Ask people who have seen the second season of Orange is the New Black what sticks out to them the most and you’re likely to get one answer—Lorna Morello’s backstory is nothing short of gut-wrenching.
When our very own Laura Beck first divulged details of the newest season of Orange is the New Black, one of the first things she mentioned was the reveal of Lorna’s backstory. “Lorna’s heart-pounding story has a twist ending that had me rewinding and being all ‘What. the. Fuck. Lorna.'” For those who watched season two, you know she wasn’t exaggerating. Spoiler warning for those who have not seen this episode, in case the headline didn’t tip you off.
Lorna was mostly known to fans as the romantic soul (and van driver) who is always talking about dear, sweet, devoted “Chris-tuh-pher,” her fiance and soulmate. Only it turns out all of that is a total delusion. Lorna wasn’t engaged to him at all.
The season includes flashback scenes with Lorna defrauding retailers to buy expensive goods, but she isn’t serving time for credit card fraud as we’ve been led to believe. She’s in prison for stalking, the kind you fear in your worst nightmares. In one particularly chilling episode, Lorna (who is supposed to be waiting in the van during an inmate’s medical appointment) takes off and drives the van to Christopher’s house. The scene is so on-point it makes you feel petrified and utterly heartbroken all at the same time. “What. The. Fuck. Lorna” indeed.
Yael Stone, the actress who plays Lorna, told Cosmopolitan she had no idea about Morello’s real backstory story during the first season:
Big Boo [Lea DeLaria] says in this one scene [in the first season] where she’s taunting Lorna, “I hope you don’t get scammed on eBay, because that would be ironic.” And so I thought, OK, that’s where we’re heading. She’s an eBay scammer. But that’s really all I knew; I really had no clue.
Stone said in Lorna’s mind, “Christopher is still her fiancé. She’s still expecting him to visit.”
I think Lorna definitely goes to a place where they are in a full-blown relationship, where they have a dog together, where they’re engaged to be married — where in actual fact, we learn that she’s had one date with Christopher.
As for the break-in scene, Stone told Cosmopolitan it was just as intense to film as to watch:
Lorna was feeling so much. This reality was crashing in on her. And that’s such a private despair, and I think we’ve all felt those moments where we’ve had that sickening gut feeling where you thought something was what it was and the truth is actually so far from that. I’ve definitely had those moments when I think a relationship with somebody is one way, and then it just flips. And whether she brought it on herself or not — be it her fault for creating something in her mind or whether she has a sickness — it’s just as painful.
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