“A Baby Changes Everything”

There's a sneak preview for tonight's Christmas episode (“Stuck In The Moment”) on People Magazine's website that brings Alex deeper into Haley's story.

It seems that poor Alex having to keep the secret about Haley's pregnancy has caused her to become a nervous wreck, to the point that some of her hair is already turning gray.   (It's not a lot though and frankly I could barely notice it.)  She's keeping that a secret for now by wearing a hat.   Right now it looks like they're playing that part of the story for laughs - we already have a serious (pun not intended) contender for line of the night at the end of that preview.   But will it stay that way?

Anticipation Level:  Medium to High.  In one sense that sneak preview actually diminishes this slightly.  It was a long shot, but I was hoping that Alex might drop her own bombshell (e.g. either she too is pregnant, or she and Bill got engaged, or maybe even eloped and got married), either to upstage or to take the heat off Haley's announcement to the family.

The chance of that happening now seems virtually nil, as I'd suspect Alex wouldn't be nearly as uptight about keeping Haley's secret if she had a secret of her own to keep.  The only way I see that happening now is if it turns out Alex was lying to Haley and Dylan about what was causing her hair to turn gray, or she decides to lie and make her own shocking "announcement" anyway to save Haley from incurring the rest of the family's wrath.

Still, that Alex will have at least a small part (and maybe more) of Haley's story instead of just randomly being at the holiday get-together will have me counting down the hours until 9:00.  And it is the last episode before the holiday break (either 2 or 3 weeks – I don't know yet if they're coming back on January 2nd or January 9th, or possibly even later¹.  So this is another one of those “I'll take what I can get” weeks, especially with the busy season at work getting into full swing leaving little to which to look forward after tonight.

Emotional Moment Potential:  High.  Well we know Alex is stressed out again, so that's already a bit of an emotional moment right there.  How much more we get depends on whatever fallout happens after 1) Haley reveals her pregnancy to everyone and 2) Alex finally ends up revealing her gray hairs (I'll get to that in a second).  I did say earlier that the above scene hints they're playing Alex's part of the story for laughs – that could still easily change (and maybe even if it doesn't – it certainly wouldn't be the last time I got emotional watching an Alex story that ostensibly was being played for laughs).

Game Changing Potential:  Low to Medium. Again, the preview actually lessens the chance of a game changing moment, again because there is now almost now chance of Alex having big (real) news in her own life.

98% of what potential is left lies in how the rest of her family might react to Alex's changing hair – will they be worried enough to suggest she go to a therapist (again) or something else?

1 9/10% lies in what little remaining chance there is that Alex will have her own announcement.

Are There Any Other Questions?  Will Alex get to sing again like she did the last time the show had a Christmas episode 3 years ago?   I highly doubt it, but even if nothing else big happens I'd love to see/hear it.

And, as for that last 1/10% percent of game changing potential, picture this (admittedly extremely unlikely) scenario: What if she does sing, and Dylan becomes so impressed he manages to talk her back into pursuing a singing career (the one she put on hold a few weeks ago on Jay's advice)?  Yeah, I'm going way, way, WAY out on a limb with that one.

There's a lot of speculation I've just done here, and usually speculation adds up to very little.  We'll see just how little later tonight.
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¹ Not likely but not impossible – unlike last year ABC will probably want to have new episodes for most of the February sweeps weeks (no Olympics this season), and there will only be 12 episodes left after tonight.

Plus, if this is still going to be the final season (negotiations for an 11th season are still ongoing, and actually going better than expected, so this may yet be moot), they'll probably air the last 2 episodes together as a one hour special finale (like last year with The Middle), thus needing even one less new episode before that.