Entertainment

This Litchfield Favorite Isn't In 'OITNB' Season 6 & Fans Will Be Crushed

by Dylan Kickham
Netflix

Orange Is the New Black fans are going to notice a lot of startling differences in the show when they start watching Season 6. For one thing, everyone has been moved out of Litchfield Penitentiary for the first time in series history and are now serving time in a stricter and more dangerous maximum security prison. Another immediately evident change is the noted decrease in familiar faces at max, which will have fans worried about where some fan favorite characters have gone. So if you're wondering where is Big Boo in Orange Is the New Black Season 6, or any number of other characters from past seasons who seem to be sitting Season 6 out, then you are not alone. Let's go over where these missing inmates are during the course of the new season.

At the beginning of Season 6, it becomes immediately apparent that this season will be immensely different from the last five. In the first few episodes, we actually only see 11 of the Litchfield inmates, who are now all being held privately in Administrative Segregation (Ad Seg) after the Litchfield riot. This is a massive shift from the sprawling cast that viewers are used to from Orange Is the New Black — the show has become known for having one of the most expansive ensemble casts on television, but Season 6 is cutting down a bit. So where are all the rest of the Litchfieldians this season? We actually do get answers relatively early in the new season.

As hinted at in the Season 5 finale, not every Litchfield inmate was sent to the same maximum security prison after the events of the riot. When we last saw everyone outside of Litchfield Penitentiary, they were being loaded into a bunch of different buses — most notably, besties Flaca and Maritza cried as they were separated into buses headed for different prisons. As Lorna Morello informs Piper in an early episode of the new season, the members of Litchfield that viewers do not see at max in Season 6 have been sent to other prisons across the United States.

We even get a brief peek at one of the other maximum security prisons for a few minutes, which includes a very quick look at where Big Boo, Skinhead Helen, and Alison ended up. While the bulk of the Litchfieldians seem to have ended up at a nearby maximum security prison located within the same city as their old holdings, a chunk of them wound up transferred to a federal detention center in Cleveland. In an early episode, we get a quick look at Big Boo, Skinhead Helen, Alison, and Linda from Purchasing (still being confused as an actual inmate) waiting in line to get their heads shaved before entering their new prison. Linda actually winds up proving she really isn't an inmate and extorting a promotion at MCC because of it, but that is that last we see of the rest of the Litchfieldians in Cleveland.

We never find out where Flaca's other half Maritza ended up, but in a later episode Flaca mentions that she is being held thousands of miles away, so presumably it is just another prison location we have not seen yet. Maybe that is something in store for us next season?