The Image Disappear

Sad or even emotional is too small of a word to describe this episode. Shocking is too weak of a word to describe this episode too. Who would have thought that killing one of the main characters in the middle of the season would be something we would see on a TV Show, especially on Switched at Birth where no one ever died.

How do I even begin to comment on what happen in this episode? Guilt ran all over the characters memories while we see great father and daughter scenes from Bay and Daphne’s imagination of what would be the future with Angelo in their lives. Needless to say that those scenes were the most touching ones apart from the grand final scene. Also, apart from the family and the needed extra cast for the hospital staff, school test “director” and police, the only other character appearing in the show was Emmett giving Bay, once again, the support she needed. Bemmett fans all over were in heaven for a small moment in this so dramatic and sad episode when the writers and producers decided to have Bay dreaming about her future as a pregnant woman of twins in labor waiting for the father of the babies to get to the hospital in time to see the birth of their children. For a while now, there have been many mentions of Bay being pregnant of Emmett and many, if not all, of the Bemmett fans want to see them getting married and having children, if not now, in the future as it was showed in this episode. The actual dream scene never revealed who was the exact father, but the reference of Emmett’s favorite movie (Alien) when Bay was in contractions saying she was feeling like the person in the movie right before his stomach was about to explode and the wake up of the dream to see Emmett in the hospital by her side was enough of a hint that the future father of Bay’s children is or will be Emmett. What I also noticed during that dream was how much Bay knew the French language. Few scenes before that she was asking Angelo to practice with her, and in the future if he was there with her, she would have had the time to practice and would be as fluent as she was during the dream.

As I mentioned before, the characters were all feeling as guilty, in a way or the other. Regina felt guilty for letting him go when she found out about the switched 15 years ago. She could have had all these years with him in her life but she was too stubborn or proud to let him know he was right about 1 thing, Daphne was not his daughter. John felt guilty for not lending Angelo some money to help him out, he tried to “fix” that by doing all he could to get him the best diagnosis and paying for his hospital and treatment bills, up until then thinking he still had a chance to survive. John was afraid that Angelo decided to commit suicide after talking to the police officer and his guilt raised up even more as he thought he could have prevented that if he had loaned him some money. Instead he was happy to see Angelo in misery and it was thanks to Kathryn that he could raise his head up again as she once again reminds John that he is human and as this show has mentioned over and over again, all humans make mistakes. Daphne guilt feelings came when she left him at the hospital to go take the SAT, she could not concentrate to the test and ended up leaving it undone. That may have some consequences in the future, it was her last chance to take the test and get the higher score she needed to get into pre-med. As for Bay, her guilt was to ignore him even though he was living so close to her, she hadn’t reached out to him since summer. Yes, they had dinner with the family and seen each other, but nothing really meaningful as their father-daughter relationship should have been. Toby, Emmett and Kathryn were the ones with a little more strength and focus minded being the ones that supported the other characters all around throughout the whole episode. Kathryn not only helped John but Regina as well. Kathryn is the kind of woman that breathes in problem and breathes out solution, kindness and support. Could it be because her firm belief in the “supreme being” as it was shown on this episode? Maybe yes, but regardless of religion or beliefs, Kathryn strength and, most important, friendship is what has always kept the whole family together, no matter what they go through, she is the glue who kept them as a family.

There were so interesting twist and many assurances of the characters throughout the story lines. Daphne lip-reading skills was sharp as always gave her the bad news of Angelo’s condition throwing Bay’s anger out of the point. Regina and Bay are real mother and daughter, on both past episode and this one, they act exactly the same way on the same kind of situations. The “fast mouth”, the denial, the stubbornness. We have repeatedly mentioned how much Emmett and Angelo are alike and how Regelo and Bemmett relationship are so similar, and these past 2 episodes just proved our point of view once more. (http://bemmettsabplanet.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-dos-and-donts-part-1.html ,  http://bemmettsabplanet.blogspot.com/2014/02/memory-is-your-image-of-perfection.html ,  https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&srcid=0B5JYlugfMBG4OFRvVHNJTF9wRXc) Even in dreams Regina can find a way to imagine Angelo acting like Emmett did and Bay has been doing. The “season motto” “We will figure it out” came on this episode on Regina’s dream of reconciliation with Angelo 15 years ago. It was also interesting to see how every time Bay needs to find something about Angelo is Emmett who helps her to look for it. First was the car, now the mother’s phone and ultimately the last will, but we also know Bay will continue to look for answers, so it is very probable that we will see him helping her again in a future episode.

The whole season is a big twist on everyone’s life, either for good or for bad, but in every episode we have the plot twist, and this episode was a bit bitter counting that we were all hoping that Angelo would survive somehow. The writers gave us a little bit of hope right in the beginning when they show us the Angelo was almost waking up and all would be fine, but in a biggest change of event, he just went from bad to worse. That was mean to us, fans. We wanted to believe there was still hope for Angelo.

On a more technical level, I was wondering what Angelo’s mother was saying to him on the phone. Once again, where were the captions (or subtitles) for the ones who do not speak French? That is the 2^nd time we cannot understand completely that beautiful moment when a mother shows how much she loves her son, either when is just supporting a teenager scared of his father new marriage situation like on episode 14 when Melody had to comfort Emmett after Cameron’s wedding and baby announcement, and now this one, when Angelo’s mother was saying good bye to him.

On another technical level, I particularly love the directing and angles. Director Wendey Stanzler is amazing, the way she captured the feelings on the actors’ face is so deep that I’m sure about 99% of the viewers were crying the whole time. By the way, if you all noticed, there were barely 2 scenes where no one is crying, meaning we saw about 40minutes of tears rolling down on, at least, 1 character’s face. I’m sure they had tons of water on set during that episode to keep them all very well hydrated. One angle that I loved the most was how she captured Daphne anxiety during the test while the phone was vibrating and blinking on the director’s table. That was a great shot. Back to the tearing characters, I was so surprised that even Emmett was crying. We can’t really figure out if he was crying of sadness for Angelo’s situation or for Bay’s feelings about the situation, but knowing the character’s history, we assume it was the second one. We’ve seen scenes where Sean Berdy has tears in his eyes during an emotional scene with Vanessa Marano (Bay), but actually crying that was the first. As he delivered the most inspiring message of the show, we could see his eyes watering, his nose red and his mouth swollen as he cries from the inside. His lines were not just as beautiful as it should be but also comes from his character own experience and history. “Sometimes love means to do what the other person wants, even if it is not what you want” has a repercussion from Emmett’s life history, he had to accept his father decision to get a CI when he was against it, his father marriage, his mother custody decision and most important of all, the space he has to give to Bay while she was “recovering” from his betrayal. During the whole time he wanted to be with Bay, he couldn’t, he had to be apart and far from her, that is what she wanted. She didn’t want to be with him and because he loved her, he had to do what she wanted, not what he wanted. But from those whole experiences of so much love, Emmett was the one who could bring peace in Bay’s heart and make her accept the truth and how love can mean much more than what we can see or feel.

On the good part, we learned a lot about how to handle situations like that. For that alone, we would like to thank ABC Family, Lizzy Weiss, Linda Gase, Terence Coli and especially Kevin Compayre for sharing with us so many good things that can be thought from such a painful situation. The death of a person, especially one close to you, is always painful and really hard to deal with, but the thought of donating the organs should not be handled like Bay did at first. To know that this person’s parts not only will live on but can also save so many other people’s life is one of the most comforting thoughts and feelings. Is the feeling of giving life to the world, bring a smile on someone else’s face and most of all, give them time or a second chance to say good bye to the ones that love them. Regina also delivered another important message; “Life goes on” we can’t stop time or even rewind it, life never stop for us, we need to keep living even it is hard to do so, but be strong and continue to live is really important for anyone and everyone, no matter what situation you are in. As we all know, death comes unannounced and if you don’t use the time you have with someone the best way you can, it may be too late. Anyway can go anytime and the chance to say good bye can be lost. This episode show us that we have to be careful with how we react with people and how we treat them, the love ones or anyone you know. The only thing you leave behind is your reputation, your memory of who you were and your legacy. What would people say about you, how would they remember you, and for what? Are you leaving fond memories or ugly ones? If you or someone you love die today, what would your friends remember of you or what would you remember of that person you love? When was the last time you talked to him/her? Don’t waste time, don’t let opportunity passes by, make sure your day is fulfilled with good memories and make your friends and family fill their memories of good ones from you, everyday, each day. Don’t leave it for tomorrow, make it today!

Here it the promo for episode 16 (next monday)

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