MovieChat Forums > Orange Is the New Black (2013) Discussion > Morello Albany episode (possible spoiler...

Morello Albany episode (possible spoilers)

posted 8 years ago by concertforgeorge
5 replies | jump to latest

Just had a few thoughts about the episode. If Christopher knew someone broke into his house (and seems to suspect it was Morello since he confronts her about it) why doesn't he have the police fingerprint his place? Surely he would file a police report for a break and enter, especially with proof and a case of stalking, threats etc. involving Morello. Morello, being a criminal, would already be in the system with her prints, so if the police came by and did investigate they would surely pick up her fingerprints on the item she used to smash the window, in the bathroom, etc. Just found it odd that he would' the the police come out if he saw his window was smashed. He obviously knew it was Morello since he went to the prison and yelled at her.

[–] XanMan101 8 years ago

Good question. The only thing I can assume is that he didn't think they would believe him because she was already in prison (even though there would be indisputable fingerprint proof) so I don't know. Just another plot hole, maybe?

[–] magdalene_1024 8 years ago

I was wondering about this too, so I did some online research. The overall answer seems to be: Too costly for what could be a simple breaking and entering, especially when nothing was stolen, and insurance will cover the costs of repairs to the property. Apparently, the police would have to take prints of *everybody* who ever went to Christopher and his fiancée's house in order to rule them out, which would take a lot of time, manpower, and money. Christopher could argue that he has a restraining order against a woman who tried to kill his fiancée, and the police would point out that the woman in question is now in prison. They can't justify going to go to all that effort for a crime where nobody was hurt, nothing was taken, and the damage was minimal and would be covered, and the suspect has an alibi.

In other words, Christopher may have called and reported it, and the police would have told him there was no evidence of it being anything of a breaking and entering that had nothing to do with the woman who stalked him, since she was already cooling her heels in a cell.

[–] concertforgeorge 8 years ago

well, had they gone to the prison to investigate or talk to her or the staff at the prison, they would have found out she was on regular van duty. That would certainly leave room for something like this to happen. If he told them he was being stalked by her and was worried that she broke in or she had someone do it then they could finger print the rock that was thrown through the window since Morello wasn't careful with it. Then if they could bother to even run the prints on that, lo and behold they would have been her prints. Since they moved to that house after she was arrested it would have been impossible for her to go there before she was in jail. They would have to investigate then if she wasn't able to go there before she got locked up.

[–] magdalene_1024 8 years ago

Not necessarily. You have to remember that Litchfield's admin leaves a lot to be desired and was pretty corrupt, with a lot of "CYA" going on by the administration.

Let's suppose the local police *did* call Litchfield, asking about Morello (not likely, given they know she was supposed to be in prison, but let's say they did just to satisfy Christopher.)

Litchfield's admin, not wanting to get themselves into trouble, would have probably played it cool, just telling the police, "The inmate was on work detail at that time." Unless the police tell them outright that they have evidence linking Morello to the crime (and Litchfield admin knows enough to know the police probably *didn't* check for prints, given the details--if they had, they wouldn't have just called Litchfield, they would have come for Morello outright), Litchfield's not going to volunteer anything further--such as Morello's work detail was driving the prison van. The police go to Christopher and tell him, "We called the prison, they said she was on work detail at the time this happened. We understand your concern, but this was a random act unrelated to her."

Christopher knows better, and the audience knows better. But for lack of evidence, time, money, and manpower, the police let it go.

And I might be misremembering, but wasn't it about this time that another guard who *did* check on the van once an hour (the way they were supposed to, and didn't?) start? And wasn't this also about the time Pensatucky started driving the van? Which makes me think Litchfield was onto Morello, and again, just covered their own asses in this and pulled her off van detail to make sure it didn't happen again.

[–] werecow2003 8 years ago

why doesn't he have the police fingerprint his place?

I think you might be overestimating the effort the cops would be willing to expend. I highly doubt they would fingerprint an entire house for a simple break-in in which nothing of value was stolen. It'd be a ton of work.