"How Long Must I Wait 'Til I See You Smile?"

Well, there's no new episode coming on February 1st - "The Alliance" will re-air on that date.

There is actually a logical reason for this, as I found out later - the February ratings "sweeps" period doesn't actually start until February 2nd.  Understandably it would be a waste to use a new episode the day before that important period starts. 

(Of course, if I was as smart as Alex, I would have known to research this a lot sooner than I did.)

The period ends on March 1st, which still gives us up to four chances to get a meaningful Alex story during sweeps (but I wouldn't be surprised if we lose one somewhere).  If we don't...