Switched At Birth -- Blood Is Thicker

If you asked me last week if anything could make me feel sorry for Travis, I'd say no. So it's with great shock after how loathsome he acted last season about the hearing, that I found myself feeling sorry for him this episode.

John needed a new manager for the car wash and Travis put himself forward for the job. He had the experience and had just been able to repair something there that saved John money. So all looked well for it happening for Travis. That is until Toby decided he wanted to be the new manager. To the best of my memory, I don't recall him ever working at the car wash. I remember him getting in trouble gambling and having his band, but I can't recall him working for John there. If he hasn't ever worked there, then he has no experience running the business or being the manager. The only thing in his favor is that he's the boss's son. Yeah, Toby had some idea for the business, but is it even feasible? Only someone that understands the business would know it or not.

John seemed to be leaning towards Travis, when in waltzes Mommy Kathryn who is determined to get her baby boy the job. She attacks on two fronts. With Travis she uses him being deaf against him and claims he'd need an interpreter to communicate with the employees and also that he's still going to school. When John still wasn't convinced she went for the jugular by using his own daddy issues with his own father against him. No shock that John caves and Kathryn's baby boy gets the job. Let's see how long before Toby screws up.

The sad part is this just reconfirmed Travis' biased view of the hearing. Had John given him that job it could have helped combat some of his bigotry. So Travis lost out on two fronts: getting the job and having a hearing person prove that he wouldn't be biased against him because he couldn't hear. Good work, Kathryn.

On other Kathryn fronts, since Bay moved in with Regina, she concentrated on Daphne. She got her to enter a tennis match with her, but they both kind of sucked. Kathryn wouldn't listen to Daphne telling her they weren't good enough and assured her they'd beat the other team. Unfortunately, when Daphne signaled Kathryn, she didn't get what it meant, and they lost. Daphne doesn't like to lose and she got into a fight with Kathryn. Daphne crossed a line when she tried to blame Kathryn for Regina moving out. Kathryn proved she's got just as nasty a side as Daphne as she tells Daphne to start taking responsibility for what happened. She's right, the reason Regina moved out was because of Daphne, not Kathryn. It was about time someone told her to stop trying to pass the buck and blame others for her own actions.

Now that Regina isn't around, Daphne has time for her. Especially now that Bay's living with her. She drops by Angelo's place to see her, and sees it's in a mess. When she tries to clean up Regina says she's a guest and shouldn't do that. This hurts Daphne's feelings and puts her nose out of joint.

Bay becomes friends with a fellow carnival worker named Mary Beth, who is friends with Ty. She learns Mary Beth's brother, Justin, served with Ty. She also learns that Ty killed himself. Bay tries to talk to Ty about what happened over there, and he kind of zones out on her. When she discovers he had some of her artwork tattooed on his arm, she freaks out. She tells Regina that Ty's back and that she's afraid he might be obsessed with her.

Regina goes to visit Ty and her talk with him gets him to open up a little to Bay. He tells her why he got the tattoo on his arm and it isn't what Bay thought, at all. He met a little girl that liked to play soccer but when a male relative caught her playing soccer she disappeared and he was told he didn't want to know what happened to her when he asked questions about her. He got the tattoo to remember the little girl. He also tells Bay he was able to handle the things they saw over there better than Justin was able to do and that's why Justin killed himself.

Angelo is still on the hunt for his baby and he's scoping out another couple who he's sure has his baby. The situation has helped him identify with Regina watching Bay when she realized she was raising the wrong child. He asks Regina how she was able not to run up and snatch Bay, and she says that sometimes she wishes she had. As it turns out it's not Angelo's baby and he comes home crestfallen.

My problem with what Angelo is doing is what if his baby has a better life with her adoptive parents than he could give her. All he seems to be thinking of is finding his child, but what happens after he does. Does he rip the child from her happy home to take her home to his penthouse where he'll basically try to raise her on his own. In short, just what would be best for this innocent child?

Bay comes home to see Regina and Angelo dancing and they drag her on to the dance floor and teach her how to dance. This happy little family moment is interrupted by Kathryn and Daphne who brought them over some extra lasagne they made together after making up from their fight. Needless to say Daphne and Kathryn don't like what they see and make a hasty departure, as Regina, Bay and Angelo continue to have a good time laughing together.

You want to know the sad truth? If Daphne had been there instead of Bay that happy little family moment wouldn't have happened. Every time she sees Angelo she has a pinched look on her face because Angelo abandoned her and Regina can never allow herself to relax like that with Angelo when Daphne's around.

It was an interesting episode with the high point being the fun dance between Regina, Angelo and Bay and the bad point being John picking Toby over Travis. In both cases the blood bond came out on top.