Piper is awakened in solitary and, without being given any information, is forced to board a bus and a plane to Chicago. Though Piper assumes she has been transferred for killing Pennsatucky, Piper reunites with Alex and discovers she is temporarily in Chicago to testify in the trial of Alex's drug boss, Kubra Balik. Alex suggests to Piper they lie in court about knowing Kubra, fearing he will exact revenge if they tell the truth. Piper meets with Larry's father—her lawyer—who strongly advises her to tell the truth. On the way to the trial, Alex pushes one last time for Piper to lie; Piper gives in and perjures herself at the trial. After the trial, Alex informs Piper that she ultimately told the truth. This complicates matters for Piper, who now faces perjury charges and additional time, while Alex is led out of the prison to be released.

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Flashback: Several flashbacks from Piper's childhood reveal her complicated past.

Pennsatucky is released from solitary. She makes a deal with Healy about what she will say about the fight, and in exchange, she will get her teeth fixed. Aleida and Gloria compete to solve Daya's constipation problem. Red's commissary funds run short, as she no longer controls the kitchen and cannot aid her outside criminal associates. Red is ultimately taken in by the older Golden Girl inmates. A mock job fair gives Taystee a chance to show off her business smarts with a Philip Morris representative in a mock interview. She gets the mock job after she impresses the rep with her research on the company. At the end of the episode, Taystee's mother figure, Vee, shows up as a new inmate.

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Flashback: Young Taystee—then referred to as Tasha—goes to a Black Adoption Festival, trying to find a permanent home. She later meets a drug dealer, Vee, who becomes a mother figure to her. Eventually, Taystee starts working for Vee in the drug trade.

Taystee is upset over Vee's return. Vee and Red reunite, having known each other from Vee's previous incarceration. Piper returns to Litchfield along with a talkative inmate named Brook Soso, whom Piper finds annoying. Larry meets with a journalist who wants to use Piper as a source for a story about fraud and embezzling by the Litchfield administration. Daya becomes frustrated with Bennett when he doesn't know how to smuggle in prenatal vitamins; Bennett realizes he can use his prosthetic leg for smuggling. It is revealed that Suzanne became distraught after the pageant and punched Piper into the snow, making the fight between Piper and Pennsatucky look like they were equally responsible. Vee uses Suzanne's outcast desperation to manipulate her, and she begins her bid to take back power in the prison.

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Flashback: It is shown that Suzanne was always marked as different, and was pushed by her adoptive mother to show that she is just as worthy and talented as others. At her high-school graduation, she is urged to sing during the ceremony, but stage fright leads to an embarrassing outburst, similar to her non-performance at the Christmas pageant.

Nicky and Big Boo engage in a contest to see who can sleep with the most women in jail. Vee offers to help Poussey sell her hooch to other inmates, but Poussey declines. In the prison's abandoned greenhouse, Red discovers a secret drain pipe under a set of floorboards. Red starts to grow plants in the greenhouse as a cover to move contraband into the prison, via the drain pipe. Larry and Polly begin to bond more while Pete is away. Morello is devastated upon finding out that her love, Christopher, is marrying another woman. While driving Rosa to cancer treatments, Morello takes the van and breaks into Christopher's home. She dons a wedding veil, takes a relaxing bath, and is nearly caught when Christopher returns home.

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Flashback: Lorna made money as a scam artist. It is revealed that Christopher was never her fiancé, but a man she stalked after a single date.

The bathroom that Gloria and her girls use has plumbing problems. Vee is appointed as head of the African-American posse, and they go head-to-head against Gloria's Latinas when they infiltrate the ghetto bathroom. Figueroa refuses to fix the Latina showers due to budget problems, and she limits the shower times to thirty seconds as a solution. As tensions rise between the blacks and the Latinas, Vee and Gloria make a deal in order to calm things down; Red later warns Gloria that Vee has manipulated her. Piper is informed by Cal that her grandmother is dying. Devastated, Piper asks Healy for furlough. Boo and Nicky continue their contest over who can score the most points with their sexual conquests; Nicky spends her time trying to bed Fischer, to no avail.

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Flashback: Gloria, a victim of domestic violence, is arrested for committing fraud with food stamps traded at the store she ran.

The inmates prepare a Valentine's Day party. Red begins importing items through the sewer drain in the greenhouse. Larry asks Piper to be his prison mole in order to write articles about the prison's finances; Piper tries questioning the prisoners and guards to find out where the prison's budget money is really going. When Healy becomes suspicious over her intentions, Piper claims she is starting a prison newspaper. At the Valentine's Day party, Pennsatucky is outlawed from her former group of friends. Clearly upset, Pennsatucky embraces Healy outside the prison. Poussey and Taystee argue. Larry and Polly share a kiss. Caputo invites Fischer, whom he is infatuated with, to see his band performing at a local bar. Fischer invites the other COs, to Caputo's dismay. During his performance, Caputo notices that Jimmy, an elderly inmate suffering from dementia, has escaped from the prison and is sitting in the bar listening to the music.

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Flashback: Poussey has a relationship with a German girl while living on an army base in Germany. When the girl's father discovers the two making love, he uses his power to send Poussey's family back to the United States. Poussey confronts her girlfriend's father, ready to pull out a gun on him, but her own father intervenes before the gun is revealed.

Due to Jimmy's escape, Caputo demands that the CO's start monitoring the inmates more closely, and he imposes a minimum quota for shots written. Taystee gives Nicky a cigarette in exchange for postage stamps for Vee, and Red smuggles in styling products for Sophia in exchange for maintaining her hair color. The Spanish girls continue to request contraband from Bennett. Sick of being taken advantage of, Bennett threatens them with shots. Vee's girls continue to exchange cigarettes for contraband. Daya, Flaca, and Morello help contribute to Piper's prison newspaper. Poussey refuses to involve herself in Vee's business, though Nicky encourages her to get on Vee's good side. Polly and Larry have sex. When Jimmy is given compassionate release from the prison, it is revealed that she is to be taken to the bus station and left there.

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Flashback: Black Cindy works as an airport security guard. Regularly searching through people's bags, Cindy steals an iPad for her sister's birthday. Her "sister" is later revealed to be her biological daughter.

Figueroa pressures Caputo over the prison's increased contraband. Caputo starts to distrust Red's greenhouse, but Red has moved all her contraband inside the greenhouse before Caputo can make a search. Piper faces a backlash from other inmates when she is granted furlough. She initially asks Healy to revoke her furlough, as the other inmates are harassing her because of it. Piper calls her mother to tell her about the furlough, only to find that her grandmother had died a day before. Soso is forced to take a shower by the guards. Rosa meets a young boy in chemo who she later learns is in remission. Caputo feels pressure to toughen up; Fischer stands up to Caputo over his rules, which results in Caputo firing her. Following Fischer's termination, Figueroa rehires Mendez to work at Litchfield.

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Flashback: In the 1970s, Rosa helps with her first ever bank robbery and quickly becomes the leader of the gang.

Temporarily released from the prison for 48 hours, Piper reunites with Larry. Piper initiates a sexual encounter with Larry, but Larry admits that he has slept with somebody else; Piper realizes that they aren't right for each other anymore. Piper attends her grandmother's funeral, which unexpectedly turns into Cal and Neri's wedding. Upon Red's request, Piper visits Red's former deli, only to find it has permanently closed. Red's efforts to redeem herself in the eyes of her former posse are finally rewarded, and she intends to usurp her kitchen smuggling enterprise through her gardening club. However, Big Boo informs Vee about Red's tunnel. Bennett is upset over Mendez's reappearance. When Bennett finds a cigarette, he tears apart the black ghetto and is put on suspension. Bennett reveals to Caputo that Daya is pregnant, and suggests that Mendez is the father.

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Flashback: The history of Red and Vee's relationship at Litchfield is explored. It is revealed that Vee had taken control of the black inmates and Red's kitchen, ending with Vee's posse brutally beating Red.

Piper returns to prison after furlough, while Bennett returns after his suspension. Piper lies to Red about the condition of her family's deli. The guards get tougher in a bid to turn up prison contraband; however, they do not discover where the contraband is coming from. Piper realizes that Larry and Polly slept together, and she gets Neri's help to exact revenge against Polly. Vee attempts to join Red's business in the garden. Poussey gets drunk and insults Vee; Suzanne beats Poussey up in a fit of rage. Nicky decides to bring Red the heroin Taystee gave her. Healy starts a therapy group, Safe Place, but nobody shows up. After Daya's pregnancy is revealed, Mendez is fired and arrested, as he is believed to be the father.

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Flashback: More history of Alex and Piper's relationship is explored.

Piper finally reaches out to a paranoid Alex and learns that Kubra wasn't convicted. Polly leaves Pete for Larry. Soso's hunger strike attracts new support that takes on a religious fervor. When Piper puts Soso's hunger strike in the prison newspaper, Figueroa furiously shuts down the newspaper operation. Later, Healy informs Piper that she is being transferred to Virginia. Poussey attends Healy's Safe Place group but fails to open up. The elders form a plan to kill Vee, though they don't inform Red about their plan. The plan backfires when they stab the wrong inmate, which Vee witnesses. Furious from Jimmy's compassionate release, Sister Ingalls joins Soso's hunger strike to speak out about Litchfield's treatment of older inmates. When Sister Ingalls faints out of starvation, Caputo forces her into medical, where she is force fed by the doctors.

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Flashback: Flashbacks depict Sister Ingalls joining her first rally and continuing in social activism until she is excommunicated by the church.

Vee and Red's rivalry continues with several confrontations regarding their competing business ventures. When a storm floods the plumbing system, the inmates are forced to sleep in the mess hall. Red and her gang are concerned about being attacked during the night; Vee also warns her posse about Red. Morello shares an intimate moment with Rosa. Pennsatucky becomes close to Big Boo in an attempt to uncover details about their 'gay agenda'. Figueroa discovers that her husband is pursuing an affair with another man. Piper escapes the mess hall to find evidence of Figueroa's fraud in her office, but she is caught by Caputo. Red attempts to strangle Vee while they are alone outside, but she fails. The two agree that Litchfield has changed them, and they shake hands on a truce. When Red enters the greenhouse the next morning, she is suddenly slocked from behind by Vee and severely injured.

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Flashback: Flashbacks depict Vee's relationship with Taystee, the police, and her foster son before she went to prison.

Vee's family breaks apart and turns on her. Caputo comes to Piper for more details on Fig's fraud; Piper promises to help, but only if he stops her transfer. Caputo reports Fig's fraud to the warden, and Figueroa resigns. Bennett confesses that he impregnated Daya to Caputo, who suppresses the confession in order to avoid a scandal. When an investigation begins over Red's assault, Vee tries to get Suzanne to take the fall. Healy gets Luschek to sign a fake work order to exonerate Suzanne and turn the focus of the investigation back on Vee. Alex informs Piper about her plans to skip town, as Kubra is hunting her down. In an attempt to get Alex sent back to Litchfield, Piper asks Larry and Polly to inform Alex's parole officer about Alex breaking parole. Vee, alone and friendless, escapes from prison through the drain pipe. Rosa is told by her doctor that she only has a few weeks left to live. As the prison goes into lockdown over Vee's disappearance, Morello purposely leaves the keys in the van with Rosa, who takes the vehicle and flees the prison in order to taste freedom in the last few weeks of her life. Rosa spies Vee by the side of the road and intentionally runs her down with the van.