switched at birth recap – 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: “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: “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: “You Will Not Escape”

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Zakiya N. Jamal in TV

First, I think we can all agree that Daphne needs to CALM. THE. FREAK. DOWN.

She really ticked me off this episode so I’m going to begin with her. After hearing that one of the other neighboring high schools is having a senior ditch day Daphne, Natalie, and Sharee agree to have one of their own. Of course, Daphne is the most gung ho for it. I honestly could care less about the planning of a senior cut day. I mean, seriously, who didn’t have a senior cut day in high school? What I’m tight about is what happened during said day.

Daphne along with her fellow seniors head to Hawkeye Ranch where Travis quickly questions the lack of alcohol. I won’t even go into the fact that they are underage and in a public place because again this is something I think we can all agree we’ve done or at least our friends have done. It happens. What’s dumb is that Daphne decides to call Nacho (really his name is Nacho?) to come with some beers.

Nacho, being the gentleman that he is, doesn’t just show up with beer but also brings a posy that includes some girl who may or may not be his girlfriend but is definitely more than a friend.

When Daphne confronts him Nacho makes it clear that Daphne’s not the only girl he’s seeing and basically says, “I can’t just have one girl at time … but that’s cool right?” and Daphne says yes because … well at this point I don’t even know why.

Wanting to exact revenge on Nacho for being a douche she goes on the Ferris Wheel with Travis where she shares a beer with him and then tries to kiss him. Actually she does kiss him because apparently Daphne now has zeros effs to give.

Thankfully, Travis doesn’t give into temptation and reminds Daphne that he has a girlfriend then gets off the Ferris wheel and proceeds to throw up. Gross but good for you Travis!

Bay, who has already confronted Daphne for being stupid enough to date Nacho, confronts Daphne again for being a brat and kissing her friend’s boyfriend. Bay then reminds Daphne that she’s not the only one struggling and she needs to stop lashing out at everyone, being mean to Regina, and all in all get over herself. In other words Bay said everything we’ve all been thinking. You go Bay!

Then Daphne shoved Bay to the ground and stomped away, continuing to act like a bratty three year old that can’t get her way. Seriously, Daphne what are we going to do with you? Things only got worse when Daphne arrived back home where Regina tells her what she decided to do with the money from Angelo’s life insurance: donate it to Melody’s awesome satellite Gallaudet school and then maybe do a mother-daughter road trip.

Although Daphne was okay with the idea at first she then snaps at Regina, saying Regina shouldn’t even have that money because she’s the reason Angelo is dead. Daphne then goes on this whole rant about how Regina sucks and brings up the fact the Regina knew about the switch … again. Daphne, sweetie, you really need to get new material. She ends her rant by saying Regina isn’t even her mother. Really, Daphne? Really? I would just like to point out how Daphne is all upset because Angelo died but he was not her biological father so her logic is little jacked up at this point but I digress.

Daphne should be glad she didn’t get slapped into next week’s episode after everything she said to Regina. Either way it looks like Daphne might finally get what’s coming to her next week but I’ll get to that later.

While Daphne was losing it Bay was dealing with her own stuff. After talking to Tank Bay decides to get checked out for aneurysms. Thankfully she had nothing to worry about. However, she doesn’t get this news until the end of the episode and proceeds to have a mini freak out before then because she thinks she might die.

Rather than tell Emmett what she’s really stressed about she gets angry when she sees the girl who was the image behind “Mandy” and the girl says she read all the things Emmett wrote to Mandy and that made her break up with her boyfriend and she’s kind of into Emmett. Weird. Either way Bay seems to get jealous and storms away from Emmett leaving him confused and rightfully so.

Bay basically tells Emmett he should be with “Mandy” and go off to USC, where he found out he was accepted early in the episode, and leave Bay behind because who knows what would happen in the future? Silly Bay. Don’t you know honesty is the best policy? Obviously, not.

Once Bay learns that she doesn’t have an aneurysm she finds Emmett and apologizes for acting so irrational (but STILL doesn’t say anything about her health fears) and says he should go to USC and that she’ll go with him. Yep, because following you boyfriend to college is always good idea.

Either way I guess it’s Bay’s life and she can do what she wants but I personally think it’s a terrible idea.

Other major points to of the episode that don’t really need further explanation:

Regina and Kathryn go to New York for Kathryn’s book release. Some how they end up pretending they’re lesbian lovers and it’s actually kind of hilarious.
Travis thinks he dropped out of high school but in reality Melody stepped in and with the help of the money Regina donated is starting a Gallaudet satellite campus that Travis will be going to after he graduates. You go Melody!

And that’s about it. This week was crazy mostly because of Daphne (when she told Regina that she wasn’t her real mom I almost lost it). Looks like Daphne is going to get her just desserts next week, however. Is it wrong that I’m excited to see her get knocked down a peg? If it is I don’t care because that girl needs some sense knocked into her. Check out the preview for next week below.

Switched at Birth Recap: “And We Bring the Light”

Posted on July 13, 2014July 15, 2014 by Zakiya N. Jamal in TV

Last Monday’s episode ended with a bang (if you haven’t watched it yet stop reading here; spoilers are included). I thought this was a great episode except there was no Emmett so that was sad.

But to make up for Emmett’s absence (sort of), Toby’s back. Yay! Although his facial hair really should’ve stayed in Iceland.

Let’s begin with the Kennish’s because they had a lot of cute family moments. First, Bay didn’t get into Pratt and I think Pratt can suck it because that’s just dumb. She’s great and I don’t understand how she couldn’t get in (other than the SAB writers just don’t want Bay to be happy). And she wasn’t. She was devastated which broke my heart. Poor Bay.

But then big brother Toby returned and her day got a little bit brighter. Not telling anyone about not getting into Pratt Toby is finally able to get the truth out of her and decides to help a sister out. They plan to do a big art piece and using inspiration from Toby, Bay wants to create the Northern Lights. While planning to sneak out they get busted by Kathryn who wants in.

Thus begins the Kennish adventure. The art mission seems like a go until the electricity goes out and Bay kind of loses it. She rips Kathryn a new one basically telling Kathryn she’s not a “real” writer. Ouch. Although I know Bay is hurting because of Pratt that’s still no way to talk to your mom. Like ever. Kathryn, of course, is furious and would’ve stomped away if security hadn’t shown up.

To Bay and Toby’s amazement Kathryn is able to talk them out of getting in trouble by making up this crazy story about how Toby and Bay are twin, deaf Icelandic artists. After the guard leaves Bay breaks down and reveals to Kathryn she didn’t get into Pratt. Then in a very touching moment John shows up with a generator and all the Kennish’s say a time when they failed at something. Bay feeling revived turns on her Northern Lights and it’s magical (again, Pratt I don’t understand). It was a very cute Kennish moment and I thoroughly enjoyed seeming them be one united happy family.

Speaking of cute family moments Daphne and Angelo’s bonding time in this episode was fantastic. Their budding father-daughter relationship is adorable and I love it. Daphne is freaking out because of her SATs and Angelo helps her relax by distracting her in one of her favorite places: the kitchen. He tells her he needs help figuring out one of his grandmother’s recipes and suggests they make various different cakes until they get it just right. After they figure it out and Angelo admits he took no notes so they’ll have to do this process all over again at some point, Daphne finds a foreclosure notice. That’s when Angelo reveals that the restaurant is going out of business and he’s in a bit of a money crisis. After breaking down a little bit Daphne is there for him and then they take the cutest selfie ever.

While Daphne and Angelo are becoming closer than ever Regina is out to dinner with Wes who just gave her a gun for protection that she now knows how to use and shoot. Yeah, this won’t end badly. Regina and Wes go to dinner and guess who joins them? None other than Senator Coto (or is it former senator? Not sure on that front). Anyway some how Coto doesn’t recognize Regina and remember that her daughter blackmailed him. That would’ve been pretty interesting if he had though.

Wes had planned to get into a (not so legal) partnership with Coto but instead refuses to do so once Regina tells him the truth about how she knows Coto. You go Wes! About the only good thing he’s done so far. I’ll admit he’s growing on me. I still don’t like him with Regina and I definitely think he wants to be with her in a more personal than professional way that I don’t approve of but at least he’s becoming a better person.

After dinner Regina heads to K&D and is upstairs when Daphne comes in looking for her SAT book. Daphne calls out but Regina doesn’t hear her. Daphne then heads upstairs because she can hear Regina up there and Regina calls out hearing someone in the store. Of course, Daphne can’t hear her. Regina then gets her gun and gets ready to shoot and Daphne comes face to face with Regina’s gun. Oh, dear.

Daphne is pissed and rightfully so. She’s run downstairs when Angelo comes in and hears the whole story. Now he’s pissed and Regina and him get into a huge, nasty fight. Angelo accuses Regina of cheating and Regina basically tells him he sucks at being a father and a man.

Yes it really is Agent Coulson. Angelo then storms out and speeds off in his car and …

So that happened. Angelo is in serious bad shape. I’m really hoping ABC Family doesn’t kill him off. Angelo and Daphne were really just getting close and truthfully I’m not sure if Daphne could ever forgive Regina if he doesn’t recover. I hope it all works out but honestly I don’t know where the writers are going to take this.

Things. Just. Got. Real.