Switched At Birth returns to ABC Family tonight with an all new Tuesday January 13, season 4 episode 2 called “Brace the Waves” and we have your weekly recap below. On tonight’s episode, a premed class is challenging for Daphne [Katie Leclerc], and her interpreter only compounds the difficulty. Elsewhere, Bay [Vanessa Marano] faces the perils of maintaining a long-distance romance with Emmett [Sean Berdy] while meeting the obligations of her sentence.
On the last episode the family and Emmett discovered Bay’s impulsive decision to take the blame for Daphne, and no one was happy about it. Meanwhile, Daphne was determined to prove herself worthy of her switchster’s sacrifice while also dealing with the challenges of starting college. Did you watch last week’s episode? If you missed it we have a full and detailed recap right here for you.
On tonight’s episode as per the ABC Family synopsis, “Daphne struggles with the speed and depth of her coursework, which is made more difficult when her interpreter, Josh, picks and chooses what he will interpret for her. Bay tries to balance her long-distance relationship with Emmett and fulfilling her sentence, all while dealing with an aggressive person on her team. Meanwhile, Kathryn has a meeting with a movie producer about her book.”
Tune in to ABC Family at 8PM EST to watch “Bracing the Waves,” we’ll also be recapping it all live for you right here. In the meantime head to our comments section and tell us your thoughts on season four so far and enjoy a sneak peek of tonight’s episode below.
Tonight’s episode of Switched At Birth kicks off with Bay waking up to text messages from Emmett – he is miserable without her in Los Angeles. She gets ready for community service while texting him and reassuring him that he made the right choice going without her. Meanwhile at college, Daphne overslept on the first day of class and arrives late – the teacher embarrasses her in front of the entire class and tells her never to wear sweatpants again. Her interpreter Josh tags along with her, and Daphne finds out that last year he got in a major fight with her chem teacher and freaked out.
Regina offers to give Bay a ride to community service, she warns Regina that it is on the East side, but she doesn’t care. Kathryn reveals to John that a movie producer is coming over to talk to her – and he wanted John to be there so that he can meet him.
Regina drops Bay off, and then clips someone’s motorcycle when she is pulling out of her parking spot. She heads inside the coffee house to find the owner of the motorcycle and apologizes to him and gives him his tail-light back. Regina scribbles down her insurance information for him and he offers her a cup of coffee. Meanwhile in school Daphne is drowning, arguing with her interpreter, and upsetting the students around her with her sign language.
At community service, Bay is arguing with Robbie’s girlfriend Tessie. She is furious that Bay got him in trouble because they were supposed to move in together in a month when he got out of jail. Now that he got caught with contraband – there is no way he is going to get out of jail in thirty days. At the coffee house Juanita arrives and sees Regina – she freaks out on her about how the redevelopment project destroyed their neighborhood. The coffee owner tells Regina that she needs to get out of his shop – because it is clearly bad for business having enemy number one sitting inside sipping coffee.
Kathryn and John sit down with the movie producer – he says that he wants their story to be personal and emotional, and Kathryn fully agrees. But, then he informs her that it is her responsibility to write the screenplay. Kathryn argues that she writes books, not screenplays – and thinks that he should find someone else to write it. The producer reassures her that she can do it just fine.
Bay and Tessie get in another argument at community service – the guard has had enough of them. He takes them to a pipe – and tells them that there is a dead rat inside and it is their job to find it and bag it up with the other trash. Tessie tries to argue, but the guard tells her that he doesn’t give a “rat’s ass” about her and if she wants to get written up and lose her kid to CPS then she will stop complaining. Regina heads home and fills John in on her run-in at the coffee shop. He reassures her that it will all die down – but until then she should just steer clear of the East Side.
Bay crawls down the pipe at community service to get out the dead rodent that is stinking up their work site. Afterwards she finally gets her phone back – and receives a ton of angry text messages from Emmett who is not happy that she ignored him all day. Tank shows up to pick Bay up, and she fills him in on her drama with Tessie. He gives her advice and tells her that she has to stand up to her and stop letting her walk all over her.
In school Daphne and her interpreter are meeting with the study group. They are all talking at once and Daphne and Josh can’t keep up – Daphne asks them to slow down, and they get irritated and leave and tell her that they will finish the chapters on their own.
At home, John tells Kathryn that he doesn’t like the producer that came to their house and he reveals to her that he is “slimy” and that while Kathryn was out of the room on her phone – the producer hit John up for a million dollars and revealed that there won’t be a movie until they get some funds to support the move. Kathryn is devastated and says that she needs some fresh air.
Daphne and Josh head in to the chem lab and realize that the study group lied to them and is secretly meeting behind Daphne’s back because they hate talking slow for her. Daphne is devastated, but Josh freaks out on them and screams that they are heartless “doosch-bags.” Daphne storms out, and Josh follows after her. She tells him that he is fired, he is supposed to stand there like a robot and interpret for her, not speak for her and fight with her classmates. Kathryn gets inspired by her friend, and decides to turn her book in to a musical instead of a movie and she gets to work trying to make a play for Broadway.
After practicing all night on how to lip-read chemistry terms, Daphne heads to class the next morning. She is surprised when her interpreter Josh shows up, even though she fired him. Josh apologizes for the way he acted and explains that both his parents are deaf – so he is used to fighting their battles for them. He promises that he will only listen for her, and will not talk for her anymore.
At community service, Tessie demands to use Bay’s phone. When she says “no” Tess takes her phone and throws it on the ground and smashes it, Bay sticks up for herself and pushes Tess back and tells her she is done taking her crap.
Regina heads back to the coffee house and explains herself to the owner Eric, she begs him to let her help him with the coffee house. She reveals that she is an interior designer – and she can help him make his shop something that the community will like. She offers to do it for free and bring in some cash – and in exchange she will be able to win back the community.
Kathryn has a new piano delivered – she announces to John that she just bought it. After community service Bay heads up to her room and gets on her laptop to video chat with Emmett. He tells her he is busy and has to run – and she is devastated. At college, Daphne and her interpreter head outside to study. The girl from her study group interrupts them and begs Daphne to come back – because she realizes that she gets advanced notes because she is deaf – so they both need each other. Daphne agrees to come back – as long as they promise to speak slower and more clear.
