Warning: This article contains spoilers about the season 5 finale of Orange Is The New Black.
When Orange Is The New Black decided to make its fifth season take place over a three-day period, fans (including myself) were skeptical. Poussey's (Samira Wiley) death was tragic, preventable, and representative of broader issues about police brutality. But having 13 episodes devoted to the riot and its aftermath seemed like a lot. The show handled it well, though, using new character backstories and flashbacks to keep the plot from feeling stale.
Still, there's a glaring continuity error in the finale, and it needs to be addressed.
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When the riot is over, and the emergency response team storms the prison, they tell Nita (Gita Reddy), Figueroa (Alysia Reiner), and Caputo (Nick Sandow) that the prisoner count is "10 short." They've evacuated the prison and brought the inmates onto the lawn, but 10 of them are still missing. Caputo realizes they must be in the former pool area.
And there are 10 people there — Red (Kate Mulgrew), Blanca (Laura Gomez), Piper (Taylor Schilling), Alex (Laura Prepon), Suzanne (Uzo Aduba), Nicky (Natasha Lyonne), Taystee (Danielle Brooks), Cindy (Adrienne C. Moore), Gloria (Selenis Leyva) and Frieda (Dale Soules). But there are more than 10 people missing. Pennsatucky (Taryn Manning) and Chang (Lori Tan Chinn) have both escaped. So really, 12 inmates are missing, but since Linda (Beth Dover) is still counted among the inmates, the count should be 11 short, not 10.
It's possible the Netflix series has another twist in mind, and there's someone else, in addition to Linda, who's not supposed to be in the group of inmates. But more likely, the escapees (and Linda) were forgotten about, and this is just another continuity error this season. (There's another error in the flashback about Taystee's first days at Litchfield — in season 1, we learn that she worked in the library before Poussey, not vice versa.)
Fans noticed the miscount, though, and plenty of them tweeted about the mistake.
When @OITNB says they're missing 10 people, but it's actually 11 (10 in the pool + Pennsatucky + Chang - Linda). ? pic.twitter.com/TCCPbCvbOC
— Taylor (@taylorj143) June 12, 2017
@OITNB that moment when you realize there's more than 10 people missing at the end...
— Santana Alejos (@AWESOMEGEEK51) June 12, 2017
@OITNB S5 made a mistake, the guards said 10 people were missing, when it should have been 12 as Doggett and Chang left the area????
— R? (@vodkafenty) June 11, 2017
I love @OITNB but they made a mistake with the amount of people that should be down from the count , it's 11 not 10 ?
— Joshua Pearson (@Josh_Pearson_98) June 12, 2017
@OITNB as there was 10 people in the pool area! So the multiple counts weren't correct.
— Daniel Lee Campbell (@DanielCampb3ll) June 11, 2017
The only other explanation, as one Twitter user posited, is that Chang was caught on the other side of the fence. But that seems pretty unlikely — no one was around when she made her run for it.
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That one guy says they were missing 10 people. He missed one. There's actually 11, unless they caught Mei as she was running away. #OITNB
— Amber (@HailToTheFire) June 10, 2017
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