Switched at Birth - The Morning After

Tracy's going to be blogging one of her guilty pleasure shows so I'm going to jump in with one of mine...ABC Family's Switched at Birth.  This is the only ABC Family show I watch (I was watching Chloe King but they axed it) so don't worry that I'll start yammering on about The Secret Life of the Longest (and possibly worst) Named Show on TV. 

Someone on IMDB summed Switched at Birth up nicely:
Tells the story of two teen girls who discover that they were accidentally switched at birth. Bay Kennish grew up in a wealthy family with two parents and a brother, while Daphne Vasquez, who lost her hearing as a child due to a case of meningitis, grew up with a single mother in a poor neighborhood. Things come to a dramatic head when both families meet and struggle to learn how to live together for the sake of the girls.

Key Players:

(l to r) Regina, Daphne, Bay, Kathryn, John, Toby

Regina Vasquez: single mom, recovering alcoholic, hair stylist;
Daphne Vasquez: teen, deaf, raised by Regina but biological daughter of John and Kathryn, terribly sweet
Bay (yes, her name is Bay) Kennish: teen, arty, raised by John and Kathryn but biological daughter of Regina, total brat.
Kathryn Kennish: wife, mother, etc. She does some rich lady charity stuff and has lots of gossipy friends
John Kennish: husband, father, ex-baseball star, now owner of a chain of car washes.
Toby Kennish: gambling addict, guitarist and lead singer for (what used to be Guitar Face and is now Free Booze but we'll get to that)


Other Key Players:

Emmett:  We love him.  He is Daphne's best friend and is also deaf.  He's now dating Bay and by doing so showed Daphne that he should be moved out of her 'friend zone.' He's not giving up on Bay yet though and that's a good thing.  I'm thinking he and Daphne will have their shot later.
 

Wilke: He's ok.  His hair doesn't always look like that. He's in Toby's band and is a bit of a player when it comes to the ladies but his interest in Daphne seems like it's for real.

Adrianna: Regina's mother, and thusly grandmother to Bay and Daphne.  She gets to keep Regina in line.

Last night was the first episode of the "winter premier."  I will now recap, as brief as possible, what happened in the summer season:

Bay was always a bit suspicious as to why she didn't resemble her mother or father and decided to officially look into it.  Turns out someone at the hospital played the old switcheroo game with the babies.  They decide they want to meet the other family, things are awkward, then less so and through a quick string of events, the other family (Daphne, Regina and Adrianna) end up moving into the spacious apartment above the Kinnish family garage.  One big, not terribly happy, family.

John, who is loaded, wants to sue the hospital to prove a point that people shouldn't be switching babies all willy nilly.  The hospital is barely making ends meet but he thinks they should be punished.  Not everyone is on board with the lawsuit, especially Regina because she reveals that she figured it out a long time ago but was satisfied raising someone else's kid. 

Meanwhile Bay has decided she wants to know who her biological dad is.  By the end of the summer season she's found out his name is Angelo Sorrento, he left when Daphne lost her hearing, plays guitar and is interested in meeting her.  He shows up and spills that a nurse at the hospital knew all about the switch and could help with John's lawsuit.  Handy.  Too bad John is feeling all threatened (men!) and doesn't want him around.

Daphne spends the season being all sweet and nice and friendly.  She dates one of Bay's exes and Bay puts her foot down.  However, Bay dates 2 of Daphne's friends (a guy named Ty who is on some other ABCFam show now and Emmett) but Daphne is so sweet that she just smiles.  Actually that's not true at all.  She realizes that even though they've only been friends their whole lives Daphne's now very possibly in love with Emmett and wants him all to herself.  Prior to Bay he'd said that he'd never date a hearing girl because she'd never understand what their lives are like.  Apparently Bay's hair won him over.

It's so dark and wavy!

Plus Bay is totally learning sign language and is doing pretty well with it so far. By the end of the summer season Daphne kissed Emmett but he tells her he's sticking with Bay and her hair.  He even says something out loud to her (can't remember his exact words but they were sweet) which he's never done before and I totally melt. Oh! Also you should know that Emmett joined Toby and Wilke's band and they get to perform at one of those 20-band summer festivals they do so much nowadays.


Last night's episode, "Starry Night" picked right up where we left off at the end of summer.

Bay, with Regina as a chaperone of sorts because John doesn't trust Angelo, meets up with her bio-dad at a jazz club.  Regina and Angelo fuss at each other a lot which isn't how Bay imagined hanging out with her bio-dad would go.  It's messy and really pisses off Daphne.  She's pissed that her runaway dad suddenly has an interest in his bio-daughter and had no interest in his hearing-impaired daughter.  She's right, he's totally crappy.  If only he know how nice Daphne is and how awful Bay is.

The guys are at their first big gig but too bad they'll be playing a stage way off in Timbuktu.  They run into Bay's former bestie, Simone.  She name drops a band called Helen Mirren's Cleavage and I totally want them to be a real bad so I can buy their album. The guys decide to change their name to Free Booze so they can get a crowd to come see them.  That'll go well.

Daphne, feeling upset about all the business with Angelo, runs off to see the guys perform and maybe get some attention from Emmett.  She shows up late at night and climbs into Emmett's tent while he's sleeping and totally cuddles up right next to him.  He's a bit shocked the next morning to see her there.  Bay soon shows up, the guys perform and get booed when the audience realizes they aren't actually getting free booze.  Bay fights off an angry fan by telling him to leave Emmett alone because he's deaf.  This pisses Emmett off because he doesn't need her to protect him.  She's new to all this so he has to be patient with her while she learns the rules.  They're very good together and he's really teaching her a lot.  And she's WAY less bratty and putting other people first for once.

Daphne's feeling down that she's lost her best guy friend (and potential love match) to her, well, what are she and Bay?  Anywhoodle she's all bummed and sitting on a dock looking all pretty and shiny (see above).  Wilke shows up, they talk and he makes her feel better for a minute by pushing her into the lake (see below).  Don't worry, he had her remove her very expensive hearing aids first. 

This gave the Wilke dude a chance to get undressed and jump in.  I'm sure teen girls everywhere were swooning.

While the kids are off gallivanting at some random concert, John and Kathryn are discussing the lawsuit.  They are going to meet with the nurse in a few days to find out what she knows.  I have to say, if the nurse was working there 16 years ago then she got her nursing degree when she was 14 because she doesn't look a day over 30.  Their lawyer warns them that she's a single mom and would probably say anything to get her hands on some of their money.  Nice.  So all single moms are broke and willing to compromise their integrity (if they have any) for some quick cash?  Good values ABC Family. Anywhoodle the nurse admits to Kathryn that she was over tired and could have possibly put the baby back in the wrong crib.  Well that settled it for Kathryn.  She's totally on board with the lawsuit now.

Now you're up to date.  It's a good show and I've learned a lot about the deaf community.  Plus I tend to be a sucker for teen melodrama.  Don't worry, my recaps won't all be this long.