'Switched At Birth' season 4 spoilers: Bay and Tank's drunken hook-up tackles rape and consensus, family, friends and campus administration will be involved
"Switched At Birth" featured an explosive season four episode as viewers watched a lost and disheveled Bay (Vanessa Marano) wake up to find herself in bed with her ex-boyfriend Tank (Max Adler). With no recollection of the night before, Bay asks Tank, "But did I say yes?" to which Tank replies, "But you didn't say no." This conversation has led viewers to explore the topic of rape, consensual sex and how there is no rule to defining what is consensual and what isn't.
The show's creator and executive producer, Lizzy Weiss, explained that she wanted viewers to start a conversation around these controversial topics, in an interview with Zap2it. "There are many, many rape stories and many different ways to tell rape stories. They are all valid and interesting, and should be told, but we didn't want to tell a story that had been told before", Weiss said.
While Tank and Bay are dealing with how they would define the events that transpired that night in a drunken stupor, episode six titled "Black and Gray", will deal how everyone reacts with what happened between the two. From Bay's parents to the campus administration – everyone will present their opinions and discuss what happened.
In a discussion with TVLine, Lizzy Weiss revealed that a rape activist shows up on episode six and cajoles Bay to be a part of the movement. Bay realizes she must talk about it now, especially when everyone has an opinion about it and share her personal story in order to move past it. Episode seven will focus on how Emmett deals with the situation. Weiss reveals, "Emmett finds out, and he has to be honest about how he feels and he has a lot of issues with it and the fact that it was her ex-boyfriend, the fact that she was drunk, the fact that they were in a big fight".
Episode six airs on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015 at 9 p.m. EST on ABC family.