‘Orange Is The New Black’ Stars Dish On Piper & Alex’s Surprise Season 5 Ending

Warning: Major Spoilers ahead for Orange is the New Black season five. Read at your own risk.

The new season of Orange is the New Black was just released on Netflix, and fans of the series are still reeling from all of the action within the 13 episodes. While the newest installment revolved around a violent prison riot, it was a major romantic gesture that got everybody buzzing.

In the episode titled ‘Tattoo You’, Alex and Piper’s relationship came to a head. The couple has been on-again-off-again since the very first season, and the episode contained a ton of flashbacks from throughout their relationship. Viewers finally got to see some of their more intimate moments – including Piper’s fish tattoo – and follow more of the love story than ever before.

The episode ended with Piper realizing that she didn’t want to live without Alex, and she got down on a knee to propose. Alex said yes, obviously, and the two finally seem to be heading in the right direction.

While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Taylor Schilling and Laura Prepon talked a little bit about what that ending meant for the characters.

Schilling, who plays Piper, revealed that the flashbacks were really what made the entire story work.

“It always feels so good and so gratifying to be able to fill in parts of Piper and Alex’s timeline,” Schilling said. “That’s what was so exciting about the show from the very beginning. To have such a specific thing that you want and that you’re going after, as an actor, is just candy. It’s really fun. So when that stuff comes back into play, for me, it focuses the show on its center and it makes it easy to do my job.”

The proposal came right in the midst of utter chaos, but Prepon (Alex) thinks that it was the perfect timing for the two characters.

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“When you look at what they just went through with Piscatella, it puts things into perspective. They just went through this insane thing where they almost died. They saw what happened to Red and Alex’s arm is broken and all these things, and they realize: Life is short, I love this person, let’s just do this.”

“It was interesting that that’s where the rubber met the road for them,” agreed Schilling. “In the midst of crisis — let’s get married!”

As far as next season goes, there probably won’t be a major change in their relationship, despite the engagement.

“I can’t imagine it being very much different than what their relationship is like now, which is so heightened and so dysfunctional in many ways,” Schilling said. “Marriage doesn’t generally shift course very much and it’s not really a thing that fixes a relationship. I’m curious to see how they react to that.”

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