‘Switched at Birth’ season 4 finale reaction: Show boss on time jump, China move

Given that Monday night’s new episode of “Switched at Birth” was the last one for a while, we knew that the show was going to go out in some sort of surprising fashion. However, what we did not know was that this fashion included Daphne and Mingo splitting up, and her eventually going to China with Bay. Ten months pass at the end of the episode, when some sort of event calls the two back home.

So why make this sort of decision? It’s going to be controversial for sure since it is Bay and Daphne effectively deciding to get away from much of the drama that awaited them and try something different. Speaking to TVLine, Lizzy Weiss said that much of it was just a way to create a new dynamic for a potential fifth season (the finale was filmed long before the show was renewed):

“We just really wanted to add a cliffhanger so that, if we were lucky enough to come back, we’d have something to jump off of. And it felt natural to jump them a little bit, to take them into their futures.”

Weiss also confirmed that you’ll find out more about Daphne’s future in school, what’s next for Bay / Travis / Emmett, and a variety of other stories when the show does pick things up again. She admitted that the split between Daphne and Mingo was one of the tougher decisions that was made:

“That was a very controversial decision in the writers’ room, I can tell you. A lot of the writers felt there should be consequences for Daphne having this emotional affair-type relationship with another guy. It was a lesson that she should learn, and I think we wanted the flexibility to think about what we really wanted to do with Daphne moving forward.”