Orange Is The New Black: Top 10 Moments Of Season 3

2. Tiffany€™s Single Tear

The character of Tiffany €˜Pennsatucky€™ Doggett has possibly undergone the greatest transformation in the entire show (and that€™s not just taking into account her teeth); while she could be considered the primary antagonist of Season 1, she has now become one of the series€™ most sympathetic and well-wrought characters. Season 3 has us delving farther into Tiffany€™s past than the abortion clinic we last left her at, showing a neglectful mother whose only advice for her teenage daughter is to let men have their way with her, because that€™s just the way it goes. This then becomes part of a heartbreaking dialogue on harmful sexual dynamics and gender roles that have been normalized in many parts of society, channeled through Pennsatucky, who completely lacks a sense of ownership of her sexuality or the understanding that sex is supposed to be enjoyable for her until she meets a young man, still back in her home town, with whom she falls in love for what seems like the first time in a bittersweet sequence. After he leaves her, one of the previous men she had sex with rapes her, embedding the notion in her mind that she owes it to him, and that she deserves it. Fast-forward to Litchfield, where her at-first pleasant friendship with the creepy Coates culminates in a parallel scene of rape; the camera closes in on Tiffany€™s face, as one single, heartrending tear rolls down her face as she finds herself unable to escape this cycle of sexual violence - a single moment that perfectly captures a struggle that so many face with harrowing precision.