#oitnb 7x01

Only through one episode so far but I love what OITNB has done with the episode narration. For six seasons we’ve been in Piper’s head - getting her perspective, her story. Sure we’ve seen the others grow and the plot expand so that more women carry the narrative and all its important perspectives, but moving into season 7 there was the overarching question - how will we remain on the inside with all our other faves with Piper on the outside? Piper has, by virtue of being the ‘main’ character, been at the centre of a lot of the driving action.

Answer one: Alex. 

That scene at the end of episode one, shown in the season trailer, where Piper and Alex meet through the visitation window is defining  

(1) in itself for how it frames the problem of change, of honesty and openness in their relationship for the coming episodes, now that they aren’t sharing the same space 24/7 (there’s an echo here of Larry and Piper, I think, coming full circle), and 

(2) how it places Piper very much on the periphery of this story in a way she - and we - haven’t been before. Instead, that torch instead passes to Alex early on, when she picks up the voiceover.  

But answer two: everyone. 

Piper doesn’t carry this story alone anymore. She hasn’t for a long time. Through the six previous seasons, the main ‘voice’ has been disseminated throughout our favourite characters, and the narrative has taken on a number of different perspectives and voices all culminating in this moment at the end of the first episode of the final season:

“Shit, I forgot my mom’s birthday again. This is my life now Is it sweater weather yet I should’ve been a dancer shelikesme I miss my man herbreathreeks fuck a jennifer lawrencethesebitchesneedto Stream of consciousness takes over, and the mundane, everyday thoughts we hear are so familiar they could very well be any character, any voice, even our own. It’s humanising, equalising: an acknowledgement and a celebration of the fact that season 7 is everyone’s story now.

I can’t wait to see where it takes me.