Jimmy Cavanaugh is a former inmate of Litchfield Penitentiary. She has not been heard from since her release in Season Two. She is portrayed by Patricia Squire.
Personality[]
Jimmy has dementia, causing her to lose her memory bit by bit as she gets older. Because of this, she is quite absent-minded. Jimmy can be seen to be quite rude toward her friends, but they shrug this off as part of her illness. Cavanaugh is mild mannered and often dazed as a result of her dementia. She has been known to curse and have small bursts of anger but is otherwise unassuming. She sometimes annoys and confuses others with her pleas to help her find Jack.
Physical Description[]
Jimmy has medium length, messy grey hair which goes down to her shoulders. She wears a beige jumpsuit and a white shirt.
Biography[]
Before Litchfield[]
Before her incarceration, Jimmy met Jack, and married him. She then had a daughter who she fell out with, causing the daughter to move to Sweden. At some point in her life, Jimmy was diagnosed with dementia. It can be seen that she may have enjoyed swimming in her younger years.
Season Two[]
She is one of five characters with a confirmed mental disability, the others being Suzanne, Lolly, Red and Lorna. Jimmy's dementia is crippling -- although she is around 89, she believes she's still in her twenties and that Lyndon B. Johnson is still president, constantly asking about her husband Jack. Jimmy is most likely totally unaware of the fact that she is in prison and sometimes she even forgets to shower for a month.
She escaped from the prison once in "You Also Have a Pizza", eventually ending up worn out in the bar where Caputo plays with his band, mistaking him for her husband Jack. Caputo orders the COs to keep an eye on her, but in a tearful reunion Bell and O'Neill forget to watch over her. She breaks her arm in the chapel when she mistakes the altar for a diving board into a swimming pool and is given "compassionate release" in "Comic Sans"; although in reality she would need full-time care in a dedicated facility, she is simply dropped at the bus station and left.
As Piper is really worried about Jimmy after her release, wondering how she would take care of herself, she approaches Jimmy's friends Taslitz and Frieda, finding out that to protect her from something like that they spent half their day tracking her down when she wandered, trying to get her back in time for count, but also watching her get worse every day. Frieda states that without any family or friends on the outside to take her in, Jimmy would probably die within the week, to Piper's horror.
Relationships[]
Friends[]
- Piper Chapman (friend) - Piper showed sympathy toward Jimmy and cared for her while she was at Litchfield, including helping her cut up meat. Jimmy calls Piper "Roberta", which is possibly the name of her estranged daughter.
- Red (friend) - Red is accepted into the Golden Girls group, including Jimmy. Jimmy does not show any dislike toward Red.
- The Golden Girls, including Frieda, Taslitz and Irma (social group) Jimmy is part of The Golden Girls, and possibly the oldest.
Romantic[]
- Jack (husband) - Not much is known about Jack, he may bare resemblance to Joe Caputo.
Family[]
- Unnamed daughter (possibly Roberta) - She lives in Stockholm, Sweden. The two don't speak.
Memorable Quotes[]
- "I'm 23!"
- — Jimmy Cavanaugh
- "Have you seen my husband Jack?"
- — Jimmy Cavanaugh
- "I'm being followed. It's the damn Irish. I can't go back to the pen."
- — Jimmy Cavanaugh
- "I can hear you, you old cunt!"
- — Jimmy Cavanaugh
- "Shit-licker!"
- — Jimmy Cavanaugh
Gallery[]
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Appearances[]
Orange Is the New Black: Season Two | ||||||||||
"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": | ||||
Absent | Appears | Absent | Appears | Appears | Appears | Appears | ||||
"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.": | |||||
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
[]
- ↑ Jimmy mentioned seeing the film Easter Parade, which is from 1948. 74 years ago, Jimmy would have been too young to see the film. She also believes she was 23 at the time, so 23 years before Easter Parade was released is 1925, her real date of birth. She is presumed dead in season 2, filmed in 2014. This would mean that by the time of her death she was 89 years old.