Photo courtesy of ABC Family

Last Tuesday night’s Switched at Birth, Write a Lonely Soldier, was quite interesting, to say the least.

Between Bay’s continuous contacts with Ty, the parents’ lawsuit against the hospital and the introduction of Travis, an already complex story line becomes even more complicated.

While there’s so much to say after Tuesday’s show, I want to point out my disappointment with Daphne’s utter shock at the revelation that Travis’ parents don’t know how to sign.

I understand that Daphne lives in an ideal world where her mother and grandmother sign, but isn’t 16 a bit old for someone to realize that not everyone has it as “good” as she does? I realize there are extenuating circumstances, but a significant number of deaf and hard-of-hearing people go through similar situations all of the time.

Unfortunately for the deaf child, hearing families don’t always learn to sign, and I’m hesitant to believe Daphne hasn’t been exposed to this. It has been suggested through conversation with my friends and family that Daphne’s social circle is quite small, but I find this hard to believe because she attends Carlton and is able to interact with other deaf and hard-of-hearing students. There had to be a point in Daphne’s life where she interacted with a parent of a deaf child who didn’t know how to sign – like during sleepovers, birthday parties and play dates.

However, I will say I’m quite pleased the Switched at Birth writers are able to make “lemonade out of lemons.”  Travis’ story began with a young deaf gentleman who seemed to be quite angry at the world, for reasons unknown to the viewers. As time went on, we learned that Travis was facing numerous obstacles at home and these were contributing to his overall frustration.

Nonetheless, despite these challenges Travis faces with his parents, I’m happy he’s on the right path now after John decided to give him a second chance at the car wash.

The moral of the story: everyone has their own story.

Purple Digital Media Coordinator Corey Axelrod is a regular contributor to the Purple Blog. Watch for more reviews as Switched at Birth season two continues! Corey’s views and opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Purple Communications. Follow Corey on Twitter @coreyaxelrod.