bemmett – Zakiya N. Jamal

Switched at Birth Recap: “There Is My Heart”

Posted on March 11, 2015March 11, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in TV

Honestly this finale was not as shocking as ABC Family advertised and for that I was a little disappointed.

Let’s begin with the end of Bemmett, supposedly forever. After deciding to take a chance Bay hopped on a plane to L.A. and gave Emmett the surprise of his life. Especially since he’s in the middle of shooting his film about him and Bay’s relationship, the ending of which shows fake Emmett and Bay breaking up because fake Bay ~~slept with~~ was sexually assaulted by fake Tank.

Bay, after discovering Emmett’s script, confronts Emmett asking him if he’s still upset about what happened between her and Tank. Emmett says that he is and that maybe they should break-up. Bay says she’s willing to move to L.A. to be with him now and try to make this work but Emmett isn’t having it. He doesn’t want to feel pressured to be there for Bay all the time. He says she doesn’t have a job and isn’t going to school. That he would have to be there for her all that time and he needs to focus on school.

Usually I’m all for the focus on school argument but this is just crap. Emmett isn’t even willing to try. He claims he loves Bay but as soon as things get difficult he bows out? Seriously. Bay doesn’t plan on sitting in his room waiting for him to come back from school each day. She’d already started looking for apartments in L.A. Plus she had a plan before, I’m sure she could make another one. Emmett didn’t even give her a chance.

Then Bay gave Emmett the ultimate ultimatum. If they broke up this time it would be “for good”. No go backs. Damn. Even with that statement Emmett still ends it. I just can’t.

Bay then heads home and packs up all her Emmett stuff to get rid of it. I don’t believe this is the end of Bemmett but I just don’t know where they can go from here. It’s not fair.

The other Switched sister is doing pretty well in the romance department, however. After getting a D in chemistry Daphne believes her dreams of being a doctor is officially over. She’s just about ready to give up until Natalie and Travis get hit by a drunk driver. When Daphne gets to the hospital Natalie tells her she doesn’t know what’s happening. After confronting a nurse, the nurse admits they don’t have an interpreter there and don’t have the necessary materials to talk to Natalie. Daphne steps in as the interpreter and helps Natalie get the help she needs.

Afterwards, Daphne talks to Mingo who accompanied Daphne to the hospital and he tells her not to give up. To retake chemistry until she gets the A she needs for med school. Daphne agrees and they kiss. Yay!

I ship it! Hopefully this boyfriend sticks. She needs to have a solid relationship for once.

Speaking of relationships, Regina told Eric she loved him … and he didn’t say it back. At least not at first. Ouch. Claiming Will has to come first right now he also tells Regina they should sell the coffee house. Talk about a double whammy.

Thankfully, Regina’s the best thing to ever happen to Eric and when he sees her talking to Will he finally realizes it. He then tells her that he’s “stupidly in love” with her too and it was the most adorable ending. That is until Will admits to Regina that his mom isn’t actually dead. What the heck does that mean? Where is she? Why would Eric lie and make his son lie? Eric, what are you hiding???? This was the only shocking thing to happen in this finale and the closest thing we got to a cliff hanger. Who knows what will happen next?

Lastly, Toby and Kathryn showcased their musical to a producer. Well, at least they thought they are. Unfortunately it turned out the producer thought the idea for the musical sounded flimsy and didn’t even come. Thankfully, John is there to give them a confidence boost and tells them not to give up. Hopefully Toby takes this advice when it comes to Lily as well. Although I don’t really think she deserves him after treating him this way I really want Toby to be happy. Hopefully she can realize how good she has it with Toby and not give him up. We shall see.

Because it was the finale there’s no preview for next week. Let us hope we can all survive until the return of SAB.

Switched at Birth Recap: “Players Choice”

Posted on March 7, 2015March 6, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in TV

The Switched at Birth writers are breaking fans hearts left and right. For why???

Let’s begin with Travis and Mary Beth. I wanted them to stay together forever and of course there’s the possibility they might get back together but I’d say the odds are slim. Mary Beth, although I used to love her, began to annoy me this episode and I understood why she broke up with Travis. I wasn’t liking the person she was becoming either. She just got so jealous and needy. I think it’s good they went their separate ways.

One good thing that came from their break-up, however, was Bay realizing she needs to start trying to fix her own relationship with Emmett. After trying to mend Travis and Mary Beth’s relationship the whole episode she was devastated when it didn’t work out and even tried to convince Mary Beth to give Travis another chance. Finally Mary Beth told her there was no fixing it but that didn’t mean Bemmett couldn’t still happen.

Meanwhile in L.A. Emmett enlisted Skye’s help to pitch his movie idea to a professor so he could be one of the lucky few to do a student directed film for a showcase. Although the professor dismisses Emmett’s first idea, Emmett then uses the story of his relationship with Bay to pitch a different idea. That one the professor likes and Emmett’s in and he’ll be working with Skye to make the film. Of course.

If you would like Skye to disappear please raise your hand.

Thankfully, Bay will be in L.A. next week and hopefully this will be the end of Skye for good. Let us pray.

Toby is also having his own relationship issues, although he didn’t know it at first. At the start of the episode Toby reveals to Katherine that he’s going to ask Lily to move in with him. Unfortunately, when Katherine goes to UKC to flyer about her musical she runs into Lily with her male co-worker. Instead of referring to Katherine as her boyfriend’s mom she calls Katherine “Daphne’s Mom”.

Ouch. Katherine calls Lily out on it later and Lily admits there’s something going on. Later when Toby takes her out to dinner and proposes they move in together Lily admits that she has feelings for someone else and even though she still has feelings for Toby she’s not sure what to do. Way to break Toby’s heart, Lily. Hasn’t Toby been through enough?

Lastly, Daphne and her roomie, Iris, decide to try the whole pledging them. They both fall in love with different sororities and each do a “suicide pledge” meaning they only signed up for one sorority each with no back ups. I’m glad they didn’t apply to colleges with that system.

Iris got into her sorority and was devastated when Daphne didn’t get a bid. Iris is so sweet. Honestly, I’m glad Daphne didn’t get a bid. She needs to chill right now and I don’t think joining a sorority would’ve been the way to do so. Especially since she accused a girl who she saw leaving Mingo’s room of blackballing her, which wasn’t the case at all. Silly Daphne. You still have so much to learn.

Next week should be interesting as Bay heads to L.A. There’s sure to be a lot of Bemmett drama next week and I can’t wait. Unfortunately it is the spring finale but that only guarantees it’ll be really good. Check out the preview below!

Switched at Birth Recap: “Black and Gray”

Posted on February 17, 2015February 17, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in TV

Emotions were running high on this week’s episode of Switched at Birth. After Toby told Lily about what happened to Bay she had to report it to Melody who then reported it to the university. Now that it’s in the university’s hands every one who was at the party is called into questioning about the events of the night and it quickly becomes clear to everyone who’s involved in the incident.

Bay quickly realizes she can’t keep this under wraps anymore and she’s going to have to face what happened. After Daphne goes to Regina for advice about a “friend” who went through the same situation as Bay’s “friend” Regina realizes that they were both probably talking about Bay. Regina then goes to Kathryn for help and they both confront Bay to try and get answers and help her. Bay, however, doesn’t want to talk about it. Feeling guilty for putting Tank through this when she’s not really sure what happened makes her feel like maybe she made a mistake. However, she can’t help but like she was violated that night.

After Kathryn confesses to Bay that she was sexually assaulted as a teen and never told anyone, she tells Bay that only Bay knows how she feels. Bay then decides that she does want to talk to the Title IX coordinator at UKC who’s handling the case. Bay attempts to explain to the coordinator that she’s not really sure what happened that night and she doesn’t think Tank meant to hurt her. However, she did wake up feeling like something was wrong but she thinks Tank just made a mistake and that there’s a lot of factors to take in. Despite her best efforts Tank was still expelled from UKC making Bay feel even worse.

Meanwhile, because everyone found out Bay was the person who was sexually assaulted, she knew she had to tell Emmett what happened. However, when she tried to explain to him what happened Emmett didn’t want to hear it, only thinking that she cheated on him with Tank and not wanting to hear the whole story.

To help Bay, Daphne flies to L.A. to talk to Emmett and try to convince him to hear Bay out before passing judgement. Honestly, I understand why Emmett was mad but seeing as how he cheated twice (let us not forget that kiss with Daphne) I think he owes it to Bay to at least listen. Moving on, Daphne tells Emmett that Bay was raped (strong choice of words but we can deal with that later) and suddenly Emmett is listening. Good thing too since it seems he was on his way to hooking up with his new “friend”. That definitely would’ve made the situation 10 times worse.

When Daphne returns home Bay asks her how it went and in response Emmett walks in. Yay! Hopefully these too can work it out. If they break up again I don’t think my shipper heart can handle it.

Other Highlights:

John went to Toby’s apartment to confront Tank but found himself conflicted when Tank made on a good case for why he would never try to hurt Bay.
Bay began to doubt herself after reading so many comments online about herself, leading Regina to fight with Melody. Eventually Regina realizes it’s not Melody she’s really upset with and they quickly make up. Regina then decides to bring another sexual assault survivor/activist to talk to Bay, which does not end well. Both Bay and Kathryn were upset and Regina apologized for overstepping.
Travis feels guilty for not protecting Bay and gets into a fight with Mary Beth because although she’s sorry about what happened to Bay she believes Bay should’ve been more careful and responsible with her drinking.

My Thoughts:

A lot of things happened in this episode that I’m not sure I agree with. First, Daphne telling Emmett that Bay was raped was a lot. Yes I understand Bay was drunk and blacked out and obviously that’s a huge problem but no one really knows what happened that night. Not even Bay. Tank definitely made a mistake. He shouldn’t have slept with her when she was that drunk but I’m not sure I would jump to use “rape” when it’s such a sticky situation.

Additionally, Travis and Mary Beth’s fight bring up some real questions. I love Mary Beth and I kind of get what she’s saying but it also felt like victim shaming. Of course Bay drank too much but Bay was going through a tough time and she probably didn’t even realize how much she was drinking. Is it her fault that Tank chose to have sex with her when she was so wasted she couldn’t even remember it? Although I know Mary Beth didn’t mean it this way all I could think while she was speaking is this is why rapists don’t get charged and victims don’t want to come forward. Because people say they shouldn’t have been wearing that dress or drinking that much or be out so late. I had to take Travis’ side in this argument. Bay shouldn’t be blamed for what happened to her. Period.

Tonight’s episode looks like it’ll be intense. With everyone trapped inside by a storm, drama is sure to ensue. Hopefully Bay and Emmett come out on the other side, together. Check out the preview below.

Switched at Birth: “At First Clear Word”

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in TV

1974983_846015278775684_6117383763033823286_n — via Facebook

*This episode contained discussion about sexual consent. Reader discretion advised.*

The Switched at Birth writers hit me squarely in the feels with this episode. This was such a tricky topic and I think the writers handled it very well.

After having a huge fight with Emmett, Bay went to the party at Daphne’s school and got black out drunk. The next thing she remembers is waking up in bed, naked with Tank. So what happened? At first Bay’s biggest concern was that she cheated on Emmett but after talking to Regina about it (strictly in hypotheticals of course) Regina suggests that the girl (Bay) was raped.

This leads Bay to question if she was and if she really gave Tank consent. Well there’s two sides to every story. According to Tank, Bay was making the moves and she kissed him first. Bay, from what she barely remembers, claims it went differently. She says he kissed her first.

Either way neither of them really remember exactly what happened and therein lies the problem. If Bay can’t remember what happened that night how does she know if she gave consent or not? Of course Tank is a good guy. We’ve all seen that but when you’re drunk things can be misconstrued and get really confusing. Even if Bay was making the moves shouldn’t he have realized how drunk she was? To be so drunk that you don’t even remember what happened, you had to be falling all over the place.

Tank claimed that Bay might just be feeling this way because she feels guilty about cheating on Emmett but I don’t think that’s it at all. From my one black out experience I can say it’s pretty terrifying waking up and not knowing what happened to you, and I definitely don’t recommend it. Trying to piece together what really happened to her is probably Bay’s top priority right now, and she has every right to feel concerned.

Moving on, things only get worse when Toby comes home and hears everything from Bay and Tank’s fight. Toby is conflicted because Tank is his roommate but Bay is his sister and he has to stand by her side. Tank leaves when he realizes Toby doesn’t believe him. Toby then calls his girlfriend, Lily, who he had a fight with earlier over trivial things, honestly, and they patch things up. Toby then asks for her help with Bay.

Meanwhile, Bay returns home where she finds Daphne, who had her own interesting night (we’ll get to that later). Bay tries to pretend she’s fine but Daphne can tell something’s wrong. Bay then tells her everything and tells Daphne she just wants to forget anything ever happened. Sadly for Bay, it looks like that’s not going to happen. Seems like the whole family will find out in the next episode. And so will Emmett. Oh dear.

Daphne’s situation wasn’t nearly as crazy as Bay’s but she had some of her own issues to deal with. Vimla, the girl in Daphne’s chemistry group that’s also dating Josh, butts heads with Daphne on their group project. Their professor then invites them over to her house for a party.

Not sure what to expect they go, although supposedly it’s not mandatory. Daphne and Vilma are joined by three other girls in their class and the professor instructs them to make ice cream. They decide to go at it alone and end up competing with each other and making a mess of everything. The professor comes in right when Daphne and Vilma come to blows and gives the girls a much needed lesson.

There are so few women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) so they have to work with each other and be willing to lift each other up instead of tearing each other down. The professor reminds them that she never said they had to make the ice cream individually but they just decided to go about it that way. She suggested from now on they learn to work each other so hopefully in the future there won’t be such a huge gap between men and women in STEM. You go professor!

Vilma and Daphne seem to patch things up and even agree to a “custody arrangement” when it comes to Josh. Let’s see how long that lasts.

Other Highlights:

Regina tried to deny her feelings for Eric but that was very short lived. They end up hooking up again. Is #Reric a thing yet? Or is it #Ergina? Either way I ship it.
Toby and Lily got into a fight over Toby’s spending/job. Lily decides to help him pay his rent but got mad when she found out he was spending money on DJ equipment that he could be using on rent. Luckily they reconcile and team up to help Bay.

Overall, this episode was well done and I’m excited/nervous to see what will happen next. Check out the preview below.

Switched at Birth Recap: “We Were So Close That Nothing Stood Between Us”

Posted on January 28, 2015January 28, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in TV

I truly believe the Switched at Birth writers hate Bay. Honestly. They just keep giving her these sucky situations and she’s never allowed to just be happy. It’s so frustrating and it makes me not want to watch the show anymore.

This episode started with a high and then ended with a very low low. At the start of the episode Bay is excited about finally being off house arrest and is video chatting with Emmett to tell him so. But then Emmett surprises her with a visit and although it’s only for a couple days they promise to make it the best.

That’s short lived when Emmett starts talking about his great life in L.A. and his new found friendship with Skye. Bay begins to feel jealous and a little left behind since her life hasn’t changed at all. In an attempt to get on Emmett’s level, she takes him to see this fancy movie that she researched before. When Emmett calls her out on it she explains how she’s feeling and Emmett explains that he’s happy now. He shows some pictures of him in L.A. and up pops the one Skye took just before she kissed him. Oops.

Of course, Bay then asks if Skye likes Emmett. He tries to deny it but then admits that Skye did kiss him but he pulled away. Bay gets upset but then tries to play it cool like it’s not a big deal.

The next day they go to have a picnic in the park and everything hits the fan. Bay and Emmett end up having a huge fight. Bay is upset that Emmett didn’t tell her about the struggles he was going through. Emmett get’s mad that Bay is bothered by his friendship with Skye. He says she’s not allowed to be upset since it’s her fault that she’s not there with him. Seriously, Emmett? Really?

Bay tries to explain that she’s not even really mad about Skye, that it’s something else. Emmett says she’s just mad because he’s moved on and she hasn’t. Bay says that she’s still coming to L.A. as soon as her community service is done but Emmett doesn’t believe her. He says she changed the plan before, what’s to stop her from doing it again. Emmett then leaves, even though his flight doesn’t leave for another two hours.

Feeling upset and a little angry Bay decides to go to the party in Daphne’s dorm where she bumps into Tank. We don’t see these two again until the end of the episode where Bay wakes up naked, in bed with Tank, not remembering how she got there. Uh oh.

Meanwhile, Daphne is struggling with her chemistry class. Thinking she aced her midterm she actually ended up with a D due to a stupid mistake. Thinking about dropping the class, Regina visits Daphne’s professor and plays the “deaf card”. The professor isn’t having it and when Regina tells Daphne what she did Daphne is furious and they also have a huge fight.

Afterwards, Daphne visits her professor, prepared to drop the class when the professor stops her and explains why she did so bad. She lost 30 points on one section because of confusing too different chemistry terms that I don’t understand. The point is, the professor decided to give Daphne an extra credit assignment to help bring up her grade.

Excited, Daphne tells Josh (her interpreter, in case you forgot his name like I did) that she’s staying in the class. Josh tells her what we all already know, which is Regina is a boss mom and Daphne should be grateful. Realizing this, although she should’ve known already, Daphne apologizes to Regina and they make up and it’s happy ever after.

Until Daphne goes to the party and sees Josh who ends up leaving the party with another girl. Ouch. Sorry Daphne but you can’t get all the boys. Although let’s be honest, they’ll probably hook up before the end of this season.

Other highlights:

Toby got a little too comfortable and started saying no to jobs even though he’s broke, which led his parents to cut him off. Toby, although angry at first, quickly realized he needed to get his life together and decides to work with Kathryn on her musical.
John and Melody get into a showdown over Travis. John wants Travis to play baseball but Melody wants Travis to focus on school. Travis, being 19, gets to make his own choices and chooses baseball, which I personally think is a great idea.

Stay tuned for next week when things are going to get really serious and probably heart breaking. Did Tank rape Bay? Or is it just a misunderstanding? What will happen with Bemmett? Check out the preview for next week’s episode below and comment what you think will happen next.

Switched at Birth Recap: “I Lock The Door Upon Myself”

Posted on January 24, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in TV

The Kennish-Vasquez children reunited in this episode, mending fences and giving apologies.

First, Toby apologized to Daphne for snapping at her in the first episode of this season (although personally I still think it was warranted). Although Daphne is happy for this reconciliation she’s now dealing with Bay’s hostility. Bay is finally realizing what it really means to be a convicted felon and she’s mad at Daphne for letting her take the fall but knows she can’t really be mad because it was her decision. Even so, Bay doesn’t want to spend any more time with Daphne than necessary.

Bay’s feelings are only worsened when she becomes a finalist for an art contest and realizes one of the questions on the application was, “Are you a convicted felon?” Getting upset, Toby, who’s on Bay duty that weekend, decides to help her cover up her ankle bracelet so the judge won’t know that Bay’s on house arrest when she comes to check out Bay’s art work. Of course, this plan doesn’t work out. Just when the judge is telling Bay she’ll definitely be in the showcase, the battery starts to die making it beep, giving her away.

The judge then leaves and Bay is devastated. Bay’s day only get’s worse when she doesn’t get to the charger fast enough and the battery actually dies. Luckily for Bay, her corrections officer let’s her off the hook and just gives her a new charger. Also, the officer tells Bay her ankle bracelet should be back on in a few hours which means she has a few hours to kill before she has to go back home.

Meanwhile, Daphne and her fellow deaf students are getting pranked by hearing kids in the worst way. Their bathroom was flooded and now they all have to share one bathroom. When Daphne confronts Mingo, the guy who’s responsible, she ends up agreeing to a dorm triathlon to get access to their bathroom rather than having to go to another building.

With the stakes set they enter into competition and Mingo cheats the first round by bringing in his friends from the lacrosse team to help them win tug of war. Daphne confronts Mingo but he says there weren’t any rules against it. Following Mingo’s theory Daphne calls John to help them win the next contest. While playing John realizes Travis has a great throwing arm and decides to help coach him.

For the last leg in the triathlon, Daphne’s roommate, Iris, helps out my giving advice from her own experience in mud racing. Iris had been feeling left out because she’s the only hearing kid in her dorm and although she’s good at signing she was having trouble keeping up. Daphne promises to be a better roommate and with Iris’ help they’re able to beat Mingo (who will probably become Daphne’s next love interest, of course).

By the end of the competition Bay and Toby show up. Bay at first wanted to apologize to Daphne for the way she treated her but after seeing Daphne having so much fun Bay changes her mind. Taking a chance Daphne throws mud at Bay leading to a mud fight between the three siblings. Nothing says reconciliation like a mud war.

In L.A. Emmett made a new friend, Skye, who tries to help out by bringing him to set with her while filming. Things don’t go as planned when Emmett is shafted to work at the food cart and opens a bag of chips right when they start rolling. After such a sucky day Skye takes Emmett to the set of Psycho and apologizes for letting him be treated that way. They both agree to stand up for themselves in the future and Skye kisses Emmett but he thankfully pulls away. He tells her he has a girlfriend and apparently she has a boyfriend as well. Someone should let Skye know that she probably shouldn’t be going around kissing people then.

Regina was missing Angelo hard in this episode and I just wanted to give her a hug. She ended up hooking up with Eric (Coffee Shop Guy) but it just ended up making her miss Angelo more. Poor Regina.

Next week’s episode looks way more drama filled and I’m praying nothing bad happens to Bay but I know it will because obviously the writers hate her. Check out the preview below.

Switched at Birth Recap: “Bracing The Waves”

Posted on January 16, 2015January 16, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in TV

This episode broke my Bemmett heart. Again. Throughout the episode Bay and Emmett attempted to video chat but things kept getting in Bay’s way. First, it was every one having their cell phones taken away during lunch because of Bay’s unfortunate sandwich/heroin incident. Then after a fight with Tess, Tess stomps on Bay’s phone, destroying it. Did I mention I don’t really like Tess, because I don’t.

Even so, Bay and Emmett’s texts were cute and I like that Bay feels it’s her job to make sure Emmett stays in L.A. and pursues his dream even though it hurts her. It still makes me mad that Bay is going through this while Daphne’s biggest ordeal is how she’s going to pass her Chemistry class.

Speaking of which, Daphne struggled at the start of her Chemistry class when she was running late and showed up to class in sweats which was a no no to her professor. She also got reprimanded by one of her classmates for signing with Josh too much and Josh kept picking and choosing what he would sign for Daphne, making her furious.

Daphne then landed herself in a study group with the same girl that was “distracted” by her signing. After going to one study session with the group, the other members in the group get frustrated because they have to keep slowing down so Josh can interpret for Daphne. Daphne and Josh then catches the group meeting without her. Josh then gets angry, defending Daphne and telling the group they can suck it. This only makes Daphne more angry because she doesn’t need Josh to fight her battles. She then inadvertently fires him which is crazy since she needs him if she wants to pass her chemistry class.

After working with her roommate to try and learn how to better read lips so she can understand the chemistry terms, Daphne quickly realizes she needs Josh. Lucky for her Josh shows up to her next class anyway and with advance notes, no less. Later, when Josh and Daphne are studying outside the same girl that didn’t want to study with Daphne now asks Daphne to rejoin their study group because she has advance notes. Although Daphne knows that’s the only reason they’re letting her in she realizes she needs them more than they need her and takes them up on their offer, making them promise to slow down for her. Therefore, once again, everything works out perfectly for Daphne.

Moving on, the parents are dealing with their on stuff. Kathryn is trying to have her book be made into a movie but it becomes clear that the producer is really just fishing for money when he askes John if he could chip in for the budget. Disappointed Kathryn worries her book will never become a movie but after talking to Renzo she’s convinced making the book into a musical would be a better idea.

Meanwhile Regina returns to East Riverside to drop off Bay for her community service. While there she knocks off one of the lights on someone’s motorcycle who turns out to be building a new coffee shop in East Riverside. Regina and Eric (aka Coffee Shop Guy) hit it off until one of Regina’s former friends, now enemy, sees Regina and gives her hell. Not wanting to enter East River Side on the wrong foot Eric decides to cut ties with Regina.

Regina, always a fighter, refuses to be deterred and convinces Eric to let her help him fix up his coffee shop so he can open it for business and get a lot of customers. She hopes by helping him she can also show East Riverside she’s on their side. Let’s see how that turns out.

There was no Toby in this episode and barely any Emmett. Hopefully we’ll get to see more of the boys soon. Check out the promo for next week’s episode below and try not to freak out over the potential Emmett-cheating-again thing. It’s totally not going to happen. I think.

Switched at Birth Recap: “And It Cannot Be Changed”

Posted on January 7, 2015January 7, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in TV

1604390_831946286849250_1320324379564941867_n — (Via Facebook)

This episode infuriated me to no end. Just all of it, every second. I hated it.

The episode begins right after Bay stupidly takes the blame for Daphne and Bay goes to Emmett’s house to try explain but he’s not really having it, and rightfully so. They had plans, how could she do this? Meanwhile, Daphne’s at the Kennish’s house telling all the parents about what happened and John is over the moon with the idea.

The thing that makes me so mad about this is although Regina and Kathryn are kind of against it at first they are easily persuaded into believing this is a good thing. Daphne is not punished for her actions. She doesn’t get reprimanded for allowing Bay to take the fall for her. This is a huge deal and no one really seems concerned.

The episode then jumps forward 10 weeks when everyone is getting ready to start college (except Bay but she was never going to college anyway). At first everyone seems to have accepted Bay’s decision and is cool with it. She’s put on house arrest and has to serve community service.

However, both Toby and Emmett are mad at Daphne for letting Bay take the fall for her. Toby is more vocal about his anger but Emmett keeps it in until later.

Melody has opened up her upper education deaf program and both Natalie and Travis will be attending. Meanwhile Daphne and Emmett are preparing to leave for college. Daphne starts wondering if she should really go to Gallaudet, especially after Toby calls her out for just living her life while Bay has to suffer for her mistakes. Emmett also struggles with the idea of leaving for L.A. without Bay by his side.

Bay is able to convince Emmett to go to L.A. and she’ll be with him for Christmas as soon as her probation is over. However, that plan is dashed when after accidentally passing a inmate some hidden heroin she’s slapped with another 100 days of probation. Ouch!

This great injustice leads Emmett to confront Daphne and tell her what we were all thinking: she messed up. Emmett then tells her she can never forgive her for what she did and letting Bay take the fall. The heroin situation also forces Bay to realize how serious what she did was. She realizes she will always be seen as a criminal now even though she wasn’t the one who committed the crime.

While Bay’s dealing with the consequences of her actions, Daphne, after deciding not to go to Gallaudet, has to find a interpreter who’s also fluent in chemistry for her to take the chemistry class she needs for pre-med at UKC. Of course what should be an impossible task becomes easy for her when she learns her new roommate has a cousin who has two deaf parents and used to be pre-med.

The show has to pretend they’re actually giving Daphne a challenge though, so at first he’s completely against the idea, telling her he hates the pre-med program and the professor. However, Daphne is able to persuade him after giving him a heart felt speech about her struggles in the past year and how he should want a deaf person to become a doctor to help people like his parents. He then agrees and all is right in Daphne’s world, as usual.

Back to Bay; after a heartfelt speech from Melody, Emmett found the courage to go to L.A. without Bay, which sucks for Bay and the Bemmett ship but is good for Emmett. After having to say goodbye to her boyfriend with no guarantee on when she can reunite with him Bay is fairly in a terrible mood. When Daphne pays her visit, Bay is thoroughly pissed off and doesn’t want to talk to her and asks her to leave. You go, Bay!

Overall, as far as the script and the acting goes the show was fairly well done. I just hate seeing Bay suffer for this when she didn’t do anything while Daphne continues to get everything handed to her. She was grounded and all the parents seemed to just accept that what Bay did made sense. I understand they both could of got in trouble if they confessed that Bay lied but she still wouldn’t be in as much trouble as she is now. Also, as Toby pointed out Bay could’ve got serious time for Daphne’s crimes and it’s lucky she didn’t.

I just wish for once Daphne would get punished for all the things she does. Even when she got probation for the Chip Coto thing, it wasn’t as bad as what Bay is going through now. I just hate that the Switched at Birth writers just won’t let Bay be happy. Honestly, if this doesn’t get better soon I’m not sure I want to keep watching.

Switched at Birth Recap: “Yuletide Fortune Tellers”

Posted on December 9, 2014 by Zakiya N. Jamal in TV

After a long hiatus we finally got to see our favorite Switched at Birth characters (well most of them) reunite in a Christmas special and it was great.

The show begins with the Kennish’s and Vasquez’s getting ready to celebrate Christmas together for the first time. Regina attempts to get out of it and convince Daphne to continue their annual tradition of ordering Chines food and going to the movies but Daphne’s not having it. Similarly, Kathryn is overjoyed about the holidays and is going all out driving Bay crazy.

The two families then go to their favorite pizza spot, Sal’s, that just reopened and Regina and Kathryn end up in a fight over the plans for Christmas day. Regina storms off in a huff and Daphne and Bay are left asking themselves what could life had been like if they were never switched at birth.

In classic fashion, they get to find out after splitting a garlic knot that takes them to an alternate universe. There Bay wakes up and realizes she’s deaf, living in Daphne’s childhood home with Regina and Angelo Jr. Meanwhile Daphne is living with the Kennish’s where Toby is now a goth musician, John is a stay at home dad and Daphne’s soccer coach, and Kathryn runs her own make-up line.

At first everything seems fine and dandy until, of course, it isn’t. Regina is still an alcoholic and John and Kathryn are on the brink of a divorce. Most importantly, there’s no Bemmett! Emmett only sees Bay (AU Daphne) as a friend.

Of course Daphne and Bay then become determined to mend the situation and return to Sal’s to get the magical garlic knot. Unfortunately for them Sal’s is closed but Sal is able to give them a recipe for the knots. He warns them that won’t solve their problem but of course the girls don’t listen.

In an elaborate scheme Daphne and Bay are able to get their two families together at the Kennish house and make the garlic knots. Of course, as Sal warned, splitting the garlic knot doesn’t fix the problem. However, at the big family reunion both Bay and Daphne realize how important their mother’s Christmas traditions are to them. We also got a nice Bemmett kiss there so that was plus.

After the girls become resigned to their new alternate universe they both decide to visit their “adoptive” mothers. Bay reaches out to Kathryn and brings her the same peanuts that her mother asked her to shell in the real world. Daphne visits Regina and tells her she can overcome her alcoholism and they decide to order Chinese food and watch movies.

The show then ends with the girls waking up and everything goes back to normal. Both girls then appreciate their mothers even more and the Kennish’s and Vasquez’s end by joining in for a Christmas carol.

Overall, the episode was great but there’s one thing I didn’t get. If Daphne was deaf in the AU why did she already know how to sign? Similarly, even Bay did get speech theory there’s no way she would’ve been able to speak that well just like Daphne isn’t able to. Okay, maybe she would be able to. I don’t really know for sure but that seems like a stretch.

More important than the episode itself, however, was the preview for the winter premiere which sadly won’t air until Jan. 6.

Even so, I’m super excited and can’t wait. I just hope they don’t break up Bemmett (again!). I’ll be furious. Check out the preview below and let me know what you think will happen next.

Switched at Birth Recap: “And Life Begins Right Away”

Posted on August 20, 2014 by Zakiya N. Jamal in TV

Usually I try to go in order of what happens in the episode but I just can’t today because nope, nope, nope, absolutely not. Bay is NOT going to jail for Daphne. What in the world is this BS? I’m sorry but no.

First of all I get the whole they’re really sisters now and Bay loves Daphne enough to be this selfless and that’s beautiful and blah blah blah. Whatever. That’s complete BS. First, Bay could totally still get jail time. Honestly it may not be as bad as Daphne but still. More than that it’s a felony. She’s going to have a permanent record for something Daphne did. Also, yes Bay wants to be an artist now but what if she wants to do something different later. This is on her permanent record. Just no.

I get that this was a great plot twist and honestly I applaud the SAB writers for creating such a great finale because it truly was wonderful but I’m so upset by this. Daphne really messed up this season and although I get that she was upset by everything with Angelo that shouldn’t be an excuse and she shouldn’t be able to just walk away with this. I’m really pissed that Daphne let Bay just take the blame for her and this made me dislike her even more. Own up to your own mistakes. If we’re going to try to play the “they’re real sisters now” card then Daphne should’ve of done a solid for her sister and not let her take the fall for something she didn’t do.

But I can talk about that all day so let’s just get to the recap.

The episode began with the return of Wes and him telling Regina he wouldn’t press charges against Daphne. Yay! Except when Daphne and Regina go to tell John and Kathryn the good news there’s an officer waiting to take Daphne in because someone else pressed charges and they found Daphne’s prints on the scene.

Oh, dear.

Once at the police station it’s revealed that there’s really no way Daphne can get away from this unscathed. Either they can fight it and she could get three years or she can take the plea deal and get 90 days. Either way she’ll be going to prison for reals and since she’s 18 it’ll go on her record. I guess Nacho wasn’t worth it after all was he Daphne? (Sorry I’m still pissed.)

After the Kennish’s and Vasquez’s have a family discussion Daphne decides she’s going to turn herself in and that she just wants to enjoy her last day at graduation and the family agrees.

MeanwhileBay is working on finding a reasonable plan to present to John and Kathryn so she can go to LA and be with Emmett. Though it takes her time to figure it out she makes a solid plan and with money from Angelo’s life insurance Bay is able to present her plan to John. After revealing to both John and Kathryn that Bay is at risk for developing an aneurysm they are especially not on board for Bay going to LA. However Bay points out that she’s 18 and she can legally do whatever she wants.

You go Bay!

Also, it’s revealed that Carlton will be closing after this year which sucks but that wasn’t a major plot point so we’ll move one.

At graduation Daphne freaks about her future and tells Bay she doesn’t think she’ll be able to give her speech. However, with encouraging words from Bay Daphne is able to find the courage to give her speech which left me in a ball of tears because it was so beautiful.

Afterwards there were a lot of beautiful moments at the graduation. First of which, Travis’ mom showed up all on her own. Apparently she’d been learning sign language via an app (that I now need to purchase) and it was really sweet to see her there meeting Melody and Mary Beth.

What got me the most was the scene between Daphne and Emmett (shout out to come-and-dance.tumblr.com for this awesome GIF set):

He then admitted that if Bay wasn’t going to LA with him he wouldn’t have gone to USC. Awww! He’s so in love with her it’s adorable.

Also, when Regina went to hug Bay Bay revealed she had a picture of Angelo pinned to her gown which also made me tear up a bit. This episode really hit me in the feels.

After Sharee says her goodbyes to Daphne and says she’ll see her at the graduation party Daphne decides to peace out and go to the police station straight from there. Bay decides to go with her telling her she won’t let her do this alone. From there we get the whole Bay lies and says she did it and Daphne lets her take the fall thing that I refuse to discuss anymore.

Other notable points of the episode was Nikki deciding she wants an annulment rather than a divorce and Toby and Cool English Teacher deciding to do nothing rather than something together. In other words they’re leaving friendship territory and walking into relationship territory.

Speaking of new relationships I’m now a fan of: Wes finally made a move! Thank God. Took him long enough. When telling Regina he wouldn’t press charges he kissed Regina and at first she was totally about it but then pulled away saying she wasn’t ready. However, later in the episode after Regina had blamed Wes for Daphne’s arrest, Regina goes back to his office to apologize where he then invites her to go to Hawaii with him. We don’t know if she’ll say yes or not but I’m really hoping she says yes. I really like them together and I think he would be good for her. We shall see.

Sadly, now we’re on Switched at Birth hiatus which is always a sucky time. Thankfully, the writers are blessing us with a Christmas special in December so it won’t be too long of a wait. Check out the preview below.

Obviously the show really likes these what if episodes. I don’t care; I’m in support.

Until then let me know your thoughts on the finale and the crazy ending. Honestly I just hope this doesn’t wreck my Bemmett ship. I don’t think it will but what is Emmett going to do now? He better still go to USC. But then they won’t be together. Then again Bay might be in jail so there’s that. I can’t even think about.

Will Bay go to prison? Will Regina go to Hawaii? Does this mean Daphne’s going to Gallaudet now? What’s going to happen?!? Thankfully SAB got renewed for a fourth season so we’ll get all our answers soon enough. I can’t wait!