Orange Is The New Black: 10 Villains Who Deserved Harsher Consequences
Orange Is The New Black ran for seven seasons from 2013 - 2019 and fans were glued to the screen with each new villain presented. Some of them (like Yvonne a.k.a Vee) were known as villains right away. Others (like Piper’s best friend Polly) are more stealthy in their villain status. Throughout the show, there are plots and schemes that maneuver these villains to their ends.
Did every villain deserve exactly what they got? Or did some get away with light punishments? Fans weren’t always happy with the endings each person received. Some characters redeemed themselves and some just walked off without real resolution. Read on for ten villains who deserved harsher consequences.
10 Polly Harper
At first, Polly is main character Piper’s best friend. When Piper first goes to prison, Polly appears supportive. They have a business together creating artisan soaps and beauty products. Piper’s plan was to continue running the company with Polly while she did her time.
But Polly quickly turned to criticize everyone in prison and everything about it, including Piper. Then she slept with Piper’s fiancé Larry and ended up leaving her husband to be with him. In the end, they are happily together and Polly is pregnant with another baby. She basically had no consequence besides losing Piper as a friend.
9 Stella Carlin
This character was tricky for fans from the beginning. She came around right when Piper and Alex broke up. They were both sewing for the Whispers lingerie company at the prison. They stole scraps to make their own panties and smuggled them out of the prison to sell to perverts. This goes well until Stella is up for release.
While the pair worked well together on screen, fans believed that Stella was bringing out a bad side of Piper, and so did Alex. This proved true when Stella stole all of the money Piper made from he business and Piper retaliated by planting contraband in Stella’s cell and tipping the officers. Stella went to Maximum Security but many fans believed this was a light punishment for stealing money from Piper and everyone else that was part of the business.
8 Abe
In Season 3, Tiffany Dogget (a.k.a. Pennsatucky) took a shine to corrections officer Abe. He seems clueless about the rules and Dogget takes advantage of that as the prison van driver. She exploits his lack of knowledge to get donuts and sodas from Abe.
Then he comes to collect and he uses his power as an officer to assert his dominance and assault Dogget. Later, he and Dogget makeup and become friends. She never reports him and he never faces any real consequences. Boo and Dogget play a prank on him but he still got away with the assault and faded off into the background.
7 Madison Murphy
Dubbed “Badisson” by the other inmates, Murphy comes to the show in Season 6 when all the inmates are moved to maximum security after the riot at Litchfield. She schemes and pranks, seeing many of the newly transferred Litchfield ladies as threats. Eventually, this leads to Murphy attempting to get Piper’s date extended so that she isn’t released.
Alex subverts this plan and they get Madison transferred to a prison in Missouri. Ex-Warden Caputo tells them that this prison is “where inmates and COs go to die.” Fans loved seeing Murphy knocked down but in the end, they didn’t actually get to see Murphy’s demise or find out if she really was in a bad way at her new prison.
6 Desi Piscatella
A corrections officer that comes to the prison in Season 4, Piscatella’s attempt to get the rioters under control leads to Poussey’s death. Fans hated Piscatella for this action alone as Poussey was beloved and her death was senseless and avoidable. Piscatella’s brutality continues throughout the season and into Season 5.
He is homosexual so the ladies’ usually tactics of flirting and offering sexual favors don’t work on him. In the end, he is accidentally shot in the head by CERT officer. In death, Piscatella faced no consequences for his actions and had a quick death. Even worse, Tasha Jefferson (a.k.a. Taystee) was charged and convicted with his murder. She faced the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison for a crime she didn’t commit.
5 George Mendez
Nicknamed “Porn Stash” by the inmates, Mendez is cruel to the inmates. He brings in drugs and his supply and pressure are large contributing factors to Tricia’s overdose and death. He extorts and pressures other inmates, especially Sophia and Red’s “family.” Daya is impregnated (willingly) by C.O. Bennett. In an attempt to get him fired and arrested, Daya entices an affair with Mendez and makes him believe that the baby is his.
He does a brief stint in prison where he continues to believe that Daya’s baby is his and that she’s in love with him, even after the truth comes out. Mendez’s mother adopts the baby and in Season 7, Mendez is seen being a father to the baby he believes is his daughter. He is never held accountable for bringing drugs into the prison or his many other acts of brutality and gets to have a nice life at his mother’s house with Daya’s baby while she’s in prison.
4 Maureen Kukudio
Introduced in Season 3, Maureen takes a liking to Suzanne right away. She becomes obsessed and when Suzanne wants space, Maureen is not happy. Her disposition is strange and the other inmates find her overly sexual. She uses these qualities to connect with Suzanne at first, then abandons her unsatisfied in payback for what she believes to be previous abandonment.
When the guards attempt to get the inmates to fight each other, Maureen offers to fight Suzanne, taunts her, and then Suzanne beats her nearly to death. Maureen dies off-screen of medical complications from that beating. While Suzanne did get to beat Maureen up, she was plagued with guilt afterward and Maureen faced none of the consequences for that.
3 Kasey Sanky
Along with Angie and Leanne, Sanky mistakes Piper’s “Community Careers” initiative for a white power group and she runs with it. She uses her status to get Piscatella to agree to an “anti-gang” task force that she uses as an excuse to exert power over minority groups.
Her racist views and insurance on Piper as their leader eventually get Piper branded with a swastika by the Maria and the Latina group. Sanky fades into the background. She never faces consequences for her racist ways or for her actions leading to Piper’s scars.
2 Linda Ferguson
When Litchfield is taken over by MCC, Linda is one of the corporate big wigs that enforces changes at the prison. She’s all about the bottom line. During the Litchfield riots, she is mistaken for a prisoner when she uses a uniform to blend in for safety.
She is bullied and mistreated during her stay and, instead of using that experience to make the prisons better, she chooses to get revenge on all prisoners and make things worse. She extorts her higher-ups for a better position and instills C.O. Hellman as Warden even though he exhibits brutal tactics. Aside from her brief stay in prison, she faces absolutely no consequences for her actions and actually moves up in life before the end of the series.
1 Sam Healy
Some fans didn’t see Healy as much of a villain by the end of the series, mostly due to his feelings for Red and how he tried to be nice to her. He also set up group therapy and attempted to help a few other inmates. However, his actions appear to be self-serving.
He also has visible disdain for Birdie, another counselor that comes into the prison, and makes comments about her race and gender making her inferior. He’s also obsessed with the deterring lesbians in the prison and appears extremely homophobic. He never faces consequences for any of his actions and, at the end of the show, he’s working at a smoothie cafe in a simple but nice life.