Orange is the New Black has had several characters depart the show, but none as suddenly as John Bennett. But, why was the character written off?
Caution: Spoilers for Orange is the New Black ahead!
One of Orange Is the New Black's most beloved characters, John Bennett, unexpectedly left the show in season 3, but what exactly happened to him? Despite his fan-favorite status, and his romantic relationship with another fan-favorite character, Dayanara “Daya” Diaz, Bennett was surprisingly written off the show for good. Matt McGorry would later appear in shows like How to Get Away with Murder, but his Orange Is the New Black disappearance was shocking.
Bennett was first introduced in the semi-true series Orange Is the New Black early in season 1 as a correctional officer at Litchfield Prison. He and Daya, an inmate at Litchfield, struck up a romance, eventually resulting in Daya becoming pregnant. By the beginning of season 3, he grew concerned about his relationship with Daya’s family, particularly Cesar, her mother’s boyfriend. Then the character was abruptly written off, appearing for the last time in season 3, episode 2.
By the end of the episode, Bennett, after proposing to Daya, quit his job at Litchfield. He had witnessed the kind of life their child would have with Cesar and then ended things with her. While Bennett was no longer seen on Orange Is the New Black before it ended, later episodes confirmed that he left Daya for good. However, it’s also possible he could have had a hand in the conclusion of Cesar’s season 3 storyline. Since he was the only character outside of Daya and her mother to know about Cesar’s whereabouts and the extensiveness of his drug operation, it’s possible he tipped off the DEA, leading to Cesar’s arrest. However, this theory is not confirmed by the canon of Orange Is the New Black directly.
Despite the show’s official explanation for his disappearance, Dascha Polanco, who played Daya on Orange Is the New Black, has expressed her feelings about what happened to Bennett after season 3 and beyond the show's ending. The actress feels Bennett never reconciled with Daya or met his child. Orange Is the New Black seems to confirm this, as Bennett never appeared again in later seasons. Additionally, beyond a few references to his disappearance and his quitting his job at Litchfield in subsequent episodes of season 3, the character was hardly even mentioned again.
Regardless of why Bennett was written off of Orange Is the New Black, his absence left a hole in the heart of the series. Despite their ups and downs, Daya and Bennett’s doomed relationship was a central, fan-favorite storyline in the series. No matter how viewers felt about John Bennett on Orange Is the New Black, though, his time on the show was cut abruptly short.
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