This plotline is not saccharine. Fig approaches foster parenting like a hostile takeover: creating spreadsheets for feeding schedules, drafting legal contracts for visitation rights, and ruthlessly cutting through red tape. But slowly, the armor melts. In a beautiful, quiet scene, she holds the baby and admits to Caputo: "I spent ten years telling myself that prisons work, that people get what they deserve. But no one deserves this. Not the mother. Not this baby. Not me."
The pivotal moment for Fig came at the end of Season 2, when she was ousted from her position in a dramatic takedown. This fall from grace stripped away her power, which was the source of her armor. Without the title and the authority, Fig was forced to confront the reality of her life—specifically, her disastrous marriage. orange is the new black fig