Stella Carlin (portrayed by Ruby Rose)–also known as “Crocodile Dundee,” Justin Bieber,” and the one with the “dingo-fucker accent”–is a new inmate at Litchfield Penitentiary for season three. We first meet her when the inmates begin their first day of work for the Whispers company. While she is new to Litchfield, we soon learn that her sentence is almost up.
Stella tells Piper Chapman that she is an only child who grew up in Philadelphia, PA. Her parents moved back to Australia a few years ago, leaving her all alone in the United States. The cause of her incarceration is unknown.
She immediately takes an interest in Piper’s affairs while working nearby in the Whispers factory, and, because Alex Vause is in the midst of a serious nervous breakdown that is off-putting to Piper, Stella becomes her business confidant. While it is unclear whether Stella wants to start up a romantic fling, she is the first to lean in to kiss Piper. Later on when she tries to kiss her in the prison yard, however, it becomes clear that Piper condones their secret fling. Moreover, when Stella suggests to Piper that if she were her, she would have dumped Alex months ago, it begins to sound as though she wants Piper all to herself. Ironically, however, Alex suggests to Piper that Stella’s Ninja Turtle tattoo makes her updatable herself.
Once Piper begins to drift away from her and back to Alex, Stella continues to contribute to the panty business; however, Stella does not have to stay away long, for Alex ends the relationship after having seen the two kiss in the prison yard. Relieved that Alex is out of the picture so she can have Piper all to herself, she takes it upon herself to pressure C.O. Baxter Bayley into continuing to help them with transporting the soiled panties out of the prison and to Piper’s brother, Cal, by convincing him that his involvement in the operation is the “most badass thing that will ever happen” in his life.
As if to celebrate their victory, Stella makes a makeshift tattoo gun that she shows off to Piper and suggests that she tattoo Piper to make her an official prison badass. Piper allows Stella to tattoo “Trust No Bitch” in white ink on her forearm. While the tattoo seems to be a symbol of friendship, partnership, and new love, it is soon revealed that Stella has been misleading Piper all along in her business adventure so that she could transfer all of the money out of Piper’s account into her own so that she would be secure after being released from prison.
When Piper finally suspects Stella of the theft, she claims to be anxious about getting out, for she has no friends or family on the outside, and that she will make it up to Piper by writing an apology note.
Evidently, Piper doesn’t think Stella can make it up to her, and thus she plants all of the contraband that has been floating around the prison, including the stolen screw driver from season on that Big Boo had been using as a dildo as well as all of the other items she found in the prison while searching for a cell phone, in Stella’s bunk. The prison staff is conveniently tipped off to the contraband, and Stella is thus hauled off to maximum security.
In season 4, we know that Stella is down in Maximum Security with Nicky Nichols and that they are intimately involved, but this relationship is strained by Stella’s drug use and Nichols’ endangered sobriety. When Nichols sees her receive drugs in the prison yard, Stella is rejected by Nicky for good.
Literary Litchfield 