The 10 Most Memorable OITNB Episodes to Brush Up on Before Watching the Final Season

Imagine going to prison for a one-time crime you committed 10 years ago under the influence of your ex-girlfriend. You have moved on since then, have found new love, and haven't committed such a crime since. Then, your first few days behind bars you're struggling to grasp the inmate lifestyle and have already made what seem like reputation-ruining mistakes. As you're about to go into a full-blown panic attack, you realise that your ex is a fellow prisoner. Welcome to Piper Chapman's life. The first episode sets the tone for the series, and it's done in such a brilliant way that it's no wonder we couldn't watch the rest fast enough.

For it being the Christmas episode (and season one finale), it doesn't end on a jolly note. Let's rewind: Sister Jane Ingalls (Beth Fowler) and Sophia Burset (Laverne Cox) are casting the Christmas pageant, including the nativity scene. Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett (Taryn Manning), who has her eyes set on being cast as the angel, also has her eyes out on Piper Chapman. She's been plotting her revenge for a while, and it's time to put it into action. She gets her chance when she leaves the Christmas pageant early to follow Chapman outside with the intent to kill her. Pennsatucky cuts Chapman's hand with a handmade wooden cross, but Chapman managers to kick her. All of her pent up frustration — including the struggles of choosing between Alex Vause and her fiancé Larry Bloom (Jason Biggs) — come to a head and she beat the (already super crooked) teeth out of her.

Lorna Morello (Yael Stone) is arguably one of the sweetest characters on OITNB, but her stalking and attempted murder charges remind us that there's a different side to her. She's been telling other prisoners about her fiancé Christopher and how they're going about the wedding planning process even with the separation. However, it's all a lie and her obsession with him contributed to her landing behind bars. Morello's work duty assignment is driving the van when needed for errands, which includes driving prisoner Miss Rosa Cisneros (Barbara Rosenblat) to chemotherapy at the hospital. She uses that privilege to carry out more crimes.

One day during one of those hospital visits, the CO goes with Cisneros and Morello sits in the van in the parking lot. She discovers that Christopher is engaged from an announcement in the newspaper and gets all up in her feels — leading her to drive to his house. She breaks in and finds that no one is home. So she draws herself a bath, puts on Christopher's fiancée's veil, and soaks. Morello zones out and is snapped out of it when she hears him walking through the front door. In what can only be described as stressful and blood-racing, Morello grabs her clothes, escapes out the window, drives back to the hospital, and makes it back in time to pick up the CO and Cisneros. No one finds out what she did.

It's a program that rarely gets pushed through, on the show anyway, but that hasn't stopped the OITNB prisoners from asking for furlough. The timeout from prison is open for reasons such as a sick relative or death in the family. Fellow prisoners speculated that Piper Chapman was approved for 48 hours on the outside to say goodbye to her sick grandmother because of her skin colour. The displeased chatter is apparent, so Chapman addresses the elephant in the room in the cafeteria. That doesn't go so well, and Crazy Eyes launches food at her head, which leads to a food fight.

Chapman's grandmother passes away before she's able to go home, but she's still able to leave to attend the funeral. Although she's not supposed to drink alcohol while out on furlough, that doesn't stop her from downing white wine and trying to hook up with her ex Larry in the bathroom at the funeral reception.

Being able to see Chapman outside prison walls was a telling episode for her relationship. It's when we realise that she really might never get back together with Larry. Plus, we feel that taste of freedom she got during those two days before returning back to Litchfield.

OITNB really outdid itself with the season three finale. Lorna gets a visit from Vince Muccio (John Magaro), a guy she met from a prisoner pen pal program. After knowing each other for a short time, Lorna proposes to Vince with a paper ring she found in a magazine. He says yes and the two tie the knot later in the episode. They also consummate their marriage and conceive a child up against a vending machine. Oh romance!

Meanwhile, Piper Chapman has been balancing her new relationship with Stella Carlin (Ruby Rose) and her side business, where she uses leftover fabric from her panty-making job to make more panties and have fellow inmates wear them to sell online. Chapman discovers that Carlin took all the money in her account a couple days before her release. So what does Chapman do? She hides contraband, including a screwdriver and marijuana, in Carlin's bunk, and tips off the correction officers. Chapman is setting her new reputation — mess with her and she'll send you to maximum security.

There are a lot of new inmates and COs being welcomed into Litchfield, and the original ones aren't exactly OK with the cramped conditions. Now there is less room in the bunks, overcrowding in the bathrooms, and it seems like everyone has a roommate on their nerves.

Among the new inmates is the high-profile cooking show host Judy King (Blair Brown), a Martha Stewart-esque character. The Southern celebrity is quite obviously being given special treatment — no one else gets a large private room and gets meals delivered to them.

Who would have thought prison could get even worse?

The tides have turned and, suddenly, the inmates have all the power. You have to question whether it would have happened at all if one CO hadn't brought a gun into the facility, although we doubt it would have. When the gun slid out, Dayanara Diaz (Dascha Polanco) grabs it while surrounded by shouting inmates. When CO Thomas Humphrey (Michael Torpey) speaks Spanish in an effort to connect with her, she gets mad because she doesn't know the language and shoots him in the upper thigh.

That's the beginning of a season that takes place over just a few days. During this episode, the women take control of Litchfield with the gun in their possession. They hold the COs captive to use as a bargaining tool for what they want — improved conditions, justice for Poussey Washington (Samira Wiley), and COs who aren't abusive.

After an entire season that spanned over the course of just days, the Litchfield riot could end in a countless number of ways. Negotiation attempts aren't leading to a resolution, so the SWAT team storms the prison to force one. Prisoners are dragged out and lined up on the front grass area one by one. Meanwhile, others band with their friends to support one another through an aggressive denouement. They're put on buses to separate prisons and it makes sense why we don't see all of them in season six.

What makes this episode even more pivotal is not just that the prisoner takeover is finally coming to a close, but CO Desi Piscatella is killed by a fellow officer. An accidental one shot to the head was what it took to take down an abusive, power hungry CO.

The police don't care who the real riot leaders were, they just want the pieces to fit their agenda — at least that's how it seems. Tasha "Tasystee" Jefferson (Danielle Brooks) is at the top of the list to go down for it, yet she was the only one trying to intelligently negotiate during the riot. They also trying to pin her with killing CO Desi Piscatella and she begs for Joe Caputo's help to prove her innocence. Taystee isn't the only main character being set as the scapegoat, Nicky Nichols (Natasha Lyonne) is also being set to take blame. But the only way to not get an additional 70 years on her sentence requires giving up her mother figure behind bars.

Meanwhile, Pennsatucky leaves the prison and doesn't come back when the fence is compromised. She and CO Charlie "Donuts" Coates (James McMenamin), who raped her in a previous season, decide to run away together. CO Lee Dixon (Mike Houston) unknowingly gets himself in on the crime, and the three find her a disguise so they could go to an amusement park for the day.

This season we follow the story of rival sisters Carol Denning (Henny Russell) and Barbara Denning (Mackenzie Phillips) who have also have beef with Frieda Berlin (Dale Soules). Their plan is to have their crews fight one another during a kickball tournament as a distraction so they can get their revenge on Berlin. The battle never happens and the sisters don't succeed in their revenge — but they do kill each other.

It is the day we never thought would get here, but Piper Chapman is released from Litchfield! She has mixed emotions, because although she's excited to go home, she's going to miss her fiancée. Alex Vause surprises her with the prison wedding she wanted, along with two of their closest friends Nicky Nichols and Lorna Morello to witness it. Chapman says her goodbyes and finally gets to go home, but we doubt we've seen the last of her.

While Chapman and Vause get hitched, Taystee is waiting to get her fate on trial. Although we don't hear dialogue, her face tells us everything we need to know. She's found guilty of CO Desi Piscatella's death. We're highly anticipating what will happen to her in season seven.

We're left with a lot of questions going into the final season. While we're ready for the answers, we're not ready to say goodbye.