OITNB S4 E10 “Bunny, Skull, Bunny, Skull” was about:

* Instead of a flashback, OITNB does a deep-dive into Aleida’s release from Litchfield. Aleida is released with nothing but her clothes, is picked up by Caesar’s other girlfriend, and finds out her nest egg was used without permission by her relatives.

* Daya’s adjustment to life without her Mother with her inside Litchfield. Gloria tries to keep her away from the Dominican gang in the beauty shop but Daya ignores her saying that she wants to be around people her own age. Daya offers to do nail art, including alternating nails with bunny, skull, bunny, skull.

* The continuing extra-judicial punishment of Blanca (who is being forced to stand on a table in the mess hall until she either apologizes or drops from exhaustion). The CO’s inform the rest of the inmates that if anyone helps Blanca they will be punished too.

Piper decides what is happening is inappropriate and takes it to Piscatella who tells her to take her complaint and shove it up her ass (more or less). Piper responds by giving Blanca food. CO Dixon sees Piper’s gesture and orders her to stand on the table next to Blanca.

* Sister Ingalls continuing attempts to acquire proof that Sophia is in the SHU. Things go horribly wrong when the cell phone she is hiding to take a picture of Sophia is discovered and confiscated.

Eventually, Caputo shows up and after ordering Sister Ingalls to remain in SHU, he takes the cell phone, takes a picture of Sophia himself, and then delivers the phone to Danny so that he can use it against MCC (Danny is now a prison reform activist). Danny tells Caputo to let Linda “the Sea Witch,” that he said hello.

* Red attempting to keep Nicky from using heroin by threatening all of the drug providers throughout the prison (including CO Dixon). Ultimately, Nicky appears to score marijuana from Luschek and maybe more, which infuriates Red.

* Maritza dealing with her horror after being forced to eat a baby mouse by CO Humps (who is apparently a totally insane psychopath). At one point, two of the other CO’s are shown talking about knowing that Humps is disturbed but also committing to back his insanity out of loyalty.

* Suzanne deciding to attempt to hook up with Kukudio again. Kukudio pretends to go along and then right as Suzanne is getting really excited, she stops abruptly as revenge for Suzanne walking out on her in the woods behind Litchfield (after everyone visited the Lake last season).

* Taystee convincing Caputo to let her show The Wiz on movie night. The playing of the movie almost starts a race war between the Black Girls and the Nazi’s. The CO’s ultimately stop the movie early causing tensions to increase even more.

During the increasing tensions, Cindy notices that Judy King leaves instead of standing with her and the rest of the African American girls.

No FOIA

As we talked about last week, private prison companies are often not under the same reporting requirements as State or Federally run prisons. As a result, abuses are much more easily covered up. If there is no Freedom of Information Act process, it becomes pretty hard to request the records of particular prisoners (like Sophia) or of disciplinary practices (like what the CO’s are doing to Blanca).