Why Orange Is The New Black Had A Not So Happy Ending
Spoilers Ahead — but if you’re not up to date on Orange is The New Black, you should really go and get your life
After seven years of heartfelt moments and hideous prison uniforms, Netflix’s hit original series Orange Is the New Black comes to an end and takes with it a widely diverse cast of characters that will be sorely missed. Based on the book by Piper Kerman that details her prison experience, OITNB could have easily focused solely on fish-out-of-water white girl Piper, and yet it didn’t. It elaborated on the black experience, the latinx experience and the trans experience, creating a vibrant world despite its dreary settings. At its heart, this show was about underdogs and it gave its audience characters to love and root for.
After each season, OITNB typically gave us an ending where these underdogs come out on top and the bad guys got what they deserved. Pornstache was arrested, Vee was run over by a truck, and Piscatella was shot. And yet with its finale, OITNB pulled no punches. Happy endings, even for favorites like Taystee and Red, were few and far between. Some central characters didn’t even get a proper resolution, like Daya, whose fate was left offscreen. In fact, Piper was one of the only characters who received a somewhat happy ending — getting to start over in Ohio with Alex.
And although fans were upset, that’s the reality for many women of color in America’s prisons. Those with privilege like Piper, despite running an illegal operation from prison and hiding a shank in another inmates bunk, have a better chance of facing shorter sentences. On the other hand, Taystee has to stay in prison for the rest of her life for a crime she didn’t commit, Poussey is killed by a guard in the fourth season and Suzanne still has to do her time despite her severe psychiatric issues. A show that’s been a delightful mix of comedy and drama throughout its run, ends without justice for its people of color and somehow that’s okay. Well, not okay but realistic.
Orange Is the New Black has always been a representation of the corruption and dysfunction of the prison system. Through this ending, these themes come full circle. It invites us to get angry over Taystee’s incarceration, at Daya’s transition from a sweet girl into an “evil junkie” and at black Cindy’s manipulation at the hands of the court. With the last scene of the show prompting viewers to donate to the Poussey Washington fund to help foster criminal justice reform, perhaps this is where OITNB wants our anger directed towards — making change.
