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The fall season culminated in a shocking court verdict, heartache for Daphne,
Confession: This season of Switched at Birth came and went quickly, but also dragged. I missed the family and all their drama, but between Bay’s newfound desire to push her limits and her parents basically doing nothing about it and Daphne ignoring all the cute guys her age in favor of boss, I got a little bored. This is not to say I didn’t enjoy Daphne hooking up with her boss. If you’ve seen him, you know, but the stories felt… forced. Daphne worked an incredible amount of hours. There are labor laws, you know. And Bay made friends with someone who is both incredibly annoying and manipulative of Bay.
What really kept me interested, though, was the trial. It brought a realistic angle to a traumatizing situation, providing a prospective from every character. My favorite being Daphne’s, “The switched already happened. The trial won’t change anything.” People always seem to forget this aspect of things.
So, the good and bad of the fall season culminated in last night’s season finale. To prevent myself from coming off long-winded, here is a list of what will have us waiting until the show returns in January.
Bay’s friend continued to be bad news.
Let’s look past Bay’s parents letting her run away and live with Zara until her “fit” was over. Not to mention they had no idea where Zara lived. Their choice to do so put Bay in the line of danger when men showed up with baseball bats, ready to beat people, mostly Zara. Bay used this as an instance to pit her parents against one another and I just wanted to throw things. Self-entitled, bratty, rich kid for life.
Turns out Bay left some pictures on Emmett’s camera when she returned it. He expressed his concern and she was a jerk. Emmett later told John and Katherine he saw Bay loading up her car to leave. Thanks to some GPS stalking, John tracked Bay to Oklahoma. Together, father and ex-boyfriend took off to find her. This led to some seriously cute bonding between John and Emmett in the car and Emmett explaining what he went through and how it may correlate to Bay. By the way, John is Team Emmett – as everyone should be.
So Bay and Zara headed to Mexico to see Zara’s father. I was never a crazy, stupid teenager so I don’t understand why this is at all appealing. Eventually, John and Emmett found them sleeping in Bay’s car. She threw a fit, but John broke through to her and I guess I should be touched. I’m not though. Bay needs grounded, locked up, sent to boarding school, and forced to work in a soup kitchen until she graduates. And then she should be forced to work minimum wage through art school and shown that she can’t always be self-entitled and annoying. Then I might forgive her for being so annoying. Or she could forgive Emmett. That would work for me too.
Oh, hey, it’s as if Bay heard me. She confessed she was shocked that Emmett came after her and he reminded her that he always would. She turned all doe-eyed and the two nearly kissed. Damn John’s headlights for interrupting. At least they’re driving home together.
Chef Jeff (because I can’t call him anything else, unless it’s Jamie Martin) and Daphne’s relationship comes out.
First, the owner of the restaurant questioned Daphne about her relationship with Jeff, which she denied. He got seriously bent out of shape, understandably so since he’s dating and/or sleeping with a teenager. You can never tell with ABC Family shows unless it’s Secret Life of the American Teenager. Neither Daphne nor Jeff seemed to think about the consequences of their relationship. Lust does that to you.
In an effort to save her man’s career, Daphne quit her job. This made Jeff even more upset and Daphne broke down crying to her mother about it. Poor Regina had no idea where Daphne was going with this at first. Instead of giving her the typical “he’s too old for you” speech, Regina blasted her for giving up everything she cared about for a man. I almost stood up and cheered. Unfortunately Regina may have taken things too far when she said that Daphne learned giving up everything for a man from Katherine, not her… except she is kind of right. Katherine’s entire life was John’s life until this season. Regina just told the truth.
Later, Jeff did what all guys do when they date young girls: he broke up with her. She was in love with him. He held her hands and told her she was special and lovely, but she needed someone her own age. And now Daphne will go home and listen to Taylor Swift on repeat for the next year.
Angelo did something truly fatherly.
When Regina told Angelo that Daphne was dating a 27 or 28 year old, he went through the roof. In true father fashion, he stormed down to the restaurant to confront him. It was a beautiful thing, especially considering how many issues he and Daphne have had. Angelo took Regina’s car, which forced her to ask Katherine for a ride, and the two followed him down to the restaurant where Daphne sat in the parking lot.
Angelo saw her and went all kinds of angry dad on the situation. I almost stood up and cheered again. Angelo punched him in the face. And then I actually did cheer.
Katherine took the stand at the trial and a verdict was decided.
She was forced to ask questions about the book she wrote, her charitable donations, and the nurse she gave money to after learning about the switch. The defense tried to use a statement from her book about how her life was better after the birth as a reason for her case to be meaningless. In reply, Katherine gave an impassioned speech about everything she missed from Daphne’s life. The defense pushed her into admitting she wanted to undo the switch and never be Bay’s mother, except Katherine confessed she didn’t want to change things. This hurt Daphne’s feelings, which I get, but Daphne needs to think about Regina. Would she want her non-biological mother, the mother she had her entire life until like a year ago, to say she would give up Daphne if it meant having Bay?
Katherine and John are awarded one dollar. A stark comparison to Angelo’s five million dollars. The courtroom erupted and my mouth hit the floor. And then wisecracking Toby pointed out that half of Angelo’s money is now Regina’s since they’re married. Zing!
Angelo got someone pregnant.
A pregnant woman waltzed into the courtroom, interrupting Bay and Daphne’s sisterly bonding about how the day before your life changes is like any other day. She asked for Angelo and their mouths hit the floor.
BOOM.
Well, that’s it for this season. I’ll see you back here on January 7 when the show returns. And remember to let me know what you thought about the fall finale below!
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