Why Is Gina In Prison On 'Orange Is The New Black'? Season 3 Needs To Elaborate On Her Season 2 Storyline

Why is Gina Murphy in prison? So glad you asked. Now that Orange Is The New Black Season 3 is on Netflix (a full six hours early, to boot) we must revisit this question. So, in Season 1, when Piper offered to help the inmates with their cases, it was implied that Gina is in Litchfield prison for embezzlement. She said something about being convicted for embezzling, but she calls herself a "thief." There's also the "that guy shot himself" comment, implying that she may have been on trial for murder. But the whole scene is played for laughs (Piper is desperately trying to hide her stolen screwdriver when a crowd comes in), and some of the other information in the scene isn't totally true — for example, Gloria says she "was set up" and was innocent, when in reality she did participate in taking illegal food stamp money, it just wasn't her idea.

So maybe Murphy's backstory will change in Season 3. Red's gang has gotten enough screentime to be fleshed out a little bit over the past 26 episodes, but neither Murphy nor Norma have gotten an official flashback yet. A few times, it's been implied that she was either around for or accused of a murder, but nothing is confirmed via flashbacks — yet. I hope it's not revealed that Murphy secretly killed someone but was never caught, because that surprise reveal works exactly once, and it was already used on Miss Claudette. So as ridiculous it would be if Gina became the Dexter Morgan of Litchfield and starts killing off Gloria's kitchen staff one by one, I have to root against it.

One thing that stuck out to me — embezzling, unlike robbery, is the theft of money entrusted to an individual, according to the handy Criminal FindLaw website. That would mean that Murphy probably stole money from her job — maybe she was a bank teller or a store clerk. It's also possible that she stole assets or was a crooked accountant, which would be a crazy surprising backstory. She just doesn't seem like a customer service pro or a conniving financial planner to me.

It's possible that she was busted for taking a very small amount of money, but, as we've seen in Orange Is the New Black every season, it's sometimes the people who just barely meet the qualifications for a crime that get the harshest sentencing, often affected by outside factors like income level and race. But it's also possible that secretly, she's an uber-bazillionaire on the outside and was busted for hiding millions. I kinda doubt it, though.

What is confirmed about Murphy is she was the one to catch Nicky with Vee's bag of heroin, but didn't tattle on her, so she has loyalty and trusts her friends to a fault. But she also hounded Nicky into confession, proving she has her best interests at heart. And Gina probably isn't a recovering addict herself, given that she hasn't been spotted at any Narcotics Anonymous meetings and she's a part of Red's gang, which doesn't tolerate drug use.

She's been shown to be many things: hardworking, tough, exceedingly literal (jokes always seem to go over her head), and able to hold a grudge, but ultimately still loyal to Red and Norma over anyone else, accepting Red's apology after she threw the "family dinner" where she offered her apologies. Even if it turns out that Gina Murphy is in prison because of embezzlement (or even murder), she's not the type to turn on her friends — her loyalty has been evident since the beginning.

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