John and Kathryn Kennish are out of sync. This isn’t a new
development; ever since the season three premiere, their lives have been
woefully fractured, with Kathryn busy searching for a new purpose and John busy
searching for any sign that this political career he fell into was the right
path for him, neither one talking to the other about their respective emotional
states. When looking at the state of their fractured relationship, it’s fairly
obvious that something had to shock them back into each other’s emotional lives
again. But although the why was obvious, the how—Nikki’s mother Jenice
leaning over after a shared moment with John and kissing him—was
impossible to predict.
Let’s just be frank: John Kennish is having a rough season.
He’s been shockingly unfeeling toward Kathryn’s attempts to connect with him
about her struggle to find purpose. He was openly bigoted toward Kathryn’s gay
friend, Renzo. And his somewhat nasty streak continues in this episode, as he is so wrapped up in his
own professional worries that he never even bothers to ask Kathryn what her
big, exciting book idea is about, then gets angry with her when she calls him on
it. It’s tough to watch, especially because all of these things happen before
we really get any sort of inkling why John
is acting this way. The only person who actually gets John to open up at all
turns out to be Nikki’s mother Jenice, whom John runs into when helping Toby set
up his new apartment and strikes up a quick friendship. It’s her he tells that
the Republican Party leaders in his state disinvited him from riding on the
party’s private jet to the convention. It’s her he gets vulnerable with about
his failings as a politician. And that’s when the kiss happens. Hell, it’s
mostly why the kiss happens.
It’s not hard to understand why John is having such a hard
time connecting with Kathryn and choosing to reveal his secrets to a near
stranger instead. Confiding your failings in people who expect things of you is
difficult, maybe one of the most difficult things in the world. Kathryn is
pulling away from him, mostly because her new life journey conflicts with the
more rigid place John expects her to hold in his life. When those two things
are combined, friction is bound to occur. But that doesn’t mean the slow
destruction of John and Kathryn’s relationship is easy to watch. That doesn’t
mean him being short with Kathryn, uninterested in her new life, and reluctant
to discuss his own conflicted feelings about his life path is right, either. But it
does feel frustratingly real. John stopped the kiss. Jenice realized what she
did was wrong. But Switched At Birth
threw a match into the gasoline by having Regina see the kiss through a window
and misinterpret it—something that’s great for previews and cliffhangers but
can drive everyone crazy in the process.
Also out of sync are Bay and Tank, whose storyline finally
goes to the place I really, really did not want it to go: a romantic place. It
seems Tank has developed quite the crush on Bay and she only realizes it when
Daphne points it out to her and advises her to let him down swiftly and easily.
The idea that Tank is harboring secret feelings for Bay isn’t shocking—she’s
smart, funny, cute, and a lot of fun to be around—nor is the idea that Bay is
completely oblivious to those feelings. But it’s like Bay says when she is letting
Tank down: She has no male friends. (Heck, she barely has any female friends.)
She’s on the other side of two pretty rough relationships. Her relationship
with Tank has been delightful throughout the season because it was so simple
and pure, and this realization he doesn’t feel the same way she does takes all
of that simplicity out of it. Something about the last scene, where Bay’s hand
gets severely cut and he so generously and genuinely helps her, makes me think
there’s more to come here, more layers to this relationship yet to be peeled
back. Will Bay have a change of heart? As much as it is disheartening to see
yet another male/female relationship on television refuse to stay platonic,
Tank remains a really nice addition to this show. He just fits, even if he
ultimately ends up fitting in a different place than where he fit at the start
of the season.
As for Daphne, her
story with Sharee finally moves into a new place in this episode. Their
relationship has thawed considerably since its antagonistic beginning (mostly
off-camera, unfortunately) and that thaw allows for the show to dig a little
deeper into Sharee’s home life. Surprise: It isn’t great. Sharee’s mother
(played by the always-welcome Erica Gimpel) turns out to have severe problems and may be mentally ill. Sharee desperately begs Daphne to not tell any of
the authority figures at Carlton what is happening. This is where things get
tricky, which is where Switched At Birth
shines. On the one hand, Sharee’s home life is none of Daphne’s business. On
the other hand, as intelligently pointed out by Regina, Sharee is just a
teenager. She’s not equipped to handle what is happening to her mother, either emotionally
or physically.
Sometimes decisions that are right feel
wrong. Sometimes people who need help can’t help themselves.
Daphne is very obviously doing the right thing by reporting Sharee’s home
situation. But this will have extremely negative
consequences for Daphne, at least in the short term. But although Daphne has
made terrible decisions in the past, she’s a good person who knows the right
thing to do—even if the right thing is all wrong for her personally. And it’s
this space between right and wrong, easy and difficult, consequence and folly, where
all the best stories live.
Stray observations:
- Carrie Wikis Some
Art: Have You Really The Courage?,
Henry Clarke, illustration from The
Shepherdess And The Chimney Sweep. - Another out of sync couple: Toby and Nikki, who might be
staying in Peru an extra six months. Nikki, you just got married. Be an adult,
come home, and go to Peru again later if you still want to help. - My favorite small moment of the episode: Regina bringing up
Daphne’s ability to be easily swayed by the people around her, specifically
mentioning Jace, and Daphne’s subsequent apology for how she behaved last
summer. I like when shows have a good memory. - Will this hand injury affect Bay’s ability to paint? (And
did they really need to call an ambulance for a cut on her hand?) - Is Kathryn really going to write a book that can be
described as Nine Innings of Grey?
Dear God no. - Bay: “Did you see that? I think I understand
sports now!”