This week's Switched at Birth episode,"What Goes Up Must Come Down, had me in tears by the end of the end of the episode, and I think you know why.

First, let's address the other stories. By those, I mean the ones directly impacting the Kennish family.

Daphne is in hot water with Coto over the blackmail situation and I don't know how she's going to get out of it. It's pretty obvious he knows and - short of Jace taking the full blame via his blog in some sort of man-of-honor story - she's going to be caught. Whether she's nabbed by her friend Parker, Coto himself or her father or someone else, it doesn't matter. What she did was wrong. 

It's bad enough that we live in a world where lobbyists bend the ears of our politicians for special needs groups - and where politicians not only listen to them instead of their moral compass, but have badly broken compasses to follow. That doesn't mean using what you know about them should be levied to change a vote that affects the people no matter how much you believe in it. For everything you believe with zeal, another group believes the opposite just as much. 

It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out in the end, but somehow I see Jace protecting Daphne's part in the passion play, even though she broke things off with him despite her complicity.

Given Bay's long-standing pretenses to be a liberal thinking girl living on the edge, I was surprised at her suggestion to use her father to try to get Ty's deployment changed in some way. Not because she's all for the military, but because she doesn't seem the type to want to lean on government to get anything done.

Ty's little survivor trip didn't help their relationship as he thought it would. At first I thought he meant for them to spent the night on top of that tower. She was worried about going pee in a hole in the ground; how about a bottle in front of your boyfriend to feet away? But, alas, he just wanted her to jump off. What the hell? That's crazy talk. I would have been just as angry and hurt as Bay, and she was right to think he was testing her. Her reply about what it felt like when he thought she was dead was right on the mark.

If nothing else, their experiment seemed to get them on the same page and he's now willing to try to work to stay closer to Bay. John doesn't think much of Ty, though. Which is ironic, since he seemed enchanted with Jace, and look at the path he's taken Daphne down.

We had about five minutes of material relating to Nikki and Toby, which seemed strange in with the rest of the stories of the evening. We met Nikki's mother, who admitted she knew about Nikki's dad and the drugs, but there never seemed to be a right time to tell her. The best thing to come out of it was they nixed the church wedding and are going for a low key Kennish property festivity. And yet, I worry.

Now let's talk about my emotionally tugged heart strings. The day had come for Emmett's dad, Cameron, to get his cochlear implant. Melody and Emmett were there for him and met his girlfriend, Debbie, and the implant specialist was a cool guy, which made the whole experience a bit easier for everyone to take. They were all friendly and in the moment.

Cameron was noticeably nervous, but Melody and Debbie got along well, which helped, and Gabe seemed interested in Melody,which made things even better. I was on the edge of my chair waiting for the programming of the device to take. As each pass was made and he couldn't hear anything, I worried that his greatest fear would come true - it just wouldn't work. Then, with Debbie at his side, the device began to work and he heard her voice for the first time, and then his own. I was holding my face and so excited for him. Is this how it feels for an actual deaf person to hear for the first time?

As if that wasn't enough, after Emmett had some time to adjust to it, Cameron went to their place to listen to his son play music. Music! Emmett sat behind his drum kit and, not sure what to play, just chose a beat. It was the first time he had played for his father. I welled up with tears. There was something so magical in the moment and I was so happy that Emmett didn't turn away from it embraced it instead. Sitting with his mother and father, playing drums. One of them hearing it and one feeling the beat. 

It was beautiful.

Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.