Listen up, fans of the ladies of Litchfield — we have to start this
story with a big, huge SPOILER alert for ‘Orange is the New Black’ season 6.
If you haven’t caught up on the latest season, which dropped
on Netflix July 27th, go put yourself in the SHU until this story is over.
After 6 seasons adjusting to her incarceration, Piper Chapman,
played by Taylor Schilling, is finally free on early release because…white privilege.
In the season finale, Piper leaves Litchfield Max as a newlywed
after getting hitched to her on-again girlfriend and reason she was
in the slammer to begin with, Alex Vause — played by Laura Prepon.
Piper’s feelings about leaving prison were bittersweet,
since she thought she would have five more months
with her new wife, who still has four years left on her sentence.
With a seventh season of the Jenji Kohan-created prison dramedy
on the horizon, viewers who are left wondering what ‘Orange’
will look like with Piper on the outside can take solace in
knowing that, as is Kohan's motto, there is still more story to tell.
Brian Chamberlayne, who wrote the season finale, explains
to The Hollywood Reporter, "Jenji knew that she wanted to get
Piper out at the end of this season coming into season six.
She liked the surprise of it, and she wanted to be able to tell stories
about post-prison. It wasn’t just a season-six end, it was
partially about getting into the arc of where Piper goes.
It’s about what is significant about the criminal justice system
and what is significant about Piper’s story and journey, so there’s plenty to be told."
Executive producer Tara Herrmann told THR that ‘Orange’
plans to follow Piper's life on the outside just as much as
it followed her on the inside, calling the
character played by Schilling "the grounding force of the show.”
Herrmann now elaborates, acknowledging both the end of an era
and an opening to other storytelling possibilities.
"We’re very excited because now we have a few people
on the outside, Aleida Diaz [played by Elizabeth Rodriguez] being
one of them, and to be able to show the juxtaposition of what life
is like for someone in Aleida’s shoes compared to somebody
who is in Piper’s shoes is very exciting for us," she says.
The parallels between the experiences of white inmates
compared to those of non-white, non-privileged inmates
has long been a focus of ‘Orange’s’ storytelling.
In the latest season that juxtaposition is highlighted in a more
heartbreaking way than ever as Taystee Jefferson,
played by Danielle Brooks, cops a life sentence for a murder she
did not commit as Piper contemplates the
endless possibilities the world outside max holds for her.
The hair salon conversation between Piper and Taystee
in the 11th episode, "Well This Took a Dark Turn"
(which was directed by Prepon), was meant to be a turning
point ahead of Piper's release. "That was, as a room, something
we leaned into as one of the most important moments of the season,"
said Chamberlayne. "Especially for Piper’s arc in prison,
to come out of it with this understanding that yeah,
she got it hard in prison. People didn’t let up on her.
But so many of these women have it hard on the outside,
and that’s part of the reason they went after Piper in prison.
This contrast of her fish-out-of-water story, which is for minorities
and people who are underprivileged classes,
that’s constant. That’s the world that they inhabit every day."
Since the Netflix series is based on the true story of Piper Kerman,
viewers could look to Kerman's post-prison story for hints
about where ‘Orange’s’ Piper might go. After serving 13 months
of her 15-month sentence in a minimum security prison,
Kerman wrote her memoir of the same name, inspired the
Netflix TV show and continues to be an activist for prison reform.
Kerman remains a consultant on ‘Orange,’ but since season two,
the series has significantly veered from her memoir to create
its own fictionalized world through TV Piper's experience.
Piper's release could provide an opportunity for the two stories
to meet up once again with the potential for the
character to also go down the activism route in season seven.
Whatever Piper chooses do with her newfound freedom,
in speaking to both Herrmann and Chamberlayne, it sounds
likely that the seventh season of ‘Orange’ will continue to follow
the lives of those who are still incarcerated in
Max while also tracking Piper and Aleida on the outside.
Whether or not Piper's release sets the show up for its endgame
remains to be seen. As Herrmann explains:
"The truth of the matter is the show could go on forever and ever.
We so enjoy having this show as a place to not only talk about
what’s going on in the current climate, but for us as a room,
it’s been such a therapeutic place for us to come and share
and grow as artists and people. So, it’s an ongoing debate."
The 13-episode sixth season of ‘Orange Is the New Black’ is streaming now on Netflix.
To read much, much more on ‘Orange is the New Black,’ head THR.com/OITNB.
For The Hollywood Reporter News, I’m Lyndsey Rodrigues.