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| “ | Lesbian request denied! | „ |
| ~ Healy to Piper Chapman. |
Samuel "Sam" Healy MSW is a major antagonist in seasons one and two of the Netflix series Orange is the New Black. He became a more sympathetic character in the later seasons.
He is a misogynistic, homophobic counsellor at Litchfield Penitentiary's minimum security prison.
He is portrayed by Michael Harney, who also portrayed Darth Marr in Star Wars: The Old Republic. As a child, he is portrayed by Zachary Doran.
Personality[]
Healy's personality is enigmatic. He was traumatised as a childhood, being exposed to his father's homophobic views and his mother's paranoid delusions. In the first few seasons, Healy demonstrates apathy toward certain inmates' issues and old-fashioned views on women in general despite his training in social work.
As the series progresses, Healy begins to struggle with his mental health when his wife (whom was arranged as part of a mail-order green card agency), Katya, ignores him due to her frustrations with his ignorance and temper. Healy is shown to have suicidal tendencies. When he self-admits himself to a psychiatric ward, he becomes more placid and simple-minded.
Physical appearance[]
Healy was an older gentleman with white hair, and slightly overweight. He often wore the Litchfield CO uniform, though, as not a CO, casualised it by often having his shirt slightly unbuttoned. As a child, he had blonde hair and was also slightly overweight.
Biography[]
Background[]
Sam was born possibly in the late 1950s or early 1960s to Margaret and Dennis Healy. Sam's mother was believed to be a lesbian. During this time, lesbianism was seen as a mental illness, and treated using electroshock therapy. This resulted in Margaret having paranoid delusions including hearing voices in the walls. Sam's father decried his mother's 'condition', believing it to be a "disease", and supported his mother's 'treatment'.
Sam's childhood continued to be unhappy due to his mother's declining state. On some evenings, she would experience volatile mood swings which resulted in her breaking things and screaming at Sam, before quickly softening, realising what had happened. At some point, Margaret walked out on Sam and Dennis, never to be seen again. Sam studied social care at college. During this point, he dated women but the trauma left by his mother's walk-out led him to develop a misogynistic disposition. He began working at Litchfield 22 years prior to the episode's pilot, meaning he started around 1990.
Orange is the New Black[]
When Piper Chapman arrives at Litchfield, she meets Mr. Healy who works as her counsellor. He shows a sympathy to Piper (though this is discovered to be due to the fact he is attracted to her, and that she is white). When Healy learns that Piper is bisexual, his attitude changes drastically. He begins taking punitive action against her and singling her out. When Pennsatucky attacks Piper, Healy sees this and instead chooses to ignore Piper's calls for help due to her sexuality and previous confrontation to Healy for his bigotry.
Realising he could face backlash after Piper presents an ultimatum, Healy tries to atone by offering Piper furlough to attend her grandmother's funeral. This results in widespread resentment against Piper in the prison, who already perceive her as priveleged. Lonely and realising he will likely never find love, Healy resorts to working with a mail-order-bride agency, where he marries Katya, a Ukrainian woman.
Katya is abhorred by Healy's age and misogyny, and realises that he is still lonely. He enlists in the help of Russian inmate Galina Reznikov to translate for him and Katya. Healy begins to take his mental health seriously and starts seeing a therapist. However, he reacts poorly to his female therapist with explosive temper.
Apologetic and possibly hoping to make things right, Healy creates 'Safe Place', a group-counselling session with the inmates. However, no one attends the session to his dismay. In season three, new counsellor Berdie Rogers arrives, who Sam feels intimidated by. Sam has Berdie fired, which upsets inmate Brook Soso who was one of Berdie's inmates. Sam tells Brook that her depression is all in her head, which contributes to Brook's suicide attempt.
Healy and Reznikov almost begin a romantic relationship, but this is short-lived after they realise their dynamic is too complicated, and that they missed their chance. In season four, Healy grows attached to inmate Lolly Whitehill, a paranoid schizophrenic. Seeing a similarity of his mother in Lolly, she begins to trust him. Realising his fragility and loneliness, Healy attempts to commit suicide by walking into a nearby lake, attempting to drown himself. However, Healy receives a call. Believing it to be Katya, he gets out the lake, only to learn he has been called in to work. After Lolly believes that she killed Aydin Bayat, she enters down a deep spiral. She confesses to Healy she killed Aydin (which is untrue, as Alex Vause did). Rather than having Lolly caught for this, he institutionalises her in the prison psych ward, which terrifies Lolly as she believes they have travelled back in time.
After this, Healy self-refers himself to a psych-ward and is taken in. Healy is not seen until after the prison riot, where warden Joe Caputo asks for his assistance. Healy's disposition is much more sedate, where he spends his time working in a coffee shop, offering limited help to Caputo.
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 Villains
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