Switched at Birth: Bay Starts at Carlton, Daphne Starts the Truck

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

I'm a big fan of how packed this show is with drama. It's the exact reason why many people dislike ABC Family shows, but I get addicted. I'm especially intrigued to find out how John's candidacy will affect things around the household. With Kathryn heavily invested in the campaign as well, I'm thinking the Kennish kids are going to be fending for themselves much more than they're used to! Maybe Daphne will teach them to cook? Also, I'm trying to think of other television shows where a parent held a government office... only Even Stevens is coming to mind - anyone remember another? Regardless, I'm actually a bit nervous for Daphne being in the food truck alone, regardless of location. I'm not a frequenter to those establishments, but it seems to be a little unsafe for an individual, especially a young female. Although after this plot, I imagine John won't be allowing Daphne to be alone much anyway. A final thought... I found it kinda odd that Kathryn and John mentioned that it took them four years to conceive Toby... maybe they're setting up something in the future, because it seemed a little overkill to mention it just for the sake of Angelo's conquests.

Switched at Birth "The Awakening Conscience" (S02E02): Bay asks Kathryn and John if she can join the pilot program at Carlton, which accepts students who have deaf people in their immediate families. [I suppose they don't require any sort of actual confirmation. or because everyone around knows how odd their family make-up is, they don't question it.] Kathryn is more open to the idea than John, but eventually they decide to give it a try. [I loved how Daphne and Bay were signing to one another as they walked away.] Bay doesn't like her ID picture so Emmett hooks her up with a second shot at the photo. [lmao. when I was in ninth grade, replacement IDs were $5 AND got you a hall pass during lunch period. so, if you needed to meet someone or work on something or needed a little extra time away from everyone, all it took was $5 and a lie about the whereabouts of your ID. by the time I was a junior, however, it became a before-school thing only, so money couldn't buy you time anymore.] She and another hearing person struggle in class, especially because there's a culture clash going on with the deaf students feeling that it's unfair that they need to accommodate hearing people in school, their one refuge away from that world.

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Bay begins to think that her ASL is terrible, plus she has to visit the Principal when she bumps another girl with a volleyball in gym. [At least her car is looking better now that she's spray-painted a "new look" for her new school!] At home, John announces his candidacy for state Senate, and there's a lot of excitement.
 
Regina tells Angelo about a state-of-the-art pool that has plants to filter the water instead of chemicals, but he has to break the news about his one-night-stand baby. [interesting aquatic system, though!] Regina then tells Kathryn (who tells John), unaware that Bay and Toby already know. [why haven't we seen Daphne really react??] Regina ends up meeting the woman in an elevator and learns that she's a medical student. [I'm not sure why that changed her thought process...]

Nikki tells Toby that, though she's cool with making out, she doesn't want to have sex again until she knows whom she'll marry. [oh that's right. She had a bad girl phase.] Nikki even suggests that Kathryn sing on a track when they go to the recording studio. [how awkward!] At another rehearsal, Emmett tells Toby that someone posted a photo online of Nikki topless at a party, again exposing her questionable past. Toby confronts Nikki, and she talks about how it was right after her dad died and she was drunk. [I liked Kathryn's comparison to Toby's mistakes, though they haven't been captured on film. At the same time, though, I wonder why she wasn't a little more taken aback by Nikki's past actions.]

Daphne wants to make a maiden voyage with her food truck at 11pm after a concert, but John asks her to try selling at the car wash first. He also has thoughts about the prices she should charge, which eliminates minimum-wage employees from being able to dine there. [interesting.]  Later, Daphne wants to do a "pay-what-you-can" event in her old neighborhood after she learns how much people are struggling over there. John accompanies her, but she's soon bullied by a kid who tells her to get out of the neighborhood because she's stopping the local entrepreneurs from getting any business. She doesn't stop, however, until the punk cuts the power lines to her truck. The situation gets Daphne wondering about how nice it is to be born to parents who can support whatever you want to do. [I could go on forever here, but I'll agree that there is still a large divide in many industries, where it's assumed you'll take an unpaid internship to get your foot in the door.]