Grace and Gerry are all over each other on the kitchen
table – which is so unhygienic. Jude just turns around and walks away. Hannah
tries to rescue her toast but abandons it – until Stella comes in with a strong
“excuse me” and Grace collapses in embarrassment. Lots of friendly poking of each other’s love
life, led by Hannah (and Jude puts whipped cream on cereals. I am torn between
envy and horror) AND she picks up on the need to clean up after the chopping
board make out.
Stella asks Jude if she can give her the numbers of all
the girls she was trying to set Stella up with who she turned down, Hannah
wants to borrow £20 off Stella (and needs a job) – it’s these constant little
friend interactions between the characters that really works. Grace wants Jude
to teach her how to be cool around Gerry, but Jude is getting irritated by
Grace and Gerry (and Gerry’s lovely half-nakedness) everywhere.
Jude gets a tweet from the Cricklewood coven – one of her
friends wants a tutor for their daughter to make sure she gets into a good
coven - Stella laughs at how pretentious this is but Hannah leaps at the
chance. Using a quick switch to boost
Hannah’s reputation, she easily gets a job tutoring witches.
The pupil arrives with her mother – who’s working 3 jobs
to pay for a massive amount of extra tuition for her daughter – and not just in
witchcraft. And the daughter turns out to be demanding and treats Hannah like a
servant. And becomes increasingly more condescending and shirty to Hannah when
she thinks she’s not getting her money’s worth. Hannah realises that the girl,
Tuppence, is really educated, but has never been in a coven before, which is so
odd at age 15.
And she’s never had a coven because she’s never had friends and she’s never had friends because she’s so spoiled.
Grace tries to be cool around Gerry and… fails dismally.
Finding out that Gerry is making posters all days she bothers Jude for some
pens so she can show him how nice she is. Jude, again, tells her to relax and
not be so obsessed with him. Poor Jude.
Well Jude has had enough of this frustration and calls up
a booty call, Mike. He arrives and they, noisily, get down to business. It’s no
strings attached and he can’t even remember her name. As Mike leaves, Jude sees
Gerry and Grace playing and having fun – not having sex – and feels
dissatisfied with just the sex call and asks Mike to stay. And they have sex
again – and Jude and he finally talk and learn what they both do. And, at the
end of a meal, Jude asks Mike to go out with her.
They have nothing in common and, as they hang out with
Grace and Gerry in the kitchen, it’s clear they know nothing about each other
and the awkwardness abounds. But Gerry leaves and Grace has a crash of
confidence.
Which is when Hannah brings Tuppence out to practice
having friends. After failing with Jude and Mike, Hannah brings Tuppence to the
insecure and worried Grace – which doesn’t help Grace at all.
Stella is efficiently organising her speed dating. She’s
harsh, efficient and really funny (and beautifully shoots down the man who
interrupts her lesbian speed dating). Still she returns home disappointed. Just
as Grace convinces Jude to ring Gerry (Jude doesn’t understand why she wants
Gerry there all the time). Which is when Mike gets call from his colleague
saying they haven’t got funding – and he completely loses his shit and destroys
his phone causing much concern through the house.
Later, he notices a traffic warden heading towards where
he is parked and leaves in a hurry. Jude and Hannah worry – a worry that is
heightened when he returns with blood stained hands, he’s more than a little volatile.
Jude breaks up with him, he demands a reason and she makes up a boyfriend, on
the oilrigs who has just returned. Volatile and emotional, he says he’ll talk
to him, that Jude deserves better. He demands to meet her boyfriend – and she
says he’ll be there at 8:00
Tuppence continues to try and form friendships with
Stella, since they’re both Earth elements and both agree that other elements
are just far too sensitive. She fails dismally and ends up mortally offending
Stella and making her insecure about her fat arms. Tuppence locks herself in
the bathroom. And Grace decides to be even more clingy with Gerry and go follow
him to his rehearsals. When Gerry tries to avoid her meeting his bandmates, she
loses her temper and storms off.
At home Grace is full of doubt and insecurity and Hannah
suggests a truth Switch so they can find out how Gerry really feels – Stella’s
on a date so Hannah asks Tuppence, another Earth, to help. Over with his band,
Gerry starts telling the truth to his bandmates. Including things best left
unsaid.
Stella goes on her date – and is stood up. When Janet
arrives, her boss who is awfully flustered when she notices Stella. She claims
she’s leaving, that she’s been in a meeting with a new client. She has a drink
with Stella when she realises she’s been stood up.
After several drinks and Stella ranting about being stood
up, Janet agrees and reveals she never had a meeting at all – she had been
stood up as well. She decides no-one stands her up without getting an abusive
email and sends one off on her phone. Stella’s phone beeps. Yes, they’re both each other’s date. Janet
isn’t gay but after 40 years of no meaningful relationships she says she’s
interested in both (would it have been that hard for her to tick bisexual?)
Stella sets her up with the man she was speed dating with earlier – because
they both love cats.
At the flat 8:00 comes round and Jude’s “boyfriend”
arrives to confront Mike. Aaron, her friend from work. Aaron acts tough and
then Mike steps on his toe and Aaron squeals and whines. Jude snaps an confesses to being a
commitmentphobe, she’s not ready to settle down with anyone. She’s such a
commitmentphobe she’s not ready for her friends having relationships. Grace
asks if she’s jealous of her and Gerry and she says yes – she’s jealous of him
having Grace follow him around, she doesn’t like who Grace becomes around him.
She will be, but she’s not ready yet, she just wants her friends.
Gerry arrives with lots of wounds on his face where he’s
clearly had a disagreement with his band members. Still under the truth spell
she tells everyone that Jude puts the normal rubbish in with the recycling. He
says that Hannah confuses adventures with running away from her problems. And
he didn’t introduce Grace to the band because they’re a bunch of “indie twats”
and he was ashamed of them, not her. And also that he wants to have a no
strings fling with Grace but he fell in love with her last night – hard truth
shared, the spell is lifted (destroying Tuppence’s Ipad).
Tuppence’s mother arrives and is stunned by many of the
things Tuppence did but is astonished that Tuppence cast a spell with Hannah’s
coven. Tuppence also insists she wants to join the “right” coven not the “best”
coven. Hannah gives Tuppence her fee and tells her to go out with her mother as
a friend. Tuppence mother is ecstatic because she’s never see Tuppence like
this and as they leave they throw all the extra-curricular notes in the bin.
Jude talks to Hannah about Grace – she feels like a bad
friend for not being happy for her but is worried that Gerry will change
things, especially as they’ve just got Hannah back. Hannah digs out all her old
photos and tells Jude that their coven changes all the time – and that’s what
keeps them strong. Hannah is stressed because she’s trying to find a picture of
her first Switch her mum took and can’t find it – Jude wonders if she’s missing
more than the photo. When they’re all gathered together, Hannah asks if anyone
knows where her mother is.
While Grace and Gerry are interesting I also think that
Grace, she who had to deal with the ultra-clingy Joel, could have had a sharper
learning curve.
I do like how Switch pushes home the message of money not
buying everything. The four witches have an excellent, fun and caring
friendship despite not having a lot of money and we constantly see extremely
rich, over-achieving people who are so much poorer in their lives – first with
the Kensington witches and then with Tuppence. There’s a strong emphasis on the value of
friendship and of going for what you want and need (good friends) rather than
pursuing empty ambition.
I think they brushed over Janet too abruptly, they made
her possible bisexuality sound more like desperation of ever finding someone
and being afraid of being alone than anything – and is it that? Is it a
straight woman who is so lonely and so afraid of being alone that she’ll date
women even though she’s straight? Either way, it needed expanding, ideally.
Aaron is completely and utterly a GBF, everything he does,
everything he exists for is to serve and help Jude all the while being a terrible
stereotype.
