Directed by Jeannot Szwarc
Written by Gavin Harris
Tropes:
- Bury Your Disabled: Andy, a deaf teenager, is revealed to be killed mid-episode.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Miller tells Vera that the reason she doesn't want her daughter to meet her estranged father is because it would lead to the girl asking her questions about her past and who she used to be. If it's any indication, all Miller can say about her past is "If [her daughter] knew the truth, (...) it would break her heart."
- Deaf Composer: Andy plays piano despite being deaf, though he learned to play before he lost his hearing. Emma points out the similarity to Beethoven.
- Disabled Snarker: Andy, whose Establishing Character Moment involves taking Emma down a peg after lip-reading a phone conversation with her father, in which she described the residential school as Dickensian.
- Fantastic Racism: The episode is a microcosm of the divides and the difficulties that can occur between the hearing and the deaf; Emma's father opposed her relationship with Andy, feeling that he should be with his own kind, with Andy's parents initially expressing similar sentiments, especially when Andy reveals that he is considering getting a cochlear implant, with Andy's mother stating, "You'll be neither deaf nor hearing. You'll be nowhere." The dean mentions that apathetic parents simply dump their deaf children on the school, Emma's father disparagingly calls Andy a cripple who will just drag her down, Andy's father has an important job supervising people but is too "limited" to advance any further up the corporate ladder, Leah calls Emma a "hearing slut" and similar insults, and Carlos dislikes people with cochlear implants due to self-pity and envy, even calling Leah a "freak" for having one (something which Andy's father feared would happen to his son).
- Green-Eyed Monster: Carlos didn't qualify for a cochlear implant since he was born deaf. When he saw Andy with his new cochlear, playing the piano and hearing music, happier than ever, he blindly smashed Andy's head with a metronome in a rage.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
- Andy's parents didn't want him to get a cochlear because if he became a "hearing person", it would mean he would be ashamed of his deaf parents. But his father realized that if hearing music again would bring Andy joy, he had let him go after it.
Father: I had to let my child go... even if it meant losing him.- Also in this same scene, this leads to Miller having an epiphany to follow this trope to heart. Throughout the story, she's been reluctant to let her daughter meet her estranged father because it would mean dredging up Miller's Dark and Troubled Past. But here, she realizes part of being a good parent means letting her daughter meet a part of her family she's never had before.
- See also Leah's mindset under next trope.
- If I Can't Have You…: Leah had this attitude when Andy broke up with her. Subverted, as she adopted an if-you-can't-beat-em-join-em mindset instead and got a cochlear for Andy, knowing he'd choose the hearing world.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Maybe it was a bit brusque of Andy to tell Emma she didn't care about the deaf students as much as how it would affect her application into a good school. But she later confesses that he had her pegged about not having good intentions.
- Parodies for Dummies: One of the detectives is briefly seen with a book entitled "Sign Language for Dummies".
- Stalker with a Crush: Emma saw Leah staring up at Andy's dorm window day after day after their breakup.
- Take That!: When Emma compares Andy to Beethoven, he calls Beethoven a "kiss-ass who only wrote for the rich".
