I didn't know beforehand either but the structure of the season is revealed in the review of the first episode. The situation would be about the same even if the reviews were staggered.

If the tattoo was fake then the boyfriend must have had an end game that we didn't get to see, which means the whole point of that flashback was left on the proverbial editing room floor.

Angie might not be such a mess if she had a backstory. I don't think all hope is lost for these two, but they need to be split up for a while.

I did feel a little like nothing had changed from last season's finale to this one. Theoretically SWAT could have swarmed in 20 minutes after a guard was shot if there were any kind of functional emergency/riot protocol.

SWAT should have come to this conclusion beforehand. They have a video of Piscatella torturing a group of tied up women yet when they sweep the prison to find him and a handful of prisoners missing they can't put two and two together? They could not have done very well in SWAT class. I learned more watching Quantico…

I had no memory of burns being discussed until I read it in the comments here; I wouldn't have been confused by the flashback otherwise. And it still makes no sense to me for the other guard to be "covering his own ass" after the fact when he allowed Piscatella to murder someone. He should have turned the water off…

That's what I was thinking. Her hair is wavy and usually pretty puffy (on the show). Those bangs are gonna be all over the place.

That's the same thing Lorna says to Vee after she slocks Red in season 2. Is this a little nod or are the writers drying up and recycling material?

I think about him every time I see Pennsatucky; if he hadn't moved away it would have changed the course of her life. :'(

When is Taystee wearing a wig? Linda's flashback wig looked like it came from Party City.

I thought it was pretty dark when Angie said "I've raped guys before", especially because of how casually she said it. It spoke to her character in a big way for me.

How could there even be such a scenario as an untrained member of a SWAT team? And one deployed to break up a prison riot? If this dude doesn't know what pepper bullets are or how they're used (or how to aim them without accidentally killing a tall person) then how is he in the field at all? This isn't the time for a…

If nothing else she untied him to save her girls knowing that SWAT was coming; if they'd seen Piscatella tied up there'd be very little hope for all her people to make it out unscathed.

Yeah, according to the lake escape saga anyone going through a hole in the fence should have nowhere to go. SWAT needs to sweep the whole property including the woods and the on-campus guard housing (like, duh?)

Pennsatucky's healthiest relationship is the one we see in her season 3 flashback with the inexplicably handsome and sincere son of an alcoholic, Nathan. It's in the same episode as her assault by Coates and is hands down my favorite flashback.

Taystee definitely passes as 18 for me and her mother is a believable 32. 32 is still young.

Technically you're 2% right.

I got the impression that their post-betrayal freeze out had an expiration date. Either way her mother never forsook her so she still has family.

I don't think Bayley's parents let him get on a bus. They probably sent him to his room as a part of their overly-lax handling of his trauma and literal cries for help then didn't notice when he took off.

Is it a spoiler that the riot reaches its breaking point in the penultimate episode of a season that follows the riot from start to finish?