I am still totally confused by how MCC could lose a guard and have no idea that it happened. Yes, private prison companies are incompetent, but they have totally forgotten a correctional officer. That seems a bit far-fetched, even for MCC.

* Judy King making friends with Luschek which upsets Healy. Healy forces Judy King to teach a basic cooking class to get her away from Luschek. Judy King refuses but Healy insists. The class goes well but King complains about Healy. Healy gets fired as Judy’s counselor but gets credit for having started the class.

* Piper continuing her insane fight with the Dominicans. Piper starts following Pidge and Ouija and has her Hawaiian “muscle” take panties forcibly from one of them. Maria and her crew were running an alternative panty business about as respectfully as you could considering Piper wasn’t defending her turf but Piper trying to muscle the Dominicans makes negative sense here.

I guess this is another one of those storylines I just love to hate. Piper is not tough, her only hope would be to garner enough goodwill and share the wealth enough that powerful people protected her enterprise.

To be 100% honest, Maria would have her beaten down and they would either make sure she was totally removed or would make her run their business for them.

* Sophia fighting back against being kept indefinitely in protective custody. If you have read my Season 5 coverage, this is a lot of why I have some antipathy towards Caputo. He likes to pretend he is a nice guy, but he knows keeping Sophia in solitary for her own protection is BS and he sacrificed her to get ahead at MCC.

Sophia floods her cell and then tries to light her cell on fire.

* One of the most disturbing of the many disturbing discussions between CO Donuts and Dogget about sexual assault.

* Aleida finding out she is likely to be released soon (which means she might be able to find and recover Daya’s kid from child protective services).

Lighting Your Cell On Fire

In Michigan, destroying your cell or damaging your cell can bring new charges. Flooding and burning you cell would likely bring serious charges (arson, endangering the lives of prisoners, etc.).

It is absolutely horrible that Sophia is in protective custody, but if she was protesting in this manner they would likely put her in a restraining chair and throw the book at her (a restraining chair prevents you from moving at all). Most likely they would also put a mask on her that would prevent her from biting or spitting at the CO’s.

She is between the proverbial rock and a hard place and the prison holds all the cards (this is why so many people get stuck in solitary for years at a time).

Also, that brick she got for food, that is a real thing. When you are in SHU you get bricks of food just like that.

The Donut Doggett Problem

This just keeps getting worse. Donuts explains to Doggett that it couldn’t have been rape because he told her that he loves her before doing it.

Seriously? I mean I am sure some people believe that, but come on.

As we learned from Mendez, any relationship between a CO and an inmate is by definition coerced (before we even get to the ‘crazy’ nonsense donuts is suggesting here). I guess I am just constantly confused by why this relationship is an ongoing thing?

What is the point of having Doggett constantly caught between the abuse and love? Yes, I get that this is how battered or abused women frequently get trapped emotionally in bad relationships but do we really need to see Doggett, someone who has been traumatized her entire life, revictimized by and aspiring to Donuts?

With Responsibility Comes Great Power

Just wanted to mention that Suzanne came up with a pretty good metaphor for the entire prison industry when she inverted the classic Spiderman mantra (With power comes great responsibility).

Unfortunately, responsibility is often created by attention and not by character.

Once I was caught, I took responsibility and worked very hard at trying to figure out and fix whatever had caused me to go so far off the rails of my life. But, while I was struggling and trying to deal with my problems prior to being arrested, it was the urgency of having to face what I had done that really woke me up to the urgency of my problems.