Orange is the New Black season 5 premiered over the weekend and with it came some interesting facts about a favorite character of ours, Alex Vause.
Spoilers ahead for Orange is the New Black season 5!
Thankfully, OITNB’s season 5 premiere picked up right where we left off, which we all knew would be the case. But after that somewhat boring finale, we think Alex could be in trouble in season 6.
The backstory on Alex Vause
This season, Alex was still suffering from the aftermath of killing Corrections Officer Aydin. Aydin was sent by Kubra — Alex’s old drug-lord boss and the reason she’s in prison in the first place — to kill Alex.
The murder was self-defense, but the problem is Alex buried his body in the garden last season, and once it was discovered, it was pinned on Lolly. Alex felt guilty for having Lolly go down for the murder and she mainly laid low in season 5. While Piper got in her power hungry moods, Alex wanted to enjoy the few days during the riot. Unfortunately, Alex did openly admit to quite a few prisoners that she murdered someone.
Piper and Alex’s relationship seemed on-and-off in season 5, but it was more on than off. Alex was always there waiting for Piper to return to her after her gung-ho moments.
This season focused a lot on Corrections Officer Piscatella. We were given a bit of his backstory after Red and Blanca discovered that Piscatella had killed a prisoner at the men’s prison he previously worked at.
Piscatella fell in love with an inmate, and when said inmate was sexually and physically assaulted by another prisoner, the CO took matters into his own hands. The prisoner was handcuffed to the shower stall with hot water blasted on him. That was the last of Piscatella’s flashbacks, so we’re unsure if that was the prisoner that was killed or not.
When Red and Blanca convinced Piscatella to sneak into Litchfield, that’s when things started to get interesting. For some reason, Piscatella knew Red was behind most of the plotting, so he captured all of Red’s crew one by one.
Red, Blanca, Piper, Alex, Nicky and Boo were trapped in a closet and Piscatella started ripping out Red’s hair in front of them to “show them how weak she really is.” Alex found a pair of scissors and freed her hands from the duct tape, but once Piscatella got a hold of her, he broke her arm.
Thankfully, another group of inmates were hiding in the basement and its entrance had a clear view of the closet. Luckily, Gina had one of the many cell phones that were floating around during the riot and she recorded the moment Piscatella broke Alex’s arm. Gina uploaded the video to YouTube and it soon got over a million views.
Kubra Balik was the head of an international drug cartel. He showed Alex mercy many years prior when she failed to pick up a drug smuggler at an airport and she was later caught. Kubra killed Fahri, who worked with Alex instead of killing her.
Back in season 2, Alex and Piper were flown to Kubra’s trial and Alex testified against him. Unfortunately, Kubra was let go on a technicality, which is how and why he sent Aydin to kill Alex.
Analysis
Alex’s first thought when Gina put that video on YouTube wasn’t the fact that Kubra will now know she’s alive. She was so paranoid last season when she initially thought Kubra was sending someone to kill her — and then he eventually did.
How did her paranoia fade that easily? She may have stalled a bit with those photos she and Lolly sent to him, but once Kubra realized that Aydin fell off the face of the earth, wouldn’t he be suspicious?
Alex wanted to stay out of the riot action this season, which I think was a smart idea, but she brought attention to herself anyway. Especially when she admitted to being a murderer to several inmates — though she’s in prison on drug-related charges, not murder charges.
Maybe the OITNB writers decided to save it for season 6 because there was too much going on at the end with the S.W.A.T. team heading in to take down the rioters. Even if that’s the case, I feel there should have been at least a slight reaction from Alex when it was discovered that she was in a viral video on YouTube. Piper didn’t even mention anything.
Speaking of Piper, she is set to be released in three months. Will the aftermath of the Litchfield prison riot elongate her sentence? If her sentence is lengthened, then we may get another prison wedding!
Who else is thrilled now that #Vauseman Piper and Alex is engaged? Can't wait for the next season of #OITNB pic.twitter.com/6DgaQiAqH5
— ?CoinCryptoCollect (@CoinCryptoColle) June 12, 2017
Unfortunately, there’s the possibility that they’ll be sent to separate prisons like poor Flaca and Maritza. That would be one of the most devastating things for #Vauseman shippers.
YOU TELLING ME ALEX AND PIPER ARE POSSIBLY GONNA GET SEPARATED AFTER GETTING ENGAGED pic.twitter.com/1h21dlORDX
— sammy (@vauseaddict) June 9, 2017
Kubra will most likely make an appearance in Orange is the New Black season 6. This may lead into Alex’s storyline for the next two seasons — whether Piper is in the same prison with her or not. We can almost be certain that Alex won’t be killed off immediately after that finale because the Kubra storyline would be a missed opportunity.
Related: Orange is the New Black renewed through season 7!
The season 5 finale of Orange is the New Black may have been dull, but it left us with several unanswered questions.
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