I've senza every sort of question/topica about the last season.. but a very important one is missin: Taystee... dude What do you think about that? And What about Cindy and the betray?
That storyline is rough for me, tbh. I completely understand why they keep giving Danielle Brooks such central, heavy material because she is a powerhouse and she knocks it out of the park every time. And there are aspects of it that are really powerful. But i also have some issues with it.
One element is the extent of Caputo’s involvement. Even though to an extent it’s nice to see her have an advocate, and I do think it makes sense to have some people within that side of the prison system to become disillusioned with it, especially after the season ¾ parade of soulless guards who lacked all humanity. At the same time, I had the thought that the Taystee/Caputo storyline reminded me of a bad, overwrought White Savior drama from the late 90′s/early 2000s, in which the black character is representative of both goodness and victimhood and facilitates a Privileged White Man’s change of heart and moral redemption. It’s probably not completely fair to say it was more about Caputo than Taystee, but sometimes it felt that way because he was the one having a journey really. If that makes sense?
Another thing is that part of setting up the murder charge felt extremely convoluted. Once it clear they were going to pin Piscatella’s murder on someone, the plot mechanics felt so obvious and orchestrated. Especially the fact that Taystee had held the gun to Piscatella (which was a big and powerful moment but also felt somewhat theatrical to me? In a literal sense, it felt like it was happening onstage), thus getting her fingerprints on it. Between that, and just the fact that Piscatella was killed anyway (though not even by those bullets) and that the men who killed him orchestrated a cover up….they had to bend over backwards to make sure Taystee got the shittiest possible break. They made so sure it was hopeless, dismissing the power of the medical examiners testimony, never bringing up the video of Piscatella torturing inmates - not that that could have been used to explain his death by shooting, but it still feels strange that it wasn’t part of the conversation at all. Even during Piper’s interrogation they ask her why they had Piscatella in the pool in the first place. Granted, Piper’s pretty much in a daze, blaming Red for Alex’s deaeth, but theoretically Nicky and Red and Frieda would have been asked the same question, and it’s such an easy answer to be like “Well he literally took hostages and was torturing us and there’s video proof of that that was on the news”. Obviously Taystee wasn’t even involved in that aspect, but that part of the narrative goes a long way to explain why he was tied up in the pool in the first place….not just brought there to be killed. The fact that it wasn’t brought up across the board in the season felt like them making sure the narrative of his supposed murder was super simplified.
Basically, I think they could have gotten the same effective storytelling across just by making Taystee a major scapegoat for the riot. The extra ten years Maria and Red got is already a big deal (though it didn’t necessarily feel like it? Probably because the show had turned its true attention to the murder case). Taystee was really the face of the riot and the biggest advocate for it, but for the right reasons - improving conditions and getting justice for Poussey. To see her face the most consequences for it, to have to grapple that she not only made no headway with her really important and well intentioned goals, but has now gotten a massive amount of more time herself….that’s already heartbreaking. That’s already indicative of how relentless and unfair the system is. She could have plausibly been facing more additional time than Red or Maria, and she still could have still gone to trial instead of taking a plea because she decided that would be a way to continue to get Poussey’s name and the real reasons behind the riot out there, to have a chance to have her voice heard. And it still could have gone badly and it still would have been awful and painful to watch. But in my opinion, that would have been more effective than seeing her go down for a murder she had nothing to do with but was under reasonable suspicion for due to a series of unlikely and horribly unlucky events.
That said, I think Cindy’s ‘betrayal’ of her, and Cindy’s subsequent guilt, was one of the most interesting aspects of the story. I really liked the whole prisoner’s dilemma interrogations set up, the constant pressure to give up someone else to save yourself. Cindy having to go against Taystee, and Nicky having to go against Red, were both brutal to watch. All these people were on the same side, but the only way to keep themselves from facing consequences was to put the blame on someone else. In both of those cases (the most personal and thus emotional of the ‘betrayals’), it felt like such an unthinkable thing but is still set up in a way where it’s so understandable. They barely have a choice, and they’re pushed into strengthening the cases that have already been built. The way the prison forces selfishness like that is a really effective commentary in my opinion. Their backs are against the wall and they’re left with so few options, and the best case scenario for them is that they’re left with terrible guilt and the knowledge that they really made things worse for someone they care about.
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