In Orange Is the New Black‘s series finale, Dayanara Diaz was confronted by her mother, Aleida, about her descent from once-aspiring artist to leader of Litchfield’s drug trade. And when Daya suggested that she was going to corrupt her younger sisters by bringing them into the “family business,” Aleida finally snapped. She struck Daya’s windpipe, then strangled her firstborn.

That was the last we saw of Daya. Aleida’s daughter was knocked to the ground, gasping for air, as Mom implied that she’d finally know what it’s like to kill somebody.

But did Aleida go through with it? Did Daya actually die? Portrayer Dascha Polanco reveals Daya’s fate in a new interview.

“They made it very clear to me that I don’t die,” Polanco tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I thought that she did. But the writers told me, ‘She doesn’t die, but she gets knocked out really good.’ And I realized it was going to be left as that question.”

Daya’s fate was one of the only question marks coming out of Orange‘s 90-minute sendoff, which provided closure, if not happy endings, for over four-dozen characters — all of which are summarized in the attached character guide.

Are you surprised by Daya’s fate? Or did you assume the guards would pull Aleida off of Daya before it was too late?