Emmett speaks the truth on the summer finale of Switched At Birth

The thing I simultaneously love and detest about season finales is that they pack so much into a single episode that it’s hard to take it all in. There are one or more new plot developments, a twist or two, perhaps a good cliffhanger. If the show is well-written, the finale is maddening — you are overwhelmed with not only emotion, but also making sense of all the little fragments that scatter before you.

I wouldn’t have expected anything less from the summer finale of Switched At Birth; since its arrival ten weeks ago the show has kept me on my toes, as well as appealed to my romantic side. Last night’s episode was a whirlwind. Instead of trying to make sense of it all, I think I’d  rather point out my favorite parts, as well as one in particular I’ve been questioning for quite some time.

Of course, the topic that every SAB fan has been buzzing about for the past couple of weeks has been the Bay/Emmett/Daphne love triangle. (Check out last week’s post and vote on whether you’re Team Bay or Team Daphne.) I’m very much Team Bay, but for a split second I thought I might go the other way last night. Emmett and Daphne’s fight at the car wash was so real — not because it’s commonplace for deaf people to fight at car washes — but rather, because they kept interrupting each other. That’s one thing that’s been missing from the dialogue thus far between two characters where one or both of them is signing. You know how, whenever you have a heated argument the attacks overlap and the most important statements are repeated? That’s exactly what this was like. I also like that the car wash was obscuring them from view. It was as if they were arguing underneath a waterfall.

What I hadn’t known before last night, but what I could have guessed, was that Emmett had feelings for Daphne too. The difference, though, is that Emmett has been harboring his feelings for eight years, whereas Daphne seemed to only realize it when other aspects of her life got out of control and she felt as though he was the only consistency she had. (It seems convenient, too, that she just developed feelings for him when she realized that he was spending a lot of time with Bay.)

Actually, I’m not certain whether his spending time with Bay bothered Daphne because she was jealous of his romantic interest, or whether she was just jealous in general of Bay getting in the way of her life. First the whole “rich girl who got a life of privilege courtesy of my birth parents” thing, followed by Ty, then Emmett, and now … Angelo Sorrento: Bay’s birth father, otherwise known as the man who abandoned Daphne soon after she went deaf.

While Daphne had always been the cheerful, optimistic character on the show, these last two episodes have presented her in a different way: hardened, moody, and vindictive. She actually cried during the finale, which I can’t remember her doing before. And if the end of last night’s episode holds true when the show picks back up, Daphne will show no remorse when she fights for Emmett. It was especially biting the way that everyone was laughing and waving goodbye when Emmett and the guys left for their gig, only for Daphne to turn her grin (with which we’ve become very familiar) into a stone-like expression in front of Bay. She had no qualms telling Bay what she was prepared to do.

I’m glad that Emmett reconsidered the decision he initially made when he told Bay off (or, should I say, signed her off?). It’s kind of ironic that he was complaining about not fitting in, and working so hard, when Bay has been working just as hard to learn to sign, as well as read everyone’s signs. (And he was signing so fast during one portion of their “faux break-up” that I’m not sure if she understood him — but if she did, I’m impressed, and he should have been too.)

Finally, two things that shocked and delighted me: the kiss between Daphne and Emmett, and Emmett speaking “I just want you” to Bay. The former made me squeal, but the latter made me cry.

Now, onto Angelo Sorrento. What is going on there? I’m inclined to echo what Regina said, which was that leaving is what he does best. I’m too overwhelmed at the what, why, and how of all of this that I’ll just leave my thoughts to myself for now to process. It’s just too ridiculous.

Also: I”m sorry, but I have to go back to the hospital, five hours after the girls were born. I realize that medication, at times, plays a significant role in a mother’s recovery. But, usually, doesn’t a mother hold her baby right as she’s born? And wouldn’t the mom (and the dad, because wasn’t Angelo there?) have locked that baby into their brains immediately during their initial bonding, or at least enough to realize right away that she wasn’t brought back the same baby later? It’s not as though they looked anything at all alike! Wouldn’t Angelo have noticed — “Hey, wait, hon … the baby you gave birth to looked like us, but the baby you just got back from the nursery looks completely different?” (Or was he on drugs too?) I know that Kathryn and John talked about this with their lawyer already, and she admitted to using a rather strong dose of medication after the birth. But what about Regina? Was her alcoholism so bad that she was drinking at the hospital right after her daughter was born?

I’m thinking back to the birth of my daughter (which wasn’t too long ago, so I can remember the little details), and even if it were five hours later — heck, even if it were ONE hour later — I would have recognized her. I held her practically the entire time we were in the hospital together. How could it have happened that not one, but two moms didn’t recognize their own daughters?

On a lighter note, I think I know the signs for “mad,” “but,” and “know!” I love how all the characters are learning the language, so that we can pick up on some of it too. Actually, the show has made me want to take a class in ASL.

What was your favorite part of the Switched At Birth summer finale? And what do you think Kathryn will do for herself so that she won’t be known as “the mom whose daughters were switched at birth?” I hope we see some exciting developments in that regard when the show returns.

Clacked by Rachel Blum-Jose
on Aug 09, 2011 @ 09:00 EST5EDT