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| “ | This isn't a contest. You do your best because that's what you're supposed to do. Why is it so hard for you people to understand? You're like babies! "Where's my present?", "Pay attention to me!", "Give me things!", "Fix the heat!", "Build a gym!", I'm not your goddamn mommy. Grow up. | „ |
| ~ Natalie Figueroa to Taystee after winning the career fair. |
Natalie Figueroa, also known as Fig, serves as an antagonist in season one and two of Orange is the New Black.
She was the executive assistant to the warden of Litchfield Penitentiary's minimum security faculty, until she was discreetly fired in season two for fraud and embezzlement. After this, she became warden of the maximum security faculty in season six. Fig is then put in charge of the ICE detention facility in season seven.
She was portrayed by Alysia Reiner, who also portrayed Sadie Deever in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and voices Ms. Marmalady in Butterbean's Café.
Personality[]
Fig demonstrates minimal empathy to her inmates at minimum security, clearly only in the job to make money. She actively underfunds the prison, despite constantly hearing from inmates about the substandard conditions they live in. Where she does get the funding for the prison, Fig secretly embezzled this into her husband's political campaigns.
In later seasons, Fig remains stern and cold, but reveals that she wants children to Joe Caputo. It is possible that as her husband, Jason, had been having an affair, that this is why she became the work-obsessed, cold-hearted warden she is. Towards the series' ending, Fig becomes a more sympathetic character when it is revealed she is infertile and appears to be moved after witnessing child deportations at the ICE facility.
Physical appearance[]
Fig is very slim, and is often joked about by staff and inmates to have an eating disorder of some description. She has well-groomed brown hair which she often wears down. She is known by inmates and staff for having an expensive taste in clothes, wearing LouBoutins to prison (and then complaining there is gum on her shoe).
Biography[]
Background[]
Fig married her husband, Jason Figueroa, at some point before the series' start. Fig reveals to Taystee and Caputo a girl named Tracey Loomis hit puberty before her at school. Fig envied Tracey for the male attention she received, which is why she names her vagina "Tracey - because my vagina's a bitch.". She revealed that she was standing next to Courtney Cox at the concert Bruce Springsteen picked her out of the crowd at in 1984. Fig has always resented Courtney Cox for this. It is also possible this is where her eating habits developed from, as she confesses to Caputo that she used to be fat which is why he didn't pick her.
Orange is the New Black[]
Fig unenthusiastically welcomes Piper Chapman and other new inmates to Litchfield. She comes across incredibly condescending. Her character is not developed much in season one, and becomes fairly one-dimensional as the cold and uninterested, despite being the inmates' only point of contact for the warden.
In the second season, Fig starts being investigated by journalist Andrew Nance, who discovers Litchfield received funds for a gymnasium that was never built. He convinces Piper Chapman to gather evidence, who is sick of the corruption and incompetence at the prison. Whilst Andrew interviews Fig, he begins pressing on her spending history. Fig avoids these questions, and tries to seduce him and abruptly ends the interview. Piper starts a newsletter which she uses as a front to gain access to private records, and discovers the account records which she provides to Joe Caputo. In between times, Fig discovers that her husband is having an affair with his secretary, Gavin. Fig also discovers that Piper is working with Andrew, and seeks to have her transferred prison as revenge. Fig does not bring this up to Jason. Hoping to get Natalie fired, Caputo walks into Fig's office to find her sobbing on the floor. Caputo begins to console Fig, and tells her that he knows about her crimes. To buy Caputo's silence, she performs oral sex on him. Afterward, Caputo tells Fig he has already told the FDC. Fig says that the FDC will give her a significant severance package, a thank you, and a new job within the district. Fig also assures Caputo the FDC will protect her.
In season three, Fig is still married to Jason, who has won the senate seat. After learning the FDC intends to close Litchfield, Caputo threatens Fig and Jason with the embezzlement evidence unless she can provide him with a business plan to pitch to private prison corporation MCC, who were previously interested in buying the prison. Throughout season three she develops a solely sexual relationship with Caputo.
In season four, Caputo comes to Fig for assistance with MCC. Fig, who is alone and drunk, invites Caputo in. Caputo initially declines as he is dating Linda Ferguson, but eventually obliges.
In season five, Fig represents the governor in the negotiations following the riot with Taystee and Caputo who is held hostage. Fig initially dismisses all the demands, but eventually manages to agree to all but getting justice for the death of Poussey Washington. Fig explains to Taystee that she could not promise that CO Bayley, who is responsible for Poussey's death, would be arrested. In response to this, Taystee shuts down negotiations. As a result, Fig leaves the negotiations, which starts the offensive mission to shut down the riot by any means necessary.
When the remaining inmates cannot be found, Fig realises that they are in the abandoned pool, and gives the storm guards the location of it.
In season six, Fig becomes warden at Litchfield's maximum security prison. Fig and Joe's relationship develops into a romantic one. She assists Linda with MCC's PR nightmare after being trapped within the riot and transferred briefly to a prison in Cleveland. When Fig learns Joe could be transferred to Missouri, she expresses her sadness on their date. Whilst Caputo assists Taystee with her trial for the murder of Desi Piscatella, Fig advises Caputo not to challenge Officer Herrmann, who framed Taystee.
In season seven, Fig's villainy seems to have subsided. This could be linked to her happy relationship with Joe, and has therefore grown to somewhat care about the inmates. Fig is repositioned to head the ICE facility. Here, Fig battles her growing desire to have a child with the distress she witnesses in the callous management of the detainees, particularly by Carlos Litvack. Fig helps a pregnant detainee, Santos Chaj, by giving her an abortion pill. Fig also shows incredible sadness when she learns the facility is also used for juvenile deportation hearings.
Trivia[]
- Many link Fig as a root cause of Litchfield's development. Fig was responsible for the corruption and siphoning of money that led to it being so underfunded. This then led to Litchfield wanting to be closed by the FDC. Fig then suggests MCC as a prospective private prison corporation to Caputo, which reduces his power within Litchfield. MCC's measures of introducing low-training, low-pay COs is what leads to the walkout, and the hiring of CO Bayley, and the other militant veteran guards such as Piscatella. The veteran guards' brutalise the prisoners which leads to the demonstration in the canteen, which leads to Poussey's death. This then leads to the riot, which leads to the storm and the inmates being transferred to maximum security. This then escalates the block war. MCC then uses its ownership of Litchfield's minimum security facility to transform it into the ICE detention centre.
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 Villains
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