1.11 Tall Men With Feelings

'Did you really just say menses?'

Good shift of perspective at the officers' meeting where Healy makes a show of resistance before being threatened into compliance by Fig. He seemed invincible when he was gloating over Piper in solitary.

The interview broadcast was good, I liked the way that Larry was allowed to redeem himself a little bit by showing an inkling of respect for the people behind the 'female prison tropes'. In cliched terms about making the day meaningful, but still.

'Wide-eyed ice princess uptight look'. Prefiguration. There will be another candid assessment of Piper which isn't so funny.

And I'm guessing the comedy 'Private Benjamin' janitorial punishment is prefiguring something much worse at the end of the series.

It's interesting that only 7 episodes ago this show was making me cry real tears. Now I've got hardened to the unpleasantness.

1.10 Bora Bora Bora

'It's the truth that's going to make you her bitch'

Bennett's concerns about going to jail as a sex offender - and the doomladen music accompanying Pornstache's discovery of Tricia's dead body - show us that the oppression machine doesn't discriminate. The inmates are closer to the cutting edges, but the COs aren't much further away. The machine will chew them up just as happily.

The 'family meeting' with Bennett is hard to read: is he being subjected to blackmail, or just reminded to do the right thing?

Pornstache may be utterly repellent, but he has a real sense of ceremony, occasion and the poetry lurking within prose. 'Walk - in an orderly fashion'.

'Are you seeing this'. I'm reluctant to comment on the Piper/Alex reaction to Pennsatucky's miraculous healings. Minor spoilers I've seen suggest I'm being misled. And I'd need a better understanding of American society to really get it. We've done race, we've done class, now we're doing culture wars.

Inmates and officers alike are having fun with the Scared Straight sequence. Even Piper. 'Pablo Neruda'. If I'm ever locked in prison, and I say or write to you 'Pablo Neruda', you'll know I'm OK. Don't forget. It could happen.

1.9 F*cksgiving

'That leaves you on the outside'

I really liked the exchange between Piper and Alex over the discarded 'Tasty' banner. They're acknowledging what they have in common.

I didn't find Piper being hauled off to solitary as upsetting as the earlier manifestations of official cruelty, because this was 'hot' cruelty coming from Healy personally, not the cold passionless cruelty of the oppression machine. Even Pornstache tried to dissuade him - 'she's kinda right.'

The Red/Pornstache confrontation was interesting. I've not seen her retreat before, as she did when it wasn't clear what he intended to do with his 'weapon'.

'Are you real?' - I'm sure I've seen something like Piper's bodiless interlocutor before in something else. Maybe the X Files, or that Buffy episode Normal Again, set in an alternate universe where she's in a cell in a mental hospital. Piper keeps reminding me of Buffy actually.

Larry's sudden return of concern. I was surprised that his phone calls had any effect on the prison administration. I've clearly been over-awed by their power having seen it only from the inside perspective up to now.

Btw, it's become clear that I completely misinterpreted Alex's position when she first appeared in the cliffhanger to 1.1. I assumed from the way she subsequently challenged the food blockade that she had backing of her own, but I realise she hasn't got any, only the force of her personality. I'm concerned for her now.

One problem with not having watched any US TV* since Buffy is that my ability to understand American accents seems to have deteriorated. I keep having to rewind scenes and watch again with the subtitles on.

*Game of Thrones doesn't count, because they don't have American accents. Surprised me that did. But that's another story.

1.8 Moscow Mule

'That was my life'

The Michael Jackson bit. Accomplished, but too wacky. It's like they thought 'The chicken bit worked, let's amp it up a bit.'

On the other hand, the surreal conversation with Alex in the drier didn't seem forced, it worked.

Did I see the future Mrs Healy browsing the shelves at Red's place?

Is Polly's partner supposed to be from London or Australia?

'That was my life.' Yes it was. I must stop thinking of Piper as an innocent fallen angel. She is not me.

1.7 Blood Donut

'Just take the doughnuts'

The 'road less travelled' scene. I like it, but it feels like a scene. 'Let's re-emphasise the cultural distance between Piper and the others.'

As a longstanding Prisoner Cell Block H fan I enjoyed the laundry scene, which also had Alex being addressed as 'Lurch' just like Alice in Pris. I'm sure she shouldn't have threatened Pensatucky, even in that elegant way. There'll be trouble. She's too bold, just like she was when she tried to break the food blockade. And to think I was calling Piper's urge to apologise to her in the previous episode 'misguided'.

Larry chooses a margarita in the bar scene, just like Piper was drinking in the flashback to when she met Alex in 1.3.

Maybe the screwdriver episode has institutionalised me, but I was filled with terror every time Piper handled the hidden mobile phone. I was telling her 'No! no! put it back!' This show really is pushing my buttons. And I try not to watch things that will do that. Of course I have to carry on now.

1.6 WAC Pack

'Oh my'

A lot of lines in this ep that sound like lines. Piper's 'I am no different' speech, the bath metaphor, 'Pretend it's the 1950s. It makes it easier to understand.'

But I did enjoy Piper's mother's delivery of 'Oh my'.

And I really liked 'Our experience?' That scene could have been made more of.

1.5 The Chickening

'Please don't get dragged into the prison drama.'

Polly and Larry aren't just bored with Piper's big news from her small world, they can't stop her seeing that they are. Imagine how discouraging that would be.

Piper and Larry mutually withholding information about Alex. But what is the right thing to tell her? I'm inclined to agree with Larry's dad. Then again, what if they did keep it from her till she got released, and then told her? She's so full of resentment she might go after Alex then.

'They're not like you and me.' Imagine how that would feel: the people trying to cosy up to you are the climate change deniers. Mark Steel tells a story about being arrested after the Brixton riots, and getting released with a friendly caution while the police are beating up the black arrestees. 'The bonhomie was worse than the violence.'

Piper is beginning to fight back in this ep, with her request for masks, and rejecting Red's criticism of her behaviour. But from the spoilers I've read, this feistier attitude is going to get her in trouble later on.

The abrupt change of tone when the alarm goes off during the chicken hunt. What we thought would be a jolly diversion is stamped on by the passionless cruelty of the incarceration machine. It sends cold shivers through me.

I read some hope into the final scene. Piper may be behind multiple fences, but we pull back to see her under the big sky, and she loves to be outside.