This season on Orange is the New Black, I found one of my least favorite inmates of seasons past had quickly become the one I sympathized with the most. When Brook Soso was introduced last season, she was immediately disliked, or at the least forgotten about by a majority of the viewers. She rarely had lines and when she did she seemingly wouldn’t stop talking. She never quite found her place within the cliques at Litchfield and seemed to be sort of forced into the few storylines she ended up in.

But this time around, I had a change of heart. To me, what made her so sympathetic was not the fact that her story was the saddest, which it wasn’t, nor was it the most explosive or dynamic, however, it was one of the most universal. Here is the cold hard truth: we have all been Brook Soso at some point in our lives whether we want to own up to it or not. We have all had moments when we didn’t quite fit in with our surroundings or felt alone and hopeless. Her story resonated with me more than any of the others, and by episode 13, I was completely sold; Soso was my new favorite. I was kind of surprised by the lack of reverence and attention paid to her story this season, because to me, she underwent one of the most dramatic character developments of them all. It is for this reason that I have taken it upon myself to lay out the three distinct reasons why Soso is, in my humble opinion, one of the most underrated inmates and unsung heroes of Litchfield Penitentiary.

#1: She’s learned how to harness her non-stop talking into an effective force

When she arrived at Litchfield, Soso attempted to continue on her justice-seeking spirit by doing what she did best: organizing various strikes and petitions as forms of peaceful protest. Despite her high and positive spirits, none of these attempts really earned her any respect from her peers (aside from a Nicky), nor did they affect any real change in her life or the lives of the other inmates. Her protests, like her words, were for the most part empty, trivial and endless. Season three saw a very different Soso in this regard. The girl who was once so submissive she was traded off for a blanket saw not one, not even two, but three epic shutdowns when faced with injustice. Soso had no time for her friend who thought prison was ~brave~, nor Leanne and her callous attitude, and how many of us would jump at the chance to confront Mr. Healy about sucking at his job?

Perhaps she realized that chaining herself to a tree or refusing to shower attracts attention, but hardly any change. If Soso has one gift, it’s clearly the gift of gab. In the past, her words have never been impactful, more so a way to fill empty space and to be honest, the same could be said for her acts of protest. She’s learned to harness this once irritating trait and use it to correct wrongs, both against her and within the system, and managed to leave the other party at a loss for words every single time. Her words ended up having more power, and yielding more results than anything she had tried in the past. Of course her inability to control herself after Leanne opens up to her about growing up Amish demonstrates that she still has a way to go before she can truly say that she is cured of her word vomit, but she’s off to a good start and the improvements are dramatic.

#2: Her reality is vastly different than the others on the show

What first sets Soso apart from the other inmates is the fact that she was never sensationalized. Her story was never shrouded in sex appeal, danger, or mystery; we know from the get-go that she was locked up for, well, locking herself up to a tree. That’s it--no drug smuggling, no organized crime, but just some good old-fashioned non-violent protest. This earns her the affectionate title of a “dirty hippie who has no idea what peaceful protest really means” from fellow inmate and activist, Sister Ingalls. It’s hard to stand out with these charges when you’re living amongst the Miss Rosa’s and Norma Romano’s of the world, but sometimes that’s how life is. Sometimes you aren’t exceptional, you’re just normal, and Soso is startlingly normal given her situation. What happened to her could happen to any politically-minded young adult who got a little too carried away, which gives her a sense of reality that isn’t necessarily gritty or raw, but resonates strongly with the free-spirited college student.

This notion is a bit lost on her in the second season with her constantly drawing attention to herself and bragging on and on about her escapades as an activist. It’s clear that this is due to where she stood with her group of friends outside the prison walls, as her friend Meadow still praises her for being brave. Her response, that she is "not surviving, just existing," shows that the dichotomy of how she is viewed outside Litchfield vs. inside Litchfield is something that she has reconciled between the two seasons. Like Bon Iver, at once she knew she was not magnificent, however this revelation lead to some pretty dark times for Soso, which brings us to number three…

#3: Her journey is universal

This season did not see a full and exhaustive backstory for Soso, which is likely because her present hell was worse than anything she had endured in her past. This character arc of loneliness and depression while trying to fit in felt incredibly relatable and applicable to a number of situations where someone is the new kid. This of course is only amplified by Soso’s lack of a default community in Litchfield, and while initially taken on by the white inmates in season two, fault lines clearly arise this time around (see: the conversation with Angie and Leanne in the laundry room), and Chang, an older asian woman, is just as dismissive of her Asian identity, associating her with the Scottish side of her family instead. Soso gains a new sense of self-awareness and she dramatically loses her optimism and positivity that annoyed so many the previous seasons. This coupled with her spat with Leanne and inability to control herself upon finding out Leanne was Amish, and the subsequent exile from Norma’s cult (the only comfort she had), sends her into heart-breaking isolation.

Whether it’s moving to a new town, going away to college or simply trying to find oneself, this narrative is relatable, searching high and low in desperation until finding your people. It’s awkward, frustrating, but a time when you’re forced to reflect a lot on yourself. Questioning who you are and where you fit in is healthy and normal, and it’s completely refreshing to see this story play out on screen in its grittiest form. Soso hitting rock bottom is easily one of the most heartbreaking moments from the series's history, and her decline made me realize something about her I never had before (mostly due to her lack of a backstory): that she’s human. Just because she was peppy and upbeat doesn’t mean she is immune to the trials and tribulations that come with being locked up--or even life in general. What endears me to her the most, similar to so many other characters on Orange is the New Black, is how real she seemed by the end of the season. So much of her story made sense and genuinely felt like it could happen to anyone. While sad and disturbing all at the same time, seeing Soso have to handle her sadness and frustration made her not only a sympathetic character, but also a character I felt genuine empathy for as well.

There are few scenes more satisfying than Soso and Poussey (who had her own issues with isolation) floating in the lake, holding hands like the adorable otters they are, and her finally feeling welcomed with open arms. Soso used to irritate me more so than any other inmate at first blush, but now, from her amazing one liner about the piñata in episode one to her beautiful resolution in the finale, I find Soso to be a truly refreshing presence at Litchfield.

What I adore the most about this show and it’s writing is the fact that there are barely any characters that are caricatures. None of them were sent out of production so locked in their ways that they seem even remotely predictable. Every single inmate, including relatively minor characters like Soso, are made so incredibly dimensional and layered that they could easily be people you know as opposed to characters on a Netflix series. And just like that, we are forced to wait a year to revisit our friends at Litchfield and find out what happened since the cliffhangers in the finale (Alex: dead or alive??), but all in all, this season has been one of my favorites and in the mean time, I'll be counting down the days until season four.