“Don't You Know That The Time Has Arrived”

Weatherwise maybe not so much¹, but in the Modern Family world summer is finally over. The 11th and final season begins tonight with “New Kids On The Block”.  Unfortunately, apparently Alex isn't even an old kid on the block right now – she's in Antarctica (or is she?).

Anticipation Level: Medium.  It is only because it's been over four months since the last new episode that I'm being generous with this rating.   Truth be told, there isn't a heck of lot of reason for excitement – with Alex so far away (and strangely because we know now it's only temporary) we probably won't see much of her tonight.

Emotional Moment Potential: Low.  We know Alex is not happy with what she is doing, so a meltdown is possible.  But I'm not betting on it.
Game Changing Potential: Medium.  Actually, the game change already happened: she apparently sacrificed a government job to go on a humanitarian mission in Antarctica.  Again, if she changes her mind tonight that changes things further.

Chance Of An Alex-less Episode: Microscopic.  The only reason why I have this in at all is we haven't seen Alex in any of the promos for tonight, and with that there is the tiniest (less than 1%) of possibilities all that happens is they mention that Alex is away and not show her (even on a computer screen or cellphone),  I'm not really worried about it (next week, on the other hand...)

Are There Any Other Questions?  Like the rest of me, my brain is on vacation so not really.

Since I am on vacation I will be on my usual recap schedule this week (soon after the West Coast airing finishes so I don't spoil anything), but starting next week the recap posting time will vary (I am definitely working next Wednesday but have a rare Thursday off so next week it will probably be sometime in the wee hours).
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¹There's talk it may hit 90 again next Wednesday, which would be extremely unusual for October here in Boston (officially it's only happened three times, the last in 1963).