‘Orange Is The New Black’ Season 3 Episode 4 Recap: Taystee & Crazy Eyes Deal With Losing Vee; Caputo Saves The Prison

Orange is the New Black’s fourth episode of season three found Caputo making a last ditch effort to save Litchfield prison, while Crazy Eyes and Red mourned their recent losses.

‘Orange Is The New Black’ Recap

Crazy Eyes (Uzo Aduba) is having some really bad night terrors brought on by her continued refusal to believe that Vee is truly gone, and is waking up Taystee (Danielle Brooks), Poussey (Samira Wiley) and Watson (Vicky Jeudy) on a regular basis. At breakfast, Poussey starts to lose her temper with Crazy Eyes, who followed the murderous Vee around all last year. When Poussey tries to drill it in into her that Vee is actually dead, Crazy Eyes starts to have a breakdown. Donaldson (Brendan Burke) tells Taystee that if she doesn’t get her quiet, Crazy Eyes is going to the Shu.

Taystee ends up taking responsibility for Crazy Eyes, and finds herself once again rushing to save her when she spots her stripping in the hallway. With Caputo on the verge of seeing her, Taystee rushes Crazy Eyes back to their cube. Crazy Eyes starts to cry about not being able to follow Vee as she’s asked in her visions. Taystee starts to shake her, yelling in her face that Vee is gone, which leads her to cry as well. Crazy Eyes, sensing the finality of Vee’s disappearance for the first time, mourns the loss with Taystee, bringing them closer together.

Red (Kate Mulgrew) and Morello (Yael Stone) are missing Nicky (Natasha Lyonne), who was taken to Max after she took the fall for the heroin in Luschek’s (Matt Peters) office. Red, who continues to grow closer to Healy, confesses to him that it feels as though she’s lost a child and that she had thought that she could save Nicky from her addictions. “If someone jumps in shark infested waters, you can’t jump in after them,” he tells Red. Later on, he gives her a packet of rose seeds to cheer her up.

Big Boo (Lea DeLaria) and Pennsatucky’s (Taryn Manning) unlikely friendship continues to evolve as well. When Big Boo starts to scan Penn’s fan mail from her evangelical supporters, she realizes that they give money to her commissary. Penn confesses to Big Boo that the shooting at the abortion clinic had nothing to do with any religious reasons; she just got really mad after her feelings were hurt. Big Boo likes her all the more for it.

Big Boo likes Penn’s scam so much that she starts to practice her own Evangelical persona so that she can pretend to be a reformed lesbian and get some fast money as well. Sophia (Laverne Cox) ends up doing her makeover, leaving her with a bob and a fully made up face. While Morello thinks it’s a success, Pennatucky says, “Boo, you look f–kin’ weird.” Boo thinks she looks like her mother. In flashbacks, it’s revealed that Boo had a tough relationship with her mother, who never accepted how she presented herself. The wedge between them was so great that Boo couldn’t bring herself to go in to see her mother on her death bed.

Back in the present, Alex (Laura Prepon) asks Piper if she wants to meet in the library later for sex, as it’s been a week, but Piper tells her she has a headache. “What are you, a 50s housewife?” Alex asks her. Piper continues to shut her down, which Alex thinks could have something to do with Nicky being sent to Max – and then realizes it’s June 7, Piper’s birthday.

Piper, who for some reason hates her birthday and doesn’t want anyone to know about it, meets with her parents, brother and sister-in-law. She tells them that she has a girlfriend, and they’re not exactly impressed with how she seems to be embracing prison life instead of planning her life post-sentence. When she makes a sexual innuendo out of her mother’s continued use of “Dear God,” she receives a slap across the face. After the tense family reunion, Piper goes to Alex and tells her that she told her parents that she has a girlfriend. Alex makes her sweat, but agrees to be her girlfriend then gives her a playlist she wrote down for her birthday.

While all the aforementioned was going on, Caputo (Nick Sandow) was desperately trying to put on a good front for the people from MCC, who came to do a walk-through of the prison and determine if it’s worth buying. Caputo encourages the guards to be at their best, since if the deal doesn’t work they could all be out of a job.

Of course, as the group makes their way through, they come upon Crazy Eyes mopping the floor while talking to the mop as if it were a human. The group, including Danny Pearson (Mike Birbiglia), worries about dealing with the health requirements for women, as they then see a sobbing Morello. Donaldson says that although it might seem daunting, the women are all “synced up” so it’s just a bad couple of days.

In the kitchen, Maritza (Diane Guerrero) and Flaca (Jackie Cruz) try to help but only end up hurting. “You’re like Lucy and Ethel without the charm,” Mendoza (Selenis Leyva) scolds. Piper, when her electrical skills are questioned, sneers in a faux southern accent, “Well, I sure can. If I concentrate extra hard with my lady brain.” Daya (Dascha Polanco), who starts to realize that Bennett might actually not be coming back, also threatens to derail the sale, as one of the MCC VPs catches on that she’s pregnant. However, before the day is out, the Danny calls Caputo to tell him that the sale is going through.

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