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switchedatbirthspoilers · 7 years

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Switched at Birth EP on Finale's 'Family Triangle,' Reunion Hopes and More

Switched at Birth concluded its five-season run on Tuesday in much the same way it started: with a strong sense of family as the Kennish-Vasquez clan laid on their front lawn together, gazing up at a rare comet.

The final sight of unlikely sisters Bay and Daphne splayed across the grass was meant to evoke the “iconic image” of the show’s early key art, executive producer Lizzy Weiss tells TVLine, adding that she hopes the series finale leaves viewers feeling “the same way when you shut it off as you did when you started, that this is a very special family that you wanted to be part of.”

The show’s central love triangle also took a familial turn when, rather than moving to Japan with her boyfriend Travis, Bay asked her ex Emmett to accompany his “brother.”

“That was very intentional,” Weiss says. “There was a lot of discussion about Bay as a young woman and that the conversation kept getting framed as, ‘Which boy was she going to choose?’ and we were are all very sensitive to that. She’s a young woman in her own right.”

Still, Bay and Travis reaffirmed their commitment to each other as a long-distance couple, while Daphne and Mingo reunited. Elsewhere, Regina convinced Eric to turn himself in so they could one day be together, and Kathryn discovered that before the switch was unearthed, John thought Bay wasn’t his daughter, but stuck around anyway.

Below, Weiss talks about her vision for the series ender, the storylines that got cut and the possibility of a reunion.

TVLINE | How much of this ending was what you originally envisioned before you got the news that the show wasn’t coming back?

Lizzy Weiss | There were general decisions that were made, like that Bay and Travis stay together. But I don’t know that we knew the exact moves of the story until we were faced with that in the moment. I always knew that we would shake up John and Kathryn one last time and remind everyone that they’re the center, and they will not be moved as a couple. But a lot of it we decided in the moment after many, many weeks of throwing things around.

TVLINE | The news came down while you were in the middle of production on the season. So were there certain things that you had to speed up or that you didn’t quite get to?

Lizzy Weiss | There were decisions we may have taken more time with. I always wanted to have Toby give up music and choose to move into a career with disability. That probably would have been over the course of the next ten episodes. We did it faster; that’s OK. Speaking of Toby, we wanted to explore that family becoming Jewish, and the Kennishes throwing a Passover seder and how fun that would be. It was more like there were stories and episodes we were bummed we didn’t get to do because we thought the fans would love them. But there wasn’t one big turn where I felt like, “Oh God, that will never be told.” All of the key stuff with the key players, we got to do.

Like with Regina, we always knew that Eric was the guy, and that Luca was for now. And I actually like how it turned out. We did it really quickly. It felt urgent; it felt exciting. She had to make that decision really fast. The elegance of her starting the show as a single mom and ending it with a new partner and a new son was just really beautiful to me.

TVLINE | You said you knew Bay and Travis would stay together. There was never any debate about which guy Bay was going to end up with?

Lizzy Weiss | There certainly was debate. But after much debate, the room felt pretty clear this is how things shook out in the course of the series. It’s not like a hundred episodes ago, I knew this. But a show evolves…. It felt like Bay had moved forward and didn’t want to go back. And Emmett’s become a different guy. He’s going through some rough times, and she’ll always be there as a friend. This choice she made to ask Emmett to go with [Travis], first of all, that was intended to honor the whole heart of the show, which is siblings by unusual circumstances, which is what Bay and Daphne are, and so are the guys. So there was a sweet symmetry to that. It just felt like there was a little bit of a triangle without being a triangle. We know that these three will always be connected. They’ll always be having Thanksgiving together, if Bay and Travis end up together in the long run. They will always be sitting at each other’s table, and maybe it’ll be complicated and weird, or maybe it won’t, but for now, the triangle is not quite a love triangle. It’s a family triangle.

TVLINE | Mingo made a late-in-the-game play for Daphne’s heart. Why did you decide she should be with him?

Lizzy Weiss | You just reminded me Mingo may be one of the only ones that we did have bigger plans [for] in the long run. We definitely were going to take our time and have fun with that story. We wanted the ex-girlfriend to visit and cause some problems. We did have to get there faster. That was one of the things that got shortchanged. But that’s OK. Basically, just Adam [Hagenbuch] and Katie [Leclerc] had such great chemistry. We created him a little bit because we wanted to get Wilke back, and [Austin Butler] was on that MTV show [The Shannara Chronicles] in New Zealand, literally 5,000 miles away… And then Mingo became his own character and delighted us in his own way, and we all forgot about Wilke and became all about Mingo. … We always did intend that they were The One [for each other]. I just love that scene between them at the end where he says, “I’ll turn down the internship,” and her answer is so surprising. He thinks he’s being magnanimous, and she says, “Don’t do that. Take it, teach him. Teach the world.” So I just liked that as a model for the kind of couple they’re going to be. He’s a very, in some ways, traditional guy. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’s going to be talking about disability rights. But if they end up together, he will. And sometimes, those kind of opposites-attract [types] really do work in the long run.

TVLINE | The final image of the show is very sweet — and is not a flash-forward. Are you leaving the door open for a reunion movie or something of that sort?

Lizzy Weiss | Who knows what will happen in ten years, if there’ll be an appetite for it or if everyone will want to do it? But it feels like the door’s open. I would be happy to, if all things point in that direction. If things end up that all you have are 103 episodes to revisit, I’m really proud of those, and I hope that they live on beyond this generation.

TVLINE | Some shows like to go forward in time and show where the characters end up. Did you specifically want to avoid wrapping things up too neatly like that?

Lizzy Weiss | Yes. First of all, we’ve done that a little bit. We did two, even though they were imaginary, very important moments when Angelo died. We saw Daphne in her wedding dress, though we didn’t know who she was marrying, and we saw Bay delivering twins, and we didn’t know if Emmett [was the father] or who.

Secondly, [Pretty Little Liars] was doing that, and they were, of course, quite successful. So we didn’t want to do exactly the same thing since they were doing that at the same network. And — especially, as you bring up, could we maybe have a reunion in 10 years? — I didn’t want to box myself into, “Oh, we already said Daphne’s going to be this kind of doctor.” Or, “We already said Bay does end up with Travis,” or, “Bay doesn’t end up with Travis.” It’s an ending, it’s a period… but there could be a return and a new paragraph in ten years.

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switchedatbirthspoilers · 7 years

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Switched at Birth Boss Breaks Down the Sentimental Final Episode

Switched at Birth began with a pretty insane premise -- two teenage girls discover they were sent home from the hospital with the wrong parents and attempt to get to know their biological families.

It sounds like a soap opera of epic proportions, but in reality Switched was a simple family drama that explored the difficulty of forming relationships in adolescence and trying to find where you belong. The show forged a unique relationship with the deaf community by making several of its core characters deaf and most of the cast fluent in American Sign Language by the end of the series.

The show told stories about coming of age, family, first loves, trauma and strength over the course of five seasons and over 100 episodes. In the end, after all of the drama and the tribulations, Switched at Birth came back to its core family to show the power of love whether you're related by blood or not.

TVGuide.com talked to Switched at Birth creator Lizzy Weiss about the final episode, the show's legacy and where she sees Switched ending up in the future. See her answers below.

TVGuide.com: You didn't have a lot of notice that this season would be your last. What was the most important thing for you to wrap up and address in the final episodes to give the series proper closure?

Lizzy Weiss: First off, it was important to send Daphne off on the doctor path. I flirted briefly with taking her off that path - simply because people do change their minds in college or soon afterwards - but it just felt like it'd be a huge letdown for Daphne Vasquez not to fulfill that lifelong dream. She really is an inspiring character and I do want a legacy of the show to be a deaf woman who becomes a physician. As for Bay, I also wanted to send her off on a career path that felt right - if not forever, then for now - and tattooing is the perfect mix of art and East Riverside and entrepreneurship. That's nature Bay - not nurture - taking over. That's where she was destined to end up no matter who raised her. And then of course we had to answer the Bay Emmett Travis triangle...

As for the adults, John and Kathryn were always the Eric and Tami Taylor (Friday Night Lights) of the show -- the couple who always held it together. They were the central Mom and Dad in a traditional home and Christmas hearth way, and it always felt like we could throw ripples or even tidal waves their way, but they'd never waiver in their long-term love or commitment, and I wanted to reiterate that.

It felt right to point Toby towards a brand new career path that is defined by his child and disability and a path that began in the pilot of the show with meeting his biological deaf sister. And I loved the twist we came up with for Regina - giving her long-term love and commitment but never sacrificing her morals or strength to get that love. We gave her a series of men but Eric is just so solid and sexy and kind, despite his complicated back story, that they always felt right together.

TVGuide,com: I loved the symmetry of Travis and Emmett going to Japan together after Bay and Daphne's life changing trip to China. What inspired that? Do you think that could have spin-off potential?

Lizzy Weiss: Ha! Spin-off, I love that! It was a way to honor the friendship and the brotherhood and the thematic concept of siblings brought together by unique circumstances. It was also a way to send Emmett off into the world on a new adventure. I think photojournalist is an awesome profession for him and I'm excited to imagine him off on that journey. The whole idea of them starting out their careers in a foreign country with each other to lean on just feels open and fresh and fun and difficult and funny and crazy and right.

TVGuide.com: It was really emotional to see Daphne ask Kathryn if she could call her mom for the first time. When do you think that turning point came for Daphne and do you think Bay feels the same way about Regina?

Lizzy Weiss: That was a moment that was in my back pocket for a long time and I always wanted to wait until the end for it. I think Daphne slowly began to think of Kathryn as her other mom enough to call her 'Mom' awhile ago but she held off because she didn't want to upset Regina. And then in that moment, with the nostalgia and the emotions running high, it just felt right and she knew Regina would understand and not be threatened. It just means a lot to Kathryn to hear that - she's that kind of person; being a mom defined her for a long time and the loss of raising Daphne was seriously profound for her. But Regina isn't as traditional and for some reason, I just picture Bay calling Regina 'Regina' forever. It's just a personality thing for them both, plus their initial relationship was always more fraught and more big sister/little sister or aunt/niece.

TVGuide: I am an unapologetic [Bay/Emmett] shipper. If you had more episodes do you think they could have found their way back to each other or does it feel more fitting they accept they were first loves and move on?

Lizzy Weiss: This was the right ending, whether or not we had more episodes. Maybe it's because Bay met (or started dating) Travis later in life, after a lot of the terrible stuff happened to her, and it was just timing - as is so much in life. But the penultimate episode (Travis telling his mom) showed that Bay and Travis are tight. They're strong. They've got the goods to go the distance. Big romantic moves are wonderful but can you go through incredibly hard stuff together and come out stronger? That's an adult relationship.

That being said, the Bay/Emmett montage was really emotional for me. I did it to honor the relationship and its importance to the show and the character and the fans, even though they don't end up together. There are a lot of intense Bemmett fans and I understand the passion because the Bay/Emmett relationship was so specific and unique - I don't think there's ever been a teenage love story between a hearing girl and a deaf boy on TV before so it was in itself romantic and fascinating and delightful. And then of course Vanessa and Sean had such great chemistry; it was undeniably special. But it was a first love and most first loves do not last and that is what makes them so potent and poignant. That first love and first broken heart defines your youth and brings you right back to that time. And when you think about it, it's delirious and erotic and excruciating and wistful all at once. So that final look between them was supposed to be all of that - 'I am remembering all of those moments that no one knows but us - and the power they had in shaping who I am today, and I will always carry you in my heart, even though we go our separate paths'.

TVGuide.com: Is there anyone you wish you could have invited back for the final episodes that you didn't have time to include?

Lizzy Weiss: Yes! We tried to get both Wilke and Ty back, but for scheduling reasons, that wasn't possible. In fact, the creation of Mingo originally came out of a desire to get a ridiculous Wilke energy back for Daphne, and then along the way, Mingo became his own adorable self and, of course, 'the one.'

TVGuide.com: If there's a Switched at Birth reunion in 10 years, where do you see your main characters being?

Lizzy Weiss: That's a great question but one that I will keep to myself for now. I think touching base with this family again would be lovely, but if they go off into the sunset of the fans' imagination, I can live with that too.

TVGuide.com: What has being captain of this show for five years meant for you?

Lizzy Weiss: I talked about Bay and Emmett and first love above, and how intense it is and how fresh and open and present you are, and this feels the same to me. This show was so personal to me. I was there from the first noodle of an idea scratched out on a piece of paper to the last shot of the finale. So sometimes I wonder if any other show will ever mean this much to me or be this magical or intense or bring me this much joy, but that's how you always feel at the end of a relationship, right? No one will ever love you like that again. But then you meet the right person, and they do, and you do, and it's just different.

Which is all to say, it's been transformative, and I'm incredibly grateful to my partners - the writers and actors and the network, and my actual partner on the show Paul Stupin - who was also there every step of the way, as my co-captain. We had a total blast doing it. And we just all feel really, really lucky.

TVGuide.com: Is there any final message you want to give to the Switched viewers and fans?

Lizzy Weiss: Thank you not just for watching and loving it and keeping it on the air for 103 episodes, but for telling me all of the ways in which the show impacted you, both tiny and profound. To all of you who chose a profession from the show, or who spoke to someone at Starbucks for the first time in sign language, or who continued your cable TV package just to watch a show with a deaf protagonist for your deaf daughter, or who said 'my brother has Down Syndrome,' 'I was assaulted in college,' 'I'm black and that is exactly what it feels like to walk across my campus' - I'm so glad you felt heard and seen and validated. The door is open. Keep making your own stories about your own unique perspective on the world. There is so much left to say.

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switchedatbirthspoilers · 7 years

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'Switched at Birth' Creator on Series Finale "Controversy," Scrapped Ending

Lizzy Weiss talks to THR about the all those surprise twists, that last scene and a potential revival.

Switched at Birth ended its five-season run on Tuesday with an eventful 90-minute farewell.

The final episode of the Peabody-winning family drama ended things by looking back at how the series started. The series contained several flashbacks to when the Kennish and Vasquez families – well, almost everyone – found out that Bay (Vanessa Marano) and Daphne (Katie Leclerc) had been switched at birth. At first, it was because Katherine (Lea Thompson) was feeling nostalgic about Regina (Constance Marie) deciding to move out of the guest house. Then, it was because Katherine learned John (D.W. Moffett) had known about the switch before she did – a fight that escalated and de-escalated quickly.

Meanwhile, Daphne stood up to a discriminatory sports surgeon who said she couldn't be a surgeon and be deaf. (And she reunited with Mingo). And despite Travis (Ryan Lane) moving to Japan to pursue a career in baseball, he and Bay decided to continue their relationship long-distance – permanently squashing any chance of her getting back together with Emmett (Sean Berdy).

Regina also figured out her romantic future. In exchange for making Will turn himself in, she offered to raise his son and wait until he got out of prison so they could start their life together in Kansas City. And finally, Toby (Lucas Grabeel) decided to ditch his unfulfilling DJ gigs to some sort of job helping those with disabilities.

After an extended break between seasons four and five – during which time ABC Family became Freeform – and a shortened final season, the final episode was largely one of resolutions rather than cliffhangers.

The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Lizzy Weiss about those finale twists and turns, the scrapped ending viewers didn't see and the possibility of a revival down the road.

The Hollywood Reporter | You mentioned there was a tag you shot at the end of season four that could have served as a series finale. Can you talk a little bit about what it was and why you decided not to use it?

Lizzy Weiss | It would have felt like a double ending. I feel like the emotion of the ending with the big wide aerial shot pulling back on the family and that song… the emotions sort of carried you and then once we tried putting the tag on it, it stopped the emotions. And plus, it was a flashback to the hospital with the girls as newborns and we cast 22-year-old actresses to play young Katherine and young Regina, and it felt like a disappointment to not end on the people that the fans have spent five years with. I hope the network does release it for the fans just in a tweet or a YouTube link because it was cool but it was something that we didn’t end up using.

THR | Another big revelation was that John found out about the switch before Katherine. Had that always been apart of the story for you? How did this twist come about?

LW | To be totally honest, no. When I pitched the show, I was very clear that I planned out that Regina knew and all of the reasons why, and when she found out when Daphne was three, and that she kept it secret so that was kind of baked into the first season. In preparing for the series finale, we watched the pilot again, and we zoned in on that scene in the geneticist's office where Bay and Katherine looked crushed and stunned and as if their worlds have just fallen apart. It was honestly just a choice that D.W. made for John to be the stoic father, but we just zoomed in and thought, 'Gosh, it almost looks like he's not surprised.' So just in the fun of the room, we spun off that: We can't mess with the mythology of Regina. We can't undo the whole show in one last episode, but what if hew knew a week before or two weeks before?

The real intention of the John-Katherine story no matter what story we told, I knew that the end result would be we are re-validating them as the heart and the center of the show in terms of the family, the strength, that is the Kennish home. So we needed to shake them a little and then remind everyone they will keep getting through whatever is thrown at them. it just seemed fun to have.

THR | Another big moment in the finale was Daphne having to deal with the blatant discrimination of Dr. Bannon and her subsequent decision to stand up to him. Why in the final episode did you want to give her this obstacle for her?

LW | We definitely had had a couple run-ins with the face of authority who had questioned her. I felt like we really need to raise the stakes if we're going to bring this up again. We’re going to have to do it with someone who's a lot more blunt about it, and she hasn’t encountered that kind of resistance that much. These kind of doctors are out there, and this kind of arrogance. I always like to raise good questions and these are fair, realistic questions: How exactly would you be a surgeon? How would it work? Though he does it in a very gruff, ignorant way, he's asking questions that she's got to answer. Well, with technology, well, with an interpreter, well, with a little bit of help – and we researched, there are all of these tools. That's part of the message of this show, is that sometimes you do have to make accommodations, you may have to slow down, you may have to use your phone to text, you may have to learn a few signs, you may have to do things a little differently and that's OK in this world. We don't have to make the mainstream world the only way to communicate or live or have jobs. I just liked raising that one last time in a really big, potent, loud way.

I have a friend of a friend who was a doctor and got into a bike accident and became paraplegic and he's still a doctor. You figure it out, it doesn't mean it's easy. That's always been the message of the show: The world needs to bend a little bit and get with the program but not everyone's the same and that's OK.

THR | That also kind of relates to Toby's decision to change careers at the end. How did you decide on that ending for him?

LW | That was always the plan and we were going to take it a little slower if we had had more episodes. We were going to kind of move him along but I think it worked really nicely to have it be an epiphany in that moment. I just loved the idea of this kid changing his life so profoundly not just as a father, but as a person.

THR | One of the biggest surprises in the finale was that Bay and Emmett ended up not getting back together. How did you come to that decision?

LW | Bay and Emmett had true love, but it was first love and they went through a lot together as you do when you're young. Maybe it's just timing, maybe things would be different if she had met Emmett at 21 instead of Travis, but they couldn't shake all of the things that they'd been through. And secondly, the intention of the second-to-last episode, where Bay pushes Travis to tell his mother the truth about what happened was purely intended to really show that this couple is the real thing. They can weather these kinds of storms as adults, that's an adult relationship right there. Emmett was this lovely, romantic, who would do these big romantic things for her but Travis and she are going through hard stuff and getting through it.

The intention of the montage was really to honor Bay and Emmett for everyone, for me, not just for the fans. I love Bay and Emmett, they were a huge part of the series and it was a nod to anyone who's ever had a very intense first love that they thought they would end up with forever but they don't. When you see that person, it's incredibly powerful, and this is someone who helped define who you are as a human being for the rest of your life but you go your separate ways. I teared up working on that montage; to me it really takes you back to all of those moments with Bay and Emmett. I'm quite sure that there are diehard 'Bemmett' fans who will never forgive me and will always feel like it was a mistake but this is how Bay and Emmett and Travis evolved over the course of all the things that happened.

THR | Can you pinpoint a specific moment in the show where you shifted from having bay end up with Emmett to believing she should end up with Travis?

LW | Just following the truth of the characters and the baggage and just some realities of doing the show with Emmett being in LA and we had to throw Emmett into a bit of a tailspin and it would have been hard to get them back together. I do think there is a jerking around of the fans and the triangle that at some point has to stop. As a fan of my own shows, I don't like that either. You have to know when to let go of the triangle and to make a choice. I think fans get tired of that.

Someone else asked me if you had gotten 10 more episodes, do you think you would have gotten Bay and Emmett back together, and I don't think so. This felt right for where the characters ended up. The truth of the story is the past five seasons ended with Bay not being able to go back, she wanted to go forward. Which isn't to say that Emmett isn't a huge part of who she is. That will be a controversy I'm sure, but there's also a lot of diehard Bay and Travis fans. You're never going to win with everyone and we were quite aware of that.

THR | Regina also makes a big move when she moves out of the guest house and gets back together with Eric, even though he has to go to prison first. Why was this the right way to end her story?

LW | I was so pleased with that twist. Luca was lovely but they weren't really soul mates and Eric always felt like her second soul mate after Angelo. He came with this backstory, we couldn't un-bake that from who Eric was and why he appeared in her life the way he did so we had to send him off last season but everyone really wanted Eric to come back in some way and then we really felt like, 'Oh God, we backed them into a corner.' He has this past, he's committed this felony, he has to leave the country, I can't believe Regina would leave her two daughters and go to another country. That didn't feel right even though that was on the table. Then when we came up with this moment of this flashback where her mom says sometimes you have to do the hard thing to get to the right place. … It felt like a great parallel and a great metaphor to have her come up on her own with this solution. Tell Eric, "Do what you got to do, face the music and I will wait for you." And then of course the beauty of her becoming a mom again, to a boy for the first time, just felt so sweet and it felt like we were spinning her off into a new family.

THR | In the end, Daphne calls Katherine and John mom and dad, respectively. Why did you want to include that?

LW | That was in my back pocket. That's one of the few things that I always wanted to save for the series finale. I just felt like it would be a really big moment and I didn't want to slide it in casually. It's a big deal for Katherine. Katherine's a very traditional mom, her identity was a full-time mom for many years before she went back to work and I feel like she's always been secretly waiting for this moment and wanting it but never asking for it because she thought it would hurt Regina's feelings. It was just so powerful for her to hear it. I don't think Bay will ever call Regina mom. Their relationship always felt a little more aunt-niece, big sister-little sister; they just had a more complicated relationship. Regina's a little less traditional. … I just like the distinction between the girls that way.

THR | You had been tweeting a little while ago about wanting to possibly write characters from Switched at Birth into your next show but you weren’t sure about the legality of it. What is the possibility that we'll see Daphne or Bay or someone else from the SAB universe in the future?

LW | What I learned was it's a little more complicated. You can't really do that. Of course I can use the actors again and I fully intend to, but I thought it would be fun to have Daphne or Travis or Emmett pop up as a cousin to this other character I created and link the shows, but I don't think that's legal.

THR | Well, would you be open to revisiting these characters in some sort of revival down the line? Revivals had become such a big trend in recent years.

LW | If in ten years, it is a trend and the network or some network or all of us are interested, of course. We even joke about it now. It would be fun to revisit who everyone's going to be in 10 years, Bay and Daphne as 35-year-olds or even 30-year-olds is just fun to think about.

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