‘Orange Is the New Black’ Season 5 Cliffhanger Resolved

Orange Is the New Black season 6 quickly answers fans burning questions from the season 5 finale.

Spoilers for OITNB season 5 and season 6, episode 1 below.

Season 5 saw the show’s characters riot in Litchfield Penitentiary, effectively taking over. When the riot concluded at the end of the season, the prison was evacuated, and the characters were split up and sent to unknown separate destinations.

After a bulk of the characters were divided, one last group remained in the hidden bunker located in the abandoned pool area of the facility. That group consisted of eight characters: Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren (Uzo Aduba), Galina “Red” Reznikov (Kate Mulgrew), Gloria Mendoza (Selenis Leyva), Nicky Nichols (Natasha Lyonne), Cindy “Black Cindy” Hayes (Adrienne C. Moore) Alex Vause (Laura Prepon) and Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson (Danielle Brooks).

At the end of the finale the group sets their hostage, guard Desi Piscatella (Brad William Henke), free, but he is mistakenly gunned down by swarming SWAT guards.

Those same guards rush into the pool area just as the end credits roll.

In the first section of season 6’s first episode, entitled “Who Know Better Than I,” Suzanne attempts to recall the events of her capture while being questioned. She remembers hiding with Cindy behind a mound of boxes as the others are captured one-by-one and arrested.

Most are seen conscious and leaving, but Alex is seen unconscious and dragged out of frame.

Suzanne and Cindy stay hidden as the room is cleared out. The SWAT officers then drag Piscatella’s body into the pool area. The group stages a shooting scene and devise a plan to blame his death on one of the inmates.

They decide to make it appear that one of the inmates got a gun and began shooting into the room. The chaos it created caused one of the SWAT members to accidentally fire a pepper spray can into the guard’s face. They additionally shoot Piscatella’s corpse to finalize their plan.

Suzanne and Cindy remain hidden and eventually make their way to a closet outside the pool area. They remain there until a guard eventually finds them and takes them to the maximum security prison at the Litchfield site.

All the other women in the basement are there with the exception of Alex. No one is quite sure where she is at the beginning of the season, which freaks out Piper.

Season 6 and all other seasons of Orange Is the New Black are available on Netflix.