The 'Orange Is the New Black' Cast on Nicky's Fate, That Cathartic Lake Scene, and More

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One of the biggest mysteries following Orange Is the New Black’s third season — will we ever see Nicky Nichols (Natasha Lyonne) get out of maximum-security? — is still a mystery to us.

At the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour today, six cast members from Netflix’s Emmy-winning prison dramedy — Taylor Schilling (Piper), Uzo Aduba (Suzanne), Taryn Manning (Pennsatucky), Lea DeLaria (Big Boo), Selenis Leyva (Gloria), and Lyonne — reflected on Season 3, starting with Lyonne and her character’s status entering next season.

Related: ‘Orange Is the New Black’: The 5 Best Backstories From Season 3

“There were huge stakes for Nicky Nichols this season, much more than any previous season,” Lyonne said of her character getting busted for slinging heroin out of Litchfield. “It makes sense that a self-destructive person would end up where she did.”

But is she still there in Season 4? Lyonne was evasive: “I can’t speak to that.” But the fact that she’s on the panel gives us hope that we’ll see Nicky back next season.

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Plus, the cast had very different opinions on filming that big scene in the Season 3 finale, when the female prisoners escaped for a joyous frolic in a nearby lake. Aduba called it “my favorite day of shooting that season,” but Leyva was more level-headed: “It was very cold.”

More nuggets from Tuesday’s Orange Is the New Black panel:

* Manning thinks Boo and Pennsatucky’s surprising Season 3 bond, where they conspired to get revenge on Pennsatucky’s prison-guard rapist, wasn’t so surprising at all: “It made sense because we were both sort of ostracized, and misfits in our own way.”

* DeLaria says Boo’s Season 3 backstory, where she was shunned by her family for being gay, felt like it was lifted directly from her own experiences as a gay woman: “I actually had to call [writer] Lauren Morelli and ask her if she read my f–king diary.”

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* Asked about their favorite memories of watching each other perform, Lyonne went back to her first day on set, watching co-star Danielle Brooks (Taystee) rehearse her taunting of new inmate Piper: “I really felt like I was witnessing something pretty special.”

* Leyva revealed that her Season 3 storyline, when she cruelly turned her allies against transgender inmate Sophia (Laverne Cox), was difficult for her because she has a transgender sister in real life. “That was so hard to do,” she said. “But I had to trust that it would be done in a way to educate.”

Related: ‘Orange Is the New Black’: The 9 Most Surprising Season 3 Relationships

* The OITNB cast is so big, several of the cast members have never actually had scenes together. Aduba says she doesn’t think she’s ever had a scene with Dascha Polanco (Dayanara), but she’d like to: “I would love to see what Suzanne thinks of the baby.”

* Leyva says the writing staff is always listening to their conversations, so “be careful what you say, because it could end up in the script.” As proof, Schilling recounted a story she told creator Jenji Kohan about her grandmother keeping a dead bird in the freezer. Then in Season 1, Red pulled a dead bird out of the freezer.

* Production has begun on Season 4 already, but like Lyonne, the rest of the cast is tight-lipped about what to expect. “This is all I can tell you about Season 4,” DeLaria said. “I’m in it, and it comes out sometime next year.”

Orange Is the New Black will return for Season 4 next year on Netflix.