Orange Is the New Black, Season 2, Episode 8 Recap: Piper Gets Devastating News

We then head back to Litchfield. Pipes is getting her hair done in preparation for her furlough and says she's just planning to see her grandmother and isn't sure if she will see Larry. Sophia and Anita ask Pipes why she got the furlough, and she says she thinks the DOC must have just taken pity on her. Anita and Sophia say they applied and never got it.

Caputo is in Red's greenhouse and destroying it to find her contraband, but he can't find it, so he leaves. Meanwhile, Susan vents to the COs about Figueroa. Caputo enters, and Susan is forced to speak on everyone's behalf to say the shot quota is ineffective. He's pissed and fires her. WHAT?!?! She runs out crying, and you can tell he regrets doing that.

Vee goes to see Gloria, and Gloria tells her that she doesn't trust her or Red and is staying out of it. Next, we see Susan in the chapel. She catches Nicky smoking a cigarette and tells her she got fired and wants to know if Nicky was hitting on her. Susan said she thought about but doesn't go that way. Nicky tells her that getting fired was the best thing that happened to her and now she can live her life. Luschek says only "lame" when he hears the news. Susan walks away.

Miss Rosa is leaving the hospital when she sees the teen crying with his mom. She goes over to him and thinks he's dying and that her curse is rearing its ugly head again. Turns out, he's not. He's in remission! She's overjoyed. Then we see another flashback: Rosa is in jail and talking to Don. Robbing a bank solo clearly didn't work out.

By now, word about Pipes' furlough has spread throughout prison and all of the inmates hate her for it. After getting prodded from the black crew that she got special treatment because she's white, Pipes snaps. She stands up and yells for them to STFU, brings up white privilege (eye roll), and then Crazy Eyes throws a piece of cake at her.

Meanwhile, Gloria tells Red not to drag her into the Vee drama and says that she has three days to get her contraband out of the kitchen. Next, Pipes goes to Healy and wants to return her furlough. She says she doesn't get why he did this for her because he hates her. Then he tells her about Rosa and says he is useless for the most part except for every once in the while, he can do something like this. So she can't return the furlough.

Caputo goes in the greenhouse and the old ladies are there. He brought plants as a peace offering to Red. They're not friendly to him and he leaves. Red's with Pipes and asks her to check on her store while Pipes is out of prison. Next, we see that Soso is being forced to take a shower and she starts crying. I know this is supposed to be powerful, but there hasn't been enough character development for me to really care at all what happens to Soso.

Anita catches up with Rosa, who says she's terrified of dying a slow, painful death. Rosa decides to go to sleep. When Anita leaves, Rosa smells the money that she and the teen stole. Does this mean that Rosa has literally breathed new life into herself with that inhale from the money? Only time will tell.

We're back with Piper. She calls her mom, who says her grandmother died last night. Damn:

Caputo goes to Figueroa and tells her that he fired Susan. She says she already hired someone to replace Susan. It's Pornstache!!!

In case you missed it, click here for the recap of episode six and here for the episode seven recap.

What did you think of this episode? Were you as touched as I was with the way that Rosa's terminally ill story line is being handled?