Switched at Birth - Season 2 Episode 14 - Recap - He Did What He Wanted
Switched at Birth - Season 2 Episode 14 - Recap - He Did What He Wanted
This week's episode of ABC Family's Switched at Birth is a doozy. Twists, turns, ultimatums, backstabs, subterfuge, and a new villain all manage to squeeze into this jam-packed clown car of an episode. The lives of the Kennish and Vasquez families (and their pals) continue to be rocked near to breaking by the discovery that their daughters were switched (at birth).
John and Kathryn have an important lunch meeting with a political ally (Chip Coto) who turns out to be a total sleaze. This guy basically propositions Kathryn when their partners are away from the table. Kathryn debates telling John, but decides not to. That is, until John mentions plans to invite Chip and Chip's wife Diane away on a weekend trip. John loses his cool when he finds out. John confronts the scumbag Chip, who eventually cops to it . John sweeps Chip's desk clear in one swift motion and storms out.
Meanwhile, Daphne sees coffee boy, Jace, again. She invites him to hang out on Independence Day, but he's got other plans. Later, at work, another girl in the office invites Daphne to an Independence Day party; turns out coffee guy is having a party and intentionally didn't invite Daphne for some reason (oof). Emmett encourages her to attend, so they crash the party together. The whole affair is so incredibly awkward (like all the best parts of this show) and ends with an upset Daphne running off dramatically (like... all the best parts of this show). Jace stops her and reveals the real motivation for his party: to get the senatorial office attendees drunk enough to share secrets. He didn't want Daphne there because he uses his flirting to get info for his political blog. Jace suspects Chip (a married man who is backing an abstinence-only sex education bill) has been sleeping with one of the office employees. Later, Daphne's coworker Parker admits to Daphne that it's her who Chip has been sleeping with. Daphne doesn't want Jace to use this info on the blog, as it would hurt Parker also, sso she agrees to help him find another angle to get at Chip.
Over at her new place of employ (the Maui, Kansas theme park), Bay notices Ty being distant, so she asks her coworker Mary-Beth (whose dead brother was in the Army with Ty) what's up; she explains that Ty helped clean out her brother's room the day before. Bay intends to cheer Mary-Beth up, so she invites her and her crush Mac on a double date, but the whole thing is an awkward disaster. Mac clearly isn't interested, and Mary-Beth gets upset when she loses her brother's dogtags. Later, Bay goes over to Ty's place to apologize for dragging him into it, saying that she's been confused about her relationship with him. Naturally, because this is Switched at Birth and it would be incomplete without a complicated romantic situation, Ty and Bay smooch.
Interspliced with these other plots, but ultimately unrelated, Emmett meets with his dad for lunch, with Daphne as witness. Dad has a new girlfriend, replacing the drug-dealing twenty-something from last time we saw him. Dad's also here to tell Emmett that he's begun the process to get a cochlear implant. Emmett, who is very proud of his deafness, doesn't like this at all. The two get in a small argument over it, but set it aside; Dad was there to invite Emmett to a barbecue, not to fight with him. Later, when Emmett brings it up with his new roomie Travis (another proud, non-vocal deaf dude), Travis is in favor of it; actually, Travis had even considered a cochlear implant for himself. Later, Emmett's dad visits to inquire why Emmett wasn't at the barbecue. Emmett is mad, but Dad says he won't get the implant if Emmett doesn't want him to. Emmett tells dad that he shouldn't get the implant. Dad looks hurt and surprised, but just says "Okay" and leaves.
In an astonishing fourth (and perhaps a fifth?) arc for the episode, Angelo and Regina join the country club to which the Kennishes belong. At the club one day, Angelo meets a restaurateur he admires and they discuss the possibility of opening up a business together. Regina brings up a concern to Angelo about his money, but Angelo is dismissive; he says it's all fine and he's got the economics under control. Regina's other main concern is Bay, who has been staying with Regina and Angelo for a few weeks. When Regina stops by the Kennish home to pick up some art supplies for Bay, John goes totally bonkers at her, demanding that Regina bring Bay home. The shouting match ends with Regina leaving, but she comes back into the Kennish home momentarily and finds John unconscious and unbreathing on the kitchen floor, with no pulse. She calls 911 and starts CPR as the episode fades to black.
WOW. So much happened this week! I usually take the commercial breaks to sum up the episode's events up to that point so I can put this recap together more easily, but dang! The pace of this episode made it a little tough to keep everyone's plots straight, and even more difficult to untangle them! I really liked it; this is the sort of densely-packed TV that I truly adore. After last week's overly-simplistic episode, this was a welcome thrill ride. And ending on a cliffhanger! Agh! Well, we'll wait the week together, if we can manage it. Meet right back here, same time next Monday, okay? Okay cool. In the interim, here's a preview for tonight's episode!