After five years and over 100 episodes, Switched at Birth aired its last episode on Tuesday night. In it, each main character received a final ending, especially Bay and Daphne. The series finale contained multiple flashbacks from season one as a final goodbye to fans. It also showed us how far the show’s gone since its beginning in 2011. The one-hour drama delivered season after season in educating the audience in deaf culture. More recently, the conversation opened up towards controversial topics like rape and race. But the series finale proved it’s more about where the story would end, or how the main characters would start a new story.
Bay and Travis
The story came to a close with Bay’s aspiring tattoo artist career just starting to take off, finally giving her some confidence towards her artistic future. For the past two years, she’s also been stuck in a love triangle of sorts with her boyfriend, Travis, and her ex-boyfriend, Emmett. In this episode, it finally resolved when she decides to go the distance with Travis, letting Emmett go to Japan with him.
Some fans have very strong feelings about both but ultimately, I’m happy that she stayed with Travis. It just wouldn’t make sense for her to suddenly go back to Emmett, despite their tumultuous love story. More than that, their complicated relationship made for some great stories, but it also meant they spent more time fighting than they did loving each other. Bay and Travis weren’t free from complications, but it didn’t completely take over the nature of their relationship.
Everyone Else’s Ending
As for Daphne, she kept on with her dream of becoming a doctor, regardless of the fact that she’s deaf. In the last episode, she encountered yet another person telling her she couldn’t be a doctor. The only difference this time’s that it came from a very esteemed doctor, making her doubt herself yet again. But her foster mom, Regina, reminded her that Vasquez’s don’t give up. That scene overall’s a sweet way of seeing them connect again the same way they’d been in the beginning.
Furthermore, the other main characters also got their own ending. Regina takes a chance on love by deciding to raise her ex-boyfriend, Eric’s, son Will after he’s arrested for kidnapping him. But in his defense, he only kidnapped him to keep him away from his crazy ex-wife. Toby, on the other hand, decides he wants to involve others about down syndrome in his career. The motivation behind it’s sweet, as he wants to create a better future for his son, Carlton. As for John and Kathryn, Kathryn finds out John knew that Bay wasn’t his daughter a month before everyone else found out. Regardless, it becomes clear that John stayed, even after thinking his wife cheated on him. With that concluded the encompassing message the show’s always been about: family’s family, biological or not.