“Navigating adult female friendships is so complicated!” Suzanne (Uzo Aduba) laments as she tries to understand the inner workings of her new surroundings. If Litchfield Penitentiary had its fair share of interpersonal complications — and that’s putting it lightly — then one can only imagine what drama Litchfield Max will bring.
According to the official press release, the sixth season of Jenji Kohan’s “Orange Is the New Black” will pick up one week after emergency response teams finally overpowered Litchfield’s inmate riot. The fifth season’s finale left us wondering where, exactly, each character would end up.
At the start of the new season, we get our answer — for some characters, that is. While Suzanne, Piper (Taylor Schilling), Taystee (Danielle Brooks), and Red (Kate Mulgrew) adjust to maximum security, the fate of others remains unclear. “Where’s Alex?” Piper asks. “Don’t you think it’s weird we’re the only people in here?”
From the beginning, “Orange Is the New Black” has effectively balanced its focus between the ensemble and the individual, highlighting each prisoner’s past and how it weaves into a larger, dysfunctional prison family.
If there’s one thing that this trailer makes clear, it’s that this family will be tested harder than it ever has before, both by other inmates and the judicial system. As they’re left to consider the trade between allegiance and plea bargains, the girls will be left asking both each other and themselves “whose team [they’re] really on.”
Season 6 of “Orange Is the New Black” hits Netflix July 27.
