Orange Is The New Black season 6, episode 5 recap: ‘Mischief Mischief’

Orange Is The New Black presents Mischief Night–different day, worse problems.

Orange Is The New Black gave us the heebie-jeebies in this episode by having the most horrible prank–releasing rats into the prison kitchen. Yes, rats. The image of them scurrying around and up the clothes of the inmates is still something we can’t shake off and is still giving us goosebumps as we write this review.

Basically, Mischief Night allows the different Blocks to torture one another through whatever means necessary, and the D and C Blocks go all out in the name of this prank-filled day (in the outside world, everyone is celebrating Halloween).

Mischief Night also kicks off the first day of the inmate fantasy draft (seriously, this isn’t a thing in real life, is it?), and each CO is keeping an eye on their picks to “rack up the points”. Some go as far as coercing inmates to create situations that will land them the most possible points (i.e.- trading Piper’s tooth for her creating an altercation with Ruiz).

Credit: Netflix

Speaking of Ruiz, she is not doing so hot in this episode and is completely alienated after Blanca starts telling everyone Ruiz is responsible for releasing the guards during the riot. She reaches her wit’s end by the end of the episode, and while on bathroom duty, someone shoves her head into a toilet, because why not, let’s torture everyone until they break.

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In “Florida”, Frieda grows suspicious when a pack of shivs falls out of Suzanne’s pockets. Is someone trying to hurt her (aka Carol)? While she wasn’t game for being Suzanne’s roommate before, this discovery convinces her to make that request.

Another major thing happens in this episode, but we’ll get to that in a second. Can we please take a moment to vent about Pennsatucky and Coates? It’s so unnerving to see her trying to escape with her rapist, and then even more jarring when he loses his temper with her. This dynamic is absurd, and when she finally decides to ditch him and turn herself in, it is rather the momentous occasion.

And to backtrack a little, she decides to turn herself in after a nationwide APB is put out for her arrest. Linda and Fig realized the inmate count was off which ultimately led to the discovery of Pennsatucky being M.I.A. Speaking of Linda, she really dug her nails in deep when it came to Caputo in this episode.

When Caputo came to her asking for help with Taystee’s case, she denied him flat-out and then told him he has to take a job in Missouri as the warden. If he refuses, she will file a lawsuit against him for not pulling her out of prison when he knew she was a civilian. It looks like Taystee is on her own, and it’s not looking too hot for her on Orange Is The New Black.