Maria is one of the hardest women to pin down on Orange Is The New Black. She’s tough on the outside, but when viewers get to see a glimpse of her inner workings, she’s as soft as the slop they serve in the prison cafeteria. A regular face on the show since the very beginning, Maria got herself involved in some really tough stuff in Season 4. On the edge of Season 5, I have to ask — when is Maria getting out of jail on Orange Is The New Black?
Maria is behind bars presumably because of a drug charge. Her father, who was big on Dominican pride because of their ancestry, was the head of a drug ring, and he also raised Maria to be a proud Dominican. But then came Yadriel, a cute guy in the neighborhood. Maria saved Yadriel from arrest by disposing of drugs he dropped while being chased by the police, and the two started a relationship. The one problem, besides, you know, all the drugs? Yadriel is Mexican. Maria’s father, of course, doesn’t approve of all of this, and after a big disagreement, Maria’s father throws Maria out of the house and she goes to live with Yadriel. She’s about 16 at this point. We don’t know when exactly Maria went to jail, but in Season 2, it’s mentioned that Maria has six years left on her sentence and she just wants to ride it out and try and get out early for good behavior.
That’s all well and good until Season 4, when an influx of Dominican inmates makes the Dominicans the ruling clan of Litchfield. Maria is very quickly tapped as a leader of the pack, especially after she starts an underwear business to directly compete with Piper’s. After Maria rejects hiring any of the new inmates who were transferred into Litchfield, Piper snitches on Maria and adds another three to five years to Maria’s sentence. In retaliation, Maria and some of the other Dominicans brand Piper with a swastika. Yikes.
So, if you’re doing the math, Maria must have about a decade on her sentence still, and that’s really nothing to sneeze at. Ten years is a long time. The Season 4 finale ended with Daya holding a gun against the Litchfield guards, and all previews up to now show that Litchfield is just hurting for a riot. Maria is a natural born leader — all of her time with her father certainly fashioned her to that — and my hope is that she stays out of this riot stuff so she can get out of prison more quickly for good behavior and get back to her daughter, the baby she had while in prison in Season 1. Though it goes against her natural inclinations, Maria needs to keep her nose down and stay out of the drama if she wants to get out of Litchfield anytime soon on Orange Is The New Black.
