55m3 Netflix's Orange Is the New Black: Season 7 Review - IGN

Here we are at the end of all things. The last of the finest. The curtain call for the single remaining start-up Netflix Original. House of Cards imploded by the end. Hemlock Grove never made it past Season 3. Same for Bloodline and Marco Polo. After that, you get into the second wave of Originals (Bojack, Kimmy Schmidt, Master of None, the Marvel shows, etc) and the business officially picks up on the Peak TV front.But Orange Is the New Black, with its addictive, macabre bounciness, has remained tall and true through it all. And it nails the ending here. Now that the show can put a final stamp on things and close up shop on the characters and arcs, there's a freedom of design that hasn't really been present since the first season. There are lags and sags, sure, as you'll find with most 13-episode seasons where the chapters all run about 60 minutes each, but, damn it, there's some sweetly destructive stuff here too. A bountiful blend of triumph and tragedy.

And that's the OITNB bingo game running underneath Season 7, really: Who's going to make it? Not simply "Who's going to make it out of prison?" but "Who's going to be okay?" Because those things can easily be mutually exclusive. And no, not everyone makes it. Viewers looking for the type of closure that comforts and consoles will probably have a hard time absorbing a lot of this.

Orange is the New Black: Season 7 Gallery

As Taylor Schilling's Piper readjusts to the outside world, in a new life that's set up for her (and other ex-cons) to struggle with and fail at, the rest of the inmates in Litchfield Max (the setting since the riot in Season 5) do their best to either face their fate or alter their course. Naturally, the predictable and generic choice for a TV series coming to an end would be to right wrongs and see justice prevail, but Orange dances to a vastly different beat.

You might think redemption is in store for a handful of these complex inmates, but you'll only be right half of the time. Some go the distance while others trip up right before the finish line. Surprisingly, the fate-game, given the massive ensemble, adds a layer of suspense to Orange's unique dramedy recipe.

Also, while Season 7 contains a decent amount of returning faces (not just those who vanished post-Season 5), it also stays honest to the credo that "sometimes people's stories just end." Sometimes folks vanish. Beneath Orange's trademark witticisms and woke whimsy is a sinister source code that embraces chaos and directly showcases how each character accepts or rejects life's cut-throat uncertainties.

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New faces flood in, some with their own tumultuous arcs and backstories, thanks to PolyCon Corrections' ugly new ICE Detention Center, which we saw Blanca wind up in at the end of Season 6. Not that Litchfield itself doesn't feature some seriously dire s*** in the final stretch -- from Taystee's deep dive into dark thoughts to an alarming ailment that grabs hold of Red -- but it's in the ICE block that most of the horrors unfold.

Sadly, I can't divulge too much here, except to mention vague starting blocks like "Piper and Alex face relationship challenges now that Piper is on the outside," "Doggett and Maria try to improve their lives," "Tamika gets an exciting new opportunity," and "Nikki tries to balance a new love with old responsibilities," but it should be said that the most interesting stories to witness here are the characters who try their hardest to create systemic changes for good. From a bookend standpoint, we also get to cycle back into Piper's life and revisit her inherent need to feel like an outlier, whether it draws people in or pushes people away.

Given how much this final season is meant to illuminate the creeping and cruel darkness saturating our country right now, Orange finds its strength, and salvation, in kindness and decency. Hell, even Alysia Reiner's Fig discovers an inner light when confronted with the inhumanity of ICE. Orange may sometimes play things a bit on-the-nose, and not all the flashbacks this season are necessary (though the same could be said for most flashbacks after the first few years), but the full experience of this series, and this season, will simultaneously elevate you and haunt you.