Netflix's 'Orange' continues to showcase complex characters

If the Season 3 trailer for “Orange Is the New Black” is any indication, the return of Alex Vause (Laura Prepon), erstwhile lover of Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), to Litchfield Penitentiary is a major story line as Netflix begins streaming new episodes of its hit prison dramedy on Friday, June 12.

It certainly won't be the only compelling story, however. As fans know from the two previous seasons, “Orange Is the New Black” has woven a fascinating tapestry of characters of every temperament, color and sexual orientation. Cast members who started out with only one or two lines per episode have broken out and revealed their characters to be complex, fascinating women.

That's especially true of Lorna Morello (Yael Stone), the lovely, emotionally fragile prison driver who spent most of her screen time sighing over Christopher (or “Christuffah,” as she pronounced it), her devoted fiance on the outside. Most fans were stunned in Season 2 when a memorable episode revealed that this Prince Charming was a fairy-tale character in Morello's obsessive fantasy, a handsome stranger she had been stalking. After she broke into his home while out on an errand, Christopher came to the prison in a rage and threatened to kill her if she came near him again.

Stone admits she was just as stunned as anyone else by that revelation.

“I certainly had a sense that the fairy-tale portrait that she had been painting for two seasons seemed to have a few holes in it,” the actress says. “For one thing, this guy never came in to visit her. If she was the love of his life, then where was he? So I sensed that something was amiss, but I certainly didn't know the extent that the fantasy played out in her life or that it directly related to her prison sentence.”

Morello will spend part of Season 3 confronting the reality of her situation, but that makes more room for personal growth, Stone adds.

Keep an eye on Gloria Mendoza (Selenis Leyva) as well. She's the tough broad who wrestled control of the prison kitchen away from the imposing Red (Kate Mulgrew). Leyva says she knew series creator Jenji Kohan had faith in her work when she picked Leyva to face off with the formidable Mulgrew.

“It's easy to try to pigeonhole Gloria as a tough cookie, but there are so many layers to her,” Leyva says. “We got to see quite a bit more of who this woman is in Season 2. She's a fighter, a survivor of domestic violence, but she's also a spiritual woman, a mother hen to some of these girls. You're going to see more of that in Season 3.”

Leyva jokes that she hopes Gloria never gets out of prison, because the role is so rewarding.

“I think Gloria should serve many, many years, and maybe have more years added on because she has to ‘take care of' someone in the prison,” she says, laughing.