"Moscow Mule" is the eight episode of season one of Orange Is the New Black.
Red is propositioned by Mendez (aka Pornstache), who knows she smuggles in various goods through the kitchen and wants her to do the same with drugs. As incentive, he dumps on her Tricia Miller, one of Red's girls, who is currently going through withdrawals since Mendez hasn't been able to get anything in to her. Piper is assigned to repair a washing machine, and Alex offers to help. This results in Alex being trapped in the washer by Pennsatucky, and Piper isn't able to free her from it before Luschek catches them. Larry publishes an article in the New York Times about his and Piper's fates, and his friends throw a celebration. During this time, Polly goes into labor, and Larry saves the day, getting her and Pete safely to the hospital. The inmates are all sick with the flu, which Daya believes she has, but Aleida performs an assessment and announces that this condition will take nine months to get over. Flashbacks concern Red, who helped her husband's business partners keep their company, Neptune's Produce, from going under.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Drinking the Kool-Aid: Referenced by Nicky when she says to Red, "There's other people in this prison, you know, not just the ones who drink your goddamn Kool-Aid."
- Goofy Print Underwear: The print isn't too bad (blue plaid) but what makes the underwear Alex shows to Piper goofy is the name label in his shorts "like he's in the third grade."
- Going Cold Turkey: Tricia.
- Kick the Dog: Healy tells Piper about the article, and then dumps the paper in the trash for no reason other than to be a Jerkass.
- MacGyvering: Piper makes a face mask out of a maxi pad.
- Morning Sickness: Daya throwing up into a trash can is the first sign that her condition is not the simple flu that everyone else has.
- Never My Fault: While Vause is stuck in the dryer asking for Piper to help her, Piper says she'll get in trouble because Vause wasn't supposed to help her. Vause says "Nothing you ever do in your life is your fault, okay?"
- Please, Don't Leave Me: Alex to Piper.
- Refuge in Audacity: When Healy questions whether the two were using the washing machines for illicit purposes, Alex quips, "I'm more of a dishwasher gal, sir."
- Shout-Out: To Michael Jackson. Piper even demonstrates her dance moves.
- The dishwasher joke also references Laura Prepon's other major role in That '70s Show.
- "I'm plotting my revenge on that fucking Deliverance extra."
- Stay in the Kitchen: Red gets some of this treatment from her husband when he's trying to work out how to save Neptune's Produce. Of course, when Red turns out to have the answer and replaces him on the board, she gives it right back to him.
- The Stool Pigeon: Nicky, disgruntled at how Red handled Tricia's situation, tells Mendez point-blank that Red uses her connections with Neptune's Produce to smuggle those electric toothbrushes and such into the prison. "Now leave me alone."
- Surprise Pregnancy: During a flashback, we see that Piper and Larry had a pregnancy scare just before she went to prison. Invoking the Babies Make Everything Better trope, Piper suggests that if she's not pregnant, they should start right away. Larry is the voice of reason, however, when he points out that she would still be in prison after the baby is born. In the present, we have Daya.
