Alex Vause, Orange is the New Black

Alex Vause (Laura Prepon)

Alex Vause is an ex drug dealer and ex girlfriend of Piper Chapman. While she does associate with other inmates, she keeps to herself emotionally, although she isn’t afraid to fight back if provoked. After Piper ends up in jail, her encounter with Alex is not positive. Their pre-show relationship is shown via flashbacks, and they finally rekindle their relationship until the season finale when Piper chooses boyfriend Larry over Alex. Larry ends the engagement and Piper goes running to Alex for comfort, but is rebuffed.

Season 2

Alex does not have many appearances in Season 2. She takes a plea deal and double crosses both Piper and her old boss to get her sentence reduced and is released. On the outside, scared of retaliation from her old boss, she calls Piper who uses this information to make sure she ends up back up in prison.

Seasons 3, 4

Alex arrives back at Litchfield, she and Piper rekindle their relationship but break up quickly. Piper starts dating Stella while Alex becomes suspicious of fellow inmates and fears they are sent to kill her. In the last episode of Season 3 it turns out Alex was right and she gets attacked by a man sent by her boss, posing as a prison guard. Season 4 revolves around Alex trying to deal with the aftermath of having to kill the hitman, consumed by guilt. She befriends Nicky, with whom she had a casual sexual encounter in Season 1, and shortly falls back to using heroin.

Appearances:

• Regular S1, 3-4 Recurring S2

Female love interests:

• Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling, bisexual, regular)
• Nicky Nichols (Natasha Lyonne, lesbian, one night stand)

Relationship story arc with a woman: Yes

No male love interests

Relationship story arc with a man: No

Male love interest after being identified as a lesbian? No

Filter Relationship Arc:

• Female (Regular)

Storyline during sweeps? No

[1] A relationship story arc is defined as explicit, developed on screen, and lasting more than 3 episodes. It is listed as questionable or subtext if romance is only implied, mentioned instead of shown on screen, part of a dream sequence, or otherwise not explicit for the viewer.
[2] Sweeps episodes air in February, May, July and November, the periods when advertising rates are set. A character is marked as "sweeps" when there is a very limited number of episodes that address their sexuality, all air during sweeps period, and the storyline is otherwise ignore/dropped.