Much like with the premiere where what stood out to me was just how unpredictable our lives are from the time we are small children, "Looks Blue, Tastes Red" connects the familial structures of these characters who have spent their lives on the margins with the institution that makes them feel simultaneously central and marginal through the give and take of day-to-day prison life. Admittedly, as much as I enjoyed the premiere and its choice to focus on Piper rather than relying on the TV trope of spending the entire premiere checking in with all the characters to see what they have or haven't been up to since last season, I'd be lying if I said this wasn't the better episode. Like the premiere, "Looks Blue Tastes Red" focuses primarily one character, Taystee (Danielle Brooks). However, it does so without forcing itself to wholly serve that one character. Instead, Taystee's story deepens her personally while also providing a thematic anchor for the episode. Orange is the New Black works best when it's chaotic, juggling a wide range of stories all with their smaller themes and ideas just kind of floating around. It's good to see Season 2 already hitting the ground running.
"Looks Blue, Tastes Red" solves one of the bigger problems with the flashbacks in the first episode. Besides being a bit on the nose, our brief trips back to Piper's youth didn't reveal anything important about the character that we didn't already know. Ideally, a flashback will give the audience insight into something formative about a particular character allowing us to not only better understand what they're going through in single episode, but also helping us to see who they are on a broader scale. With Taystee, we learn how she came to garner her nickname and get to see how someone who is clearly very intelligent and talented can wind in the system. After struggling for years in group homes, Taystee finally accepts the the sanctuary offered by a local heroin dealer Vee (Lorraine Toussaint), using her aptitude for mathematics to run the books and make supply runs. Eventually, she settles into an unconventional family that resides on the brink of stability. It's a life filled with arts and crafts, flax seed bread and salad bowls in one moment, and the funeral of her "brother," RJ, after he is gunned down by police in the next.
This origin story of sorts resonates back at the prison where Taystee is competing with a number of other inmates in a Mock Job Fair - it's a tryout/training for the world waiting for the women outside (a world to which Taystee has already failed to acclimate when she was released last season). Taystee desperately wants to win, partly because she has convinced herself based on hearsay from a previous victor that winning will lead to an actual job, partly because she knows she has the mathematical skill and rote memorization that legitimately make her a viable candidate for a good job. It's not really a surprise that the episode begins with a fair of a different kind - in this case a "Black Adoption Festival." In both, Taystee is under intense scrutiny and overwhelming pressure to make herself appealing. And in both, she's told there is something wrong with her (she is too old to be attractive to perspective parents and too curvy to win Best Dressed at the job fair, even though she chooses the same outfit that won last year). Her sole victory comes in the mock interview where she mainly uses a respectful tone and well thought out, comprehensive answers to beat Flaca who primarily relies on sexual advances to win. When Taystee does finally win, it's a brief glimpse at how her intelligence and skills might finally be valued. Unfortunately, too quickly is this hope dashed when the promise of a real job proves to be a lie at the same moment that Vee turns back up in her life, this time in orange.
In fact, the whole Mock Job Fair acts as one big lesson about the struggles of living within the prison system (a system we know to be corrupt from last season as well as from Figueroa's attempts this season to convince a reporter that the prison's money is going towards rehabilitating the prisoners rather than into Figueroa's pocket) where, as Taystee is essentially told in her final confrontation with Figueroa, there is no reward. "You do your best because that is what you're supposed to do," Figueroa tells her. Winning does not bring any advantages with it, nor does it grant you a better life. Leanna is told by the woman from Dress for Success that she would look great in a peach suit, but is then criticized and told the look is unflattering. Black Cindy is equally criticized for her loose fitting, burlap sack like dress, but it was the only plus-sized dress provided to her. Eventually Taystee complains enough to get 10 dollars of credit for the commissary, and she's happy that she has something - anything - to show for all her hard work. When a person enters prison, they lose everything they once had and what replaces it is only the hope of something coming along to make the long day-to-day worth it. It's like in an earlier scene where Vee tells Taystee that people don't have careers in their neighborhood. You get a job if you're lucky and you deal with it. But like in her confrontation with Figueroa (which also keeps with the family-prison connection when Figueroa tells Taystee, "I'm not your goddamn mother!"), Taystee can't accept the idea that there isn't something more out there. Because, deep down, she knows that she's capable of something much, much bigger.
But like I said earlier, "Looks Blue, Tastes Red" also benefits greatly from connecting the prison and familial structures together in a wide variety of different stories. Granted, some of these stories are stronger than others. Red struggling to accept her new role outside of running the kitchen staff, dealing with having no money (and greying roots) and eventually forming a bond with a group of older (scratch that, "mature") inmates featured some brilliantly subtle and emotionally resonant acting from the magnificent Kate Mulgrew. Likewise, I really loved the small scene between Leanne and another inmate where they talk about how peaceful things have been since Pennsatucky (their mother of sorts) has been gone. However, I wasn't particularly compelled by Daya struggling with pregnancy related constipation. I was equally unimpressed by Larry's father taking him to a gay bathhouse (because it was cheap!) and telling him to go out an get laid even though he's still pining after Piper. The cringe-worthy scene was only outdone by Larry going over to Piper's friend Polly's house where she tells him about her husband going on a vision quest and leaving her at home to take care of the baby - all the while her tits are hanging out of her nursing bra. It's fairly clear, or was presented as such, where this story line is going and all I can really say about that is BLAH. However, Larry trying to stick his penis in something aside, even with the lackluster constipation storyline, the theme of family - anchored by the seen of Taystee, Vee and RJ around the dinner table - is still present with Glorida and Aleida both trying to mother Daya during her pregnancy. What I love about these scenes is that the ideas they bring up go beyond the individual characters and touch upon the lives of those connected to them. It's there with Maria Ruiz whose baby daughter (and baby daddy) comes to visit her after she gave birth last reason, and it's there with Red whose son comes to see her and explains to her that the struggles she is facing are not the only ones plaguing their family.
While "Looks Blue, Tastes Red" wasn't perfect, it reminded me of what I love most about this show and the world it has created. While I enjoyed the trip to Chicago, I hadn't realized just how important knowing these characters is. While instances like Piper's new cellmates shitting four times a day or licking her face in the middle of the night were funny, they were funny in a broad sort of way. What's so wonderful about the laughs in this episode is the nuance we have from spending so much time with these characters. That nuance is what makes Crazy Eyes sharing her penchant for working with round objects and Big Boo's relationship with Little Boo getting too weird so great. It's also what makes Janae being told by the aptitude test that she'd be an impeccable professional athlete so heartbreaking. Even with characters that are utterly despicable like Pennsatucky and Healy, there's something nice about seeing them again. I think it's having that familiarity back. Even when it's Healy threatening Pennsatucky to cover up his own corruption or Pennsatucky extorting him in turn to get oral surgery, there's that feint aroma of home. That may be the ultimate prison-family connection. No matter how messed up a home this prison actually is, it's our home. And we're right back where we're supposed to be.
