Even after four seasons of Orange is the New Black, there are still some major question marks for some of the inmates. We've learned some backstories, but definitely not all of them. There's one inmate I want to know more about on Orange is the New Black: Maureen. We don't know how she came to be at Litchfield, but we do know that what's in Maureen's file shocked Mr. Caputo, someone who has been in the prison world for decades. At that point, you would have thought he'd seen it all — but apparently not.
When he opened up her file, he raised his eyebrows in shock. Maureen answered simply, "Who likes to be predictable, right?" Unfortunately, the show dropped things after that and we never got an explanation of just how unpredictable Maureen was prior to being booked. Spoilers for OITNB Season 4 ahead. We can speculate, though. Maureen's defining characteristic seems to be that she's a little unstable. She doesn't always seem to be living in reality, and she's made some questionable choices like "extra" running away when the fence was down and cajoling Suzanne into fighting her.
But, I don't think she has a mental issue like Lolly clearly has. I think Maureen is aware of every decision she's making and just chooses to make them anyway. Her sense of what's fair and just is off kilter, proved by how she chose to "punish" Suzanne for abandoning her in the woods. She brought her to the brink of orgasm and then stopped and walked away. She seems a little willfully cruel, all while trying to present a naive front. But, underneath that facade I think she knows exactly what she's doing and how to manipulate people.
Perhaps she landed in prison for trying to enact her own personal form of "jutsice" and she hurt someone. Maybe she was convicted of stalking someone like she's been doing to Suzanne. Those crimes are not particularly creative though, so it's hard to determine why she might be in jail. Since she's in minimum security it can't have been something like a Charles Manson-esque murder, so I'm really at a loss as to what exactly she's done.
At the end of Season 4, Maureen was laying in a hospital bed badly injured from her fight with Suzanne. We still don't know what her deal is, but I'm hopeful that Season 5 will peel back the layers a bit and show us just what makes Maureen tick. If only we didn't have to wait a year for answers.
Images: Netflix; giphy
