EPISODE 312: “Don’t Make Me Come Back There”
“Don’t Me Make Come Back There” is an episode full of stellar performances – more stellar than we’ve come to expect from this show. In fact, with the two people in the spotlight being Laverne Cox (Sophia Burset) and Elizabeth Rodriguez (Aleida Diaz) — two members of the cast who have always had a formidable presence, but have never really had the chance to exercise their acting shops. The episode goes out of its way to place emphasis on their current story arcs, and rightfully so.
Aleida’s conflict deals with something that has been building since Season 1 – the birth of Daya’s (Dascha Polanco) baby. Her and Daya have always had a rocky relationship, and this is explored further through flashbacks of Aleida’s young motherhood. Episode writer Sara Hess toys around a lot with perspective – the flashbacks could’ve focused on Daya, as she’s currently having a baby, after all, but they focus on Aleida, revisiting some of the themes of motherhood from earlier in this season. An interesting parallel is created between her motherhood in both past and present. This is followed up on later in what is one of the series’ most brilliant narrative twists: We see Alieda approach the phone and call Pornstache’s mother. She tells her that the baby is dead, born with its umbilical cord around its neck. Striking sadness is both her and the viewers, we then cut to Daya in the hospital holding the baby in her arms. This is both a genius turn-around in terms of both story progression and character development. Aleida has become manipulative in her newfound melancholy, which she fell into from Daya wanting to be with Gloria (Selenis Leyva) instead of her during the birth, and its interesting to wonder where their mother-daughter relationship between her and Daya will go in the coming season.
Sophia’s conflict spawns from something that began only a few episodes ago, in which her and Gloria’s feud over their sons came to a violent, physical conclusion. Now, many inmates are questioning her true gender following the incident, the lot of them claiming “She still has her dick!” This leads to the COs locking her in the SHU (Solitary Housing Unit), not because of what she did to Gloria, but for her own protection. It’s emotional nonetheless, and this episode contains what is likely Laverne Cox’s finest acting to date. Similar to Lea DeLaria’s portrayal of the series’ beloved Big Boo, who wears her vehement sexuality on her sleeve as part of her exterior, Cox does the same for the Sophia. Being transgender is part of who she is through and through, and never has it been more relevant to her story then here. Cox does a lot of acting with her face, often curling her bottom lip and scrunching her face like an angry mother. When she takes of her wig and her make-up, covered in scars and bruises, Cox becomes a completely different person – who was once a strong independent individual is suddenly a victim. Everyone knows Laverne Cox as an icon and role model for the LGBT community, but here, she is an actress – nothing more, nothing less, and a great one at that.
Full of fantastic performances all around, “Don’t Make Me Come Back There” is a dark, sad episode, but it’s also brilliant, finally connecting what was originally two separate stories. Some of it is a little contrived, but it’s excusable. This season has proved that this series is not afraid to take risks in terms of storytelling and narrative, and this episode is further proof of that — it was a bold move to have the season’s penultimate episode focus so heavily on these two characters, considering all the other stuff that’s happening around them, but it works.
It works a lot.
OVERALL RATING: 9/10
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