The fifth season of Orange Is the New Black will most definitely go down as a standout season in the prison drama's run. The new season totally flips the script, as Litchfield's inmates erupt in a riot after Poussey's death and take over control of the prison.
To get you even more pumped to binge the new season, the cast is teasing the theme of the new season with three powerful words:
Fight the power.
That's what Danielle Brooks, who plays Taystee, told Buzzfeed when asked to sum up the new season in three words, and costar Lavern Cox agreed wholeheartedly.
It's a succinct and apt summary of what Orange Is the New Black Season 5 is really all about: rising up against injustice after finally reaching the last straw. Much of the new season is devoted to highlighting the corruption inherent in the practices of privatized prisons.
After the inmates take control of Litchfield, Taystee leads their efforts to organize and lay out a list of demands to address the issues that have been oppressing them for the past five years, such as random invasive searches and the lack of education programs.
It's also hard to ignore the fact this revolution-based season is coming at a time when protests are at the forefront of public life in America.
Seemingly constant police shootings have galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement to take to the streets in protest time and again, and the election of Donald Trump has led women, scientists, the LGBT+, and numerous other groups that feel oppressed by his administration to organize public protests.
Now more than ever, Orange Is the New Black's message of standing up to corrupt authorities feels especially resonant. And leading that charge for justice is Danielle Brooks' Taystee, who's come into her own as an unrelenting voice for justice on the series.
