Lolly Whitehill (portrayed by Lori Petty), or “G.I. Jane Doe,” is a Lutheran Norwegian prisoner known for her “molest-me-daddy” voice (it is this voice that gets her beaten up in the Chicago Metropolitan prison yard, and Piper fails to help her). She currently works in the greenhouse.
We learn that in Lolly’s previous life, she was a journalist who wrote investigative pieces without editorial approval. At this time, she began hearing voices in her head that made her suspect that her editors were trying to suppress the information that she was trying to bring to light. Eventually, the voices got so bad in her head that her sister took her to a home, but, freaked out by what the other patients said to her, she runs away and becomes homeless, selling coffee out of her shopping cart. Though she lives in poverty and has no real way to escape her voices, she’s taken to using a stick equipped with jangling metal rivets that help to drown out the voices in her head.
One day, the wheel of her shopping cart gets wedged in the sidewalk, and two cops approach her, telling her that she cannot panhandle in the spot. Before she can explain that she isn’t panhandling and that she’s stuck, the voices in her head tell her that they’re not real cops and that they’re trying to hurt her, and as she lifts her stick to drown out those voices, the cops interpret it as a sign of violence and arrest her on the spot.
She is one of the first new faces we meet in season two. Although she is a one-episode-wonder in this season, she plays a crucial role for Piper while being transported and in spending time in the Chicago Metropolitan Detention Center.
She sits next to Piper on the plane ride from New York to Illinois, and a snarky comment from another prisoner tips us off to the fact that she was imprisoned for the possession and/or use of crack cocaine.
At the start of season three, Lolly re-enters the series as one of the new inmates to process in after the privatization of Litchfield Penitentiary. When Piper sees her, she’s worried that Lolly will have it in for her for not defending her in Chicago; however, she luckily does not hold this particular grudge against her.
She is paranoid, and thus she begins snooping in Alex Vause‘s bunk and recording her every move once she suspects Alex of spying on her. When asked about herself, she does not divulge details, nor does she like to share much about herself. In fear for her life, she breaks a window of the greenhouse to steal a shard of glass for protection.
When Vause finally confronts her in the bathroom, she discovers that Lolly suffers from psychotic delusions about the NSA infiltrating the prison to spy on her every move, so that they can frame her for a crime she did not commit. It is this paranoia that allows Vause to take advantage of her and lessen the threat she poses.
Season 4 kicks off with Lolly showing up to save Vause from being murdered by Aydin. She instinctually beats the living daylights out of Aydin and then suggests that they get out of there and let someone else find the body; however, when she learns this is not an option, they hide the body under a tarp in the greenhouse.
Lolly unfortunately is unable to keep her cool. When she sees the paparazzi drones hovering over the garden snapping pictures of Judy King, she believes that them and their secret have been discovered and that they’re out to get her. So she starts defending the garden with a rake very conspicuously, though the guards laugh off her antics and pay no attention. When she becomes increasingly paranoid, however, C.O. Piscatella recommends moving her to Psych, but Healy swoops in to speak to her in counseling instead.
When Lolly spills the truth to him, Healy assumes that she’s speaking from her delusions and dismisses everything she said, which convinces her that the voices in her head aren’t real, and neither are the visions of the horrible crimes and actions she’s committed in the past few days. Healy further convinces her by reassuring her that he would know if anyone had been killed on campus, even though his conviction is quite the delusion itself. Healy develops a treatment plan for her, wanting to assist her in this time of need.
She builds a time machine out of cardboard and tinfoil in efforts to go back in time to “save” America, which helps her escape the voices, but she finds it increasingly difficult to keep the voices away.
Once the body is unearthed, Lolly approaches Vause to ask her if the murder was real or if it was a figment of her imagination. Trusting Vause’s affirmation that it was, in fact, real, Lolly understands when she is hauled off to Psych once Healy gives her name to Piscatella.
The last we see of Lolly is Healy walking her into Psych, where scores of inmates are moaning, crying, and screaming. Before Healy leaves her, she asks if they managed to travel back in time, and he sadly shakes his head “no.” Lolly calls back to Healy, saying that it was a “mistake” to bring her here, but it is already too late, and the barred doors close swiftly behind Healy.
Literary Litchfield 