The last time we saw Bay, Emmett, and Daphne on Switched at Birth, Daphne was unraveling after Angelo’s death and taking it out on everyone around her. Regina had convinced Wes not to press charges; however, they were not out of the clear. The people who owned the equipment decided they would press charges, so Daphne was arrested. When Daphne decided she wanted to become a doctor, she did not think about how having blackmailed a senator (as we saw her do before) and trashing this construction site would affect that, since convicted felons don’t go to medical school. In the final episode, we all watched as Bay took the fall for Daphne at the construction site without talking to Emmett.
Now, we will start to see how that choice affects everyone around Bay as they struggle to come to terms with it. The first place Bay goes is to tell Emmett, because they are supposed to go to Los Angeles together so Emmett can go to the University of Southern California. When Emmett hears about what Bay did, he becomes upset because Bay didn’t talk to him about it before she did it and now their plans have changed. Bay sticks to her story that she saved her sister’s life by taking the fall so Daphne doesn’t have to go to prison and tells Emmett it will all work out.
Meanwhile, Daphne goes home to tell Regina, Kathryn, and John about what Bay has done. John thinks it is brilliant and wondered how Bay could think of it. Kathryn and Regina on the other hand are so upset with Bay for making that decision without talking to anyone. When Bay returns, they are happy to see her but John tells her that it was a potentially incredibly stupid but also really brave. Bay continues to tell everyone that she’s ok and Daphne will be.
Bay is sentenced to house arrest for 90 days and community service, and in the meantime Daphne is preparing to Gallaudet University but feels so guilty about leaving Bay. While Daphne stews about whether or not to go to DC, Bay and Emmett are in her room movie watching and talking about how he is still going to LA. Regina decides that after the girls go off to college/Los Angeles, she must leave and go back to her own place. Daphne takes Bay to her first community service day and says that if Bay needs anything to call her, which Bay appreciates, but she just wants everything to go back to normal between them.
She says she wants Daphne to go to school and medical school and that could be the best thing that Daphne could do to repay her for what she did. Regina joins Melody and Lily at UMKC for the inaugural semester of Melody’s new program for deaf college at UMKC that Angelo’s life insurance helped to pay for. Daphne has joined Regina at the UMKC event, and runs into Toby who is angry that Daphne is letting Bay do this. He also gets Daphne to think about how she can go to DC and go to school while Bay is stuck here cleaning up her mess.
Meanwhile, Bay meets a new “friend” at her first day of community service but when she asks why Bay is there, Bay tries to tell her but she doesn’t believe Bay. Meanwhile, Lily and Melody kick off the program at UMKC and Daphne listens to them and reconsiders her decision to go to Gallaudet and tells Kathryn and John she wants to go to UMKC and Melody’s school instead. John believes that she is making impulsive decisions still, but after Daphne tells them her reasoning for the change they feel better about it.
Back at the work site, Bay falls for a ploy of someone claiming they are Robbie’s sister but the bag has heroin in it, which Bay is oblivious to, and Robbie is in prison and only allowed out to be on the work crew. Meanwhile, Tess becomes even more annoyed when she sees Bay talking to Robbie. Emmett picks up Bay and takes her to a surprise art exhibit he made for her, but then his bike breaks down and Bay ends up being late for her curfew. The next day, she has to go to her probation officer who tells her about the heroin and that she has just added time to her sentence for being the accessory to a drug deal.
Meanwhile back at UMKC, Daphne persuades Professor Marillo to let her into her Chemistry class, but Professor Marillo tells Daphne she needs an interpreter or she will never make it. Back at the exhibit, Emmett’s motorcycle wouldn’t start and then he got a ticket trying to get Bay home but she misses curfew anyway. The next day, she goes to see her probation officer and finds out that her probation officer is not concerned with why she was late, but rather has to tell her about the drugs in the bag. This is when Bay discovers that she made another bad decision and is having accessory to a drug deal added to her charges, thus getting her more community service and Robbie taken off of the work crew and now has to stay in prison.
Bay goes home to tell Regina about how her case could have been sent back to court, and she could have gone to prison, which makes Regina really angry, since no one told them Bay would be working with hardened criminals. But, when Bay tells her that her probation officer just gave her 100 days more probation, Regina settles down a bit.
Daphne and Iris decide to go try to find Iris’ cousin who knows American Sign Language and Chemistry I since he is now a sophomore. Daphne tries to persuade Josh to be her interpreter for Marillo’s class and he basically in no uncertain terms says no. Regina looks back on the fact that both girls will be out of the house soon, and talks to Kathryn about a new house and how Regina thinks she has lost her compass. Kathryn offers for Regina to stay with her and John until Regina finds her compass and is ready to leave.
Emmett goes to Daphne’s dorm after Bay tells him that she has more probation and basically tells Daphne that this is all her fault and he can never forgive her for what has happened to his and Bay’s plans. Daphne goes to find Josh again to try to explain to him why she needs to take this class and why she needs him to be her interpreter which he then agrees to. And Melody talks to Emmett about going to LA and tells him that it is an amazing opportunity that he would regret if he didn’t take. The episode closes with Emmett saying goodbye to Bay and going to LA even though he did not want to, and Bay getting mad at Daphne and telling her that Daphne needs to leave her room right now and then kicking her night stand.
Reflection on the episode:
This episode deals with a lot of issues that people face when someone makes a decision like Bay did. In a position like she was, it is obvious why she would make the decision. She wants to save Daphne so that Daphne can become a doctor. However, it is also apparent at many times throughout the episode how things transpired and spiraled out of control because of what Bay did and how others were affected by it. The parents have no choice but to go with it, because it is already done, but it also seems as if Emmett and Toby were too hard on Daphne being that it was Bay’s choice. So, it really showed how even small decisions that we think are not that big affect others.
