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Leanne Taylor

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"I love you, I'm okay. I'm a good person now!"
— Leanne to her mother after being caught by the SWAT team in the riot.

Leanne Lemmle Taylor is a former inmate at Litchfield Penitentiary, portrayed by Emma Myles. She is currently at FDC Cleveland as of Season 7. She serves as a recurring antagonist/anti-villain throughout the series, but is also caring for some people and clever at times.

Personality[]

Leanne is easily appealed to and influenced by radical ideas and leader figures due to her desire of feeling part of a group. She tends to devote herself fully and obsessively to any religious, or social, group she attaches herself to. She is typically rude and hateful to anyone who doesn't share her views, as seen in her showing resentment to Pennsatucky in Season Two, and Soso in Season Three. She typically tries to take over when she gets a taste of power and is very protective of her beliefs.

Despite this, Leanne is shown to be very loyal towards people she loves, including her family, Pennsatucky in Season One, and her best friend Angie.

Physical Appearance[]

Leanne is very fair skinned with long blonde hair and a slim build. She has severely discolored and decayed teeth, most likely as a result of her addiction to methamphetamine.

Biography[]

Before Litchfield []

For a list of episodes featuring Leanne's flashbacks, see here.

Leanne grew up in a strict Amish community speaking Pennsylvania Dutch. During her Rumspringa in 2004, she briefly left her family to experience secular life and begins using drugs. However, she becomes homesick and decides to go back to her family and the community. Before she returns she hides a backpack in the cornfield separating the Amish community from the outside world. Once she is back with her family she decides to be fully baptised into the church. On the day of the ceremony, the police arrive with her drug-laden backpack. They were able to trace it back to Leanne because she left the ID in the bag.

In exchange for a more lenient sentence, Leanne reluctantly agrees to cooperate with the police and expose the friends that she had previously abandoned the Amish community with as well as some members of a drug cartel. When she returns to the community, she is shunned for betraying some of the Elders' children. Leanne abandons the community again when she hears her parents discussing the predicament that she has placed them in.

It has never been entirely clear why Leanne is in prison, considering that she cooperated with the police. Fan-theory speculates that she had been under house arrest as a reduced charge for her cooperation, and by running away she violated the terms of her freedom, resulting in reinstatement of her original sentence.

Season One[]

In Season One, Leanne is close friends with Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett. She buys into Doggett's Christian rhetoric and backs her up at every opportunity. Leanne is part of a subgroup referred to as the 'meth heads' and is seen performing sexual favors for George Mendez in exchange for drugs. 

Season Two[]

She stands up against Doggett and is shown to break off into her own character with her friends, leaving Doggett by herself. ("You Also Have a Pizza") As she and Angie's friendship continue to grow, Leanne somewhat takes over Pennsatucky's leadership role. During the flood situation, Leanne and Angie sneak off into the kitchen and snort nutmeg, causing them to get high. Leanne and Angie decide to join the hunger strike, they show little dedication, however, and offer trivial demands such as different maple syrup and more dessert options. Leanne also calls Sister Ingalls out for taking charge in their "leaderless" hunger strike. Shortly after this, CO Ford and CO O'Neill tempt the hunger strikers with pizza, causing Leanne and Angie to falter and break their several hour long hunger strike. ("Take a Break From Your Values")

Season Three[]

She spends most of her time being part of the organization that worships Norma. Her history of fundamentalism causes her to go way overboard and ruin the entire "Norma experience" for the others. For example, she forces all the inmates to scream out 'what they're feeling' and tries to get everyone to treat the group as a serious religion. She also continually bullies Soso, because she refers to the group as a club and not a religion in front of Chaplain Royce. Like in past seasons, she and Angie return to their drug tendencies and do some of the heroin that Nicky has stashed away.

Season Four[]

Leanne is often seen with the White Power Group, having resumed her status as more of a follower than a leader.

Leanne and Angie are seen alerting the others in the Suburbs about the ensuing riot in the last episode of the season.

Season Five[]

Leanne is seen throughout the rebellion with Angie. The pair order a pizza but are stopped by Taystee, Watson, Black Cindy, and Alison. They confess they voted for Hot Cheetos and Takis to be added to the demands list 27 times, prompting Taystee to angrily tell them to leave the room. Before they exit, they pull Taystee's pants down, causing Watson to chase them. At some point during this, they manage to get the gun and consequently force the hostage guards to put on a show for the inmates. CO Stratman is forced to strip until he is nearly naked, then seduces Leanne with a dance and almost kisses her.

Soon after, Leanne and Angie find CO Coates hiding in a dryer in the laundry room. Pennsatucky stumbles upon the scene as she is returning to Coates, who she has been hiding, and pretends not to have known about his whereabouts. She congratulates the pair and tries various times to convince them to leave him with her, but Leanne and Angie both accuse her of trying to "steal their thunder;" they want to be the heroes who found the guard. As Pennsatucky follows them down the hallway, she realizes Angie has the gun attached to her belt, and grabs it from her. She points it at Leanne and Angie, then tosses it Coates, intending for him to escape. Coates accidentally fires the gun when he catches it and Leanne's "favorite finger" is shot, causing her to lose part of her finger.  


Later on, Leanne and Angie find Leanne's fingertip in the hallway where she was shot, and they kidnap the last nurse from Medical, intending to force him to sew CO Stratman's fingertip onto Leanne's severed finger, which is what they call a "finger transplant." Stratman convinces Leanne to give it a "test drive," by which he means fingering her. 

Just before a CERT team storms their dorm, Leanne and Angie burn inmate files containing shots and records; this happened after the pair realized they were "the bad guys" and decided to do something good.

At the end of the rebellion, Leanne sees her mother outside the prison when the prison is being stormed. Leanne is transferred and does not appear in the sixth season.

Relationships[]

Friends[]

  • Angie Rice (best friend) - Leanne has the dominant role in the friendship and generally bosses Angie around after their friendship with Doggett is over. She is a former follower of Doggett.
  • Tiffany Doggett (former)
  • Loretta - Leanne's friend, and a former follower of Doggett.
  • Kasey Sankey - Fellow member of the White Power Group.
  • Helen Van Maele - Fellow member of the White Power Group.
  • Brandy Epps - Fellow member of the White Power Group.
  • Jennifer Digori - Fellow member of the White Power Group.
  • Linda Ferguson

Enemies[]

  • Brook Soso - Leanne did not sympathized with Soso during Norma of worship, especially when she offended about their religion.
  • Poussey Washington - Poussey was extremely angry at Leanne when Soso was almost killed. Leanne was upset when Poussey died, since there would be no one who would produce hooch.
  • Weeping Woman - Leanne was angry with her cries when the toast fell to the ground.
  • Maria Ruiz - Leanne warned Maria on the task force in prison.
  • Pennsatucky (former friends) - In season five, Pennsatucky helps CO Coates escape. This alone was enough to infuriate Leanne and Angie, but when she threw Coates the gun, the trigger went off, shooting Leanne's middle finger.

Memorable Quotes[]

"You're not like The Wizard of Oz! You're like the Wizard of ... God!"
— Leanne Taylor
"Yo, yo My name is Leanne and I got game, we're here in Litchfield and it's kind of lame, this rapping thing don't seem so hard, ain't like I'm a fucking retard!"
— Leanne Taylor
"Man, why're you putting her tits in your pants?"
— Leanne Taylor, ("Empathy Is a Boner Killer")
"He's a guard, not a person."
— Leanne Taylor, ("Storm-y Weather")
"If you say "bean leaves" one more time, I'm going to punch you in the fuck-hole"
— Leanne to Brook Soso ("Empathy Is a Boner Killer")
"Man, I wish I had a phone to record this shit."
— Leanne Taylor, ("A Whole Other Hole")

Gallery[]

Season One[]

"Tit Punch"[]

[]

Trivia[]

  • Her dream job is as a marine biologist, as she mentions in "Looks Blue, Tastes Red". However, this seem to be solely because she wants to swim with dolphins.
  • In her childhood, she was once a girl scout in troup 247 where she was taught how to use tampons, as she mentions in "Can't Fix Crazy".
  • She doesn’t know how to drive ("Storm-y  Weather")


Appearances[]

Navigation[]

Inmate Navigation
Maximum Security Galina Reznikov  •  Lorna Morello  •  Tasha Jefferson  •  Nicky Nichols  •  Frieda Berlin  •  Irene Cabrera  •  Marisol Gonzales  •  Dayanara Diaz  •  Rosalie Deitland  •  Antoinetta Kerson   •  Annalisa Damiva  •  Raquel Munoz  •  Tina Swope  •  Alana Dwight  •  Nicole Eckelcamp  •  Beth Hoefler  •  Maria Ruiz  •  Suzanne Warren  •  Adeola Chinede  •  Charlene Teng  •  Lolly Whitehill  •  Shruti Chambal  •  Elsie  •  Cathy  •  Marie Brock  •  Gail Abbot  •  Silka Webb  •  Aimee Sandoval  •  Amy Roth  •  Kelly Lee Glenna  •  Calloway  •  Claire St. John  •  Mandy Walsh Baker  •  Sally Jo  •  Juanita Vazquez  •  Crystal Tawney  •  Gladys Watkins  •  The Brown Twins  •  Alice Hutton  •  Claudette Pelage  •  Erica Taslitz  •  Aleida Diaz  •  Tali Grapes
FDC Cleveland Alex Vause  •  Carrie Black  •  Carmen Aziza  •  Helen Van Maele  •  Erica Jones  •  Leanne Taylor  •  Angie Rice  •  Janae Watson  •  Alison Abdullah  •  Kasey Sankey  •  Brook Soso  •  Anita DeMarco  •  Gina Murphy  •  Norma Romano
Metropolitan Detention Center Corrine Hill  •  Joyce  •  Felicia  •  Araceli  •  Darius McRae  •  Mazall
Unknown prison Michelle Carreras  •  Brandy Epps  •  Jennifer Digori  •  Stephanie Hapakuka  •  Rhea Boyle  •  Shelly Ginsberg  •  Lea Guerrera  •  Randolita  •  Reema Pell  •  Jeanie Babson  •  Jayne Cooke  •  Emily Germann  •  Ramona Contreras  •  Irene Rosario   •  White Cindy   •  Voth   •  Annette   •  Danita   •  Madison Murphy
Last seen in Minimum Security Irma Lerman  •  Annie Valdez  •  Gabby Camarena  •  Loretta Fisher
Released inmates Piper Chapman  •  Stella Carlin  •  Mercy Valduto  •  Sara Rice  •  Linda Ferguson  •  Sophia Burset  •  Jane Ingalls  •  Jimmy Cavanaugh  •  Judy King  •  George Mendez  •  Cesar Velazquez  •  Cindy Hayes  •  Gloria Mendoza  •  Blanca Flores
Deceased inmates Poussey Washington  •  Yvonne Parker  •  Tricia Miller  •  Maureen Kukudio  •  Carol Denning  •  Barbara Denning  •  Rosa Cisneros  •  Dominga Duarte  •  Tiffany Doggett
Deported inmates Maritza Ramos  •  Karla Córdova  •  Shani Abboud  •  Swapna Majumdar
ICE inmates Santos Chaj  •  Mei Chang  •  Efua Onagbeboma
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