Switched At Birth -- The Deaf Kids Celebrate Their Imagined Victory
Original Airing: March 11, 2013
It was the season finale, but no story was much of a cliffhanger to make you be anxious for the show to return in June.
Lana gave birth and then took off with the baby. She seemingly took off because Bay said there was this connection between Regina and Angelo that just won’t die. When Angelo questions if Bay said anything to Lana, she doesn’t mention what she said.
Regina lied to Daphne she wasn’t drunk when she found her passed out on the couch and she buys it. Later, Regina goes to the club to see Zane and he tells her he’s going on tour. So she ends up going to Angelo’s, where she falls asleep on his sofa. He calls Adriana about Regina’s drinking and arranges for her to go to a rehab facility to get back on the wagon.
John wins the senate race by default when Patricia Sawyer pulls out. She explains to John that her daughter is bipolar and she’s dropping out to be with her daughter. John has second thoughts about being a senator and says he should have supported Kathryn when she thought they wanted her to run for senator. She convinces John it was meant to be for him to be senator and he embraces his new role.
Nikki tells Toby she’s going to Peru on a mission to teach children English and music. Toby’s response is to ask her to marry him. John and Kathryn aren’t thrilled, especially when it wasn’t that long ago he was in a hot tub with Patricia Sawyer’s daughter. When they tell Toby he got into Washington University he’s less than enthusiastic.
Bay is shocked that Noah takes Daphne’s side when she’s upset the reporters made the story about the takeover of Carlton about Bay when she was dragged out of the school. This leads Emmett to tell Bay that he believes Daphne and Noah are into each other. Bay accuses Emmett of lying and being jealous. Emmett says he’s done waiting for her since she’s too clueless to see what’s under her nose. This leads Bay to confront Noah who admits he feels a connection to Daphne, which leads to them breaking up. Bay angrily confronts Daphne and they say some harsh things to each other. They seem to bury the hatchet when they team up to help Regina.
The worst part of the episode was the elitist bigoted deaf bullies. Princess Daphne went out to give her demands for a 100% deaf school, not realizing she has no ground to stand on and refusing to accept that because her anti-hearing kids at Carlton speech is what caused the school to close down in the first place. When she made her little demand I was wishing both Bay and Noah would have walked out of the school. If not for Bay’s help her protest wouldn’t have happened and she [like the rest of her elitist deaf buddies] don’t have a clue to show gratitude as they cloak themselves in their bigotry.
After the police drag them out of the school, the principal wants a meeting and invites Princess Daphne, who believes the school will give into her demands. One of the horrible stereotypes about deaf people was that they were also dumb. I’m afraid the writers have done nothing but reinforce that stereotype as these deaf kids come off like a pack of dummies who can’t understand the basic facts: the school has no money, which is why they want to bring hearing kids in. So how do they possibly think the school is going to cave into their demands and kick all the hearing kids out to cater to them and still have enough money to keep operating when the deaf kids aren’t bringing in enough money for the school to continue operating? It’s a matter of simple logic that these deaf bigots can’t seem to connect the dots over. Maybe because their mentor Melody has told them they’re the superior race they think the world is supposed to cater to them and their whims without applying one ounce of logic to that illogical belief.
Anyway, Daphne has her little balloon popped when the principal says to stay open they’ll be making Carlton 50% hearing, which Princess Daphne still believes she can stop from happening with the imagined power she believes she has. That is, until the principal tells her to take it or leave it, sweet cheeks, because otherwise the school will close. Even Melody tells her to back-off and that's as good as she's going to get. When she tells Travis what happened, King Bigot declares he will not go to a school that allows hearing kids in. Too bad he doesn’t also apply that to working for someone who can hear, since he’s so anti-hearing. Daphne convinces the creep to stay at Carlton, proclaiming how much she needs him, so it looks like she’s going to start up with the cretin, again.
The final scene was a giant bogus piece of crap, but on this show the deaf don’t get called on their bad behavior. Example: the way Melody treated Regina when she found out she couldn’t use her hands to do sign language. Not one person has called this piece of crap on what she said to Regina. Anyway, Melody is congratulating the deaf bigots on keeping Carlton open and proclaiming they had some great victory. Then she shows a pic of the deaf bigots [no Bay or Noah who also helped] of their successful protest. I’m sorry, but what did these nasty little trolls really gain? Absolutely nothing. If Melody hadn’t started her protest against allowing hearing kids in Carlton and Princess Daphne hadn’t given her anti-hearing speech Carlton would have never almost closed. They gained absolutely nothing wallowing in their elitist bigotry. Everything is right back to where it was before they threw their hissy fit about having hearing kids at Carlton. But in their delusional minds they think they saved the school, and that they somehow made some big difference when everything is back to the way it was before they had their protest at the school board meeting.
To the writers, I hope you change how you write the deaf characters. It used to be only Melody and Travis who were the only two insufferable obnoxious deaf characters on the show, now every deaf character is unlikable. They’re all bigots and bullies who think they’re superior to everyone. They’re also completely unlikable and unsympathetic. With this story the writers have taken any positive portrayal of deaf characters and turned them into characters no better than members of a hate group targeting anyone who isn’t just like them.
