Alex!

Alright time to do another blog about a character from Orange Is The New Black! This time I’m talking about my favorite character(and it’s honestly not even close lol), Alex Vause!

Alex worked for an international drug ring and was apparently very good at it. She ran drug mules and she was very high up. Not the best thing to be great at but I think it shows her brains. But while that is going on, she meets Piper. I’ve heard Laura Prepon say that Alex fell in love with Piper after she made her a drug mule but I disagree. I’ve watched their meeting and their early days over and over. She loved Piper first and then she used that love to manipulate Piper to carry drug money and I think it’s something she’ll always regret.

Something Laura has said over and over and over about Alex that I do agree with, is Alex is a badass. I think she kind of had to be. She was born to a single mom and they were poor. As a child she wasn’t the confident gorgeous woman we meet later on. She wore glasses and was kind of a nerd. She was really picked on and bullied a lot. Her father was not involved with her life. He was apparently a well known musician. The one time she met him, he actually came on to her and was just an asshole. She ends up crying in the bathroom and then in that moment where she is so vulnerable she meets the man who would be come her boss in the drug ring. I don’t think that’s coincidence.

Something I feel in the flashbacks but also in the current, Alex is constantly searching for where she belongs(as are pretty much all of these women). I think as crazy as it might sound, I think she thought she found that in the drug ring. She was doing something she was good at, getting to see the world, making good money, getting to meet lots of beautiful women, and I think in the early days it felt really good to her. But it was an illegal drug smuggling ring, there was no way it could be home.

But when she met Piper, she found her home(When I wrote this I’d completely forgotten that Piper described love as coming home after a long trip lol. They truly are each other’s home!) and the longer they are together, the more you see what she’s doing weighing on her. She knows what she’s doing is very bad and could destroy her and Piper’s life. She’s brought this woman she loves more than anything and anybody into this mess and she can’t get her out of it and still be with her because she can’t get herself out of it because she knows she’ll likely be killed. In the scene where Piper breaks up with her and decides to go back to the states, Alex talks about how stressed she was and you can she how stressed she is. But that wasn’t how she was earlier but now she has way more to lose than she ever had before and it’s killing her.

Here is the thing about Alex, yes she’s a badass and she’s tough and she’s confident and wicked smart(and did I mention completely stunning?) but the other side of that coin is she has a huge a heart. You see it over and over. You see it with Piper. Piper has done terrible things to her and broken her heart multiple times and yet she still loves her. She still takes her back every time Piper come running to her. She needs Piper but she also loves Piper, despite all her flaws. But you see it other times as well. When Piper fires Flaca, Alex stands up for Flaca and tells Piper what she did was disgusting. When her old drug boss sends someone in to kill her and she ends up killing him, it eats her up. This man tried to kill her and probably would’ve had Lolly not shown up but after his body is found all she can think about is that they don’t know his name and his family doesn’t know he’s dead and can’t grieve for him. That always just boggles my mind! She also is eaten alive by the fact that Lolly went down for killing him and there is  scene where she's a holding a potato and crying for Lolly(she also did everything she could including confessing to Red about what happened to keep Freda from killing Lolly). After the riot breaks out and the other women take all the guards hostage and they want to do terrible things to them, Alex gets up and walks out and wants nothing to do with it. Going way back to when she was with Sylvia before Piper, Sylvia clearly has some issues. She’s an alcoholic for one. But she just has issues. It seems pretty clear, she isn’t staying with her because she loves her. She stays because she feels sorry for Sylvia and she doesn’t want to damage her further. The same thing happens in Season 7 with McCollough. The whole fling starts and continues, not because Alex loves or even has feelings for McCollough but because she feels sorry for her and she sees how damaged she is and she doesn’t want to damage her further. When the fight is supposed to break out during the kick ball game at the end of Season 6, Alex and Nicky(who I will talk about later on in another blog) are the only two who don’t want it. Alex is many things but she’s not a fighter and she doesn’t like hurting people. Killing that man who almost killed her, almost did her in and it was completely justified. I don’t think she’d ever be able to kill someone without there being a reason. I think she’d fight, kill, and be killed for Piper but outside of that I don’t think she’d ever be able to even hurt a fly. She is probably the softest sweetest most loving person sitting in prison on very severe drug charges from being massively involved in an international drug ring lol.

Alex is also very sensitive. She feels things very deeply. If she’s angry she’s really angry and if she’s sad she’s really sad and if she’s happy she’s really happy and when she’s feeling love for Piper it’s intense and radiates off of her. She takes it hard and personally when people say things about her and Piper. But she also picks up on things that other’s miss. Just like the whole her old drug boss sending someone into prison to kill her, she knew it was going to happen long before it did. She knew what those people were capable of and she knew at the length they would go through to get rid of threats to them. She always knew when there was something up with Piper(I mean not that Piper hides it well but lol). Multiple times she found Nicky doing things and she seemed to know right away what was bothering her and what she needed to hear. She’s so wise and always seems to know what needs to be said. One of my favorite conversations between her and Piper happens while they’re playing cards in Season 1 Episode 10. She tries to get Piper to smell her cards and this flirty hand play where she’s picking on Piper and Piper is playfully trying to get her to stop and it ends with Piper’s hands on top of her’s on the table and them smiling at each other(and can I just say the way she looks at Piper at that point just melts my heart lol). Piper removes her hands and says “It’s weird how normal this feels” and Alex says “What?” and Piper says “I feel like I’m 23 and no time has passed!” and Alex says “Well I think when you have a connection with someone, it never really goes away you know? You snap back to being important to each other because you still are.” and I think it’s such a beautiful line. She has many time comments like that.I think it's also funny that despite Piper's insistence and Larry's insistence when she comes to see her to get his bluff in on her, she has zero doubt that Larry and Piper will never get married lol(probably partly comes from a place of hope but she also knows Piper very well and she knows Piper doesn't love Larry like she loves her). 

She’s also very funny though, some of the best one liners of the show are hers and I’ll post some videos of those if I can find them.

In season 7 though, we see a different side of Alex. Piper is out and she’s in prison and will be for 3 more years. I don’t know that I realized how much Alex depended on Piper until I saw her in Season 7. I think the whole series we see Alex as the strong one and the one who was people’s rock, especially Piper’s. I mean you see a little bit of her not strong side in Season 4 and 5 after killing that guy. But it was not like she was in Season 7. She was lost and unsure of herself and insecure. I think there were two main reasons for that and both kind of involved Piper.

First off, Piper makes her feel all things good at that point in their relationship. They were stable for the first time ever in season 5 and 6. Piper made her feel like she could do anything, like together they could get through anything. Piper grounded her and yet made her dream of the future. Piper brought out all of the good in Alex. I don’t think even Alex realized how much she depended on Piper. So when Piper left, she not only didn’t have the love her life or that much needed comforting touch but she also lost her rock and the person who stabilized her. As I said before Piper is home for her and with Piper gone, prison is just prison. She was really shook up by losing all of that.

The other side of it was, Piper was out and building a life she wasn’t apart of. She was afraid of Piper leaving her and yet afraid of holding her back. She loved Piper so much and she wanted to give her the entire world and she can’t. She seemed to feel like Piper deserved better than she could give her. As sad and hard as it is to watch Alex in Season 7, I think you see the full extent of her love for Piper. She was willing to crush her own heart to free Piper to have more than she could give her.

I don’t know that anyone anticipated Alex being such a popular character. But Laura Prepon and the amazing writing of this brought us a character you can’t ignore! She’s tough and a badass but yet soft and kind and authentic. She just has this personality that sucks people in(which I think in part is because of Laura’s personality). You throw in the beauty of her endless pure unconditional love for Piper and she’s truly a complex beautiful character! I loved her and she was my favorite from the get go and the more I watch, the more I love her!

So I know I’ve babbled endlessly about Alex and Piper(and to a lesser extent Laura and Taylor) for 3 blogs now(what can I say they completely won me over lol) but I just wanted to end this blog before I jump off into other characters and story lines, with acknowledging these two amazing women who so beautifully brought these characters and this relationship to life. When I started watching this show, I was blown away with how much these two character and actors drew me into this show.

Although I didn’t like Piper much at first, I instantly loved Taylor. I had no idea who she was before this show(as well as most of these women honestly) but I instantly loved her. I know from things I’ve read that she struggled with playing a character that was so strongly disliked but she did it beautifully! From the first scene she was in until the last. She could hit every emotion perfectly. She could hit the comedy side and make me laugh until I cried but she also hit the other side so hard I cried with her many times. She was just perfect and I’m so glad it was her that ended up playing Piper.

I had the same experience with Laura, except I adored Alex from the get go. Laura has that personality that every girl wishes they had. That bubbly sexy draw everyone to you personality. It’s just who she is and that radiated out of her while she played Alex but also her love for Alex also radiated out of her. I think that’s why you could look at this woman who had done so many things wrong in her life and yet feel so much love and admiration for her. You could feel the love that was put into her by Laura. Laura also is an amazing actress and she could make me laugh and she could make me cry and at times she made me angry and at times she made me feel angry for her. I didn’t really know Laura before this show either. I knew who she was from That 70’s Show even though I can’t really stand the show(sorry, not sorry lol). But I can vaguely remember seeing her in the show when I’d see a few minutes of it here or there. But that show didn’t really showcase her talents in my opinion(it didn’t really showcase anybody’s talents in my opinion but that’s neither here nor there lol). But she shined in this show as Alex. She truly did!

But the magic of this show, came when you threw these two amazing actresses and women together. When I started watching the show I kept thinking am I the only one who can’t stop watching these two together and when I started reading articles and joining groups and reading on websites I realized almost everyone felt that way. Back when the show was on people were completely obsessed with these two together! There were some issues with the second season and some doubt if Laura would be coming back and apparently fans lost their collective minds lol. Thankfully everything was figured out and we got 7 amazing seasons with her. But to me it just highlights the magic they found by accident with Laura but more than that with Laura and Taylor together.

I talked in my first blog about their chemistry and it is fire! But in watching the show multiple times now(on my 3^rd watch through right now lol) but also in watching them at events and interviews, I see it’s far more than chemistry. They have a very deep connection but more than that they truly love, respect, and care for each other in a way that I think is rare in that world. Yes people meet on movies and TV shows and become friends and love and respect each other and whatever. But what they shared was different. People are still speculating about what their relationship was especially early on in the show and many will probably go to their graves thinking there was more than friendship there. I have my opinions about that but at the end of the day only they know and it doesn’t really matter. What started off as an instant crazy chemistry and connection became a true bond that no one else could understand as they dove into playing these unique intense roles. They were asked to do some of the most intense and passionate and sexual scenes I’ve ever seen and they did it magnificently, especially for two women who have both said they’d never done anything like that before. They were both knew to nudity and those kind of sex scenes. Their very first scene together after meeting just one time was a very intimate shower scene! I can’t even imagine what that would be like. But they also had to do other very intense real raw scenes because they were playing two very flawed frankly broken women who love each other passionately and also fight each other passionately!

I read an interview Laura did about her and Taylor’s last scene together and she said “Taylor and I were really just in the moment. We were embracing the fact that the series was coming to an end and we got each other through it. Taylor and I are great friends, but who knows when we’re going to be on camera together again? We were reveling in how special this whole journey has been.” and I think that perfectly sums up what they did. They created a relationship off screen of love and respect and care that became an incredible amount trust and what they did on screen showed that. Because they felt loved and cared for by each other, they could go there. They could let go and do what was being asked and it’s beautiful. They formed a team and they became each other’s rock and together they didn’t just get through, they slayed it! I also saw a live Q&A on Instagram that one of the other actors did several years ago and she talked about them having their own language and it doesn't surprised me at all. This other actor didn't show up until the 6th season, so Taylor and Laura had been doing their thing for years. It stands to reason they knew each other well enough at that point, that they wouldn't need lots of communication. 

They’re relationship is beautiful to watch on screen but I think it might be even more beautiful to see off screen(they did a Q&A last year on Zoom about Laura's book on motherhood and I've watched that thing probably a hundred times at this point because I just enjoy watching them talk together and seeing their connection). They truly have one of those once in a lifetime connections and it made this show what it is. Their relationship and their characters individually drew in the fans and kept them coming back, so Jenji and the other writers could expand on other characters and give them their time to shine and so they could tell real raw hard stories that needed to be told! They have both made a new fan for life with me and I’m so grateful that it all worked out the way it did and us fans got to enjoy the benefits of it!

I promise my next blog will be mostly Piper and Alex free LOL!But here are some Alex videos!

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2ZDPOxfN7Y