Wiley's character endured a lot over the course of Orange Is the New Black's second season. She suffered emotional abuse from her former friend Taystee and one terrible incident of physical abuse at the hands of Crazy Eyes (Uzo Aduba), all because of Season 2 newcomer and genuinely evil inmate Vee Parker (Lorraine Toussaint). Vee's strategic, exploitive behavior created a strain between Poussey and Taystee, pulling the latter into her controlling grip and leaving Poussey alienated, alone, and particularly sad after a scene in which Vee told Poussey that Taystee would never love her the way she wants.

Though Poussey was able to stand her ground in many difficult situations throughout the season, eventually, she was literally knocked down. After getting drunk by herself and finding Vee in the bathroom, Poussey decided to attack, but she couldn't do much damage before Vee's obedient mentee, Crazy Eyes, quickly pulled Poussey off of her surrogate mom, and, with Vee's permission, mercilessly beat her up, leaving her on the cold, wet bathroom floor. "It was me the whole time," said Wiley, who didn't have a stunt double for the violent scene. "The day before, we had rehearsals. My whole body was padded up. I looked like a little Michelin Man, and we're going through all the motions and we get exactly what's going to happen and I'm feeling great. I'm like, OK. I got this." Despite the practice, Wiley admitted the actual shoot was a challenge. "It was a hard day. It was a lot of takes. They were telling me at some point, 'You can have your stunt double,'" she recalled. "I was like, 'No, I want to do it.'"

"To be honest, I really think that Poussey getting beaten up allows her to see what Vee is capable of," Wiley added of her character's game-changing scene. "She sees that she's still standing at the end of the day, and she doesn't have any friends on her side, and I think she feels alone. She really just gets to a place where she doesn't care what will happen to her… I'm fucking in prison. The survival in prison is based on relationships. One of Poussey's lines is, 'You've got to have people.' If you're out there alone, anything can happen to you; you're vulnerable and I think she just gets to a place where she doesn't have anybody and she doesn't care. It's kind of sad."