Ep 6. WAC Pack

Piper is earnestly trying to get back on good terms with Red, who is the head chef of the prison kitchen in Litchfield Penitentiary, where she is incarcerated. In order to prove herself to Red, Piper decides to help her crew, the Women's Advisory Council (WAC), with a new project: sponsoring a weekly prison newsletter that can be sold to the inmates for some extra money.

Piper is optimistic that this project will be well-received by the inmates, but when she pitches the idea at a council meeting, she quickly realizes that the women are not interested. Most of the group seems to think it's too much work, while others are suspicious of Piper's intentions (which is not helped by the fact that she's a new inmate with no record of success).

To make matters worse for Piper, the prison is about to lose electricity for a few hours due to repairs, and she desperately needs access to the computers in the library to finish her assignment for her class debut. With no other alternative, she decides to bribe one of the WAC members, Maria, to let her use her phone in exchange for a pack of tampons.

While using the phone, Piper is discovered by one of the correctional officers, who confiscates the device and writes her up. This penalty is severe and could land her in solitary confinement.

Meanwhile, Sophia Burset, the prison hairdresser who is a trans woman, is facing some issues with the administration. Sophia is being denied access to her hormone pills, despite it being mandatory to continue her treatments, and she feels discriminated against due to prejudices revolving around her identity. Frustrated, she turns to a fellow inmate, Sister Ingalls, for guidance and advice on what to do.

Back in the kitchen, Red becomes aware of the situation with Sophia and decides to take matter's into her own hands. She begins a series of mysterious plans to ensure that Sophia gets her pills one way or another, putting herself and her own empowerment roles at risk.

Meanwhile, the WAC group takes one step forward and two steps back as Piper continues to have difficulty getting them interested in their newspaper idea. But after a group discussion about their dire financial situations and the possibility of a commissary price increase, the women are inspired to use the newspaper to air their grievances about this.

The episode concludes with the publication of their newspaper, which is met with shock and disapproval from the prison's administration. Piper appears to be one step closer to getting revenge on the officer who wrote her up for using the phone by getting him to take drugs but everything doesn't go according to the plan.

Orange is the New Black season 1 episode 6 'WAC Pack' is a humorous, yet extremely profound episode that explores some of the underlying themes of the show with the help of some fantastic writing, some sharply drawn characters and breathtakingly exceptional performances that reveal the depths within the characters.