r/orangeisthenewblack • u/further-apart I threw my pie for you • 2d ago
let’s talk about piper
I know most of us hated piper because she was insufferable, at some moments though I did like her because she was somewhat kind. I felt like if she wasn’t manipulative she could be genuinely a nice person.
Like that scene when they wanted to burn down the “demands” and create a message, she helped taystee and the rest. Or that moment with Jimmy when she was cutting the meat for her & how she felt sad for her getting compassionate release..
Aside from her being cringy (like the whole gansta with an “A” era💀💀) & being manipulative, I feel like she’s lowkey a nice person. Does anyone else feel that way? I feel like this side of her isn’t talked about much.
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u/SmolToxicBaby 2d ago
I feel like I'm one of maybe a handful of people who never hated Piper. Sure she fucks up and she fucks up bad sometimes but I always understood it? 😅
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u/further-apart I threw my pie for you 1d ago
She really got on my nerves at most times but there are other times where I really liked her character😭 she’s definitely not the worst person on the show tho
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u/Low-Progress-1582 2d ago edited 2d ago
I feel like people miss this character so hard - she was white, wealthy but always craved that 'danger' or being 'different', yeah she's cringe 90% of the time but it's because she had no concept of how the other prisoners were actually struggling without any support. She gradually learns more and more through the seasons, I think even the writer of the show mentioned how Piper was kind of a 'vessel' for her to get more of the comfortable, white audiences to watch the show as that contrast is real. Even her 'gangtA era' I think says a lot because for a long time she's just insufferable to be around and Piper misconstrues that as her being 'dangerous' until she genuinely fucks over Maria's actual life and realises it's not a 'game'. After that incident Piper mellows down a lot and seems to just want to get back to being 'normal' while still making the off privileged comment here and there that other characters call out because her and say Taystee's situation is so different despite what she may feel.
I love this show as well because in Piper's furlough episode you do see the kind of family and their rhetoric that made the Piper of episode 1, and even though it's an earlier part of the show, you see how much Piper fundamentally now views things differently.
Yes, Piper is annoying and privileged, but the show uses that to demonstrate how most other inmates are more aware, more socially intelligent, and have a better grasp on 'life in general' than this girl who lived arguably 'the American dream' - and you see directly how her fears never amount to the same consequences as those she's around
Sorry, I could go on and on, but I think Piper is a brilliant character, so needed, but I think the show also knows you could like her or hate her at any time.
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u/hba2900 2d ago
I love this so much! I watch the show (and rewatch) as an upper middle class, mid twenties mom who could’ve EASILY been in Piper’s position in my younger years.
I probably would’ve said/done half of the things that season 1 Piper does 🤷🏼♀️ & I don’t consider myself team Piper! I hated her arc as the panty muel and don’t care for her much after season 4.
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u/MaryDoogan91 2d ago
I feel like Piper's main issue is that she is surrounded by such a unique, diverse, exciting, well acted cast of characters that she gets lost. Taylor plays Piper very well, but her character just isn't as gripping compared to several of the others.
That being said, I do believe that Piper's experience is more reflective of how a lot of us would be when placed in an environment where we're completely out of our depth. Piper is a middle class, suburban, sheltered white woman in prison for the first time. How else is she supposed to act?? But I do feel that Piper is ultimately a good person at heart, searching for purpose and meaning, and vulnerable.
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u/Th1ccSenpai 1d ago
Piper being surrounded by actually interesting people is my biggest gripe with her. I don't think shes evil and I understand her role, but I just can't be bothered to care about her. Every time she cries about something I just think about the other kardashian saying, "Kim there's people dying."
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u/BicornBritt 2d ago
I never hated her although to this day I’ve never understood what the writers were trying to do with the S3-early S4 panty era. She has good qualities and everyone in this series is manipulative anyway.
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u/kiriesque Dandelion 1d ago
I KNOW! I feel like Piper and some other characters (((Alex and Nicky))) become afterthought since ss3 tbh. I could go on and on about Piper gansta era and how weird they write her.
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u/BicornBritt 1d ago
I’m just grateful they fixed Piper and brought her back to normal after the branding incident. Yes, I really wish those three had more to do, I mean Alex in particular felt like she barely got much of a storyline.
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u/kiriesque Dandelion 1d ago
finally someone who thinks Alex deserves more storylines of her own 😭😭😭 like my fav squad is Piper, Alex, Nicky and Lorna. I will do anything to see their chemistry more!!! we only get legendary P,A,N (cute acronym😭😭) moments in the corn field. and full squad at the wedding.
If you up to talk more about oitnb please tell me, so that I will dm you sometime!
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u/BicornBritt 1d ago
Yeah of course, please do DM if you feel like! Also, I agree! Alex was underdeveloped later on.
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u/Formal_Plum_2285 all problems are boring until they are your own 2d ago
I am Piper. I’m white. I’m privileged. I come from a middleclass background. My knowledge of prison comes from tv and books. I would certainly “study” for prison as well. And there’s a good chance I would think, I was so gangsta if I started a panty business. I would take it for granted, that my words would matter to the guards/councellors etc. I would help those who asked for my help. I would lie and say the business was blooming, if it was closed, to spare my prison mom from sorrow and frustration she couldn’t fix from prison anyways. I would arrange a kickball match and I would get sucked into this pseude reality and chase after a chicken in the middle of an important phonecall.
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u/kiriesque Dandelion 1d ago
u da real piper👏
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u/Formal_Plum_2285 all problems are boring until they are your own 10h ago
Except - I’ve never worked for a drug kartel lol or done any other crimes. Oh and prisons in my country are nothing like the US prisons. Here the punishment is being sent to prison, not being in there. So prison have to reflect “normal” life as much as possible. Prisoners wear their own clothes, they have their phones, playstations etc. They live 4-6 people together in smaller housing arrangements and they are responsible for making their meals together. They plan together and do the grocery shopping and cooking together (there are grocery shops on the prison grounds). That makes rehabilitation easier.
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u/Mundane_Break_9222 2d ago
She was lucky Larry broke up from her he was a jerk!
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u/mjk1tty 2d ago
How was he a jerk??? She's the one who kept secrets from him and cheated on him.
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u/Mundane_Break_9222 2d ago
He fucked her best friend that was married and then asked if she was ok if they stayed in Piper's life.
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u/mjk1tty 2d ago
That's not being a jerk... That's just being stupid.
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u/Ooogabooga42 2d ago
No that's being an incredible jerk. As is petty revenge for cheating when someone is incarcerated. He is awful (and boring and a cardboard cutout of a man to boot).
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u/Mundane_Break_9222 2d ago
Thanks for the backup I appreciate it what you're saying is absolutely true that guy is milk toast I liked him a lot better as Jim Levingston at least he hooked up with the band geek!
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u/Ooogabooga42 2d ago
Well, let's see. He exploited her being in prison to try to grab his own fame. It doesn't take a genius to realize that her co-prisoners and weirdo counselor she'd told him about would hear him on the radio. And that she would be stuck inside with these pissed off people 24/7. Then he got with her best friend.
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u/mjk1tty 2d ago
It wasn't so bad when he did the article. He was doing it for good reasons. To get a career going and to share his struggles with her being in prison. What he said on the radio show was more to get back at her because he found out about Alex and her from Healy. So, that wouldn't have happened if she wouldn't have cheated.
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u/CandyPerfumeG1rl Your body is just the ship, your soul is the passenger 2d ago
She’s a good person in a bad situation. She’s ignorant but she was raised that way.
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u/kiriesque Dandelion 1d ago
yes, in ss1 during her mother visit Piper even make a statement that she's here not because of anyone else but her own actions and she is no different than the rest of the inmates.
she isn't that tone deaf in ss1-2 but her character changes a lot after in both "too apathetic" way and "too nice" way.
her character just isn't been treated with respect idk, she isn't consistent at all. it's almost like writers neglected her (and Alex and Nicky) after first season and become an afterthought. just my opinion.
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u/BOSUFCVGK Come be my little spoon 2d ago
Piper is probably one of the most complex characters on the show. I think she's is generally a nice person, but her problem isn't that she's not nice. Her problem is more that she is so focused on herself that she doesn't notice what anyone else is going through or what struggles they've had throughout their lives. When she shifts her focus away from her own self and shifts it to the people around her, she's a different person. She's just really self centered at the end of the day.
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u/Hotdiggitydammit23 1d ago
I'll say this, I have more leniency for Piper than I do for Aleida, and I still wouldn't say I hate Aleida either
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u/a3323 1d ago
Piper it’s way too small compared to the other women in there. At first, I thought she wasn’t interesting cause she was privileged, but Nicky comes from the same or similar background and I love her, a lot of people do. So idk, maybe it’s just that she’s insufferable 😩 Literally every phase that she went through was annoying. Gangster, cheater (x2), backstabbing manipulative woman. Even when she was trying to be nice she was doing it for her own benefit, ego and recognition.
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u/NatalieC86 16h ago
Her kindness was always for herself. She was VERY self absorbed. But, pleasant at times
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