"You have to remember, Taystee has probably never been given a birthday cake and that probably sparks a memory with Taystee that's connected with Vee," Brooks said of the scene in which Vee lures Taystee's friends into her clutches with some contraband confection. "Maybe Vee was the first one to do things like that for Taystee. I think it's more than just a cake. For me, there's a connection there with a mother baking for her daughter. I feel like that cake stood for a memory in Taystee's head of things that Vee would probably do for her when she knows Taystee's not trusting her."

It's quite obvious to viewers, and some inmates (Taystee's best friend Poussey most of all), how toxic Vee is from the beginning. But Taystee is unable to separate her past from her present. The woman that gave her the nickname she's known for, that finally created a "forever family" for the abandoned child, that cooked for her and put a roof over her head, is a hard person to move on from.

"She's known Vee for over 15 years and... as many times Vee has proven herself to not be the best, she's also proven herself to be somewhat of a mother figure," Brooks explained. "Taystee's in need of that. She's longing for a mother, a place, a home, a family. And she gave that to her for over 15 years. So, I think that's what outweighs it with Poussey and it kind of got lost on Taystee once Poussey hit on her. I think that threw her off a little bit and Vee got in her head right at that moment when she was questioning where she wanted to go with the friendship with Poussey."

After Poussey kisses Taystee, it alienates the best friends, leaving just the right amount of room for Vee to make her move and sabotage that relationship. "Taystee will never love you," Vee tells Poussey slowly and menacingly. "She will never love you. Not the way you want."

Though it takes the length of Orange's second season for Taystee — and eventually Black Cindy (Adrienne C. Moore) and Watson (Vicky Jeudy) — to see Vee for who she truly is, eventually that flip does switch. Ironically, it's a blackout in Season 2's penultimate episode, "It Was the Change," that helps Taystee finally see the light during an altercation with Poussey that almost gets physical. "This is a moment where everyone has turned their back on Taystee: Black Cindy, Crazy Eyes [Uzo Aduba], Watson, Vee, everyone is turning their back on her. And Taystee is right in Poussey's face, about to punch her and possibly kill her. But she has heart enough to not even fight her back and I feel like that's the moment Taystee realized, I know where my loyalties are," Brooks explained.

"Poussey, at the end of the day, will forgive Taystee for her misjudgment and her wrongdoings. I feel like that's the moment where Poussey shows her loyalty to Taystee and that's where Taystee realizes how ugly she's been to her friend. In that moment, she's debating on hitting her and looking in Poussey's eyes and seeing how hurt she was, and seeing how good of a friend she's been to her, and how loyal she's been to her by not even trying to fight her back, and still being there and still willing to talk to her, even when she's wrong."