“I Must Take The Baby Steps 'Til I'm Full-Grown” (First Impressions - “Perfect Pairs” - Season 11, Episode 3)

I was beginning to wonder if there was even going to be an episode on October 9th, since as of last night Modern Family was the only one of ABC's Wednesday night comedies not to have one posted.  However, this afternoon, I found it.

And while we still don't have a “big deal” Alex story in the near future, at least she finally gets a mention:

”Phil, Claire, Alex and Luke love having the twins around, but taking care of them is exhausting!  However, when they realize the babies might help them with a few things on their to-do lists, they offer to give Haley the day off... “

The obvious takeaway from the above is this: It looks like Alex's stay in Antarctica will be (thankfully) relatively short, as she'll already be back by at the latest the third episode (barring the unlikely event that she hasn't even left by then).

As for her role in this episode, I'm at a loss to figure out what possibly could be on Alex's to-do list that could be helped by two babies.   Bill's not in this episode either so it probably has nothing to with their relationship (on or off), but, I can't write that possibility off entirely.

I'm not done posting yet tonight – there's some more clarification from the power(s)-that-be about Alex this season and I'll post my thoughts on that (and predictions) later.