The Dance Of Joy

Don't let my two week silence on the subject of Switched At Birth fool you, I have grown to adore this show.  I even found Bay marginally likable last night and in the previous episode.  Considering I was lukewarm at best on this one at the outset, you may be wondering what changed my mind.  In a word: Emmett. 

The show has started to find it's footing and refine the personalities of the characters, mostly dialing down the ways in which they were complete assholes.  They'd done that with nearly everyone already but then last week, they even let up on Bay's awfulness and let her just act like a normal person.  The main difference? She was now interacting almost exclusively with Emmett.  Emmett has magic powers.

This week the snooping that Bay and Emmett did last week led to the discovery of what Bay believed to be her biological dad.  The two then make a plan to go confront him at the club where he DJs and then they dance with each other in what may be the cutest bit of cuteness I've ever witnessed.  Once we've all recovered from Emmett's dancing, he and Bay invite Daphne to come along.  Daphne is not having it because once a person abandons you, you're often less than anxious to meet up for a chat.  But after her weekly (and AWESOME) silent fight with Emmett, she thought it over and changed her mind. 

The three of them headed off to confront Bio-Dad.  Emmett talked them into his place of employment (yeah, you heard me) and then Daphne laid into him and then he was like "um, I'm gay. But you seem really nice."  So, scratch private detective off of the list of possible careers Bay should look into.  The girls and Emmett stopped for food and a talk and Bay requested that Daphne find the guitar case that Regina flipped when she and Emmett snooped around years earlier.  Daphne bristled. 

The next day at school, Daphne confronts Emmett (silent fight number two!) and asks him what's going on with him and Bay.  He's all "why, whatever do you mean?" and she rightly calls him on how he was crazy adamant that she shouldn't date Liam because deaf people can't date hearing people and now he's getting super flirty with Bay.  He promises that there is nothing going on between him and Bay...and then he tracks Bay down at school, tells her he likes her and kisses her pretty awesomely.  Bay does not protest because while she is super annoying, she clearly isn't stupid. 

Meanwhile, Daphne waits until Regina is out of the house and then she snoops into the guitar case again.  It's locked so she goes through a zillion or so combinations before she finds one that works (229 - which happens to spell out "Bay").  When she opens the case, it's full of pictures of Bay growing up and information on her grades over the years.  It's clear that the thing the hospital knows about Regina that's going to make a lawsuit troublesome for the Kennishes is that she's known about the switch for many, many years.  Daphne is devastated, I'm shocked and the rest of the peeps on the show are going to split wide open with various emotions next week.  I am really excited. 

Also last night, the Kennish 'rents found out that Toby stole and then participated in the sale of test answers as a means of paying of his astronomical gambling debt.  Then Jones, who remains incredibly cute even this far away from Life Unexpected, took the fall alone and let Toby off the hook because even though he's kind of a shit, he's not a total shit.  That's why I'm supportive of his road to redemption including a relationship with Daphne.  Oh, right, Toby. 

Once Toby is off the hook, he completely fails to take any responsibility for how his serious gambling habit paired with how really, really bad he is at it are fucking shit up so Bay does the sisterly thing and sticks her nose in.  She goes to Regina (with Daphne) and then Regina lays some hard truths on him about how he needs to deal with his addiction and he kind of acts like a dick about it for a while and then finally hears her.  So he confesses to his dad and admits he has a problem and blah blah first step.  Please don't take my "blah blah" as an indication that I don't take addiction seriously because nothing could be further from the truth.  I'm just trying to speed this up.  I actually think this resolution is the very best thing about the Toby Gambling storyline. 

And finally, Kathryn remained in a snit about Regina dating the ex-husband of her bitchy friend and Regina remained in a snit about Kathryn being up in her business and then Katheryn found out that the ex-husband in question was sleeping with both Regina and the bitchy friend and she told Regina - but not in a "told you so" kind of way so much as a "seriously, he's kind of a pig" kind of way and Regina was like "bitch, butt OUT!"  Then Regina asked Ex-Husband and he's all "yeah, I'm bangin' half the ladies in town, what of it?"  So Regina dumped him and then she and Kathryn decided they're friends.  At least until next week when Guitar Case Gate unleashes hell on the show. 

I. Can't. WAIT!