Summary
Orange Is the New Black Season 7, Episode 4, “How to Do Life” has an emotional ending, but what happens before is quite lacklustre and uninspiring.
This recap of Netflix series Orange Is the New Black Season 7, Episode 4, “How to Do Life” contains spoilers. You can read the recap of the previous episode by clicking these words.
Episode 4, “How to Do Life” has a morbid ending, but up until that moment, it meandered around the characters trying to fill time. The Netflix series has a habit of doing this and Orange Is the New Black season 7 is the same.
First up, Lorna, who has been relatively quiet in season 7 so far. I’ve always felt sorry for this character — her eagerness to lie to make herself feel better, but I genuinely believed that by having a child will give her the happiness she deserves. When her husband visits her in prison in episode 4 and tells her their baby has died, I welled up a little — this character must feel hopeless now.
“How to Do Life” shows that Red’s new kitchen is in the ICE Detention center, exposing the exploitation of human rights even more. Flaca is devastated to see her best friend Maritza there and vows to help her out. This reunion is sweet as it was missed in season 6, but Flaca’s hopes of saving her are extinguished when she learns from her mother that Maritza is not a US citizen. There seems to be no rest for Blanca and Maritza. When the news is delivered, it’s another hard pill to swallow for our beloved characters.
Episode 2 tries to give us a flashback regarding Gloria as a mother, which was beautiful in a way, but it did not fit well into the chapter at all; there are a lot of moving parts, i.e. Alex selling new phone chargers, the Warden presenting a new educational program and Joe Caputo starting his own mentoring session in the prison. It was a demonstration of how you should do everything for your children, which begins when she is speaking to Maritza, but “How to Do Life” is too convoluted to really stick.
The end of Orange Is the New Black season 7, episode 4, “How to Do Life” serves a real impact; with narration to accompany it about the chaos of life, Tasha tries to commit suicide. Earlier in the episode, she asked Daya for drugs so she can OD. Tasha is fragile right now and wants a way out, so the system does not beat her. Lorna is also vulnerable; she is now pretending that her child is still alive and has created a fake Instagram page for him to maintain her story.
Warden’s Notes
- Piper has started her new job under her father, but she is frustrated, having a breakdown — let’s hope she’s not on the road back to prison.
- New Warden Tamika has introduced educational programs in the prison, slowly reforming how the system works. Will she help Tasha?
- Suzanne is still trying to bring Tasha and Cindy together as friends.
You can read the recap of the fifth episode by clicking these words.
