The "Imaginary Enemies" episode covers:

* Miss Claudette's entire backstory from when she arrived in this country as an immigrant all the way to when she committed the crime that landed her in prison (she was running a cleaning service that hired immigrants, and murdered a client who abused one of her young workers - the episode leaves a heavy hint that she was also abused while she was working for the same service as a young girl).

* Piper Chapman's continued adjustment to prison life including her gradual acceptance of why she is in prison and learning how to stand up for herself.

* The constant experience that most inmates share of feeling completely vulnerable and insecure at all times while in prison.

5. "You Clean The Piss"

Miss Claudette (Michelle Hurst) might seem to be a bit extreme in her expectations of cube cleanliness, but her perspective is pretty typical. Most people in prison are extreme germaphobes and neat freaks.

In every "cube" that I was ever placed in, we cleaned the whole "cube" thoroughly from top to bottom several times a week.

Every unit provides cleaning supplies and schedules daily times when you can use them.

People in prison are often germaphobes partially because of ignorance of how particular diseases are communicated. But also, with so many people packed in and the constant threat of transmission between inmates, they have concerns that are not entirely irrational.

Many of the inmates that I was housed with wouldn't even touch a door handle without first covering their hands (usually with the sleeve of their coat).

People in prison are often neat freaks because when everything you own in the world has been reduced to what you can fit into a duffel bag or a footlocker, you take much better care of the few things that you "own."

Also, when you own very little, and you are constantly told by guards and society that you are basically a sub-human animal, you start to try to project pride and find dignity in the few things and spaces that are left available to you.

If that means using the unit iron to put a crease in your prison blues, you put a crease in your blues.

Now I am not saying that everyone deals with prison the same way (some people go the opposite way and embrace the anarchism) but many people put a great deal of energy into making sure that their bodies (and the small corner of the world that they still have some control over) look presentable every day.

Most of the people that I ever bunked with would have been furious about the piss incident (in fact, Suzanne (Uzo Aduba) would likely have been in trouble for doing that too because she was disrespecting Miss Claudette). And, like Miss Claudette, one of the big rules we always had in my cubes was "leave your drama out of the cube."

Claudette, in fairness, is much nicer to Piper (Taylor Schilling) than most inmates would have been. Your cube and bunk are your home, it is almost the only small promise of relative peace that you still have in prison (there is a reason inmates refer to their bunk's as their "house").

Oh, also, the part at the end where Claudette smiles because Piper stands up for herself is real too. If there is one absolute rule in prison it is that you have to stand up for yourself. Nobody who will not stand up for themselves gets respect in prison.

4. "I Asked to be put in the Education Program"

Piper is surprised when she finds herself assigned a job in the electrical repair shop instead of the education program (she was a TA in college apparently).

My experience was very similar to Piper's.

When I reached prison I had an MA in International Relations and 20 years of experience coaching and teaching at the college level.

One of the things I repeatedly told myself before reaching prison was "at least I will be able to help other people further their education."

Nope.

I was in prison for three years and helped officially teach exactly ZERO people.

Later in the episode, Counselor Healy (Michael Harney) informs Piper that she was assigned to electrical instead of education because mold in the GRE classroom had shut down the education program (GRE educational programs are usually a legislative requirement so it is unlikely that they would shut the program down).

But the real reason someone like Piper probably wouldn't have gotten assigned to either Electrical Shop or Education is simple. She was a new inmate. New inmates don't get skilled positions (there are waiting lists).

Skilled labor earns a higher prison wage than unskilled labor, so there is a great deal of competition for the skilled positions (with some skilled positions, the prison doesn't have the capacity to train inmates so someone new can jump the line but for most positions, there is a waiting list).

I remained on the waiting list to become a tutor for my full three years (despite 20 years of teaching experience).

Just for the record, most new inmates start in janitorial positions.

I was a unit porter for almost my entire time in prison (I was an assistant to a blind inmate for my last 6 months). This means that I cleaned bathrooms for close to two years (eventually, I moved up to cleaning baseboards and walls in the unit).

To be honest, I really didn't mind.

There are some disgusting aspects of cleaning prison bathrooms but it is honest work and when you do a good job, everyone appreciates it (everyone has to use the bathroom).

I did unofficially tutor people all the time, I worked with people on writing skills, basic math skills, and even helped them write letters home. But, it would have been nice to use my skills to help the widest number of people.

Keeping qualified people out of the jobs that they are most qualified for seems like a high opportunity cost of paying different rates for different skills.

As for the electrical shop at Litchfield. They sure seem to have a surprisingly high number of electrical trainees for a prison.

In Michigan, a few prisoners work with each of the civilian electrician contracted by the MDOC.

Basically, the inmates follow their electrician around the compound working their way down a daily repairs list.

When there is a problem, he or she tells them how to fix it and gives them the tools and supervises them making the fix (they would bring big rolling tool and equipment boxes with them).

After something like the "screwdriver incident" happened, the warden or ranking duty officer would have likely quarantined (and strip-searched) all of the inmates working in the electrical shop, canceled all of the current and future yard activities, and instituted a full search of the premises until that screwdriver was found.

And, yes, the cube search where Mendez (Pablo Schreiber) throws everything Claudette and Piper own all over their room is pretty accurate (some officers take great joy in showing you how easily they can upend your entire life).

What Caputo (Nick Sandow) said was also right. A screwdriver would be considered a weapon (dangerous contraband) and would (potentially) add new charges to an inmates jacket (you still would have to go through the legal process and be convicted of the new crime, but there is a much lower bar for being convicted of a new crime when you are already in prison).

Caputo also had one of the all-time great lines of official spin in prison history here when he said, "if you cooperate, it shows me that you have nothing to hide."

Trust me, in prison, the guilty parties are almost never the people left holding the bag.

3. "Is the 'SHU' Really That Bad?"

Piper almost immediately realizes how stupid this question was, so I will cut her a break here.

But if you were wondering, Solitary is AWFUL.

Also, SHU stands for "Security Housing Unit" aka the place where inmates are kept in solitary confinement