Except for the swastika part- wrong century! It does remind me of "Tell your God to get ready for blood", however.

Thanks! And there are so many terrific Orange is the New Black/Deadwood comparisons! The similar themes of community, Piper and Bullock serving as "Trojan horse" protagonists who become supporting characters later on, while maintaining a lot of anti-heroic traits. Stuff for a thesis, the similarities between these…

Eh, I'm a fan of parallelism, and I think, at least in this case, the structural similarity emphasizes the thematic differences. Let's agree to disagree.

Agreed. This is one of my favorite episodes of the show, and it's a testament to this season that I could say that about several episodes!

I think this episode's branding sequence being the emotional opposite of last episode's sequence makes it justified. This episode's scene is arguably more powerful, as it's about redemption, rather than just pain.

One of the best scenes of an episode that's just filled with good ones- the secret crack meeting, Tiffany's scene with Donuts, Nicky and Lorna's confrontation, the window scene. What a piece of television.

“When God gives you a swastika, he opens a window- and then you remember, there is no God.”
Red has cemented her position as OITNB’s resident Al Swearengen.

Yeah, having now watched the whole first season, I think you're right about it being deliberate- the voiceover mantras are especially subversive, in that they're simultaneously comforting and bullshit. And I'll check out the commentary if I can, that sounds interesting!

I would prefer if the large amount of black actors is indicative of a turn towards diversity (we are talking about a film set in New York). Also, Zendaya's South African accent would be abysmal.

Eh, you might be the only one. Schilling's giving one of the best performances on the show to me, and certainly one of the most amusing and overtly comedic ones (I wish she could still be nominated in that category at the Emmys!).

Best flashbacks of the season so far, perhaps occasionally wandering towards cliché, but always buoyed by just how nice and personable Lolly is, with her darned adorable coffee stand grocery cart. Last season, back when the character was treated more predominantly as comic relief, it felt like Lori Petty was breaking…

Oh, I certainly thought that was a flashback, just relying on the fact that Luschek had been getting a larger focus this season, and no other regulars were in the scene!

I was not expecting a Luschek episode anytime soon, but here we are, this is a Luschek episode in bold. I enjoy the character a lot in spite of his numerous shortcomings, so I don't mind the focus; I don't think I would be that interested in a flashback episode, but what's here is fun.
I'm surprised by the rating here,…

Moby Dick, in all seriousness! Queequeg is just a joy of a character! I'm also roaming through Ryan North's second choose-your-own-adventure take on Shakespeare, Romeo and/or Juliet! Not as good as his Hamlet riff To Be or Not to Be, but still pretty fun and ingenious!

Having just finished the third season of Deadwood on Amazon (fantastic, of course, although easily the weakest season of the show) I'm watching the first season of Enlightened, also on Amazon, which seems to have disappeared from conversation once it was canceled after two short seasons, despite receiving a lot of…

This may be the first time I've really enjoyed an Aleida-Daya plotline, perhaps because of the lack of Bennett, perhaps because of the surplus of Gloria Mendoza commentary ("I'm like Columbo, but with two eyes and a better ass").

I agree that that scene did make me want to yell at Larry a lot, although I lost sympathy for him as early as the second episode, "Tit Punch", in which he watches Mad Men without Piper; my love of that show is so all-encompassing that if my partner watched it without me in such a situation, such an incident would end…

Not that Larry handling his #GirlProblems was a horrible comparison to have, as it really nailed into the coffin how we've been pushed into disliking this character that's dealing with more surface problems, just like a lot of the viewers. That comparison was just better in smaller doses- I didn't really want to see…

A good, more low-key episode, continuing a very solid streak of episodes for OITNB; it's perhaps ranks among the funniest of the series (Taystee the secretary and the dirty-talk visiting hour, after all). Fascinating character study of Brook Soso in this episode, not something I knew I needed, but here it is, and it's…

In Terms of Television:
I watched the newest season of Orange is the New Black, which I'd argue is above and beyond the best season of the show, although that just might be a reaction to the beautiful final episode more than anything else. Definitely one of the better television seasons of the year though, I'd probably…