Season 4 of Orange Is The New Black ended with Dayanara “Daya” Diaz holding a gun and threatening a Litchfield guard, so suffice it to say that she has had quite the time during her stay in prison. A lot has happened to Daya, and when I watch her, I can’t decide if she’s growing as a person or in a state of arrested development, and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that she isn't able to see her baby, a daughter she had with C.O. John Bennett. Who has Daya’s baby on Orange Is The New Black?
For Daya, being in prison is a family affair, especially since she joined her mother, Aleida, at Litchfield, after Aleida took the fall for her boyfriend, Cesar’s drug dealing — presumably, Daya did the same, too. She arrives in prison on the same day that Piper does, and she quickly strikes up a friendship and then a romance with Bennett. Obviously, their relationship is a secret, but they try and keep it going by passing notes and having sex in a janitor’s closet. That’s the stuff of true love, people. Eventually, Daya gets pregnant by Bennett, and she wants to keep the baby. This is a problem, because it’s illegal for a C.O. to have sex with an inmate, even as an adult — the inmate can’t officially give consent because of the power duality that exists in that relationship. Aleida, Gloria, and Red help frame the pregnancy as the result of a rape by C.O. Mendez (aka Pornstache), and it’s an all-out disaster. I mean, the plan works, but Daya is mad that Bennett can’t take responsibility as the father of her baby. Pornstache also sends Daya love letters, which is… let’s just say uncomfortable for everyone involved.
As Daya’s pregnancy progresses, she has to figure out where this baby is going to go when it’s delivered. Bennett disappears after he visits Cesar, and Daya is left up a creek. Obviously, she cannot keep the baby in prison. Delia Powell, Pornstache’s mother, offers to take her granddaughter because she still thinks that her son is the baby’s father. Even when Daya tells her that that’s not the case, Delia still wants to adopt Daya’s baby, which is pretty big of her. When Daya gives birth, Aleida ruins everything by lying and telling Delia that the baby was stillborn. Instead of going to a nice, safe home, the baby ends up with Cesar, who is soon arrested after a drug bust at his apartment. Daya’s daughter is taken by Child Protective Services at the end of that Season 3 episode, and we still don’t really know where this kid is. She’s in foster care, sure, but where? No one knows.
As I said, Daya is left holding that gun at the end of Season 4, and that’s the kind of stuff that puts years on your sentence. With only about three years ago until the official end of hers, Daya would do best to put that piece down and walk away, lest she be separated from her baby by even more years.
