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WE’RE DRAWING CLOSER and closer to the release of new episodes of Orange Is The New Black so it’s worth taking a moment to appreciate what this show does best: female friendships.

Let’s take a look below at the top five friendships we’ve seen over the last four seasons of the show to get ourselves excited for the release of season 5 on the 6th of June. There will be spoilers.

5. Maritza and Flaca

These two young women are both happily comfortable within the Spanish Harlem community in Litchfield but because of their age and similar personalities find themselves especially close. Most of their time is spent either making fun of other people or making fun of themselves.

They support each other through the shared experience of wasting the best years of their lives in prison, joking about things like how their “tits are never gonna look better, [their] asses are never gonna look better”, highlighting their priorities that you can’t help but love them for.

When Maritza is suffering from the trauma of being forced to eat a baby mouse by a guard who’s nothing short of a sociopath, she makes excuses up to Flaca to avoid social activities like going to watch a movie together, saying that she’s too bloated.

Flaca, who is her best friend in every way, right down to the fact that they have synced their period cycles, points out that they’re not at the bloating stage yet.

Maritza admits that something terrible has happened her and that she’s too humiliated to talk about it. When she does finally open up to Flaca, she’s reassured that she’s not gross and as Flaca hugs Maritza, she tells her “you probably don’t even have the plague or nothing” to comfort her. Sometimes that’s all you need to hear.

4. Nicky and Morello

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This pair have one of the messiest, most complicated relationships in the prison, yet they always remain friends. When we meet them they have a romantic relationship, which comes to an end pretty quickly due to the fact that Morello feels bad for cheating on her fiancé Christopher while she’s in prison.

The following season, it was revealed to not only us but also to Nicky that she was never engaged to Christopher, but rather committed to stalking him.

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Nicky isn’t annoyed, but rather sympathetic. The two eventually profess love to each other and then Nicky ends up in solitary confinement for an extended period. During this period, Morello stops being her usual glam self and no longer wears makeup, until she ended up meeting a prison pen pal and marrying him from behind bars.

Nicky returns from solitary confinement and where most people would be bitter, extremely angry and disappointed, she forgives her and remains friends with her as normal. There are few characters in this show with the patience of Nicky.

3. Sophia and Sister Ingalls

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Sophia originally befriends Sister Ingalls in order to try and get some of her Estrogen but the pair get on very well in the end. Sister Ingalls, who engaged in a lot of political protests before prison is deeply concerned about the welfare of Sophia when she’s brought to maximum security and isolated from the rest of the prisoners.

She makes a huge sacrifice to try and keep Sophia company and relay information to her from maximum security by deliberately assaulting another inmate in order to get access to maximum security, where Sophia had been close to breaking point before her arrival. The scene in which she hits Gloria is easily one of the funniest moments from the last season.

2. Pennsatucky and Boo

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One of the more unexpected pairings of the series, considering that in earlier seasons Pennsatucky asked Boo with complete sincerity, how the gay agenda was going to take over the world. Boo and Pennsatucky’s relationship really takes off when together they conspire to get money from Christian fundamentalists by pretending to them that she has recovered from being a lesbian in prison and wants to sell her story.

Later Boo helps Pennsatucky end a coercive and abusive relationship with a guard who has been taking advantage of her while she’s out driving the prison van. Boo even donates a doggy sedative she had saved for if she wanted to fake a seizure or take a vacation to the hospital with the hopes that it could help them get revenge on the guard who had abused Pennsatucky.

Few people anywhere, let alone in prison where you’re under high enough surveillance as it is, would go to the lengths that Boo went to in order to help Pennsatucky get revenge on that guard. Especially considering Pennsatucky’s homophobic and bigoted past.

1. Poussey and Taystee

At times when Piper was insufferable and the storyline got slow, Poussey and Taystee kept this show alive. There was nothing more enjoyable than watching the banter between the two of them and feeling Poussey’s disappointment when Taystee violates her probation or when she rejects Poussey after they kiss.

Poussey was one of those characters that you always just want the best for and she was always good humoured (except for when she was getting her heart broken).

Taystee was an excellent friend for her, someone who was ambitious and intelligent but struggled to show her talents when Poussey wasn’t around to boost her confidence. It almost seemed like she went back to jail just to be with Poussey after she had difficulty adapting to the outside world.

Their friendship was the most pure and probably one of the most upsetting, just because of how many times they had disagreed or fought over trivial things and people. This friendship is what this show is all about.

For some sick reason, Netflix decided to make this clip of Taystee dreaming that her and Poussey got reunited in the 80′s. It had a happy ending, but it’s still too raw.

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