Piper & Alex: A Love Story Across Prison Gates
The long-distance relationship strains Piper's marriage to Alex once she is out of prison, and they both wind up cheating on one another. Alex has an affair with CO McCullough, who gets enraged and vindictive when things break up. Alex chooses to leave Piper free after McCullough asks that Alex be sent to an Ohio prison; she tells her they need to split ways.
After considerable thought on whether to follow Alex or pursue a relationship with her new love interest, Zelda, Piper ends up relocating to Ohio so she may be with Alex. She starts learning Civil Procedure and lands a job at a cafe. They can actually hold hands in the new prison since the visiting room lacks a wall separating them. Alex still has three years left on her sentence at this time; they cannot truly be together.
Taystee: An Exaltation of Loss and Hope
Taystee's sole goal for most of season 7 is death by suicide. She is no more a cheerful, vivacious young woman after being falsely accused of Piscatella's murder and sentenced to life in jail. She asks Daya for enough narcotics to commit suicide, but the expensive cost delays things. When it seems like a notebook written by Suzanne, detailing how Piscatella actually died, there is a fleeting hope for Taystee's innocence; nevertheless, her attorney advises her it is too fragile as proof.
Finding Pennsatucky's body throws Taystee's suicide attempt off course. She is about to kill herself. She is preparing to attempt once again later when she comes into an envelope from Tamika with the GED certificates for every student she coached. She discovers Pennsatucky obtained her GED and passed the test indeed.
Red: A Death for a Queen
Introduced in Orange Is The New Black season 1 as a formidable den mother and the real Queen of Litchfield, Galina "Red" Reznikov is brought low when she is forced to spend long time in SHU. Early-onset dementia results from the combination of this isolation and a severe urinary tract infection creating a delirium. Red's memory fails her more and more over Orange is the New Black's last season until she finds she cannot even remember how to cook.
She is moved to B-Block, sometimes known as "Florida," where Litchfield's mentally ill and elderly inmates wind up. She runs across her former "friend" Frieda Berlin there, but she doesn't recall Frieda's betrayal. She introduces herself as though they had never met. Red recalls Frieda and tries to assault her eventually, but Frieda hides in her cage and tells she'll stay there till Red forgets her once more.
Morello: The Grieving Mother
Red isn't the only primary character who ends up in Florida. In season 6, Lorna discovers from a grieving Vinnie that their son Sterling passed away from pneumonia following birth of a baby boy. Lorna refuses to accept reality and keeps insisting her kid is alive, even setting up Instagram accounts for him using images of newborns she comes upon on the internet. Unable to stand this, Vinnie chooses to divorce her; Morello reads this as his removing her kid.
Over Orange Is The New Black season 7, her mental health suffers. Nicky tries so hard to help her, but she finally realizes she cannot keep Lorna safe. Lorna is sent to B-Block after she snaps at another inmate—the last straw. Red is cradling her like a baby and singing her a lullaby while Morello sucks her thumb, the last time she is seen.
Nicky: Mothers to the Missing
After seeking Red for guidance on how to look after people behind bars, Nicky steps in as the new "Prison Mom" as Red is retiring. She is in the kitchen assisting a drug-addled convict through her detox while donning red lipstick. After spent the last season battling to keep too many plates spinning - her new partner, Red's dementia, and Morello's breakdown - Nicky now seems to accept her new job, tending to ladies who need it and creating her own family.
Since her time on Orange is the New Black, Natasha Lyonne has become a tremendous star. She truly broke out with her starring performance in the Netflix series Russian Doll from 2019 to 2022, even while that series helped her establish herself. Starting in 2023, she then kept developing her name with the original Peacock series Poker Face. She also joined on the MCU version of The Fantastic Four.
Maritza: a Deportation to the Unknown
Orange's New Black season 7's Maritza's detention by ICE while hanging out at a bar since she lacks her ID is among the most sad narratives of the show. She runs across Blanca Flores at the ICE detention center; she lost her Green Card after pleading guilty to planning the disturbances. Maritza also runs across Flaca when a group of Litchfield prisoners are brought in to run the kitchen at the ICE detention center. She asks her to help prove she is an American citizen.
When Flaca does at last get in touch with Maritza's mother, she discovers that Maritza was born in Colombia rather than the United States. When Maritza hands along the number for a company that offers ICE detainees legal assistance, initially there is hope. But Maritza's fate is sealed by a deed of compassion when she notes as many copies of the number as feasible and distributes them to the other women living in the institution.
Flaca: An Inheritance of Courtesy
Maritza's expulsion strikes no one more severely than her best friend Flaca. Gloria starts trying to help the Litchfield ladies reach their families by noting their names and phone numbers and using her cell phone to try to get in touch with them as the women work in the kitchen. When she smuggles a phone into the ICE detention facility so Karla, a lady being deported to El Salvador, may use it to say goodbye to her sons one last time, this finally puts her in hot water.
Saying that it's what Maritza would want her to do, Flaca pledges to take over the work Gloria was doing after she leaves prison. As women queue up with lunch plates, she picks notes from them telling them she will do her best to locate their family but she cannot promise anything.
Ruiz: The Reunion of a Mother
Maria Ruiz, who first showed up in Orange is the New Black season 1 and was quite pregnant, had her kid and was practically split from her right away. When her boyfriend, Yadriel, announced he wouldn be bringing baby Pepa for no more trips to the prison because he didn't want her to see her mother behind bars, she experienced another grief. Ruiz is naturally enraged when Yadriel admits in season 7 that he has begun courting another woman—also known as Maria.
With Joe Caputo's restorative justice program, nevertheless, she strives to grow personally. She eventually apologizes to Yadriel and asks whether he might begin bringing Pepa back to see her once more. He agrees, and in Ruiz's last scene she alternately reads a picture book called Mi Burro, Mi Burro to Pepa in the visiting room with "New Maria."
Aleida: A Families Divided
Once a sweetheart who enjoyed sketching anime character images, Dayanara Diaz has changed drastically at the end of Orange is the New Black. Worse, she hires her 13-year-old sister Eva to assist in drug smuggling into the jail; she is the drug kingpin of Litchfield and herself is hooked to drugs. Aleida is released from prison but ends up back behind bars when she finds out that Eva has been dating a drug dealer twice her age and goes on a violent rampage at the dealer's house.
When she learns Daya roped Eva into her drug operation, there is a fierce confrontation between the relatives. After Daya asks Aleida if she knows what it's like to kill someone, Aleida punches her daughter in the throat, jumps on top of her, and starts to throttle her, saying that she might be about to find out. The outcome of this fight isn't shown, but it's possible that Aleida ended up killing Daya in order to protect her younger daughter.
Mendoza: The Freedom of a Mother
One of the happier endings in Orange is the New Black is that of Gloria Mendoza, who comes close to losing her release date over the contraband phone she smuggled into the ICE detainment facility. In a rare act of selflessness, Luschek (who is still reeling with guilt over his role in Pennsatucky's death) confesses to smuggling phones into Litchfield and says that he was forcing the women to smuggle them into the ICE facility.
He asks that Gloria be spared from any punishment before he himself is fired on the spot. His gambit pays off; Gloria is released from prison, reunited with her kids, and meets her grandchild. While unpacking things she finds the picture book Mi Burro, Mi Burro, which she gifts to Ruiz.
Black Cindy: Finding Redemption
In Orange is the New Black season 6, Black Cindy testified that Taystee murdered Piscatella in exchange for early release. Taystee gets her revenge when, shortly before Cindy is released, she sends a letter to Cindy's daughter revealing that the woman she believes is her mother is actually her grandmother, and her "sister" Cindy is her real mother.
This bombshell causes Cindy to move out of her mom's house and briefly become homeless. After reaching her lowest point, Cindy resolves once again to do better and meets her daughter, Monica, and mother at a fast-food restaurant, promising that from now on, she will show up and be there for Monica.
Flores: Love Knows No Distance
During her time in ICE custody, Flores sees many women deported, including Maritza, Karla, and Nicky's new girlfriend, Shani. It seems like her own case is hopeless, but Karla helps her by telling her to ask for a stay of removal to get her criminal conviction overturned - because she wasn't told it would affect her Green Card status.
Amazingly, she succeeds in fighting her conviction and is released as a free woman with a Green Card. However, the love of her life, Diablo, has been deported to Honduras. Despite having the option to stay in the United States, Flores instead chooses to go to the "murder capital of the world" to be with Diablo, and the two of them have a happy reunion at the airport.
Suzanne: Embracing Imperfection
Introduced as "Crazy Eyes" in Orange is the New Black season 1, Suzanne ironically becomes one of the most stable characters by the end of season 7. She becomes Mayor of "New Cluck City" (the name for the prison's new chicken enrichment program) and takes charge of caring for a group of a dozen chickens. She gains her own experience in crime and punishment when an "immigrant chicken" (the rogue chicken that wanders around Litchfield) makes its way into the coop, and another chicken shows up dead.
At first, Suzanne imprisons the new chicken, but when another chicken dies, she puts them all in "chicken SHU" to stop the violence. The chicken program becomes a microcosm of the larger prison industrial complex, where Suzanne and Lolly reflect on the tricky nature of chicken criminal justice.
Sophia: A Life Beyond Bars
As Piper is agonizing over her relationship with Alex, she gets a surprise bit of advice from none other than Sophia Burset, who was released from Litchfield at the end of season 6. She shows up for a parole appointment immediately after Piper's, and upon learning Piper has a gala to go to, she insists on fixing her hair beforehand. Burset has opened up her own hair salon, Vanity Hair by Sophia. While Piper is in the chair, Sophia advises her to consider letting go of her life in prison and putting it behind her.
Laverne Cox became the first transgender person nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for acting on Orange is the New Black. Since that show, Cox earned roles in The Blacklist, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Deat White People, and Inventing Anna. She also had movie roles in Bad Hair, Promising Young Woman, and Jolt.
Orange is the New Black's Final Farewell
At the very end of Orange in the New Black's season finale, the show catches up with characters who were transferred after the prison riot and others who weren't shown for a while. Here's what happened to some of the other old Litchfield inmates - and those in charge of watching over them.
In many ways, Orange is the New Black's final season was the darkest and saddest, but it ends on a hopeful note as Piper reflects on how she still loves to be clean — even though the meaning of that word has changed for her. Some characters end up in tragic places, but those who survive at least don't end up alone.
