Orange Is the New Black: 14 Burning Questions After That Brutal Season 4 Finale

[Warning: This article contains spoilers about the entirety of Orange Is the New Black Season 4. Read at your own risk!]

Orange Is the New Blackbroke our hearts over and over again in Season 4, but nothing -- not even Poussey's (Samira Wiley) shocking death -- was crueler than ending the season with a cliff-hanger twist that won't be resolved for a year. A. Whole. Year.

Here are the 14 burning questions we're going to lose sleep over during the next 12 months:

1. Is Daya going to shoot Humphrey?
The season ended with the biggest cliff-hanger Orange has ever done: Daya (Dascha Polanco) holds Humphrey (Michael Torpey) at gunpoint during a prison riot. But will Daya actually follow through and shoot him? If the other inmates have their way, yes. All the women of Litchfield are united in their rage over Poussey's death -- not to mention the other countless injustices they've suffered under Piscatella's (Brad William Henke) rule. However, before Aleida (Elizabeth Rodriguez) was released, she begged Gloria (Selenis Leyva) to keep Daya out of trouble, so it wouldn't surprise us if Gloria attempted a Hail Mary to talk Daya down. But whether Daya will listen is another question...

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2. Will Piscatella or any of the other guards face retribution for the riot?
Bayley (Alan Aisenberg) may have taken the fall, but everyone knows Humphrey and Piscatella are the guards who are really to blame for starting the riot that ended with Poussey's death. Humphrey ends the season looking down the barrel of a gun, but will Piscatella (or Dixon for that matter) ever face any consequences for their actions, or lack thereof? Sadly, it's doubtful, since Caputo (Nick Sandow) choked during the press conference and threw Bayley (and even more so, Poussey) under the bus. It will be up to the inmates to take matters into their own hands and bring down the captain.

3. Will Lolly ever get out of psych?
In a move of cruel and convoluted logic by Healy (Michael Harney), he has Lolly (Lori Petty) moved from her hideaway/time capsule and shipped off to psych -- not long before he admits himself to a facility too. Whether he thought he was doing her a favor we don't know, but what is certain is that when poor Lolly was dragged in there kicking and screaming, it was the last time we saw her. Later, we see Leanne (Emma Myles) and Angie (Julie Lake) playfully destroy Lolly's time machine, which very well may have been the symbolic end of Lolly.

4. Will police ever find out that dead "guard" was someone connected to Alex?
Surely, authorities are eventually going to will realize that the hacked-up corpse in the garden is connected to one inmate and one inmate only: Alex (Laura Prepon). (Not to mention, Alex herself may speed up the investigation if any of those pieces of paper with his name on them are still floating around.) She even told Piper (Taylor Schilling) that they used to go out drinking together. True, a self-defense argument might get her out of legal repercussions, but she has bigger problems to worry about. Kubra must have realized by now that his henchman mysteriously disappeared after heading to Litchfield. It's probably only a matter of time before he finds a way to sneak someone else in there.

5. What's next for Aleida?
Once she got out, Aleida (Elizabeth Rodriguez) was determined to mend her family by tracking down all her kids and Daya's baby. But her joy at being released was short-lived upon learning that one of the Litchfield inmates had been murdered. Not knowing whether Daya is alive or dead -- or potentially learning Daya is a murderer -- could easily send Aleida on a downward spiral. However, Aleida's going to need to be strong now more than ever. After the riot, it's even more crucial that Aleida gain custody of her grandchild, because Daya holding Humps at gunpoint will only worsen her own chances of custody when she's released -- if ever.

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6. Will Piper and Alex make it work this time?
Their commitment to a quiet life with no drama isn't working out so well thus far, but Piper and Alex are now bound together by their shared secrets, and a desire to protect each other that's stronger than ever, if nothing else. Will it deepen their love or come between them? One thing's for sure: Piper's known to be somewhat a loose cannon, so Alex better be sure to stay on her good side.

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7. Will Judy King reveal what actually happened at the riot?
It's probable. Don't get it twisted: Judy's (Blair Brown) main priority, as she's proven over and over, is her own comfort, and she made it clear in the finale she intended to protect her ass. That said, Judy isn't without a conscience -- she just has to be reminded that she has one. She's genuine with the people she actually cares about, and that includes Poussey, whom she called a friend and promised a job when they got out. Poussey's death is going to haunt her and that, combined with lingering guilt from her embarrassingly racist puppet video, suggests she could surprise us -- and herself -- by digging deep and doing the right thing. Plus, it's far too soon to be done with a character as delicious as Judy. What better way to bring her back than plunging into juicy, messy secrets?

8. What's Abdullah's backstory?
We've seen some good backstories this season, but not Abdullah's. Obviously, she did something wrong -- she's in prison, after all -- but some clues suggest that her incarceration may not have been a wrong place, wrong time situation but the consequences of deliberate action by a calculated criminal. Our biggest clue? Despite her headscarf meant to indicate modesty and devotion to Islam, she curses, talks smack, proves ready to fight with and for her girls, and is smuggling contraband in her wrap. In the season finale, she takes it off for a moment to reveal a mane of well-manicured miniature dreadlocks dyed a fiery, scarlet red -- a shade that doesn't exactly scream demure. We'll have to wait to learn more about how she landed in Litchfield, but our guess is it wasn't for selling Girl Scout cookies.

9. Where does Sophia go from here?
Sophia's (Laverne Cox) time in SHU will likely leave her markedly changed, so it will be interesting to see who she sticks close to going forward. Sophia never had a big prison family, but she called Gloria (Selenis Leyva) and Sister Ingalls (Beth Fowler) her friends before everything fell apart last year. This season hinted that Sophia had forgiven Gloria (to an extent) and Sister Ingalls attempted to make amends by getting herself sent to SHU to check on her friend, but we don't see Sophia easily trusting anyone for a while. However, it would be nice to see her gain some allies in her fight against the unjust treatment trans inmates face in prison -- and we have no doubt that she's going to keep fighting. We saw just how strong Sophia's resolve was this season, and we doubt anything is going to stop her from advocating for trans rights now that she's back in gen pop. She'll likely just figure out a more subversive, behind-Caputo's-back way to do it.

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10. Will Nicky stay clean?
Poor Nicky (Natasha Lyonne). She had been doing so well (given the circumstances) until Luschek (Matt Peters) visited her in max, inspiring a tragic relapse. But after a heart-to-heart with Pennsatucky (Taryn Manning), Nicky decided to get clean and seemed determined to stay that way. While Red remains cautiously optimistic about Nicky's sobriety, Morello (Yael Stone) appears to have lost all faith in her former girlfriend. But will the support of her prison mother be enough for Nicky to lean on during this trying time? Nicky's always been one who uses sex as a coping mechanism, and now that Morello's seemingly shut down Nicky for good, it'll be curious to see how that affects Nicky's sobriety (and her love life).

11. What will happen when even more new inmates come to Litchfield?
Did everybody catch that part when Figueroa (Alysia Reiner) told Caputo that Litchfield is about to get another wave of new inmates? (Fingers crossed this doesn't include Ruby Rose's Stella.) We saw how well that worked out last time, so we can only assume that more prisoners means even more problems. Also, on a practical level, where the hell is the prison supposed to put them all?

12. What happens to Crazy Eyes?
Oh, Crazy Eyes (Uzo Aduba.) She has a way of rebounding, that one, and when we last see her, she's being wheeled into medical where she's reunited with her on-again-off-again girlfriend -- the one she beat mercilessly in a guard-instigated fight. That brutal beatdown could land her in SHU or worse, but attention is likely to be so focused on a systematic overhaul after Poussey's death that severe punishment isn't likely. What we do know is that Suzanne is beyond overdue for a sustained, healthy love. Could this one be it?

13. What's Piscatella's backstory?
We know that Piscatella came to Litchfield from an all-male maximum security facility. But it seems like there's something more than a new job opportunity behind his transfer. In their tense conversation in the cafeteria after Poussey's death, Caputo implied that the reason Piscatella got fired is scandalous enough to be blackmail-worthy. So what is it?

14. What happens to Healy?
After a fortunately timed phone call saved Healy from suicide, he decided to turn Lolly in for murdering the guard. But still unable to face his life, Healy went and checked himself into a psychiatric hospital. But is that really it for Healy? He clearly has a lot of emotional issues -- particularly with his mother and women, in general -- that he needs to work through, but will he really live out the rest of his life cross-stitching? We'll likely never know. Orange has proven in the past that they aren't afraid to drop major bombs (remember Bennett's abrupt exit?) and then walk away.

What did you think of Orange Is the New Black Season 4?