On the newest episode of ABC Family's Switched at Birth, Bay sees that Toby is overwhelmed by the demands of work and planning a wedding on a budget and looks to lighten the mood by booking his band to perform at Maui, Kansas; Angelo is frustrated by Regina and Bay's messiness; Adrianna's frequent visits has Kathryn on edge; and Jace introduces Daphne to geocaching.
Last week's episode of Switched at Birth ended with such a powerfully visceral moment. Daphne and Kathryn walking in on Bay, Regina and Angelo dancing and being happy together as an actual family for the first time in the entire series. The happiness exhibited in that moment hits Daphne and Kathryn hard but it is also unsustainable for that new family unit full time. Angelo is bugged by the two's messiness and is harshly upset when Bay storms off and turns her nose up to the dinner that he promised earlier. To him, this isn't what living together is suppose to be like. He wanted things to be like the dancing together but as Regina smartly notes that this is real life. Bay will get upset at stuff and not want to interact with Angelo. No matter how good his cooking or dancing is.Similarly, Daphne is upset because Regina thinks that it is easier to be with Bay and Angelo right now than with her. This is a preposterous notion to her because she has been with Regina for her entire life. But in actuality, that is exactly why Regina can't be with her right now. The two have a history and she doesn't want to damage it anymore until she is more stable. Right now, that's finding a job. The loss of which was one of the catalysts for her drinking in the first place. So, Daphne in true form goes back to Regina's last job and talks to the lady about getting her her job back. This would fix everything and get Regina back to where she thinks she belongs. This is not a full solution and even though Regina went back and got the job again, it will be interesting to see what happens in the dynamic. Things won't go back to what they were and on some level Daphne understands this.
Daphne tries externalizing this with Jace but that whole plot was completely baffling. He is just a terrible love interest for her and doesn't really add another new to her. The geocaching stuff was extremely difficult to sit through. Daphne sure hasn't had a good love interest since Wilke. Or at least one that we could actually invest in long term. But despite all of this terrible plotting for most of the hour, it all ended on a great note with that Bay and Daphne sit down where they finally got over the riff between the two. That scene was fantastic I just wish there was more of it in the hour preceding it.
Kathryn and Adrianna is a dynamic that the series has never really touched on until now. It was a fun and nice little subplot that worked well with its brevity. It is also did a really respectable job of understating the theme that ran throughout the episode: Wanting to give people space and how that makes things better or worse.
The second half of the second season has been shaping as the most fertile narrative for Toby and his stories. This episode especially so as many of the separate plots are commenting on or being influenced by his wedding to Nikki. This relationship has always been a breath of fresh air because of its stability. While Bay and Daphne continually change love interests, it's great that the show is offering a longer term prospect. High school/heading to college kids becoming engaged has always been a pet peeve of mine simply because it seems like they only happen on television and they always never make sense or the characters aren't doing it for the right reasons. But the plot here typically was refreshing because it wasn't taken too seriously or handled ridiculously. Here it is given a significant more amount of weight and caused some certain characters to act in ways that felt completely contrived and unlike them. Plus the religion issue popped up yet again and was dealt with in the exact same way as it was before. Like Toby said - I thought we were past this. I guess not.
So what did everyone think of the episode? Was the Toby-Nikki religion issue too repetitive? Is Jace just an infuriating character? Did the last scene save this episode from complete disaster? Share your thoughts in the comments.
