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canon history (cw: rape/sexual assault, drug use, religious extremism, homophobia)
♻ She grew up in poverty, likely in a large family (including extended members; aunts and uncles and cousins are mentioned a few times) where she didn't get much individual attention. Drug use and incarceration ran rampant among her friends and family members; she herself became a regular meth user. She developed a very unhealthy attitude towards sex and consent, and was raped at least once as a teenager. In addition, her severe undiagnosed dyslexia was interpreted as an inability to learn by many people around her, to the point that she started to take it as a given that she was stupid.
♻ On her way out of the clinic after her fifth abortion, a disapproving nurse makes a rude comment ("Number five, huh? We should give you a punch card: 'get the sixth one free'"). Tiffany heads out to her waiting friend's car to grab his rifle, goes back into the clinic, and shoots the nurse.
♻ At her trial, a lawyer from a Christian firm approaches her and explains that he'll be representing her instead of her court-appointed public defender. Various extremist pro-lifers have heard about her actions and assumed that she did what she did as a protest against abortion, and a group of them have gotten together to fund her defense (and give a monthly stipend to her family while she serves time). Tiffany starts to explain that her reasons weren't religious, but her new lawyer cuts her off and advises her to keep quiet about that. When they enter the courtroom, a group of people in the gallery cheer and applaud, waving signs that say things like "Tiffany for President", "Thank You, Tiffany", "Defender of the Unborn", etc.
♻ Sometime between her trial and the start of canon, she comes to fully embrace the extremist form of Christianity that her lawyer espouses. She committed a serious crime, and yet it gained her fame, fans, and complimentary legal counsel; she considers this to be a God-given miracle.
♻ At some point, she ends up at Litchfield Penitentiary - a federal prison in New York, where she spends at least two years before the start of canon. She develops a group of friends and followers who are impressed with her status as "defender of the unborn", but most of the other prisoners are turned off by her preaching and religion-based bigotry. She also earns the nickname "Pennsatucky" (presumably a corruption of Pennsyltucky), which those close to her often shorten to "Tucky".
♻ After reporting two inmates for "lesbian activity" (really just sexually-charged dancing) and getting one of them (Piper Chapman) thrown into solitary for a few days, some of the other inmates conspire to get revenge for this (and for her preaching and unpleasantness in general) by tricking her into thinking that she is a faith-healer - they pretend to have various ailments, and let her "fix" them. This comes to a head when a group of juvenile delinquents are brought on a prison tour as a deterrent method. One of the most stubborn kids, a teenage girl in a wheelchair, is left alone in the bathroom, and Piper tells Tiffany that "there's a soul in the bathroom that needs saving". After removing the girl from her wheelchair and attempting to heal her legs, Tiffany is hauled off to the prison psych ward. After an intake interview in which she insists that God has given her healing powers and that she and all the other prisoners have proof, she's diagnosed as delusional and admitted.
♻ After hearing from another inmate how bad the psych ward is (not much psychiatric help actually happens; prisoners instead spend most of their time strapped down and continually sedated), Piper admits to the higher-ups that Tiffany's belief that she can faith-heal is based on a prank, not on delusions. Tiffany is released after just a few days, though she's noticeably affected by the experience: she's depressed, her self-confidence is shot, and her belief in God is shaken.
♻ A concerned friend contacts her lawyer, who comes to visit and encourage her. He reassures her that God not stopping bad things from happening doesn't mean He doesn't exist, and tells her that maybe God wants her to forgive Piper and lead her to Him.
♻ Tiffany sits down and has a civil talk with Piper, in which she explains her feelings about God and expresses how hurt she was that the other inmates used her faith to trick her. She convinces Piper to pray for God's forgiveness. When Piper does so, Tiffany hugs her - grudge and hate gone, just like that - and offers to baptize her. At first, Piper reluctantly agrees, but then changes her mind and explains that she's sorry, but she doesn't feel right pretending that she believes in God just to placate Tiffany. Tiffany takes this as an affront both to God and to herself, and remembers back to what her lawyer said about God wanting to use her to help good people find Him. Maybe, she thinks, the reverse is also true: maybe God also wants to use her to punish bad people! She consults her Bible, and opens to a page containing Luke 19:27 - ""But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence." She takes this as a clear sign that God wants her to kill Piper in His name.
♻ Over the next few days, she threatens Piper several times - once by leaving a dead rat and a death threat in her bunk, and then again by cornering her in the shower with a razor blade (she almost uses it on Piper, but a guard interrupts them). Then later, while performing in the prison's annual Christmas pageant, she sees Piper get up out of her seat in the audience and leave. Tiffany sneaks off the stage and follows her, meeting her in the prison yard and attempting to stab her with a wooden cross. Tired of being stalked and harassed, Piper snaps, tackling Tiffany and beating her to a bloody pulp.
♻ After Piper is pulled off of her, Tiffany is sent to solitary confinement, where she remains for about a month. She's then brought before Sam Healy, a CO (and prison counselor) who had witnessed Tiffany moving in to attack and, due to his own personal grudge against Piper, hadn't stopped her. By this point, Tiffany seems to understand that God hadn't actually been telling her to kill anybody, and assumes that she's been taken to Healy for counseling. She tries to tell him that she feels completely sane and that solitary had been a "purifying" experience, but he isn't actually interested in that - he's concerned that she's going to tell people that he'd given her tacit permission to go after another inmate. After some awkward back and forth in which he tries to hint that she'd better stay quiet and she fails to understand what he's getting at, he comes right out and asks her what he can do to buy her silence. Finally realizing that she can use this as an opportunity for blackmail, she tells him she wants her teeth replaced (they'd already been severely damaged by long-term meth use and lack of dental care, and Piper had knocked out most of the front ones during their fight). Healy agrees to these terms, and arranges an appointment for her at an oral surgeon.
♻ Tiffany, proud of her appearance for what is probably one of the first times in her life, spends a while gleefully showing off her shiny new dentures to anyone who will look - but unfortunately for her, this has some unintended side effects. Most of her friends (also impoverished drug users) have similar dental issues, and are resentful that Tiffany had hers fixed. This causes some strain, as does them realizing that during her month in lock-up, their lives had been a lot quieter and more relaxed without Tiffany Tiffanying all over the place. Eventually, this culminates in her best friend telling her that they're tired of her shit and that she needs to stop trying to hang out with them. Crushed, she wanders off alone, and runs into Healy again. She hugs him, looking for comfort, and he allows it.
♻ Tiffany and her former friends continue to work in the prison laundry room together, which causes tension. Tiffany snipes at them, and they snipe back; Tiffany grumpily picks on a new inmate who's been assigned to work with them, and they stick up for her. Finally fed up by Tiffany's insistence on inserting snarky commentary into everything they do and say, one of them snaps that she needs to stop talking because no one likes her. Tiffany responds by grabbing her head and slamming it face-first into a clothes dryer. She's taken to Healy again, and she sobs and begs him not to send her back to solitary, admitting that it had been awful for her the first time. She tells him that she wants to stop being such a bully, but she doesn't know how. They talk a little bit about her anger issues, and he tells her he wants her to start coming to regular sessions with him. She agrees gratefully and readily. He also enlists her to help him start up a therapy group for the other prisoners.
♻ When a hurricane causes flooding and a power outage, all the inmates are brought into the cafeteria for the night. Tiffany hunts down Healy and makes friendly smalltalk with him. He gives her cookies, and she asks if she can take some back to the woman (Carrie "Big Boo" Black) who's been assigned to sleep next to her - she's gay and that makes Tiffany nervous, so she wants to give her a peace offering/"distraction". When she admits that she admires Boo's tattoos, Healy warns her that stuff like that is how gay girls draw in straight girls, and tells her that there's a lesbian agenda bent on making men irrelevant to reproduction and the world at large. Tiffany believes him, but privately wonders if women ruling the world would be such a bad thing. Later, when playing checkers with Boo, she gets curious and asks her about what Healy had said. Boo (who had also been involved in the faith-healing trick earlier) plays along, and tells Tiffany that if she wants in on the world-ruling she'll have to pass an initiation.
♻ When Tiffany blows off a group therapy meeting to hang with her new buddy, Healy tracks her down and informs her that he's canceling the group entirely. Later, while being vitriolic with her former friends in the laundry room (her anger management therapy seems to be mostly successful in getting her to stop assaulting people so much, but she continues to feel free to be a rude asshole, justifying herself by saying she's "expressing her feelings"), they reveal that nobody at all had come to the group, and that Healy had been upset. Feeling guilty, Tiffany finds him and tells him that she doesn't want him to cancel it, because working with him has really helped her. He gripes at her for spending time with a gay woman, and complains that he'd thought they had the same (i.e. homophobic) values. He isn't happy with the response she gives ("We do have the same values - we like to express ourselves, and we like to be kind to people"), and brushes her off.
♻ As time goes on, Tiffany starts doing better, and for the most part seems to be succeeding at her goal to "turn over a new leaf" - her casual racism is still in full swing and goes almost completely unchecked, but her homophobia is waning due to her continuing friendship with Boo. With Boo's help, she confronts her feelings about her abortions - it turns out that she feels a large amount of guilt for them (in addition to at least some guilt for shooting the clinic nurse), and she believes that she is hellbound. Boo points out that as an unprepared, drug-addicted, and severely impoverished young woman, Tiffany would have been bringing five unplanned babies into a pretty bleak situation, and suggests that maybe she was just being a good mother by aborting them. She also talks to Tiffany about her religious sponsors/groupies, and helps her to see just how hateful and fucked up they are (though when Tiffany decides to write to them and tell them that she doesn't want their financial support anymore, Boo stops her and says that she should totally keep scamming them for commissary money).
From here on out, there is in-depth discussion of rape, and the lead-up/aftermath thereof.
♻ Tiffany is transferred from laundry duty and given a new job as the driver of the prison transport van. Charlie Coates - a young new guard who she is attracted to and enjoys a seemingly innocent flirtation with - becomes her new escort, and during their errand trips they take regular unauthorized detours to buy donuts and feed the ducks at a local pond. Tiffany coaches him on how to be more commanding with the prisoners, so that he won't get in trouble with his superiors for being soft; however, he starts using this against her during their little field trips, taking advantage of his power over her to order her to do things like eat muddy donuts off the ground. One day, on the way back to the van, he backs her up against a tree and kisses her. She doesn't kiss back and is clearly extremely reluctant about the whole thing, but it still takes him several long moments to pull away. Later, back at the prison, he tracks her down in a stairwell. She tells him to leave her alone, but he convinces her to stop and talk. He apologizes and blames the fact that he's new to the job and doesn't understand guard-prisoner boundaries very well yet, and also says that she was giving him signals that confused him. He tells her that he really likes her, and she smiles, telling him not to worry about it. Later, she tells Boo a sanitized version of the story, saying that he had been a bad kisser but that she likes him a lot. Boo (completely ignorant to the fact that anything darker is going on) encourages Tiffany to pursue something with him, and jokes that if she gave him a blowjob maybe he'd give her a whole ice cream cake for her and Boo to share.
♻ Tiffany, taking Boo's crass joke as actual advice, offers Coates sexual favors in exchange for ice cream the next time they're alone in the van together. He rejects her offer, telling her she doesn't have to do anything she doesn't want to do and that they're real friends now. A few days later, though, he's sullen and cross with her; when she asks what's wrong, he reveals that he's been put on probation for taking longer than he should have with the van runs. He blames Tiffany, because she had assured him that the prison always gave them more time than they actually needed and that no one would notice if they stayed out a little longer than necessary. She apologizes and says she'll do a better job of making sure they get back in time; he tells her he doesn't want any more help from her and turns to walk away. She follows and grabs his arm to get his attention, and he spins back around and asks her what she wants from him. He picks her up and tosses her in the backseat of the van, repeatedly asking if she wants this; though she says no, he doesn't stop, and he rapes her.
♻ Boo comes across Tiffany lying dejectedly in her bed, and makes another sex joke about her and Coates. This time, she doesn't laugh, which concerns Boo; she asks what's wrong, and Tiffany says nothing is. She tells Boo that Coates is giving her presents now, and shows off a bracelet she's wearing. While examining the bracelet (Tiffany is flattered by the gift and believes it to have been expensive; Boo thinks it looks more like it came from a dollar store), Boo notices bruises on both her wrists and is alarmed. She asks if Coates had hurt Tiffany, or forced her into anything. Tiffany says no, and says that that even though she hadn't been "ready" and "could have used a bit of a warm-up", she can't blame him because men can't help but get out of control around women they're attracted to. Horrified and clearly holding back anger, Boo tells her that "there's a word for that" and tries to make her take the bracelet off. Tiffany refuses - she wants to keep it because Coates had bought it specially for her, and she doesn't blame him for the incident; she believes it to have been the fault of her own flirting and "confusing" behavior. After going off for a while to decide what to do, Boo decides to take a tough love approach - she finds Tiffany again and dumps a bunch of vending machine snacks on her bed, telling her that she wants to have sex with her. Tiffany refuses, but Boo says that she's horny, and isn't that all that matters? Tiffany says that that isn't funny; Boo says it isn't supposed to be. Tiffany tells her to stop; Boo continues to try to berate her into admitting that she hadn't actually been okay with what had happened. Dubious methods aside, it works - Tiffany breaks down and says that she had wanted very badly for Coates to stop. Boo tells her that that's good, hugs her, and says that they're going to punish him.
♻ Later, while hanging around outside, Tiffany suggests she tell the prison administration what had happened. Boo tells her that they would never believe a guard over a prisoner without hard evidence, and that they need to take care of him themselves. She reveals that she has some contraband sedatives that they can use to drug Coates, and then they can sodomize him with something. Tiffany, wary about getting caught and thrown in solitary, isn't wild about the idea, but she goes along with it. They prepare to carry out their plan on movie night, when everyone else is otherwise occupied; after they slip the sedatives into his coffee and knock him out, they drag him back to the laundry room. However, neither of them actually wants to go through with it - Tiffany says Boo should do it because it was her idea, and Boo says Tiffany should do it because she was the victim and it'll help her work out her rage. Tiffany says she doesn't have any rage - just sadness. They abandon the idea and leave Coates unconscious on the floor of the laundry room.
♻ Back at movie night, Boo and Tiffany sit on the floor in the back so they can whisper in private; Boo is worked up about missing their chance for revenge, because she believes Tiffany would have to keep doing van duty with Coates even if he was reported. Tiffany says that she doesn't think the rape was premeditated (and then she adds "at least, not the first time"; apparently it's happened more than once by now), and wonders if maybe he hates himself for it. Boo reminds her that he should hate himself because he's a rapist, and Tiffany reasons that that means it's a good thing that they didn't go through with their plan and become rapists, too. They come up with a new plot, which Tiffany carries out the next time she's behind the wheel - Boo teaches her how to convincingly fake a seizure and purposefully lose control of the van. She's taken to the doctor and told that even though it was probably a one-time incident, she'll have to be transferred to another work detail for safety reasons.
♻ On her way out of the clinic after her fifth abortion, a disapproving nurse makes a rude comment ("Number five, huh? We should give you a punch card: 'get the sixth one free'"). Tiffany heads out to her waiting friend's car to grab his rifle, goes back into the clinic, and shoots the nurse.
♻ At her trial, a lawyer from a Christian firm approaches her and explains that he'll be representing her instead of her court-appointed public defender. Various extremist pro-lifers have heard about her actions and assumed that she did what she did as a protest against abortion, and a group of them have gotten together to fund her defense (and give a monthly stipend to her family while she serves time). Tiffany starts to explain that her reasons weren't religious, but her new lawyer cuts her off and advises her to keep quiet about that. When they enter the courtroom, a group of people in the gallery cheer and applaud, waving signs that say things like "Tiffany for President", "Thank You, Tiffany", "Defender of the Unborn", etc.
♻ Sometime between her trial and the start of canon, she comes to fully embrace the extremist form of Christianity that her lawyer espouses. She committed a serious crime, and yet it gained her fame, fans, and complimentary legal counsel; she considers this to be a God-given miracle.
♻ At some point, she ends up at Litchfield Penitentiary - a federal prison in New York, where she spends at least two years before the start of canon. She develops a group of friends and followers who are impressed with her status as "defender of the unborn", but most of the other prisoners are turned off by her preaching and religion-based bigotry. She also earns the nickname "Pennsatucky" (presumably a corruption of Pennsyltucky), which those close to her often shorten to "Tucky".
♻ After reporting two inmates for "lesbian activity" (really just sexually-charged dancing) and getting one of them (Piper Chapman) thrown into solitary for a few days, some of the other inmates conspire to get revenge for this (and for her preaching and unpleasantness in general) by tricking her into thinking that she is a faith-healer - they pretend to have various ailments, and let her "fix" them. This comes to a head when a group of juvenile delinquents are brought on a prison tour as a deterrent method. One of the most stubborn kids, a teenage girl in a wheelchair, is left alone in the bathroom, and Piper tells Tiffany that "there's a soul in the bathroom that needs saving". After removing the girl from her wheelchair and attempting to heal her legs, Tiffany is hauled off to the prison psych ward. After an intake interview in which she insists that God has given her healing powers and that she and all the other prisoners have proof, she's diagnosed as delusional and admitted.
♻ After hearing from another inmate how bad the psych ward is (not much psychiatric help actually happens; prisoners instead spend most of their time strapped down and continually sedated), Piper admits to the higher-ups that Tiffany's belief that she can faith-heal is based on a prank, not on delusions. Tiffany is released after just a few days, though she's noticeably affected by the experience: she's depressed, her self-confidence is shot, and her belief in God is shaken.
♻ A concerned friend contacts her lawyer, who comes to visit and encourage her. He reassures her that God not stopping bad things from happening doesn't mean He doesn't exist, and tells her that maybe God wants her to forgive Piper and lead her to Him.
♻ Tiffany sits down and has a civil talk with Piper, in which she explains her feelings about God and expresses how hurt she was that the other inmates used her faith to trick her. She convinces Piper to pray for God's forgiveness. When Piper does so, Tiffany hugs her - grudge and hate gone, just like that - and offers to baptize her. At first, Piper reluctantly agrees, but then changes her mind and explains that she's sorry, but she doesn't feel right pretending that she believes in God just to placate Tiffany. Tiffany takes this as an affront both to God and to herself, and remembers back to what her lawyer said about God wanting to use her to help good people find Him. Maybe, she thinks, the reverse is also true: maybe God also wants to use her to punish bad people! She consults her Bible, and opens to a page containing Luke 19:27 - ""But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence." She takes this as a clear sign that God wants her to kill Piper in His name.
♻ Over the next few days, she threatens Piper several times - once by leaving a dead rat and a death threat in her bunk, and then again by cornering her in the shower with a razor blade (she almost uses it on Piper, but a guard interrupts them). Then later, while performing in the prison's annual Christmas pageant, she sees Piper get up out of her seat in the audience and leave. Tiffany sneaks off the stage and follows her, meeting her in the prison yard and attempting to stab her with a wooden cross. Tired of being stalked and harassed, Piper snaps, tackling Tiffany and beating her to a bloody pulp.
♻ After Piper is pulled off of her, Tiffany is sent to solitary confinement, where she remains for about a month. She's then brought before Sam Healy, a CO (and prison counselor) who had witnessed Tiffany moving in to attack and, due to his own personal grudge against Piper, hadn't stopped her. By this point, Tiffany seems to understand that God hadn't actually been telling her to kill anybody, and assumes that she's been taken to Healy for counseling. She tries to tell him that she feels completely sane and that solitary had been a "purifying" experience, but he isn't actually interested in that - he's concerned that she's going to tell people that he'd given her tacit permission to go after another inmate. After some awkward back and forth in which he tries to hint that she'd better stay quiet and she fails to understand what he's getting at, he comes right out and asks her what he can do to buy her silence. Finally realizing that she can use this as an opportunity for blackmail, she tells him she wants her teeth replaced (they'd already been severely damaged by long-term meth use and lack of dental care, and Piper had knocked out most of the front ones during their fight). Healy agrees to these terms, and arranges an appointment for her at an oral surgeon.
♻ Tiffany, proud of her appearance for what is probably one of the first times in her life, spends a while gleefully showing off her shiny new dentures to anyone who will look - but unfortunately for her, this has some unintended side effects. Most of her friends (also impoverished drug users) have similar dental issues, and are resentful that Tiffany had hers fixed. This causes some strain, as does them realizing that during her month in lock-up, their lives had been a lot quieter and more relaxed without Tiffany Tiffanying all over the place. Eventually, this culminates in her best friend telling her that they're tired of her shit and that she needs to stop trying to hang out with them. Crushed, she wanders off alone, and runs into Healy again. She hugs him, looking for comfort, and he allows it.
♻ Tiffany and her former friends continue to work in the prison laundry room together, which causes tension. Tiffany snipes at them, and they snipe back; Tiffany grumpily picks on a new inmate who's been assigned to work with them, and they stick up for her. Finally fed up by Tiffany's insistence on inserting snarky commentary into everything they do and say, one of them snaps that she needs to stop talking because no one likes her. Tiffany responds by grabbing her head and slamming it face-first into a clothes dryer. She's taken to Healy again, and she sobs and begs him not to send her back to solitary, admitting that it had been awful for her the first time. She tells him that she wants to stop being such a bully, but she doesn't know how. They talk a little bit about her anger issues, and he tells her he wants her to start coming to regular sessions with him. She agrees gratefully and readily. He also enlists her to help him start up a therapy group for the other prisoners.
♻ When a hurricane causes flooding and a power outage, all the inmates are brought into the cafeteria for the night. Tiffany hunts down Healy and makes friendly smalltalk with him. He gives her cookies, and she asks if she can take some back to the woman (Carrie "Big Boo" Black) who's been assigned to sleep next to her - she's gay and that makes Tiffany nervous, so she wants to give her a peace offering/"distraction". When she admits that she admires Boo's tattoos, Healy warns her that stuff like that is how gay girls draw in straight girls, and tells her that there's a lesbian agenda bent on making men irrelevant to reproduction and the world at large. Tiffany believes him, but privately wonders if women ruling the world would be such a bad thing. Later, when playing checkers with Boo, she gets curious and asks her about what Healy had said. Boo (who had also been involved in the faith-healing trick earlier) plays along, and tells Tiffany that if she wants in on the world-ruling she'll have to pass an initiation.
♻ When Tiffany blows off a group therapy meeting to hang with her new buddy, Healy tracks her down and informs her that he's canceling the group entirely. Later, while being vitriolic with her former friends in the laundry room (her anger management therapy seems to be mostly successful in getting her to stop assaulting people so much, but she continues to feel free to be a rude asshole, justifying herself by saying she's "expressing her feelings"), they reveal that nobody at all had come to the group, and that Healy had been upset. Feeling guilty, Tiffany finds him and tells him that she doesn't want him to cancel it, because working with him has really helped her. He gripes at her for spending time with a gay woman, and complains that he'd thought they had the same (i.e. homophobic) values. He isn't happy with the response she gives ("We do have the same values - we like to express ourselves, and we like to be kind to people"), and brushes her off.
♻ As time goes on, Tiffany starts doing better, and for the most part seems to be succeeding at her goal to "turn over a new leaf" - her casual racism is still in full swing and goes almost completely unchecked, but her homophobia is waning due to her continuing friendship with Boo. With Boo's help, she confronts her feelings about her abortions - it turns out that she feels a large amount of guilt for them (in addition to at least some guilt for shooting the clinic nurse), and she believes that she is hellbound. Boo points out that as an unprepared, drug-addicted, and severely impoverished young woman, Tiffany would have been bringing five unplanned babies into a pretty bleak situation, and suggests that maybe she was just being a good mother by aborting them. She also talks to Tiffany about her religious sponsors/groupies, and helps her to see just how hateful and fucked up they are (though when Tiffany decides to write to them and tell them that she doesn't want their financial support anymore, Boo stops her and says that she should totally keep scamming them for commissary money).
From here on out, there is in-depth discussion of rape, and the lead-up/aftermath thereof.
♻ Tiffany is transferred from laundry duty and given a new job as the driver of the prison transport van. Charlie Coates - a young new guard who she is attracted to and enjoys a seemingly innocent flirtation with - becomes her new escort, and during their errand trips they take regular unauthorized detours to buy donuts and feed the ducks at a local pond. Tiffany coaches him on how to be more commanding with the prisoners, so that he won't get in trouble with his superiors for being soft; however, he starts using this against her during their little field trips, taking advantage of his power over her to order her to do things like eat muddy donuts off the ground. One day, on the way back to the van, he backs her up against a tree and kisses her. She doesn't kiss back and is clearly extremely reluctant about the whole thing, but it still takes him several long moments to pull away. Later, back at the prison, he tracks her down in a stairwell. She tells him to leave her alone, but he convinces her to stop and talk. He apologizes and blames the fact that he's new to the job and doesn't understand guard-prisoner boundaries very well yet, and also says that she was giving him signals that confused him. He tells her that he really likes her, and she smiles, telling him not to worry about it. Later, she tells Boo a sanitized version of the story, saying that he had been a bad kisser but that she likes him a lot. Boo (completely ignorant to the fact that anything darker is going on) encourages Tiffany to pursue something with him, and jokes that if she gave him a blowjob maybe he'd give her a whole ice cream cake for her and Boo to share.
♻ Tiffany, taking Boo's crass joke as actual advice, offers Coates sexual favors in exchange for ice cream the next time they're alone in the van together. He rejects her offer, telling her she doesn't have to do anything she doesn't want to do and that they're real friends now. A few days later, though, he's sullen and cross with her; when she asks what's wrong, he reveals that he's been put on probation for taking longer than he should have with the van runs. He blames Tiffany, because she had assured him that the prison always gave them more time than they actually needed and that no one would notice if they stayed out a little longer than necessary. She apologizes and says she'll do a better job of making sure they get back in time; he tells her he doesn't want any more help from her and turns to walk away. She follows and grabs his arm to get his attention, and he spins back around and asks her what she wants from him. He picks her up and tosses her in the backseat of the van, repeatedly asking if she wants this; though she says no, he doesn't stop, and he rapes her.
♻ Boo comes across Tiffany lying dejectedly in her bed, and makes another sex joke about her and Coates. This time, she doesn't laugh, which concerns Boo; she asks what's wrong, and Tiffany says nothing is. She tells Boo that Coates is giving her presents now, and shows off a bracelet she's wearing. While examining the bracelet (Tiffany is flattered by the gift and believes it to have been expensive; Boo thinks it looks more like it came from a dollar store), Boo notices bruises on both her wrists and is alarmed. She asks if Coates had hurt Tiffany, or forced her into anything. Tiffany says no, and says that that even though she hadn't been "ready" and "could have used a bit of a warm-up", she can't blame him because men can't help but get out of control around women they're attracted to. Horrified and clearly holding back anger, Boo tells her that "there's a word for that" and tries to make her take the bracelet off. Tiffany refuses - she wants to keep it because Coates had bought it specially for her, and she doesn't blame him for the incident; she believes it to have been the fault of her own flirting and "confusing" behavior. After going off for a while to decide what to do, Boo decides to take a tough love approach - she finds Tiffany again and dumps a bunch of vending machine snacks on her bed, telling her that she wants to have sex with her. Tiffany refuses, but Boo says that she's horny, and isn't that all that matters? Tiffany says that that isn't funny; Boo says it isn't supposed to be. Tiffany tells her to stop; Boo continues to try to berate her into admitting that she hadn't actually been okay with what had happened. Dubious methods aside, it works - Tiffany breaks down and says that she had wanted very badly for Coates to stop. Boo tells her that that's good, hugs her, and says that they're going to punish him.
♻ Later, while hanging around outside, Tiffany suggests she tell the prison administration what had happened. Boo tells her that they would never believe a guard over a prisoner without hard evidence, and that they need to take care of him themselves. She reveals that she has some contraband sedatives that they can use to drug Coates, and then they can sodomize him with something. Tiffany, wary about getting caught and thrown in solitary, isn't wild about the idea, but she goes along with it. They prepare to carry out their plan on movie night, when everyone else is otherwise occupied; after they slip the sedatives into his coffee and knock him out, they drag him back to the laundry room. However, neither of them actually wants to go through with it - Tiffany says Boo should do it because it was her idea, and Boo says Tiffany should do it because she was the victim and it'll help her work out her rage. Tiffany says she doesn't have any rage - just sadness. They abandon the idea and leave Coates unconscious on the floor of the laundry room.
♻ Back at movie night, Boo and Tiffany sit on the floor in the back so they can whisper in private; Boo is worked up about missing their chance for revenge, because she believes Tiffany would have to keep doing van duty with Coates even if he was reported. Tiffany says that she doesn't think the rape was premeditated (and then she adds "at least, not the first time"; apparently it's happened more than once by now), and wonders if maybe he hates himself for it. Boo reminds her that he should hate himself because he's a rapist, and Tiffany reasons that that means it's a good thing that they didn't go through with their plan and become rapists, too. They come up with a new plot, which Tiffany carries out the next time she's behind the wheel - Boo teaches her how to convincingly fake a seizure and purposefully lose control of the van. She's taken to the doctor and told that even though it was probably a one-time incident, she'll have to be transferred to another work detail for safety reasons.