The third episode of "Switched at Birth" season five, "Surprise," begins on a joyous note after last week's intense outing. Toby and Lily are returning home to Kansas from London with Baby Carlton and they have a big surprise in store: they're getting married that very same night at the Kennish house. As the whole family begins to prepare for the upcoming nuptials, Regina decides to reveal her relationship with Luca, her younger classmate, to the family. John and Katheryn are over the moon. Bay discovers a huge secret Mary Beth has been hiding from her and Daphne fights PTSD.
Let's dive right in then, shall we?
Once it's announced that Toby and Lily want to get married right away, everyone jumps in to help out. Daphne gets ordained and Bay is happy to be her brother's best man. Lily, however, is over stressed and while conversing with Kathryn, we learn that Toby's successful DJ gigs have taken him across Europe, which means he spends less and less time at home. Having a child with special needs takes consistency, something Toby hasn't been able to provide. Kathryn tells her its okay to talk to him about it. Just before the wedding, she catches him watching football when he said he'd be working. All of her bottled feelings rise up and the two of them get into a huge fight that ends with Toby woefully calling his bride-to-be a momzilla. Never a good idea to do that!
At the ceremony, Lily isn't swayed by Toby's beautiful vows and lashes out. She speeds up the wedding and as soon as its complete, she walks away. Luckily, the newly wed couple get to sort out all of their feelings. Toby reveals to his wife that his gambling problem from years ago resurfaced and he lost a ton of money. It's the only reason he's been working so much, to make it all back. Meanwhile, Lily confesses she never imagined herself to be a stay-at-home mother and is jealous of Toby's professional goals. They realize their problems are also because they're living in a new country. The best solution is to move back to Kansas so Lily gets her old job at UMKC back, Toby decides to cut down on his work to spend time at home, and John and Kathryn are elated to have them stay.
I missed Toby so I was glad he got such a huge storyline and I'm glad they're staying because it means more time with them as the show progresses towards the end. Lucas Grabeel and Rachel Shenton were wonderful to watch in Toby and Lily's confrontational scenes.
Meanwhile, a day before Mary Beth, aka Travis' ex-girlfriend and her good friend's birthday, Bay decides to surprise her with a vintage ukulele as a gift. Their initial conversation when they bump into each other doesn't go well and Bay really wants to win her friend back. When she goes to deliver her gift, however, she discovers another big reason why Mary Beth has been so distant. She's seeing Tank, Bay's ex-boyfriend who was central to season 4's campus rape storyline. Naturally, Bay is extremely pissed and shuts down all of Mary Beth's explanations, including how they it all started. She's straightforward and asks her friend to break up with Tank. Her request is met with silence.
Travis, upon finding this out, makes a beeline for Mary Beth and Tank and has a heated argument with them, which ends in Travis telling his ex, "you're a horrible person." To clear some of this confusion, Tank visits Bay and lets her know about Mary Beth's mom's failing health. Bay, seeing as she has no choice, visits her friend and learns about her mother's heart attack and how she blames herself. For now, the two know they're dating each others exes. What they don't know is where they go from here. At the end of all of this, Travis offers to spend the night with Bay but she lies and says she has to work when, in fact, she goes over to Emmett's to check up on him. Lying to the boyfriend is usually the first sign of a downfall in the relationship. I think Travis and Bay could really make it work but her history with Emmett will most definitely try to consume her.
Vanessa Marano has truly grown into her character and was lovely to watch, especially when she breaks down in disbelief in front of Mary Beth.
As for Daphne, who's still reeling from the effects of her and Mingo's photo going viral, she experiences nightmare's about Bay's deteriorating health in China from Japanese encephalitis. She can't talk to anyone about it because her family doesn't know just how dangerously ill Bay had become during their 10-month trip. She becomes pretty paranoid when Bay tells her about having a stomach ache and neck cramps. Not knowing where to turn, she lets out all of this to Luca, who helps her understand that she's facing PTSD. It has resurfaced because of everything she went through on campus and especially because of her huge fight with Iris.
When Luca accidentally blurts this out to Regina, the whole family finally finds out the truth and confronts the two sisters. Daphne breaks down and blames herself for everything that happened to Bay, and she's the one who gets all the comforting because Bay tells her she didn't realize how this would impact Daphne.
Katie Leclerc is a good actress but her character is usually to entangled in herself. Even now, it's Bay's health at the center and yet, she's the one who's becoming the focus. It's no doubt she suffered alone watching her sister almost die, and that's hard, but I truly hope there's some more character growth for Daphne before the show ends. She's gone through so much and seen some of the toughest plots this show has doled out, but her character still needs to grow from playing victim almost always.
Another thing this episode cemented is Luca's importance in this final season. Regina opens up about her relationship with him to John and Daphne, both of whom are incredibly supportive of her. This surprises her, but I don't see why it should. He's proven to be a good, solid man who doesn't care about the age difference between him and Regina and was more than willing to meet the family. Hopefully, this story doesn't take a dramatic turn.
What did you think of this episode? How happy were you to have Toby back? Did John being the funnier element of this episode surprise you? And whose side are you on, Bay or Mary Beth?
