OITNB S4 E6 “Piece of Sh*t” is about:

* Luschek’s crisis of confidence in regards to his own douchebaggery. He feels guilty about what he did to Nichols (getting her shipped to Max when their drug-selling scheme almost got tied to him during a flash inspection of his office by Caputo).

He gets advice from Judy King and ends up visiting Nichols in Max (who does an amazing job telling him what he can do with his apology). Ultimately, Judy King pulls some strings and gets Nichols transferred back to Litchfield for Luschek but demands a sexual price from Luscheck.

* Nichols getting sober. In her time at Max, Nichols has gotten sober and is busy going about her daily business in janitorial until she is tasked with cleaning the SHU and runs into Sophia Burset.

Nichols gives Bursett a magazine which Sophia uses to take the staples and cut her own wrists. Nichols is called back to SHU to clean up the blood in Bursett’s cell which triggers her desire to relapse.

Nichols knows that in order to get drugs, she has to sexually service one of the CO’s. She does what is necessary to get the drugs just as we see that Caputo is approving her transfer back to Litchfield (sad parallelism with Luschek).

We also get to see quick glimpses of Taslitz (one of Red’s Golden Girls) and Stella (on the yard at max).

* Piper accidentally creating the Litchfield chapter of Aryan Nation. Now that chapter, which she created to protect her from the Latinas, has told the CO’s about the Latinas running a panty business. The CO’s start doing random searches for women wearing fancy panties and Piper and Boo are almost caught up in one of those searches. Boo tells Piper that she needs to do something so Piper plants a bunch of panties in Maria Mendoza’s bunk.

Maria gets told by Piscatella that he will recommend 2-3 more years in new charges are applied against her so now Piper is in real trouble (Maria also drops the information to Piscatella that Piper is also selling panties).

In other news, Piper is also trying to make peace with Vause (shocker).

* Caputo deciding to work with Linda from purchasing to get a series of classes (taught by the CO’s) approved by MCC. The classes will be designed to alleviate the boredom of prison and give the inmates something worth getting up for.

* Taystee, Cindy, and Suzanne coming up with a scheme to take pictures of Judy King to sell for money online (since Taystee has access to the internet in Caputo’s office). Eventually, they find out that Alison has a phone so Taystee negotiates a truce between Allison and Cindy so that the business can go forward.

* SoSo and Poussey’s relationship moving forward. SoSo and Poussey appear to be falling in love. The only hiccup seems to be that SoSo isn’t comfortable with the idea of giving Poussey oral pleasure (that was the best euphemism I could come up with).

The Piper Problem

I have been harping on this for a few weeks now but after the slow build over the first three seasons, Piper has really turned into a thoroughly selfish and unlikable character (I think even she knows she has become a terrible person).