Switched at Birth: Getting Away with It

SWITCHED AT BIRTH: 1.21 “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters”

Where do I start? I don’t even know. I guess I could continue my rant against Emmett. Emmett and Simone clearly understand that they’ve done something wrong, and at least one of them is conflicted about it. Simone is just avoiding the issue, but Emmett’s struggling to figure out what he should do. Clearly, his feelings for Bay are much stronger than Simone’s for Toby, but maybe it’s just because generally we all knew Emmett was a good-hearted kid.

The dilemma of his night with Simone has overshadowed all the other issues he’s been facing. He’s back in his mother’s house, and while they still have some tension between them, he’s not as venomous, and he’s clearly forgiven Bay for her involvement, now that he’s (frankly) done worse. This all confuses Bay, but she’s going along with it, because all she wants is a happy boyfriend.

What surprises me, though, is the advice Emmett gets from his mother. She tells him that Emmett has to deal with the consequences of his actions…but does Bay? That’s what he needs to decide. Of course, I doubt she really knows that her only son is sleeping with other girls on field trips.

Emmett chooses, at least for the time being, not to tell Bay, and I can only see bad things from here. Clearly, this is going to be something that surfaces — I mean, look how sloppy they were at hiding their texts. Wilke found out very quickly through the grapevine of knowing Simone had someone in her room and by picking up the wrong phone.

Speaking of, I personally love Wilke right now. Somehow, Wilke has gone from the playboy fun guy to a standup moral citizen. He’s clearly angry at Simone for cheating on and lying to his best friend (sometimes I forget how far back they go, until he tells a story about their playing cards as kids like he did in this episode). He’s angry on behalf of his friend and Bay, and he deserved to give Simone hell for it. I wonder if he’ll be able to keep the secret himself, or if he’ll eventually decide it’s not worth it.

Either way, it’s going to come out in the open, and I can’t really see this as a forgivable offense for anyone involved. Poor Bay. And Toby. Plus, poor Toby still thinks he’s in the doghouse. Little does he know.

Meanwhile, there’s Daphne, who’s struggling with her own demons, realizing more than ever the childhood she lost when she was switched. I was actually surprised this came to light in this episode particularly; there wasn’t much setup. But I suppose as Daphne continues to see every inch of the Kennish household, she would start to wonder. But you know, I miss happy Daphne. When are we going to get her back?

As for the rest of the episode, Katherine’s still working on her book. For some reason, I care very little about her book. While I realize the reason she’s writing it is to make the real story known, countering the reporter’s book, but part of this still seems self-serving to me. Now, as for the question of John and whether he had an affair back in the day, that’s interesting. I like that we’re seeing that the Kennishes may not be perfect (I’m sure Regina could use that). That’s the part I wouldn’t mind seeing develop. The book? Eh.

Anyway, it looks like next week’s going to be a biggie. I wonder if Bay or Toby find out the truth. Somehow, I don’t think that secret will be hidden for very long.

Southland: Risk

SOUTHLAND: 4.09 “Risk”

I’m a bit embarrassed to say that I missed the last two episodes of one of my favorite shows on TV, and still haven’t caught up to them yet. Southland‘s a bit less serialized than many shows out there right now, though, so I didn’t have much trouble jumping back in to the daily lives of our friends in blue. As the title suggests, the idea of risk plays a big part of this episode. Tang looks like she may be promoted to Sergeant, but first she and Cooper are grilled on her accidental shooting of a young boy, which must have happened in one of the previous episodes. Both Cooper and Tang maintain that the boy’s toy gun didn’t have an orange safety cap on it, leading Tang to think it was a real weapon and consequently causing her to shoot. Since I didn’t see the episode that this happened in, I don’t know if it’s true, but Cooper looked very tense in his interview, so I can’t help but wonder if he’s taking a risk by covering for his partner.

Meanwhile, Lydia still hasn’t told anyone in the department that she’s pregnant. While trying to arrest a suspect, she gets overpowered, stabbed a few times in her protective vest, and nearly killed. Her partner arrives in time to save her, but at a doctor’s appointment later in the day, Lydia notices that one of the attacks must have gotten through her vest, because she has a puncture wound on her pregnant belly. We don’t yet know what this means for the welfare of her unborn child, but we see that Lydia takes it pretty hard. The risk of keeping her pregnancy concealed for the sake of her job may finally have become clear to her.

Finally, Ben tries to help a prostitute (who I’m assuming has made an appearance in one of the episodes I missed) get her daughter out from under the thumb of her pimp. If I’ve learned one thing from all my years of watching cop shows and movies, it’s that pimps rarely take it well when they’re source of income is being tampered with. The pimp in question rolls up to Ben and Sammy’s patrol car at a stop light and opens fire. From here, we’re treated to a great chase scene, which ends when the patrol car spins out in an intersection and gets t-boned by another car. Like many other great Southland scenes, the violence was swift, brutal, and came out of nowhere. The episode ends with Sammy lying unconscious or dead in the driver’s seat, and Ben stumbling out of the car while frantically calling for an ambulance. We’ll have to wait until next week to see how the consequences of the risk Ben took will fully affect his partner.

Two quick notes:

• Tang does get promoted to Sergeant, and I heard Lucy Liu has been cast in an upcoming pilot, so it seems likely that she’ll be leaving the show. That’s disappointing, because I have really enjoyed her interaction with Cooper. Here’s hoping they can find another good partner for me.
• The crazy guy in the golf ball suit was highly entertaining.