Larry Bloom (portrayed by Jason Biggs) is Piper Chapman’s former fiance. The two met in Polly and Pete’s apartment when he was house-sitting, and Piper stopped by to clean up a fresh wound from a dog bite. He had no clue about Piper’s past (drug trafficking, lesbianism, etc.) until the court notice showed up at their home. Committed to their relationship, Larry proposes to her on the beach, wanting to secure his future with her, despite the fifteen-month sentence that lay in their shared future.
As a writer, Larry tries writing a piece on “edging;” however, his superior suggests that he writes an article on how his fiancee’s incarceration affects him. It is so good that it ends up in the New York Times, although Piper feels that he didn’t “capture her spirit” at all–“it’s not me,” Piper says. “The girl in your piece is not me.”
At Thanksgiving, Polly and Pete bring a friend, who happens to be the host on an NPR radio show. After talking to him a bit, he agrees to have Larry on to share his story on “Modern Love.” The whole prison is aware that Larry will be aired on NPR and they all listen, getting Piper into some deep trouble with what she says about Miss Claudette, Lorna Morello, and other inmates.
At first he is committed to protecting Piper from the “fishbowl mentality,” as his father suggests; however, upon discovering that Piper was guilty of “lesbian activity” (thanks to counselor Healy), he turns around and tells Piper that Alex Vause was actually the one that named her in exchanged for a reduced sentence. It does not help, either, that he asked to meet Alex face-to-face.
When the two meet, Alex sheds further light on Piper’s “psychotic carnival ride” that they have both endured. In the season one finale, Larry admits that he was afraid of losing Piper (and perhaps afraid of her), hence why he pushed for the marriage while she was in prison. Ultimately, he breaks off the engagement after deciding that the hurt of Piper stuck between himself and Alex, his supposed ex-lover, was too much for him to handle.
Season two opens with Larry on a blind date that his father set up for him; despite the fact that he thinks he is moving on, his date asks about Piper, which is her first “strike.” Her second is when she comments on how involved his parents are in his life. The third comes when she expresses her enthusiasm for being with a guy like him, one “without ambition.”
Clearly not in the mood for a second date with this woman, he starts spending more time with Polly and is there for her when Pete, her husband, is off “finding himself” during the last part of her pregnancy and even during their child’s birth. For a while they play house, and Larry finds himself acting like a husband toward her. This only sinks in when someone in public mistakes them for a married couple, and the baby as his own. This later turns into their affair.
Larry attempts to try to get Piper to do some investigation for him while also having the affair with Polly. They dread telling Pete just as much as they dread telling Piper about their affair. Despite the hurt they bring to their loved ones, they make it up to Piper by being instrumental in Alex Vause‘s rearrest for violating her parole.
Literary Litchfield 