The crazier Piper gets, the more I love her

So apparently, a lot of people don’t like Piper, which I hadn’t realized. I, personally, never had an issue with her. She was the perfect character to introduce us into this world, she was realistic in the way that she broke down when she couldn’t navigate this new world.

Originally posted by devmeg

This might be an unpopular opinion, but the more Piper starts to really lose her mind throughout the seasons, as she tries so hard to make this prison feel like a real part of her life and not just a grey area she hoped to forget when she’s out, the more of what I believe to be the real Piper, starts to come out.

Piper has been stuck in this idea of what her life should look like, what adulthood should look like, based on her parents and her upbringing. When she first met Alex, their relationship was a sort of rebellion against that image. She carried the drugs because of her love for Alex yes, but also, probably, because she wanted to do something that was against the rules.

Originally posted by eivorswolfkissed

Watching Piper walk into this prison, thinking she doesn’t belong there, seeing herself as so different from the rest of the people surrounding herself, is exactly what we, as the audience feel when the show first starts. It’s scary and we have no idea what these people have done or will do. But, the further we get into the show, Piper realizes that she’s just like everyone else in there, that she did break the law and that she deserves to be in there just like everyone else.

It’s during this transition that the show stops being about Piper. When piper gets ‘dark’ and really starts to seemingly lose her mind, with the panty business, with the gangsta vibes, she really stops being the main character. It’s no longer about her, it’s about the prison and the people in it as a whole.

Originally posted by total-night-mar

So in conclusion, I love Piper, and I love the development she goes through during the six seasons we’ve gotten to see. I have heard that in the next season, the final season that is, Piper becomes a more prominent character again. I feel like that only makes sense, considering we started this journey following piper into the prison, we leave the show as piper starts her life again, but as a completely different version of herself.

Originally posted by eivorswolfkissed

A Summary of the Season 6 bluray extras:

Gag Reel

Featurette Litchfield to the Max (interviews with cast and crew) | Part 1 | Part 2

Commentary for episode 8, “Gordons”, with Sian Heder (director), Vega Santamaria (writer), Laura Gomez (Blanca) and Susan Heyward (Tamika).

• They all love the theme song.
• The new set made everyone feel claustrophobic. Not just the cast, but the writers and the crew, they didn’t have the freedom to move around that the old Litchfield offered.
• Sian felt like she came back to her family (she left the show after S3).
• Daniela (Zirconia) broke her leg while kickboxing but her character was supposed to be injured in the other leg. She showed up on set with a cast on her opposite leg and there were a lot of discussions about how they’d deal with that and if the fans were going to notice.
• Danielle was actually smoking that blunt (Sian: “not real, of course”), by the end of it she had tears streaming down her face, her throat was closing. The scene where they’re stoned and dancing around was improvised by Danielle and Susan.
• Susan and Danielle Brooks knew each other before OITNB, they went to the same art high school in South Carolina, and that translates into the relationship their characters have.
• Laura Gomez also knew Selenis from theater, and that friendship translated on screen as well.
• Alex coming into Piper’s bunk, at first it was decided Laura had to stay by the door to abide by max rules, they tried to keep her with one foot by the door. (unsuccessfully lol)
• The “I told you she was a wily no-goodnik” line was added by Jenji.
• Taylor and Laura have developed such a great rapport over the years that by now their characters back and forth truly feels like they are an old married couple.
• They switched a lot of extras because most of the times some of them looked like they couldn’t even hurt a fly and now in max they needed people that looked tougher.
• The writers’ room enjoyed how well received Carol & Barb were by fans.
• The Nicky and Blanca insemination storyline was the writer’s way to try to get back at some of the fun they had at minimum where some of the old crew was always coming up with some hair brained scheme.
• Sian had to direct Laura G and Natasha in the insemination scene right after Lionsgate made them spend an hour having sexual harassment training.
• By this time in the season they missed writing scenes between Nicky and Red, it wasn’t easy to get them together because of max, so that scene was a little moment to tide them over until Nicky and Red are able to cross paths again.
• Matt Peters was stressed about the scene where he had to dance, so much that some of the writers asked Jenji and Tara to bring someone to give him dance lessons but Jenji refused, said everyone should come up with their own moves in that scene.
• They didn’t want to make Aleida’s storyline of getting involved with a pyramid scheme a case of just “look at Aleida’s bad idea”, they wanted to show how someone who’s struggling with employment or trying to make ends meet would look at it like a good solution and get all caught up in it.
• The scene with Taystee and her lawyer was filmed in a real prison and there were times when a bell would ring and they had to stop what they were doing, close themselves into a room and duck, because actual prisoners were walking through that hall.
• Sian Heder: “There’s always been a line walked by this show where it’s never been didactic, the fear of writing a prison show is that you’re saying something about prison or you’re basically offering a whole political commentary on the state of the prison system, and what the show’s done so well is being incredibly entertaining and kind of back you into those issues without you even knowing you got there.” She was moved by the speech, by the writing and Danielle’s performance.
• Vera, Sian and some of the actors got trapped in a real prison, they wandered off from where they were filming and ended up in gen pop.
• There are scenes that are always surprising, because they take 1-2 pages in a script, but the actual shooting can take up to 12 hours.
• One of the joys in the writing room during the development of season 6 was coming up with and writing new pairings.
• The scene where Taystee comes out of her cell and asks Tamika if there’s mail for her was supposed to be the last scene of the episode. But then Sian talked with Vera and asked her to switch the scenes and use the flashback to close the episode instead.
• Tamika’s line about her mom was something they talked a lot in the writer’s room, they wanted to show Tamika had someone waiting for her, wondering where she is, and Taystee doesn’t, and that could’ve been the life changing thing that sent them in two different paths.
•  The final scene felt like the most important scene and they wanted to show them going in different directions, it was the last moment Tamika and Taystee were connected and together and that was the moment where life would take them in different paths that were irreconcilable.

Commentary for episode 13, “Be Free” with Nick Sandow (director) and Brian Chamberlayne (writer).

• Taylor got so comfortable that she fell asleep when they were filming the first scene for ep 13. It was an early call time and she’d fall asleep between takes.
• It was Laura and Taylor last day of filming.
• They had a lot of conversations whether to shoot above or underneath the sheet. Nick didn’t want to because of the complications of having to shoot underneath the sheet, but Brian won that argument, they had to pull the bed out and place it in another space to be able to shoot underneath the blanket.
• Uzo is unbelievable, she always does something specific that the writers are not expecting, but they love it and ends up being better than whatever they had pictured.
• Brian was happy he got an opportunity to work with Laverne.
• Nick and Brian got choked up several times when they were filming the trial.
• The coffee beans scene: Laura and Taylor had a lot of discussions with Nick about that scene because so many different feelings needed to happen and they conveyed that beautifully. They were asking Taylor to hit a lot of different notes and she really pulled it off.
• The “I can’t believe you were gonna ditch all us poor losers without saying goodbye” was ad-libbed by Natasha
• Nick thought Yael was a treasure in the wedding scene and they could always cut to her for comedy because she started crying from the moment they started filming, Nick knew her reactions were going to be gold
• Nick as a director was a bit scared because the scene was so long, and there was so little action/movement and he thought he’d have a hard time figuring it out but the actresses carried it and it made it easy.
• The wedding scene took 8 pages in the script (in this show one scene usually takes 2 or 3)
• Laura and Taylor brought the weight of it, they knew it was a moment that was building up for so many seasons of watching Vauseman’s relationship come together, and they carried it.
• Natasha was so focused because she had the most dialogue and she had to lift the scene up, she killed it because she brought so many different levels (she made it funny but also brought a lot of feeling) to it.
• Brian fel a bit overwhelmed at first, because he had to write three speeches for the scene, and it was for the main relationship between two leads that has been building up for years, he thought it had to be momentous & big.
• Since the wedding comes in the middle of the episode, in a strange way it worked like a nice intermission from all the gang stuff and the heavy scenes with Taystee and her trial. Brian: “It was a nice moment between these two that you have been rooting for all along”.
• Nick and Brian were wowed by Taylor’s acting during the vows.
• It was nice to have Flaca and Cindy come in, because they wanted a bit of the OG crew, they wanted that feeling from the first few seasons of the old crew coming together and holding little events that was lost since they came to max because it’s such a harsh environment.
• Bottom vs. Bottom is an actual court case.
• They loved the scene with Luschek and Gloria in SHU, Selenis was so powerful and so intense in her performance that they all were drained by the end of it.
• Taystee’s verdict: Danielle was given a standing ovation after they did the take that was used in the episode.
• From the beginning of the season they knew they wanted to address the immigration detention center problem.
• Yael was hysterical after they finished shooting the scene where Lorna’s bleeding and being dragged to the infirmary, Nick had to hold her while she cried and told him that was an awful thing to have to imagine.
• Brian felt so stupid for writing that, but it was a storyline they already had thought of before they knew she was pregnant irl
• Shooting the kickball scenes was a nightmare because it snowed the day they were supposed to shoot, so they rescheduled for the next day but it rained at night, so the whole field turned into a swamp and it was absolutely freezing, Nick swore he wouldn’t go back to Staten Island after that.
• Uzo nailed the kick in every single take.
• Brian was flattered that he was given the episode where Piper gets out because it’s such an iconic moment in the series.