'Orange is the New Black' binge recap: 'Tongue-Tied'
Spoiler alert! The following contains spoilers for Orange is the New Black season 3 episode 7. Already on to episode 8? Read our recap here.
Are you binge-watching season 3 of Orange is the New Black? We are too! You can read all our recaps here.
Leave it to Orange is the New Black to get a 60s hippie cult, corporate greed, panty fetishists, teenagers misbehaving, alien erotica and a burgeoning love triangle all into the space of one episode. A lesser show would have collapsed under the weight of so many outlandish plots, but "Tongue-Tied" handles it all smoothly.
Our flashbacks this time center around Norma, who, like Chang in the last episode, seems like an odd choice at first but is wonderfully fleshed out by the end. It turns out Norma doesn't speak because of a stutter, a quality that led her to join a cult in the 60s. She becomes one of the cult leader's many wives (the flashback to her "wedding" to him is shot marvelously -- for a time you can't tell that there are more brides than just her) and she's the only one to stick with him long after the romance of the cult has died. But when he turns on her, Norma is quick to push the man she's followed for years off a cliff.
Norma's flashbacks proved she's good at following, but also that she won't follow forever. This is good information to have as Red makes her way back into the kitchen and wants everything to go back to the way it was. Even after Gloria quits (after Ramos almost cut her own finger off and Gloria got in a fight with Sophia over their sons) it turns out Red doesn't have any real power, because the corporate overlords have a very exciting boil-in-bag meal plan all ready for them. It's the final straw for Norma, who leaves Red for good and goes to find her own followers, treating and touching them much the same way her own guru did all those years ago.
And in this episode's Piper-is-the-worst report, everybody's least favorite blonde Litchfield resident has a great new idea is to steal extra fabric from the Whispers sweatshop, turn it into panties, have the inmates wear them and, then, um, sell them. I just, I don't have a lot to say about it other than this plot device seems to be bringing her closer to her new buddy from the sweatshop, Stella, who is now just destined to get in between Piper and Alex. Also Alex is all about finding a "panty mule" to get the dirty contraband out into the world, and they're targeting a incompetent new guard who managed to pepper spray himself on his first day. This will work out well.
But let's not forget Crazy Eyes' weird sci-fi erotic story, because clearly it's something unforgettable. Berdie is offended, Taystee thinks it's bad but Poussey thinks it's kind of hot, so those are three very different opinions from three very different people (maybe Netflix can sell a book version of it a la Barney's Bro Code from How I Met Your Mother?). But it did have the bonus of getting Poussey and Crazy Eyes to be more civil to each other, so there's that. Can't we all just get along, guys?
7 down, 6 to go!