A heartfelt ABC Family drama about two teenage girls who were, well, switched at birth seems like an unlikely place to find a fanciful flight into an alternate reality, but that’s just what Switched At Birth did in season two’s “Ecce Mono.” When family patriarch John suffers a heart attack, he falls into a coma-induced dream detailing what might have happened if he had found out about the switch when the girls were toddlers, which turns out to be his worst nightmare. Being raised under John’s roof with no connection to her deafness turns biological daughter Daphne into a vapid rich girl desperately searching for her identity, while non-biological daughter Bay flounders in Daphne’s shadow. When Bay’s biological mother, Regina, loses the connection to her daughters and then dies, both Daphne and Bay lose faith in John forever. Deeper than the average “What if?” scenario, this episode isn’t just a collection of in-jokes; it uses the characters’ emotional narratives to inform both the alternate and actual realities, emphasizing the show’s commitment to exploring how this family was meant to parent these girls together. The result resonates even after John wakes up.
