'OITNB': Dascha Polanco and Matt McGorry on Season 3's Most Heartbreaking Storyline

Warning: Season 3 spoilers ahead.

As if pregnant inmate Dayanara Diaz’s life wasn’t stressful enough, Season 3 of Orange Is the New Black has heaped even more misery on the soft-spoken prisoner. First, she and Litchfield guard John Bennett (Matt McGorry) got engaged (secretly, illegally) by episode 2… but once Bennett visited Daya’s chaotic, violent home — where their baby was going to be raised — he apparently got so spooked that he fled his job, his home, and worst of all, his responsibility to Daya (Dascha Polanco) and the unborn baby.

Fans of OITNB, unsurprisingly, had some feelings about all that, and it’s fair to say that the strong, sometimes hateful reactions they shared on social media about his character left McGorry more than a little wigged out. (He responded to the haters on Instagram.) The actor, who also stars on ABC’s How to Get Away With Murder, and his co-star Polanco give Yahoo TV the scoop on Daya and Bennett’s dramatic Season 3 unraveling.

What was your reaction when you read Daya and Bennett’s arc for Season 3?
Dascha Polanco: You know, as I get to know Daya and get to actually understand the layers, I think that it’s a moment in her life where she really has to disconnect herself from what her experience has been and start planning what she wants from her life, and for her child. Not giving, not sacrificing, not thinking of others, but thinking of herself at this point. I think it’s very important when, as a woman, you’re watching this show and you see this girl you can relate to. How many women have been in a relationship and have made mistakes over and over, and they realize at a certain point, “I have to start thinking about me. I have to start doing what’s important for me.” I think Daya’s hitting that point right now. She came in like, “Oh, that’s my mom,” and “I’m just going to draw pictures.” Now she’s not even focused on drawing… you don’t really see her living in the fairy tale world, or reminiscing about her childhood. You see her focusing on what is to come.

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Matt McGorry: Honestly, it made me sad. I loved Bennett and Daya’s storyline, and the hopeless romantic in me was really rooting for them. One of the brilliant things about OITNB is that characters are so multi-layered, and we see them gain and lose our favor throughout the seasons. For example, I’ve both felt like I wanted to strangle Pennsatucky and have also felt deep sympathy towards her as the seasons have gone on. And when I read about Bennett leaving Daya and the prison, it made me really disappointed in Bennett. The writers chose the storyline that made him as unlikable as he could possibly be in one singular decision. And it’s a decision that the audience doesn’t even really know they’ve witnessed until they keep watching. Beyond that, I knew that it’d be something that a good portion of the fanbase might respond negatively to, and I’m someone that hates to be responsible for anyone being angry or upset.

So, Matt, you were not really surprised at some of the extreme reactions from fans, who have kind of turned on Bennett?
McGorry: I’m not really surprised at the responses, but it’s still something that doesn’t make me feel good. Getting to play such a likable character as my first role on television was really a blessing. The positive response and universal love of the character allowed me to build a solid foundation of confidence in the work that I was doing, and was good preparation for what I imagined when the second episode of Season 3 came out. The fact that Bennett proposes and really seems to be committed, even in the same episode of his “Irish Goodbye,” makes it all the more disappointing and angering for some.

But it’s also provided a bit of a decent life lesson for me. I’m naturally a people-pleaser and am really averse to making people feel bad or angry. But I feel very fortunate that my evolution as a person has been leading me down a path where I’m forced to give less f–ks. Starting even a few months ago, my passion and pursuit of gender equality was something that initially scared me, because it was taking a strong stance on something that can be seen as controversial by some — even though I can’t believe that. But in thinking about how much to speak up about this, I realized that anyone who would like me less for my stance on gender equality was ultimately someone that I would be OK with isolating myself from. And in the same way, there are some people on social media that either seem to hate me or be jokingly hating me. But that’s ultimately OK, because it’s part of playing a variety of roles as an actor, and frankly, you can’t please everyone. I feel honored to have the fans who are still with me as an actor, even if they’ve turned on the character. Perhaps this is me being too sensitive — it wouldn’t be the first time — but whether or not it’s about a character or me personally, it still feels a little hurtful with people telling me that they hate me on social media.  

Related: 'Orange Is the New Black’: The 5 Best Backstories From Season 3

We’re all assuming Bennett fled for some selfish reason… maybe he has another plan. What do you think were his motivations for leaving his job and Daya?
McGorry: As an actor, you have to justify the decisions and thoughts of the characters that you’re portraying. If you can’t create an emotional and psychological thread between their thoughts, that you can empathize with, then it’ll be impossible to play the character truthfully. This is a long way of saying that I’ve created an internal reasoning for why Bennett did what he did, and from the functional perspective of being an actor, one can’t label decisions as selfish. Because even in real life, the most selfish people that we can know think their actions are justified.

Dascha, after everything Daya went through, going into labor in jail, considering giving the baby to Pornstache’s mom, the shock of Bennett disappearing, there’s yet another twist at the end that she doesn’t even know about yet, with Caesar being arrested and the baby being put into foster care. When she does find out about that, will it leave her feeling hopeless, or will it make her more determined to better her life?
Polanco: Well, I don’t know. It’s interesting… for a woman to have given birth and to be going through all these stressors, I’m thinking a postpartum depression is coming. A person that has just been under so much agony and pressure, disappointment after disappointment, to show strength right at that point would be her putting on her fighting gear, being ready for battle. Or [she could] give up and just follow her circumstances, just be a prisoner, not give a s–t about what’s going on. I think it’s so unpredictable… I don’t know how she’s going to react, because this is the tipping point.

Matt, will we see Bennett in Season 4?
McGorry: The thing that I can say about Season 4 is that it’s the writers’ decision about whether or not Bennett is back… I have my fingers crossed that he comes through and is the man that we all hoped he was. But I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that wasn’t the case. Like me, I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.

Orange Is the New Black Season 3 is available on Netflix.