While you were busy grooving to Black Cindy's rap or cracking up at Suzanne's creative writing, you may have missed the fact that the new Orange Is The New Black Season 3 trailer revealed a spoiler concerning the surprise return of one character we all assumed we'd seen the last of... since, you know, the last time we saw her, she was lying seemingly dead on the side of the road after having been hit by a car. That's right, guys — Yvonne "Vee" Parker is back!
Her distinctive head of hair can be glimpsed in the background in a very quick shot of the Litchfield cafeteria. During a cursory inspection of the trailer, she's easy to miss since the shot is focused on a new character played by Ruby Rose — but when you freeze the image, there's no mistaking the fact that Vee is apparently alive and well in Season 3. This is a pretty big deal since — if Vee really survived Season 2's cliffhanger — then I'm willing to bet a big pot of money that her return was supposed to be kept top-secret. (I'm also willing to bet that whoever cut that trailer is being read the riot act right about now.)
Considering OITNB is a show structured around flashbacks, we should definitely entertain the possibility that Vee is still very much dead, and is just popping up in another character's backstory. But, the way the trailer is edited at least makes it seem like Ruby Rose's character is flirting with Piper — which certainly suggests that Vee's appearance is in the present day.
The possibility of Vee returning for Season 3 was first broached by TMZ, when they reported that her portrayer, Lorraine Toussaint, was spotted filming on the OITNB set. However, these reports were quickly debunked by Entertainment Weekly : "Despite reports this morning from TMZ that said Lorraine Toussaint is on the set today filming as villain Vee for Orange is the New Black, EW has confirmed that Toussaint is not set to be a part of [Season 3]." A collective sigh of disappointment was heard from OITNB fans everywhere... although now it seems as though that may have just been an attempt at keeping this major plot twist under wraps.
Fans of the streaming service will likely notice that this isn't the first time a Netflix show has used the So-and-so is dead! cliffhanger to end their second season, only for that character to be magically resurrected in the third:
What I find interesting about Vee's resurrection in particular is just how fine she seems sitting there in the cafeteria. At least when Doug Stamper was brought back to life in House Of Cards Season 3, an entire episode was devoted to his brutal recovery process. Granted, it's unclear how far into the season that shot of Vee is, but it's notable that A) she's not wearing any sort of cast/splint/bandage/etc., and B) she's not confined to solitary after her attempted escape. This says to me that either Season 3 will pick up after a significant time jump... or this scene is simply farther into the season than the trailer suggests.
My feelings about Vee's impending return are conflicted. On the one hand, Lorraine Toussaint is a terrific actress and it will be great to see her chew the scenery to shreds once more. On the other, while the conflict between Vee and Red was undeniably important, Season 2 suffered a bit of an imbalance in its storylines, with a bit too much focus on that grim clash of titans. It was exciting to think of Season 3 returning to the show's more comedic roots, and I'd hate to see that opportunity stifled by an excess of Vee drama. Hopefully the new season of OITNB will find the perfect balance between darkness and humor, and learn to use its Vee-card sparingly.
Images: K.C. Bailey, Screengrab (3), Jessica Miglio/Netflix
