Spoilers ahead for Season 5 of Orange is the New Black.
This past season of Netflix's Orange is the New Black has been a doozy. Jenji Kohan's dramedy was far more dramatic in Season 5, as the Litchfield's prison wide riot set the show into chaos and far higher stakes than usual. And while two slimy villains were killed off in the process, ten of Litchfield's finest are in serious danger in the season's cliffhanger ending. The final moments saw Frieda's bunker found by the swat team, and it's unknown if any characters were killed off in the ensuing conflict. Now one OITNB actress has revealed that she's definitely nervous: Selenis Leyva aka Gloria Mendoza.
Mendoza is one of the ten inmates shown in Frieda's bunker during the cliffhanger, and who are presumably in jeopardy when Season 6 premieres next summer. And Selenis Leyva was recently asked about the cliffhanger by THR, where she revealed that her final moments in the season have made her particularly wary of being killed off. She said:
Gloria has a phone call, her last one in this season, where she says, 'If anything happens to me...' My stomach dropped when I read that in the script. I thought, 'Brace yourself, girlfriend.' An army is coming towards them.
Well, this is certainly nerve-wracking. Gloria is one of the hearts of the series, especially within the Spanish Harlem group. Losing the group's mother figure would certainly be a serious blow to the series as a whole, as well as a few specific inmates.
The phone call that Selenis Leyva is referencing is from the season finale. In one final attempt to get information about her son Benny's fate, Gloria was relieved to find out that his surgery was successful, and that he'd be fine. And while this was a relief for both Mendoza and the audience, it quickly became clear that Gloria was perhaps the one in the most danger, as the SWAT teams stormed into Litchfield. And although Gloria's line about "if anything happens to me" might have not hit home upon first viewing, it certainly feels like foreshadowing for something nefarious in Season 6.
And Gloria's possible death would surely reverberate across quite a few characters. To start, Red and the rest of the inmates in the bunker will likely feel a great deal of guilt. Mendoza wasn't actually involved in the confrontation with Piscatella or the shenanigans in the pool, so if she dies it's partly Red's fault. Additionally, it would probably wreck Maria as well. She stole Mendoza's plan to free the hostages, hoping to receive time off her sentence for the good deed. But if she let Gloria got through with the plan, the matriarchal character would be safely outside of Litchfield's walls during the moment in the bunker.
Alas, we'll have to wait another year to find out what happens to the ladies of Litchfield. Orange is the New Black is currently streaming all five seasons on Netflix, and you can check our summer premiere list to plan your next binge watch.
