‘Orange Is the New Black’ Recap, Season 3, Episode 7: The Cult of Norma

#OrangeHeads, I’m surprised as I’m writing this, but this may be the first time that I’ve been able to stand Piper. And it’s all because of some stolen panties. To clarify, the fact that she has turned her attention from her relationship to Vause to starting her own business of selling dirty inmate underwear to creepy guys on the Internet and the fact that she has gotten her brother Cal involved in making the website is hilarious and perfect. But more importantly, it’s clear that she’s doing this to have some kind of connection with the outside world. Despite all she has been through — being in SHU, fighting Pennsatucky, making horrible wages doing slave labor — Piper has always resisted fully being an inmate. She doesn’t want to lose her identity or who she was before she went to jail and if the way to prevent that includes selling dirty drawers to dudes who live in their moms’ basement, then all I can say is:

Anyway, any episode than make me #TeamPiper has to be doing something right, so let’s see what else “Tongue Tied” did and if it helped get Orange Is the New Black back on track.

This episode focuses a lot on Norma. At this point, Norma is veiwed by the inmates as a healer, although when Red finds this out, she pretty much hates on it and acts like Norma can’t really do anything without her guidance. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time she has been underestimated as we learn in her flashback.

Young Norma attends a ’60s guru class run by teacher Guru Mack. She’s super shy and has a severe stutter, so she doesn’t really say anything during class, but it is obvious that she is smitten by him because he’s nice to her. Eventually, they get married, but because he’s about that polygamy life, he also marries a line of women. Young Norma tries to be cool with this, but we can see in her face that she’s thinking:

And her instincts are correct. He’s a shady mofo and, decades after they have been together, they go on the run. All his wives have left him and he’s accused of being a fraud and running a cult. Still, Norma stays loyal to him, which is sweet but also tragic (to me) and simply just annoying to Mack because he wants to be left alone. So naturally, instead of just expressing that to her calmly, they head to a cliff where he basically says she’s the equivalent of the garbage inside a Glad bag, so Norma proceeds to do this:

It’s incredibly sad that she wasn’t able to find her voice then, but she seems to have found it in prison. The inmates all worship her, and that worship only intensifies after Red berates in her the kitchen one too many times. Norma did Red a solid by seemingly pushing Gloria to her breaking point so that she would quit the kitchen. Of course, Red does not recognize this and continues to hate on Norma. Well, that quickly comes to bite Red in the ass. In order to cut prison costs, MCC insists the kitchen staff heats up bags of food instead of cooking from scratch. The inmates, and Red, think that Norma used her magic to make this happen so that Red would stop bossing her around. Red is stunned, while some of the other inmates follow Norma into the chapel and essentially anoint her as their leader.

What’s great about this storyline is that even though Norma has mostly been portrayed as innocent, she is clearly creating her own cult. Sure, she may not be as manipulative as Guru Mack, but there isn’t just one way to manipulate. Saying nothing can be just as powerful as being a smooth operator, and Norma’s genius move is that she lets the inmates fill in the blanks. They decide she is magical, which, in a lot of ways, is more powerful than her trying to convince them that she is. I’m curious as to how this worship is going to backfire on Norma. Will she accidentally kill someone, or will the inmates believe she is capable of murder should someone end up dead? All I know is that I’m excited to see where this storyline is going.

I’m also curious about the panties venture that Piper and Vause are going to go on. Piper is practically doing all the work, yet Vause is her business partner. Isn’t this kind of like old times when Vause had Piper do the smuggling for her? Does Piper not remember how that worked out? What I’m less curious about is the obvious love triangle of Piper/Vause/Stella (Ruby Rose), the new androgynous inmate who works in the Whispers sewing department and is down to have Piper sell her dirty undies. I’m so not here for any of it, and the less I write about it, the less annoyed I will be. Also, I’m not going to write about how gorgeous Ruby Rose is, because Tumblr has basically lost their marbles over this woman to the point where I’m like:

Moving on. Lolly has returned and Vause wonders if Lolly has some sort of designs on her. My guess is yes: why else would she be back on the show? My money is on Vause. I’m sure she could take Lolly in a fight, so I’m only kind of worried. And also, to pull a Chandler Bing, could there be any more characters on this show? No. If Lolly can be swiftly killed so we can return our focus to the other 500 inmates on the show, I would be totally cool with that.

I mean, we still have to deal with Danny, who is trying his damnedest with corporate speak to make Caputo think that he’s not his boss. Danny totally is, and I’m still unsure is he’s supposed to be bad or good. My money is on the fact that he is probably both, although I don’t really desire a flashback about his life to tell me that, so hopefully that won’t happen. Based on what I know about Danny so far, he is clearly a cog in the machine. He’s not calling any of the shots, but to someone like Caputo, Danny is the big cheese. But this storyline really does shed some light on the idea of those in charge being just part of a bigger machine — just like the inmates are nothing but cogs in the machine at Litchfield, too. None of the prisoners, or even the COs and Caputo, really matter — they can all be replaced. But Norma? For the time being, she is the G.O.D.

 

Phoebe Robinson is a stand-up comic and writer who’s been on Late Night with Seth Meyers, is a consultant for Broad City, and whose debut book, You Can’t Touch My Hair, comes out Fall 2016. Her website is blaria.com.

 

Like what you see? Follow Decider on Facebook and Twitter to join the conversation, and sign up for our email newsletters to be the first to know about streaming movies and TV news!

Photos: Netflix