'Orange Is The New Black' Season 7 May Dive Into This Serious Political Issue

Orange Is the New Black might be getting realer than ever in its seventh season. Netflix's prison drama has made a name for itself in tackling various pressing social issues, and its recently released Season 6 made no exception. The cliffhanger ending suggests that the series will continue taking on timely political issues next season, leaving viewers wondering: will Orange Is the New Black Season 7 be about immigration detention centers? Let's break down that cliffhanger ending and what it might mean for the already-picked-up seventh season.

Spoiler alert: This post will discuss plot details from throughout Season 6 of Orange Is the New Black. Throughout the new season, Blanca Flores uses her wits to plan for her life outside of prison. As one of the 10 inmates found hiding in Frieda's bunker at the end of Season 5, Blanca teams up with Gloria Mendoza to pin the blame on Maria Ruiz with investigators and gets off basically scot-free. Later in the season, she learns that she may have trouble conceiving a child if she does not act now, and gets Daya and Nicky to help her smuggle in her boyfriend Diablo's sperm to inseminate herself. Sadly, the insemination didn't work, but Blanca did get some good news when she found out she was getting an early release alongside Piper and Sophia... only to face yet another setback upon stepping foot outside the prison.

In the heartbreaking final moments of Season 6, newly promoted Linda Ferguson unveils MCC's new business in immigration detention centers, eager to rebrand after the flack the company had been taking from its management of the Litchfield riot. The new program gets started right away: as Piper and Sophia are reunited with their loved ones, Blanca is instead led to a group of ICE agents, who usher her and several other Hispanic inmates into a van.

So, now the question is: Are we going to see Blanca at an immigration detention center in Season 7, or will she simply not appear in the new season? Surprisingly, Orange Is the New Black has not touched on immigration issues much in the past, but now that it is at the forefront of political discussion, it makes sense for the series to tackle. We might see Blanca struggling to adapt to her new environment, and it is even possible that other Litchfield inmates could be sent down to join her. The immigration detention center could possibly become one of the major settings in Season 7.

Of course, all we can do right now is speculate about how the series will continue, and Season 7 has the potential to be a major one, because showrunner Jenji Kohan teased that it could be the final season of the series. Last year, Kohan told The New York Times that she was leaning towards ending Orange Is the New Black after seven seasons. Netflix had picked up OITNB for its fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons all at once back in 2016, and it sounds like that may be it for the prison drama. Fans can expect Season 7 of Orange Is the New Black to likely premiere next summer.