"Empathy is a Boner Killer" is the third episode of the third season of Orange Is the New Black.
Nicky tries to negotiate her deal with Luschek. Daya looks for Bennett. Alex and Piper battle their feelings. The library workers hold a funeral for the burnt books. Red acts as a translator for Healy and his wife. Caputo looks for a solution to the prison's announced closing.
Tropes in this episode:
- A Day in the Limelight: More of Nicky's back story, including her prison sentencing.
- Bait-and-Switch: Daya thinking that Bennett has finally shown up again on hearing that the 'cute guard' is back. It's not him, and given Daya's reaction, she doesn't exactly think he's cute either.
- Brick Joke: During drama class. "That's a dick."
- Destructo-Nookie: Alex and Piper engage in this.
- Downer Ending: Nicky gets sent to MAX.
- Freudian Excuse: Nicky's friend blames everything on his father.
- The "Fun" in "Funeral": Taystee and Poussey have a 'funeral' for the books they're forced to burned due to the bedbugs. Includes dramatic speeches and returning the ashes to the earth 'from whence they came'.
- Hypocrite: Alex and Piper call each other out on it during drama class about fruit.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Unable to go through with selling the heroin, Nicky hides it somewhere else and tells Luschek that it was stolen. It's then found by the methheads and Luschek is able to take what's left from them and sell it, though not before Nicky steals some once again for herself. She decides to hid it in Luschek's desk, but it's discovered when the guards search the Electrical department after a tip off from the methheads. Facing the risk of losing his job and possible imprisonment, Luschek realises it was Nicky and then names her, and she's sent to Max.
- Lost in Translation: Red claims to Healy this when his wife spends some time complaining about his drooling in his sleep.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Alex and Piper start having sex in the library.
- Parental Incest: One of Nicky's friends reveals he and his brother were molested by their father growing up.
- Prisoner Performance: Downplayed during the improv class, which involves everyone performing in pairs for the rest of the class. Alex and Piper get paired together for a symbolic argument about their romance.
- Put on a Bus to Hell: Nicky is busted for drugs and taken away to Max.
- Reality Subtext: An in-universe example in drama class, where Alex and Piper work out their relationship via an improv exercise... about bruised fruit.
- Shout-Out: To Oz, wherein drugs are referred to as "tits." Also to The Lord of the Rings. Luschek tells Nicky her obsession with heroin is like Gollum's with the Ring.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Alex and Piper engage in this, having sex in random places to stop fighting or having sex while they're still fighting. Piper even says the anger makes it hot.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Red gives one to Healy's wife, though considering the kind of person Healy is whether it's deserved or not is pretty arguable.
- Title Drop: Averted. After they've worked out their issues in drama class, Alex and Piper note that they can't have hate sex anymore, though not using the exact title words. Alex suggests hate snuggling instead.
