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- "If you're not building a future, it's because you don't believe there is a future."
- — Vee, to Cindy after she was lazy and careless
Yvonne "Vee" Parker was an inmate at Litchfield Penitentiary and the main antagonist of Season Two. During her season-long reign, she was a powerful figure throughout the inmate population. She is based off the character Lionnel aka "Grizzly" from Piper Kerman's Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison.
Lorraine Toussaint as Vee
Personality[]
Vee was the textbook definition of a sociopath. She was shown to be charismatic, intelligent and extremely manipulative, demonstrating an ability to look deep into a person's character and immediately figure out what they will or won't do for the right price. She carefully planned her criminal activities to ensure she wouldn't get caught, having contingency plans in place for every possibility and was ready to get rid of anyone that interfered with her plans. She was ready to do anything and to sacrifice anyone close to her, seeing people only as pawns to be used to forward her goals; to obtain money and control over other people. She used and emotionally manipulated people close to her, and played them off against each other without feeling any guilt. She feigned love and friendship, but immediately got rid of people when she couldn't benefit from them any longer.
She was a returning prisoner to Litchfield, having been an inmate prior to Season One. Immediately upon arrival, she assessed Suzanne Warren as someone she could easily manipulate and took advantage of her trust, naiveté and desperation for love. She tried to separate her adoptive daughter Taystee from her best friend Poussey due to Poussey's resistance to her manipulation, and quickly became the leader of their group, using a mixture of bribery, extortion and threats. Compared to the other inmates, Vee has a large list of crimes and offenses due to her deadly nature.
Physical Appearance[]
Vee Parker is a tall, middle-aged African American woman with voluminous, long, curly hair. She has a small gap between her two front teeth.
Biography[]
Before Litchfield[]
For a list of episodes featuring Vee's flashbacks, see here.
Vee is originally shown to be a motherly figure to Taystee. When Taystee was young and in care, she would attempt to advertise herself for adoption, as seen at a Black Adoption Event in a park that Vee attends looking for young people to lure into her drug-dealing ring. Vee gives the young girl the nickname of "Taystee Girl" and says that one day she will take her in.
Life at Litchfield[]
Vee has been incarcerated at Litchfield at least three times. She was shown to have entered Litchfield at the same time as Red, at least her second time, and was the person who first gave Red the idea to use the vendor Neptune's Produce to Red's advantage. Red tells Vee about her new business, believing Vee to be her friend. Once Vee has become the leader of her own crew, she sends her girls to threaten Red into selling her business to her. Red refuses and Vee revealed she ordered the threats and Red is ultimately attacked by Vee by surprise and her crew trap Norma and beat up Red severely. It is assumed that when Vee killed Rhonda, she was sent to Maximum Security for it.
Life after Release[]
Initially resistant to becoming involved in drug-dealing, a teenage Taystee eventually visits Vee in tears after being abused by her foster-father and begs to be taken in by her ("Looks Blue, Tastes Red").
Vee is what Taystee calls a "connect" which translates into "drug dealer". She makes children carry and sell drugs then report back with the money. A young man named RJ sells for Vee. After Taystee joins them, Vee, Taystee and RJ live together as a "family". Later, RJ is killed, likely for starting his own business on the side, though it is also shown that Vee has a connection with a cop who keeps the heat off of her. He warns her of an encroaching group of dealers, and Vee makes it clear she's the only drug lord around ("It Was the Change"). Taystee considered RJ to be a brother. She is initially unaware that he was killed by a cop bribed by Vee to stop competitive sales on her turf, but later says something to Vee that implies she figured it out.
Season Two[]
[...]
Vee appears to Taystee after the win of the mock job fair. Taystee wants nothing to do with her and leaves the chapel.
Vee later appears to her again and tries to apologize for not being there for Taystee when she had got out, Vee tells her that the heat was to high and it was too risky. In the cafeteria, she sits beside Black Cindy and asks her to do a favor to do with a secret package, to which Cindy responds what will she get, Vee replies saying that she would be very grateful to which Cindy mocks "If grateful paid the bills... we'd all be Bill Gates." before walking off, Suzanne is seen listening to the conversation in the background. Later on, Suzanne finds the 'package' and gives it to Vee, awkward and shyly. Vee goes into Gloria's office in the kitchen and asks to make a deal, and shows her the cigarettes. Gloria agrees to the deal and makes the cake requested by Vee. Later on, in the common room, Taystee, Cindy, Poussey and Janae are seen to be taking advantage of Suzanne by making her keep the time for the game of Charades they are playing. Vee then calls over Suzanne to have a slice of cake, in the background Cindy and Janae look very jealous and hungry for the cake, although Poussey sees what Vee is doing and Taystee is reluctant. Eventually after more manipulation Black Cindy and Janae all get up and have some cake, Taystee then forgives Vee and Pouseey also has some cake, while still being reluctant. They go and play Charades once again with Vee forcing the girls to take turns doing the time.
(...)
Poussey however sees that she is manipulative and stays away. Vee separates Taystee and Poussey. She managed to but Taystee is still reluctant. After being dismissed from the kitchen, Red finds another way to smuggle in contraband using the greenhouse. Vee wants control over the imports and attempts to take the greenhouse from Red. After a brief fight, they come to a truce. However, Vee had lied, and attacks Red from behind with a lock hidden in a sock (a "slock"). Vee loses all of her inmate family, except Crazy Eyes, who is tricked into thinking she attacked Red in a blackout state; Vee is subsequently suspended. The other girls rat on Vee for the attack, but before they can arrest her she sneaks out the sewage drain in the greenhouse. She is seen in the woods, running, and comes to the road, just as Rosa is making her escape. Thinking back to when Vee made Rosa get up out of her seat when eating, Rosa swerves off the road and runs Vee down with the prison van. "Always so rude, that one!", she says as she laughs and drives away. Vee's corpse is left by the side of the road.
Relationships[]
- RJ (sexual; seduced him in order for her plan for his execution to run smoothly)
Friends[]
- Suzanne Warren (by manipulation)
- Red (formerly)
- Unnamed Guard (ally)
- Members of the Black Girls (formerly)
Enemies[]
- Red (Several Betrayals, Bullied Red; attacks and did evil things towards Red, despite not much being done by Red to her)
- Poussey (Refused to be manipulated and did not agree with Vee's ways)
- Gloria (Realised that Vee was evil and took sympathy with Norma)
- Miss Rosa (Was unnecessarily rude to Rosa on two occasions)
- Taystee (Abandoned her before, and then took her business over Taystee)
- Watson (Betrayed by her after she attacked Cindy)
- Black Cindy (Betrayed by her after she attacked her)
- Nicky (Tried to kill her prison mother, Red)
- Norma (Vee Betrayed Red)
Trivia[]
- Lionnel aka "Grizzly, the character Vee is based off, was nothing like Vee's personality. Kerman says that "Grizzly weighed more than 450 pounds, she was very funny and she liked to fight but she wasn't a pyschopath like Vee, she usually was arguing with Pop, she was Delicious' birth mother as well but she isn't dead as far as I know."
- Vee sleeps with books under her head.
- Vee is the first black villain of Orange Is The New Black.
- If Vee was caught for the crimes she committed, it's possible that she could've either been sent to MAX and died in prison (if she was still alive) or been given the death penalty for being a "Severely Dangerous Inmate", according to the Laws of New York.
- Vee has the longest list of crimes, even longer than Lolly's.
Memorable Quotes[]
- "If you're not building a future, it's because you don't believe there is a future."
- — Yvonne Parker
- "And if if's and but's were candies and nuts we'd all have a Merry Christmas."
- — Yvonne Parker
- "At the end of the day, you are a garden rose and that bitch is a weed."
- — Yvonne Parker
- "I sell smack. I'm always worried."
- — Yvonne Parker
- "Fuck. Kill me in my sleep if I ever get like that."
- — Yvonne Parker to Taystee about Jimmy
Reception[]
The character of Yvonne Parker, nicknamed Vee, was instantly acclaimed by critics during Season 2, as was actress Lorraine Toussaint's performance. The vast majority of reviewers noted that Parker was, in every way, the most frightening aspect of the show's second season.
Appearances[]
| Orange Is the New Black: Season Two | ||||||||||
| "Thirsty Bird": | "Looks Blue, Tastes Red": | "Hugs Can Be Deceiving": | "A Whole Other Hole": | "Low Self Esteem City": | "You Also Have a Pizza": | "Comic Sans": | ||||
| Absent | Appears | Appears | Appears | Appears | Appears | Appears | ||||
| "Appropriately Sized Pots": | "40 Oz. of Furlough": | "Little Mustachioed Shit": | "Take a Break From Your Values": | "It Was the Change": | "We Have Manners. We're Polite.": | |||||
| Appears | Appears | Appears | Appears | Appears | Appears | |||||
Gallery[]
Season 2[]
Promotional Photos[]
