Switched at Birth: Things Aren't What They Seem

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

ABCFamily knows that this show has a lot of signing, and therefore has a lot of captioning. Therefore, they know better than to place large, opaque advertisements in scenes where captions are needed. They've issues an apology via Twitter for this "technical issue," but I'm still disappointed that it occurred. Hopefully there will be measures in place to prevent this from happening again.

I thought that playing off Daphne being on Buckner's basketball team so that the school can qualify for a grant was good. Yes, it made me sad, but I bet that this happens fairly frequently and is yet another important thing about the disabled culture that able-bodied folks don't really know much about. Similarly, the replay of the final scene from last week, only this time from the POV of the police officers (aka with sound) was fabulously done, I thought. Also, Angelo having the money to open a salon AND being completely off-the-books for the past two years has got to be a bad sign... though I'm struggling to predict what the story is behind that! I'm also getting really mixed signals from John on what he thinks about Kathryn writing a book. I mean, it became clear a while back that she's looking for a new project, and it was hinted that she might even help out with/at Regina's salon, so I'm not sure where the writers are going with Kathryn's ambitions. And I haven't even comments on the current issues in the Bay/Emmett relationship yet! But, I'm going to wait on that one... I think that we're on the brink of something major there...

Switched at Birth "Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear" (S01E13): We see the previous episode's final scene, this time from the police's point-of-view. When Melody shows up at the police station, she demands to know if Emmett was treated appropriately as a deaf suspect. For instance, he should have had his hands cuffed in front of him. [interesting. I can't remember if I knew that or not.] He's being charged for first degree trespassing and vandalism, as there are digital pictures of him tagging the billboard. Melody tries to say that it won't happen again, but charges are still being pressed. [sad face. poor Emmett.] Regina gets a text from Melody about Emmett's arrest, and Daphne asks Bay if she knew about it. [don't you just love how word spread so fast?] Bay rushes off to Emmett's, but he's grounded and Melody tells her to "stay away," finger-spelling it for emphasis. [I liked the finer-spelling to make it completely clear. I wonder if that's like a "do I have to spell it out for you" -type thing?] Bay goes to Emmett after school to apologize and say that she'll take responsibility for what happened, but he says that it doesn't matter, as he's the one caught on film. [I take it that John and Kathryn have no idea that Emmett was arrested? Because it's only a matter of time before Kathryn puts everything together and realizes that other tagging all over town has been done by Bay...] Later, Daphne goes to see Emmett, and he apologizes for missing her first basketball game for Buckner. She asks him about being arrested and what it was like, and he tells her about how he hated being deaf during it, and how he hated himself for hating being deaf. [deep, yo. I like it.] When Melody meets with Regina, we learn that Emmett is facing 20 hours of community service and a $5,000 fine.

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[eep! that's a hefty amount.] After Emmett avoids Bay's texts, she eventually shows up at his house and gets his attention by shining a flashlight in his window. She convinces him to come out with her, and she brings him to a space where she sets up a projector to showcase a tagging without actually vandalizing a space. [oh technology. coming in handy every day. Tho, at the same time, only rich kids are carrying around projectors, LoL.]

Emmett wasn't the only one misbehaving this episode, though. When Bay meets Angelo for dinner at a Cuban-Chinese place (she's allowed to go without a chaperone now, which I'm sure will soon end up being a mistake..), he orders espresso for her, which parents don't let her have. [not the biggest deal - he didn't know. And Bay isn't eleven, she's sixteen. While I agree with the Kennishes on this, I'm not too bothered by the fact that Angelo saw no problem with serving her espresso. at least it's not wine!] When Bay gets home, she tells Daphne to give Angelo a chance. Daphne doesn't want to, but after talking to Toby (they had been practicing signals for her new basketball team's plays), she realizes that her relationship with him is really causing a lot of her problems. Daphne looks at an old photo album and sees that Regina removed all of the ones with Angelo in them. [while this makes sense, I'm surprised that Daphne never flipped thru the album before now. Or maybe she just didn't notice pictures were missing?] Daphne asks to see them and Regina brings her a stack. Later, Daphne gets up the nerve to go see Angelo, and asks him if he left because she went deaf. She has to ask him a bunch of times, and he finally says that he mainly left because he found out that Daphne wasn't his biological daughter, though her deafness was a small part of that. Daphne tells Bay about the interaction, and it makes her realize that John is a good dad. [I'm not sure that I would have drawn that conclusion now, let alone when I was sixteen!]

Continuing on with what's up with Daphne, she wasn't played at her first basketball game, which upsets her and John. [I don't know that I consider that to be a big deal. In football there are games when certain players never get put in. Is that not the way basketball works? Plus, she's pretty new to the team, wouldn't there be a trial/break-in period or something?] Afterward, Simone tells Daphne that it will take a little time to win the coach over, but then Simone tells Toby that she overheard her dad say that Buckner qualifies for a grant to upgrade the locker room by having Daphne on the team - a student with a disability. [ooooh... dang.] It's not long before Toby spills this to Daphne, and she gets so upset that she throws out her playbook. [that must have been difficult for Toby to say, but I'm glad that he did.] Daphne confronts Simone for not telling her directly, and Simone basically apologizes, then says that Daphne will play eventually - she's good. [I love how Daphne confronts people. Such a straightforward way of doing things!] After a while, Daphne decides that she will continue to be on the Buckner team, and asks John to coach her so she will excel. [wow. Now THAT took some bravery!]

Enough of the kids, let's go back to the adults... Kathryn is working on the book, and John thinks that they should let the lawyer know that she's writing it. [I suppose that makes sense.] When she goes to see the lawyer, however, she sees her with a guy who is on the board of directors for the hospital! So, when the lawyer comes to the Kennish household, John reminds her that it's a conflict of interest to be involved with someone so close to a lawsuit. [yeah! why was Amanda so nonchalant about it all??] They decide that they need to go with a different lawyer, and Amanda's parting words to the couple were "make the hospital pay - they deserve to." [hmm. interesting.] When the files arrive from the attorney's office, John notices that the detective searching for Angelo had found a two-year gap 2009-2011 where there is not one drop of information available. [uh oh.] Stepping away from the lawyer issue and back to the book, however, when Regina finds out that Kathryn is writing a book, she protests. She doesn't see the point and fears that it will paint her in a negative light. [well, nobody's perfect, but there's no way to ignore some of Regina's flaws when you look at the story...] Kathryn responds that she's sick of sitting on the bench. [I imagine this will eventually cause yet another rift between the women.]

Oh, and there's even more going on with Angelo, speaking of him... Angelo tells Regina that he has enough money to lease a space for her salon, AND he's already scouted one and started sketching up some ideas. [whoa there, hoss...] Regina thinks it's a bad idea if they work together, but after her boss yells at her for potentially opening up a competing salon nearby and taking some of his customers, she becomes determined to do it. [really? you get yelled at for competing and whatnot, and that makes you want to do it even more? I think there's going to be an issue here...] Angelo ends up being a little wary of the idea because of his encounter with Daphne, but Regina wins him over and they even dance together. [I realize that Angelo is in this show pretty much to cause problems, but he's driving me crazy!]