Favorite Characters: Suzanne Warren (Orange is the New Black)

When this character is first introduced on Orange is the New Black, she’s a character!, a highly-entertaining archetype with outrageous antics and hilariously-bizarre non sequiturs.  Over time, though she retains much of her comic potential, she grows into a much more fully-drawn person with demons, struggles, and private tragedies.  Just as Piper has to learn to recognize the individuals behind her uninformed first impressions, we discover Suzanne’s full range and soon regret that we ever used her prison moniker Crazy Eyes.  (Some character-specific spoilers.)

That’s who we first meet:  Crazy Eyes, the unstable inmate who takes a shine to the horrified Piper.  Piper tries to calmly, rationally explain that she’s not interested in becoming anyone’s wife, but her diplomatic brush-off is met with pie-throwing and peeing on the floor.  Crazy Eyes is the whacky loon, the loose cannon, and she provides endless laughs.  Whether she’s showing off her “mad epiglottal skills,” joining the Scared Straight program for an acting outlet (her dream roles include Desdemona and Claire Huxtable,) or humping her fellow inmates, her sheer unpredictability is one of the show’s comedic highlights.

But then, late in season 1, a chance encounter with Piper offers insight into, not Crazy Eyes the character, but Suzanne the person.  She confesses that her job on the cleaning crew helps her manage her mental and emotional struggles, she shares about her time in psych, and she points out how much Piper’s rejection hurt her feelings.  Suddenly, we see a woman with mental health issues who’s just trying to get by in prison.  She seeks friendship and looks for someone she can love and protect, and she loses control when her feelings overwhelm her.  Because she’s so high-octane and all-over-the-place, she’s thought of as a joke, not quite real, and people can fool themselves into thinking that her emotions and experiences don’t “count” that way other people’s do, but this is the scene that starts turning the tide.

Season 2 delves much further into Suzanne.  It shows her troubled past as the adopted daughter of wealthy white parents who, though well-intentioned, seemed ill-equipped to handle her mental health difficulties or meet her cultural needs as a Black child.  The flashbacks offer a lot of insight into who she is, but more significantly, they show how susceptible she is to the machinations of Vee, season 2’s major baddie.  She’s so lonely, so starved for love and friendship, and at such mercy to her feelings that she’s easy pickings for a modern-day Fagin whispering in her ear.  It’s painfully simple to manipulate Suzanne by giving her the barest shred of affection, and Vee quickly fosters an environment in which Suzanne is so desperate for Vee’s continued approval that she’ll do anything the older woman wants her to.  Vee takes advantage of her volatile emotions and explosive tendencies, feeding on her devotion until she can use Suzanne like her personal attack dog.  It’s heartrending to watch, and it’s awful to think of someone so vulnerable being preyed on this way.  She had a rough time of it last season, and I really hope that season 3 brings something good her way, something to help her heal from some her harrowing experiences last year.

One last bit of kudos.  Orange is the New Black often does a nice job with intersectionality, and that’s especially true with Suzanne.  She’s a queer woman of color with a disability, and the show examines her sexuality, race, and mental illness – separately and together – in thoughtful, honest ways.  I wouldn’t have dreamed that after her first appearance, but it’s definitely true.