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"Fool Me Once" is the twelfth episode of the first season of Orange Is the New Black. It is the twelfth episode of the series overall. It premiered on July 11, 2013. It was written by Sara Hess and directed by Andrew McCarthy.

Synopsis[]

Painful truths reorient several relationships and careers; Pennsatucky feels disrespected by Piper, which is not good; Larry delivers an ultimatum.

Plot[]

Present[]

After her confession about gas lighting Pennsatucky into being thrown in Psych, Piper has new janitorial duties on night shift. Whilst she is working, Suzanne is also cleaning the floors, which she says she does to cope. Piper apologizes for what Larry said about Suzanne on the radio, saying that those comments were made before Piper got to know how nice of a person Suzanne is. Suzanne says that she used to think Piper was a nice dandelion but realizes that she is just a mean person.

Alex is up early and runs into Piper as she is finishing work. She asks Piper about her conversation with Larry, and Piper reveals that Larry told her his father found out that it was Alex who ratted her out. Alex is nervous and concerned but Piper says she is over it, to Alex’s disbelief.

Piper also apologizes to Miss Claudette for what Larry said on the radio. Miss Claudette says she knows people tell stories about her but she was hoping that Piper would have asked her rather than listening to other people. She also says to not get her sick or ruin her appeal hearing the following day.

Pennsatucky is folding laundry and has found out that Chapman helped her get out of psych but also that she got her in there in the first place. She is angry at Chapman for messing with her and is upset that it wasn’t God choosing her. Alex defends Piper saying she put herself on the line to get Pennsatucky out of psych, but Pennsatucky believes there is no justice.

Whilst Piper is fixing a toaster, Alex approaches, gropes her and deliberately goads her by saying it's hot that Piper thinks everything is okay. Piper pushes her away and says nothing is okay, and Alex says, "Good. Now we can talk about it". Piper is angry because she loves and hates Alex at the same time. Alex asks if Larry left Piper and if that is why she has returned to Alex again, using Alex as a comfort binky. She says that Piper can’t handle being alone. Piper asks Alex why she turned her in and Alex said they hadn’t seen each other in ten years, she was still pissed at her for leaving when her mom died, and that she was getting a reduced sentence for naming names. Piper says she should have told her this when they first got here and Alex said she just wanted Piper to like her rather than starting out on a bad note. Piper replies that maybe Alex should have thought that all the way through. 

Larry and Cal are at Cal's trailer in the woods, and Larry admits that Piper is the most interesting thing about him right now. He is sorry he used her stories like that but she still cheated on him. Larry is wondering if Piper is gay now and Cal says she is what she is. Larry thinks their relationship is over and Cal feels awkward being involved in other people’s drama, especially his sister’s. Cal’s girlfriend, Neri, sends Cal a text that simply says ‘yes’ and he screams out that he is engaged. 

Caputo is putting up flyers for the Christmas pageant and Gloria distracts him with ridiculous concerns whilst Gina keeps watch over the closet that Daya has entered with Mendez. Upon a signal from Gina, Gloria abruptly ends her tirade and Lorna approaches Caputo saying she heard someone crying in the utility closet, which is concerning considering what happened with Tricia. Caputo enters the closet and finds Daya and Mendez having sex.

Miss Claudette seems happy and is humming, saying that her lawyer thinks her appeal will go her way. She says that when she gets out someone is waiting for her and she will eat dinner at a normal dinnertime while Piper paints her nails to celebrate the occasion.

Fig yells at Caputo about the Mendez incident, but he says he can’t be everywhere at once and that he cannot be responsible. She says she will not let this go on record as a rape and they have to cover it up. Instead, they are suspending Mendez without pay, saying he has been stressed on the job and needs a short break. Fig says she is sick of having to clean up Caputo’s messes for him.

Bennett and Daya talk in the yard. Daya says the situation is good and now Bennett and her are home-free with the pregnancy situation, as Mendez will be labelled the father. Bennett is mad that she intentionally slept with Mendez and framed him; she said she did it for their relationship because she loves Bennett, but he remains upset.

Pennsatucky meets with her lawyer and explains how she thought she was chosen but it was Chapman just setting her up. Her lawyer says people do things to other people because they feel guilty. He says God wants her to forgive and reminds her that she has been forgiven by God in the past. 

Fischer and Caputo are talking in his office. He says the pageant will be crazy, as inmates will fight over the slots to participate in it. He needs her to be tougher and to enforce the rules more harshly so the inmates will not take advantage of her, like Sister Ingalls had earlier when Fischer let her take food out of the cafeteria. She says she will use a deeper more authoritative voice. He suggests to not use their real names because they are not people, they are sheep.

Mendez is on his way out of the prison, box in hand. Red sees him and winks, hinting that she is responsible.

Neri is mad at Cal because he bought meat rather than hunting it. She says they are different people and that he is not living an authentic life. They argue wildly until Neri storms out. Larry says it is awkward, but Cal says that the arguing is like foreplay for them, due to the upbringing that the Chapman siblings had in which nobody discussed anything serious happening in their lives. Larry thinks their relationship is moving too fast since they’ve only known each other for nine weeks. Cal says they may seem crazy to other people, but they are “in this”.

Janae is fixing the TV while Yoga Jones is hanging Hanukkah decorations. Janae asks why yoga was cancelled the other day, and Jones says she is taking a break from yoga. She needs to stop the zen and actually feel something, and that happened when she hit Janae previously. Jones tells her backstory about how she once made a living growing an acre of marijuana plants in California. Deer kept coming onto her land to eat the plants, so she sat up with a shotgun. One night she was drunk and she saw them rustling around her most potent plants, and she shot what she thought to be a deer. Instead, it ended up being a young boy from the farm next door who had run away. Fischer uses this time to bust in and enforce the no-talking-while-working rules, but it ruins the moment Jones and Janae are having. Fischer walks out apologetically.

Black Cindy and Poussey are making Kwanzaa decorations, conversing about how they have no idea what Kwanzaa is, but they might as well celebrate their African roots since the prison must be inclusive of all holidays. 

Pennsatucky confronts Piper saying Piper saved her but also got her thrown into psych in the first place. Piper almost ruined her life because she made God into a joke for her, and God is all she has. She asks Piper what she believes in, stating that she needs to get right with God. She makes Piper pray for forgiveness, and Pennsatucky hugs her saying she took a step on the right road but she still needs to be baptized.

At the bar, Mendez says he thinks he and Daya are in love and that he can handle spending some time apart from her. He gives Bennett a note to give to her. Mendez, pretending to help Bennett get ahead in his career whilst really getting revenge on Red, tells Bennett to accost the Neptune's Produce truck at the prison gate because there will be drugs in the shipment. Bennett will get money for turning the drugs in, Mendez says, hoping Bennett will give Daya the note. After Mendez leaves, Bennett opens the note which simply says "wait for me". Bennett crumples it up and throws it away.

Piper realizes she was wrong for leaving Alex after her mom died and Alex says she was wrong for selling Piper out to the authorities. Alex says she isn’t sure what she will do when she gets out because she doesn’t know what she is good at besides moving large amounts of heroin. She isn’t planning on going back to that life but she doesn’t know what will happen.

Nicky informs Piper that Miss Claudette’s appeal did not work out, as Miss Claudette storms with a face like thunder back to her bunk. In another attempt to be taken seriously, Fischer yells at Miss Claudette about her contraband nail polish and for not wearing her ID badge. Enraged, Miss Claudette chokes Fischer and is sent to Max, but says it doesn't matter [as all her hope is gone anyway]. While this is occurring, Taystee appears in new orange scrubs, and asks what everyone was looking at.

In Miss Claudette’s room, Black Cindy takes Claudette’s Denzel Washington picture back to her bunk, Big Boo takes her cooker, while Piper wants her crocheted blanket as a memory.

Taystee is back at her library job, and Poussey is both excited and upset to see her back. Taystee explains how on the outside she she had curfew, three job interviews a week for jobs she could never get, and lots of checking up from probation officers constantly, all whilst sleeping on the floor in a corner in house full of people she didn't know. Poussey is angry and hits her saying lots of women in prison are never going to see their kids, that her own mom passed away while she was serving time. Poussey wishes that she could have been there with her mom before she died. She asks Taystee if she came back to prison because freedom was inconvenient. Taystee said she had nowhere to live and owed the prison $900 in fees, and that everyone she knew was dead or not around anymore. She says least in jail she has a bed and she knows the rules and has people that she knows, like Poussey. She tells Poussey that didn’t mean to let her down. When asked what she did to land herself back in prison, Taystee starts saying that it had something to do with 100 paperclips and a Rock star drink, but the whole story is not heard.

Yoga Jones and Janae are considering giving themselves electric shocks from an outlet with a nail to give themselves something to do. Yoga Jones goes first and is electrocuted - Janae seems concerned that Jones was seriously injured but Yoga Jones said it made her feel better and offers the nail to Janae.

Pennsatucky is ready to baptize Piper, but Piper says she has visitation. As Pennsatucky prepares to baptize Piper, Piper says that she believes in science and cannot get behind her religion. She says on some level Pennsatucky’s friends must know that its bullshit. Leanne admits that she has some questions about it. Piper says she understands that religion makes it easier to deal with the random and awful things that happen, but it isn’t real to her. Pennsatucky says she tried to be Piper’s friend, and seems fed up with trying to change her.

Bennett turns a large bag of drugs in to Caputo who is happy to have something to bring Red down. Red is acting as a translator between Healy and his Ukrainian wife, Katya, when Bennett enters with news that Caputo wants to see her. Red instantly knows what is going on and that Mendez was trying to frame her for bringing drugs into the facility.

Fig receives a phone call from Andrew Nance, a reporter who heard Larry’s story on NPR. He asks about the budget cuts and he says that her budget actually increased several million dollars at Litchfield that year. Since there have been many cutbacks in the prison, he questions where all the money is going. Fig says she will look into it, but the man knows that she is the primary person in charge of the allocation of these funds. Fig is then seen getting into a luxury car suggesting she has been embezzling money for her own personal use. 

Larry goes to visit Piper and gives her an ultimatum. The two of them either need to be husband and wife or to break up for good, because being in-between hasn’t been working.

In the final scene, Pennsatucky says to her friends that Piper disrespected her and she is going to have to kill her.

Flashbacks[]

Tiffany Doggett[]

Note: Flashbacks are arranged in chronological order, not the order in which they occur on the show.

In a flashback, Pennsatucky is in bed with her boyfriend, Arlen, discussing a pregnancy she wants to terminate. It is apparent that it is not the first time she has been pregnant. She would rather keep doing drugs than have a child, because her drug use would get her arrested for child endangerment. She asks Arlen for a ride to the clinic, but he says he is busy. (8:50 where this scene in the episode is located)

After Pennsatucky has her fifth abortion, an orderly makes a snarky comment about giving her a punch card so she can have a sixth abortion for free. Pennsatucky, feeling disrespected, re-enters the clinic with a shotgun and kills the orderly. (23:46)

Pennsatucky has her first meeting with her Christian lawyer. He said he could get her to do less time if they argue that she was saving lives and was a crusader against abortion. The church and anti-abortion protesters are supporting her and paying for her lawyer fees, including a stipend for her family. She enters the courtroom and is cheered on by her supporters. She has become an important pro-life figure; in reality the church is aware she has had many abortions and are just using the situation to promote their own ends. (50:46)

Memorable Quotes[]

"I believe in science. I believe in evolution. I believe in Nate Silver and Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Christopher Hitchens. Although I do admit he could be a kind of an asshole. I cannot get behind some supreme being who weighs in on the Tony Awards while a million people get whacked with machetes. I don't believe a billion Indians are going to hell. I don't think we get cancer to learn life lessons, and I don't believe that people die young because God needs another angel. I think it's just bullshit, and on some level, I think we all know that, I mean, don't you?... Look I understand that religion makes it easier to deal with all of the random shitty things that happen to us. And I wish I could get on that ride, I'm sure I would be happier. But I can't. Feeling aren't enough. I need it to be real."
— Piper Chapman

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

 

Guest Stars[]

 

Special Guest Stars[]

 

Co-Stars[]

 

Trivia[]

Music[]

Outro - Inbred Evil - Boondox

Navigation[]

Tiffany's Flashbacks
Fool Me Once  •  Mother's Day  •  A Tittin' and a Hairin'  •  Me as Well
Episode Navigation
Season 1 I Wasn't Ready  •  Tit Punch  •  Lesbian Request Denied  •  Imaginary Enemies  •  The Chickening  •  WAC Pack  •  Blood Donut  •  Moscow Mule  •  Fucksgiving  •  Bora Bora Bora  •  Tall Men with Feelings  •  Fool Me Once  •  Can't Fix Crazy
Season 2 Thirsty Bird  •  Looks Blue, Tastes Red  •  Hugs Can Be Deceiving  •  A Whole Other Hole  •  Low Self Esteem City  •  You Also Have a Pizza  •  Comic Sans  •  Appropriately Sized Pots  •  40 Oz. of Furlough  •  Little Mustachioed Shit  •  Take a Break From Your Values  •  It Was the Change  •  We Have Manners. We're Polite.
Season 3 Mother's Day  •  Bed Bugs and Beyond  •  Empathy Is a Boner Killer  •  Finger in the Dyke  •  Fake It Till You Fake It Some More  •  Ching Chong Chang  •  Tongue-Tied  •  Fear, and Other Smells  •  Where My Dreidel At  •  A Tittin' and a Hairin'  •  We Can Be Heroes  •  Don't Make Me Come Back There  •  Trust No Bitch
Season 4 Work That Body For Me  •  Power Suit  •  (Don't) Say Anything  •  Doctor Psycho  •  We'll Always Have Baltimore  •  Piece of Shit  •  It Sounded Nicer in My Head  •  Friends in Low Places  •  Turn Table Turn  •  Bunny, Skull, Bunny, Skull  •  People Persons  •  The Animals  •  Toast Can't Never Be Bread Again
Season 5 Riot FOMO  •  Fuck, Marry, Frieda  •  Pissters!  •  Litchfield's Got Talent  •  Sing It, White Effie  •  Flaming Hot Cheetos, Literally  •  Full Bush, Half Snickers  •  Tied to the Tracks  •  The Tightening  •  The Reverse Midas Touch  •  Breaking the Fiberboard Ceiling  •  Tattoo You  •  Storm-y Weather
Season 6 Who Knows Better Than I   •  Shitstorm Coming   •  Look Out for Number One   •  I'm the Talking Ass   •  Mischief Mischief   •  State of the Uterus   •  Changing Winds   •  Gordons   •  Break the String   •  Chocolate Chip Nookie   •  Well This Took a Dark Turn   •  Double Trouble   •  Be Free
Season 7 Beginning of the End   •  Just Desserts   •  And Brown Is the New Orange   •  How to Do Life   •  Minority Deport   •  Trapped in an Elevator   •  Me as Well   •  Baker's Dozen   •  The Hidey Hole   •  The Thirteenth   •  God Bless America   •  The Big House   •  Here's Where We Get Off
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