[S1E1] I Wasn't Ready
Piper explains the crime she committed to her family. Her mother brings up the topic of her being a lesbian, and she tells them that she was one at the time. Her brother Cal asks her if she still is, and their grandmother, Celeste, tells him of a gay experience she once had, although it wasn't for her. Piper's father asks Larry if he knew about Piper's past. He explains that she failed to mention her lesbian lover who ran an international drug smuggling ring. Celeste asks Piper what she did with the money, and scolds her when she learns that it wasn't about the money at all.
[S1E1] I Wasn't Ready
Actor Allusion: Deborah Rush (Carol Chapman) and Bill Hoag (Bill Chapman) also worked together on In & Out (1997) as Ava Blazer and a bartender respectively.
Taylor Schilling (Piper Chapman), Kate Mulgrew (Galina 'Red' Reznikov), and Michael Chernus (Cal Chapman) also worked together on Mercy (2009) as Nurse Veronica Callahan, Mrs. Jeannie Flanagan, and Ryan Flanagan respectively.
Denied Food as Punishment: Piper insults the food in front of Red (who runs the kitchen). As punishment, Red forbids the kitchen staff to serve her any food.
Disproportionate Retribution: Discussed, in terms of the inmates' sentencing. Healy can't figure out why some sentences are harsher than others. Piper is serving a year (later explicitly stated to be fifteen months) for carrying a suitcase full of dirty money. Once.
Early-Installment Weirdness: When she encounters Piper in the shower, Taystee makes comments about Piper's breasts that seem to indicate the writers imagined her as being gay or bi at this time. Future episodes establish her to be strictly heterosexual.Taystee: Damn, you got some nice titties. You got them TV titties. They stand up on they own, all perky and everything. You creative, I give you that, high-tits.
Everybody Has Lots of Sex: Piper does, at any rate. Three scenes with two different partners in the first five minutes.
Experimented in College: Flashbacks show the relationship between Piper and Alex starts as this.
Piper and Cal's grandmother, Celeste, tells Cal of a gay experience she once had, although it wasn't for her.
Fanservice: Laura Prepon and Taylor Schilling make out in the shower, in a flashback. This is quickly subverted when she's brought back to her present misery, in the prison shower with Taystee commenting.
Nicky and Lorna having sex in the prison showers.
Fan Disservice: Piper and Larry awkwardly attempting to have sex. Only Piper can't stop crying because she's headed for prison and she begs him to sleep with her. Larry leaves a stench in the sheets with his flatulence. And they both just had a heavy dinner.
Piper being naked and miserable in the prison showers.
Gaydar: Nicky arrives and asks Piper about her sexuality, telling her that she has been sensing sapphic vibes from her.
Gay Romantic Phase: Piper dismisses her relationship with Alex in college as this. Also Piper's admission to her family of her past. They ask if she was a lesbian and she says she was but she's not a lesbian now.
MacGyvering: The women use maxi pads for everything, including cleaning rags. Piper makes a pair of shower flip-flops out of maxi pads, as well.
Naked First Impression: Piper most prominently, of course, but several other women are nude in the same shower room with her.
Shameful Strip: As part of the intake process, Piper must be thoroughly strip-searched. This is intercut with a flashback of a sexy striptease she performed for Alex.
Shout-Out: During an argument about Piper's past as a drug mule for an ex-girlfriend, Larry asks Piper how could she not tell him everything as he has told her everything about himself including "the webcam horror, the penis shaving incident".
Larry says that he feels like he's in a Bourne movie and then he asks if Piper has killed.
Shower of Love: Piper shares one with her ex-girlfriend Alex in a flashback, and a romantic bubble bath with her fiancee' Larry in a flashback.
Nicky and Morello are seen having sex in the prison showers, much to Piper's shock.
Shower of Angst: Piper has one in her first stint in prison, during the How We Got Here introduction.
Situational Sexuality: Referenced by the prison orderly Wanda Bell when Piper introduces Larry as her fiancee' before going to jail and the orderly snarks "Oh yeah? Good luck with that".
Strapped to a Bomb: Sister Ingalls was arrested for chaining herself to a nuclear test facility.
Title Drop: When the guards take Piper's ID picture, she says "I wasn't ready."
Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Neither "Nora Jansen" in Piper Kerman's memoir, or Catherine Wolters in real life, were ever in the same actual prison as her, except the time the second season opener is based on.
Wham Line: Vause's only line in the episode.Alex: Maybe this is a bad time to say 'Hi,' huh?
What Are You in For?: Piper is being asked this question by fellow inmates shortly after her arrival.
You Are Number 6: The prisoners have numbers, but are known by their last names only.
You Can Leave Your Hat On: In the college flashback, Piper does a striptease for Alex before bed, set to Benny Latimore's "Let's Move and Groove Together".
Using a key he obtained in prison, Alex opens up a security deposit box and takes out stacks of cash. With financial backing, he begins sorting the house out, ready to exact his revenge. Alex begins meticulously looking through the various files, noticing a scan picture for Sara. Sara was pregnant at the time she was killed.
Episode 1 doesn't waste any time. Within the first few minutes, it's revealed that Dr. Ben Song (Raymond Lee) has vanished into the accelerator. What could possibly go wrong? Spoiler alert: a lot. Although the team back at headquarters was gearing up for a trial, Ben takes matters into his own hands, secretly slipping away from a party to conduct the mission in secret. As if there wasn't enough suspense, shortly after Ben's arrival back in time, he finds he's suffered amnesia and can't remember much of anything.
As they begin sharing their story, Daisy gives a brief insight into her lonely childhood, having music as her only solace. She reveals that her real name is Margaret and despite having a rich family, she was never shown love by her parents. When Margaret was around 15, she would constantly attend concerts in LA at night and admire bands such as Led Zeppelin, Cream, and The Who. After watching a band perform, the lead singer escorted her to a hotel room and what plays out next is exactly what you can imagine. Having to go to bed with a musician wasn't in the books for her and that traumatic experience sparked the urge to not be naive or shy, but instead become the outspoken and badass girl she wanted to be. That was when Margaret decided to change her name to Daisy Jones and dedicate herself to writing songs and doing drugs.
It is also true that Magic Johnson did consider going back to college in real life, although not exactly for the same reasons depicted in Winning Time episode 1. The HBO Max 2022 show indicates that Magic thought about returning to Michigan State for his junior year due to a shaken confidence or not receiving a high enough salary. However, the closest Magic came to going back to college was in the lead-up to the coin flip. He wasn't totally ready to give up being a college student and the fun that came with that. Magic was also determined to play for the Lakers if he was leaving. He went on to say that he would've gone back to school if the Chicago Bulls won the coin toss because he didn't want to play in Chicago.
Intro: Welcome to The Complete Engineering Podcast, brought to you by The College of Engineering. We are Nebraska, where we develop complete engineers, with the technical and non-technical skills to do big things. Visit us at Engineering.unl.edu.Matt Honke: Welcome to the inaugural episode of The Complete Engineering Podcast, I am Matt Honke. Karl Vogel: I'm Karl Vogel.Matt Honke: And we are both with the College of Engineering, and we are so fortunate today to have the Dean of the College of Engineering, Lance Perez with us. Welcome to the show.Dean Lance C. Pérez: Glad to be here. Matt Honke: I guess we'll get started here, but tell us a little bit about yourself, and what brought you to the University of Nebraska, and to the College of Engineering. Dean Lance C. Pérez: It's actually, sort of, a funny story because I originally had no intention of coming to Nebraska. I was on the faculty at the University of Texas, at San Antonio. I was in the process of applying for faculty jobs, and actually had four offers already, including one from the University of Maryland, at College Park, which is a top 10 college of engineering, and about 45 minutes from where my wife and I grew up, so we had pretty much decided we were going to go there, when I saw the ad for Nebraska. And when I saw the ad for Nebraska, I was talking with my wife, and I said, "you know, my dad was born in Nebraska, I've never been there, I've never seen where he was born, so why don't I apply, I'll get the interview, I'll get to come out to Nebraska and see where my father was born, and then we can go to Maryland." So, sure enough, I applied for the job and got the interview, and came out to Lincoln to interview, now we have to realize, my dad was born in Trenton, Nebraska, which is near McCook, so you can tell how much I knew about Nebraska geography. (both hosts laugh) I thought I'd be able to sneak out of my interview and get to Trenton, to see where my father was born, needless to say that didn't happen. I had a really good interview experience. When I came out, my wife had come out with me, she had a great experience. Rod Soukup, the chair of the Department of Electric Engineering at the time, and his wife Tracy, and all the faculty at the university just did a really good job of recruiting us. And we got back on the plane for San Antonio, and I looked at my wife and I said, "We need to get ready for the move to Maryland." My wife said, "I think we need to talk about Lincoln." And that was 22 years ago, so. (laughs) (laughs)Matt Honke: I think what that tells me is, if you're looking at Nebraska, and you've never been here, what you need to do is just come here, see it, see the place, and that can change some minds.Dean Lance C. Pérez: Yeah, it's absolutely true, and it continues to play out to this day, that with faculty, staff, and students, once we get them here, we have a very, very high success rate, but we have to get them here, because there are a lot of misconceptions about Nebraska as a state. Karl Vogel: What things about the university, about the city, and the College of Engineering in particular, do you think are the difference makers when students and faculty are considering coming here?Dean Lance C. Pérez: Yeah, I think there's a commonality across the state, in the city of Lincoln, and in the university and the college, that people really appreciate how welcoming a community that Nebraska, and Lincoln, and the university have. It really is a very strong sense of community. People are supportive, are friendly, it's safe, it's a very high quality of life, doesn't have a lot of the stresses of big cities, so great public schools, great parks, so it's a very high quality of life, and I think when you couple that with this very quiet pride that Nebraska has, that we expect excellence, in across everything that we do, and you find that in the community, you find that in the university, you find that in the college, and so, whether it's faculty, staff, or students, they get here, and I think they really find that combination powerful. We are always trying to be the best, yet we do it in a way that's very friendly.Karl Vogel: Wanting to be the best, and improving, is something that I know that you've had in your sights for the college. You're fairly new to the full time job as Dean. Dean Lance C. Pérez: Sure Karl Vogel: You just started your full time appointment just this year. What do you see as a vision for this college in the next five or 10 years?Dean Lance C. Pérez: It's clear that we need to build a College of Engineering that is a driver of economic development in the state. If we want to have a bright future for all of the young Nebraskans, we need to develop a much more diverse economy in the state, and the College of Engineering should play a critical role in that. Stem jobs, nationally, are growing by about 10%. In Nebraska, they're only growing by about 2%. It's clear that the future and the economy in the United States is technology based, and so we need to build a College of Engineering that's help driving that kind of economic development. And we do that two ways, one is through our undergraduate education, that is educating the workforce for tomorrow. There are several major industries in the state, particularly civil engineering, architectural engineering and design, and related construction fields that are about to undergo a generational change, and we need to provide that next generation of workforce. And then, we need to build a research enterprise that is creating new technologies, and new jobs, and allowing existing industry to innovate more quickly, so that we are developing another sector of the economy in Nebraska. A good example of this is in software engineering, where there's an emerging software engineering industry in Nebraska, in Omaha, and Lincoln, and we need to be driving the development of that sector of Nebraska's economy. And we can go across the engineering disciplines, and see that there are, if you look at energy production, Nebraska can play a big role in that, whether it's ethanol, or whether it's wind, whether it's solar, the college needs to be leading that effort. Matt Honke: And I know that's something the college just recently, last couple years, started the software engineering program, so that's something that's new. You mentioned, we want to build the college, some of that comes with buildings. So, I know we have a few building projects that are on the docket now, and then some that are long-term, can you go over, a little bit, what we're doing right now at the College. Dean Lance C. Pérez: Yeah, absolutely. So, we're fortunate to have some major capital projects underway. Before I describe those in detail, I think it's important to realize that part of building that college, that's gonna drive economic development in the state, is also making the college bigger and stronger. Just like many industries, higher-ed is competitive now in a way that it didn't used to be, and you have to grow if you're going to really survive and thrive, so our strategy moving forward to become that economic driver in the state involves growth, and growth requires great facilities. So, if we're going to educate the engineer of the 21st century, if we're gonna conduct research that's solving the major problems that are facing the world, we have to have the facilities that support both that kind of education, and that kind of research. So, we currently have two phases of construction of capital projects planned. So, the first phase was approved by the Board of Regents in August. It's a 75 million dollar, primarily a renovation project. So, we're extremely fortunate to have received an allocation of 70 million dollars from the state and the university, through LB957, and then we're adding in five million dollars of private philanthropy to that for this 75 million dollar project. And that project will accomplish two things, it will tear down and rebuild the building that we refer to as "The Link", that connects Scott Engineering Center to Nebraska Hall, and then it will renovate the majority of Scott Engineering Center. And when that project is completed in the fall of 2022, we'll have about 200,000 square feet of state of the art space to support both research and education, but it won't accommodate a lot of growth, it'll accommodate a little bit of growth, but when you look at the amount of hiring that we're gonna be doing over that same period, and the growth in enrollments that we expect to see over that same period of time, we'll likely be at capacity as that first phase of construction is completed. So, we're also planning a second phase of capital investment, which involves building a brand new engineering building at the intersection, roughly the intersection of 17th and Vine Street. This will be an 85 million dollar project, that will be funded entirely with private money, and that building will accommodate the growth of the college for the next several decades, and we'll be focused on engineering education, particularly our undergraduate mission, and will more than likely include, a significant presence from our civil engineering and construction programs. Matt Honke: This is The Complete engineering Podcast. And here at Nebraska, we have our Complete Engineer Initiative, and we're kind of interested to hear from you, can you help describe what that means, to be a complete engineering, what that means to you, and what makes that unique here at the University of Nebraska? Dean Lance C. Pérez: Sure, yeah. We're very proud of the Complete Engineer Initiative. To understand it, I think you have to go back a little bit and realize that 20, 30 years ago, when people like myself were being educated as engineers, it was all about technical skills. Could you do the math? Could you do the design? Could you do the analysis that was required to be a good engineer? And of course, those skills are still critically important to any engineer, but it's also become clear that additional skills are needed to be a good engineer, and that's whether you're gonna be a traditional engineer, whether you're gonna be an academic like myself, or whether you're gonna use your engineering education as a launch pad into medical school or law school, or going to work for a non-profit to help get clean water supplies in third-world countries. Engineering is inherently a global endeavor. It doesn't matter whether you're working for a small company in Lincoln, or for a huge company like Boeing, that clearly has a global presence. Engineering is inherently global, and involves communication, involves inter-disciplinary work, involves working with teams, so what we set about to do with The Complete Engineer, was to make sure that our undergraduates and graduates left the university with more than just technical skills. So, The Complete Engineer is built around six competencies, intercultural appreciation, leadership, teamwork, self-management, service and civic responsibility, and engineering ethics. And what we try to do with The Complete Engineer program, which is primarily an extra and co-curricular program, is give our students opportunities to develop these non-technical competencies. We're a national leader in this, and building programs that support the development of these non-technical skills.