'Orange Is the New Black': The 5 Best Backstories From Season 3

They always leave us wanting more, but the very best of Orange Is the New Black’s trademark inmate backstories are satisfying gems that shed light on the Litchfield women whose heartbreaks, triumphs, and shenanigans keep us waiting to binge-watch a whole season in a weekend every summer. Season 3’s revelations of all things past were certainly no exception, and even included a character backstory that was most surprising because of the character who sparked it. Here’s a rundown of our five favorite Season 3 trips down memory lane. Warning: Spoilers ahead!

5. Marisol “Flaca” Gonzales (Jackie Cruz)
Episode: “Fake It Till You Fake It Some More”
In Prison: She’s the eyeliner and emo music-loving former member of Gloria’s kitchen staff, BFF of Maritza, and now employed at Litchfield’s lingerie-sewing sweatshop.

Pre-Litchfield: Marisol begrudgingly worked in her mother’s home-based sewing business, though she’d rather have been focusing on her schoolwork and her boyfriend, Ian. Her mother was a gifted seamstress who made copies of celebrities’ red carpet dresses and sewed designer labels into the knock-offs. “More often than not, people believe what you tell them,” she told her daughter, who took the advice to heart and began selling fake drugs to her classmates. Marisol made mad cash, but when classmate Jason took the faux acid and jumped off the top of the school, Marisol got busted for fraud and endangerment.

Why We Love It: Though she has at times appeared to be an airhead, and believes some weird stereotypes (remember her contention that black people can’t float because of bone density?), Flaca has always displayed a self-confidence and brightness that suggested she did, as she told Maritza, always have aspirations. It’s crushing then when the (relatively) high-paying prison job she sweats over ends up being a sewing sweatshop. Still Flaca’s spirit isn’t deflated so far that she doesn’t take a run at Piper’s used panty business, and, we’re guessing, Piper’s dismissal of her won’t deter her from future entrepreneurial efforts, either, especially as she hopes to help out her dying mama.
Lingering Questions: Did Jason die from his leap? When Marisol was arrested, he was in critical condition. Also, we still don’t know why Flaca is sporting that black teardrop under her right eye.

4. Norma Romano (Annie Golden)
Episode: “Tongue-Tied”
In Prison: She’s Red’s non-speaking BFF and kitchen comrade, and despite the fact that she doesn’t speak, her gentle kindness — and some pretty big coincidences — lead some of the spiritually thirsty inmates to build a religion around Norma and her alleged healing abilities in Season 3.

Pre-Litchfield: Norma stutters! That’s one of the big reveals of her backstory, and the reason why, in an impatient world, a lonely young Norma was drawn into the cult of a self-proclaimed guru named Mack. Mack married Norma, and several other women in the cult, but Norma was the only one who stuck with him after authorities charged him with some serious cult crimes. Years later, he repaid her loyalty by admitting his fraud and cruelly taunting her about how she had wasted her life on him, and how she was now incapable of so much as speaking for herself. So she pushed him off a cliff, and called him a choice name after he landed on a giant rock below.

Why We Love It: It was difficult to imagine that sweet, meek Norma was capable of committing a crime that would land her such a long stint at Litchfield. This backstory perfectly pulls together not only Norma’s deferent friendship with Red, but also her embracing of the power her prison worshippers had bestowed upon her.
Lingering Questions: Norma’s followers had begun to lose faith in her, but will her discovery of the fence opening that gave the inmates a joyful dip in the lake renew their belief in “Norma Christ”?

3. Tiffany “Pennsatucky” Doggett (Taryn Manning)
Episode: “Mother’s Day” and “A Tittin’ and a Hairin’”
In Prison: She was a violent homophobe who thought God had given her the ability to perform miracles, until a major beatdown from Piper led to a new set of teeth and a new, more laidback attitude for Pennsatucky.

Pre-Litchfield: As a child, Tiffany’s mother made her drink large amounts of Mountain Dew so she would appear hyper and draw more government aid for the family. The soda jones took root, and led teenage Tiff to perform sexual favors for a six-pack of Mountain Dew, until a sweet new kid in town became her boyfriend and her first thoughtful sexual partner. When new kid had to move away, her former clients came knocking, and even though a newly empowered Tiffany tried to refuse, one of them raped her as she did what her mother had told her do as far as the opposite sex was concerned: Let them do what they want, because they’re going to anyway.

Why We Love It: It explains the anger and messed-up thinking that led Pennsatucky to prison, and to one of the most delightfully unexpected pairings of the whole series with her friendship with Boo. It was heartbreaking that new guard Coates, who had initially seemed like a quirky new friend for ‘Tucky, turned out to be just another one of those types of men her mother told her about, and just as heartbreaking that Tiffany still believed what her mother said about the inevitability of such behavior. But of all the discussions and depictions of rape on TV this season — and that is a disturbingly high number — this is the one that most felt like it had a straightforward point to make and successfully made it.
Lingering Questions: Tiffany and Boo’s revenge still left Coates employed at Litchfield… will he pursue the new inmate van driver, and will he leave Pennsatucky alone next season?

2. Mei Chang (Lori Tan Chinn)
Episode: “Ching Chong Chang”
In Prison: Chang is one of the few inmates who doesn’t involve herself in the prison’s personal or clique dramas, and, in no coincidence, is one of the few universally liked inmates.

Pre-Litchfield: Rejected because of her appearance by a wealthy man when her family tried to sell her as a wife, young Mei tried to placate her brother by volunteering to work in the family business: a shop that sold Chinese medicines and smuggled illegal animal products. When an associate tried to scam her brother, Mei offered to become more involved with the illegal side of the business, which led her to thwart one dealer mid-scam and save the life of another associate. Innocent face and calm demeanor aside, Mei called in the favor promised by the partner whose life she’d saved when she asked him to cut out the gallbladder of the rich businessman who had so cruelly berated and rejected her for marriage.

Why We Love It: The surprise that this unassuming inmate, who has not factored in a major way into any of the show’s storylines so far, even got a backstory is a treat itself. That it was such a powerful story — Chang was underestimated for the very reasons we as viewers underestimated she would have this great backstory — is one of the more clever past reveals of the series, and leaves us wanting to know even more about Chang.
Lingering Questions: Like, what, exactly, landed her in prison, and at what age?

1. Carrie “Big Boo” Black (Lea DeLaria)
Episode: “Finger in the Dyke”
In Prison: She’s a confident, plotting, untrusting inmate who has few close friendships, instead floating through the various groups depending on what her agenda is at any given time. She’s also one of the funniest, one liner-tossing Litchfield-ians.

Pre-Litchfield: Carrie knew who she was at a very young age, but her mother constantly tried to make her wear the dresses she eschewed. Torn between the women in his house, her father sometimes asked — bribed — her to make her mother happy, but as she got older, Carrie became committed to living her life exactly as she pleased, from her lesbian relationships to dressing in a “butch” manner, as her arm tattoo pledges. Living authentically, but estranged from her family, Carrie tried to visit her mother on Mrs. Black’s deathbed, but was asked by her father to de-butch herself first. She refused, telling her dad she’d fought too hard, throughout her entire life, to be accepted, and pointing out her profound frustration and sadness that she wasn’t getting that from her parents, even on this occasion when nothing but her presence at her mother’s side should have mattered.

Why We Love It: It is a magnificent payoff that turns the always interesting, but never fully developed Boo into one of the real heroines of Season 3 (and DeLaria into one of the season’s most Emmy nomination-worthy performers). It isn’t a big surprise that Boo had such a painful childhood, or that she would so fully embrace her lifestyle as an adult, but it does clarify why she is so committed to loyalty to herself versus any of the prison groups. And it makes her the perfect pal for Pennsatucky, who was in desperate need of a friend who would help her see that she should also demand respect.
Lingering Questions: Boo has copped to her past thievery several times, but we still don’t know the exact circumstances surrounding her incarceration at Litchfield.

Orange Is the New Black Season 3 is available on Netflix.