’t know what landed her in prison, and what she would have really done with that gun if her father hadn’t stopped her. If Poussey’s personality truly follows along the track presented, something big will go down and make her story more relevant than it seems now. But again, we must wait. “You know this will not end well,” Red tells Vee. I’ll be taking that as a promise.