Spaghetti-Throwing Time

A few thoughts as we approach tonight's episode (“Marco Polo”), and beyond (in chronological order):

• As I noted in a quick entry yesterday, USA Network has finally started airing episodes from Season 5 (I've seen nothing about when these episodes start airing on local channels). Obviously the one I'm waiting for is “Under Pressure”, but it is a mixed anticipation at best. Why? Because I don't know what parts of that episode will be cut from the USA/syndicated airings (about a minute of the original broadcast is removed from each episode to fit it into a 30 minute window). Since Alex's therapy sessions are the longest scenes in “Under Pressure” I'm concerned that the cuts might come from one or both of them. I hope this doesn't end up like “Tableau Vivant”, where they cut Alex's 2nd private camera scene (where she bemoans the B-minus grade she got for her project but is happy that the art teacher she has a crush on finally gets her name right).

• There is one promotional photo from tonight's episode (shown here) which makes me think there might be an emotional Alex moment – it shows Phil giving Alex a hug while sternly glancing at Luke and Haley, while Claire looks on giving them a similarly unhappy look. Either Luke and Haley do/say something not so nice to Alex which brings Phil and Claire to her defense, or maybe Alex is up to something to get them in trouble (or it's a red herring and nothing happens...)

• I have zero idea about this, but I would not be surprised if next week's episode (“Won't You Be Our Neighbor?”) ends up being the first Alex-less episode of the season. I think she's about due to go out of town for a college tour, and with her parents tied up dealing with the new (nasty) neighbors, they may just use that as a chance to keep her off-screen (before the season started I was looking forward to an out-of-town college visit being a potential storyline, but “Do Not Push” probably used up that opportunity).

• The press release for the Halloween episode (“Halloween 3: AwesomeLand”) is out (see it here about halfway down the page). I'm not a big Halloween person but hopefully it will be entertaining (with at least of couple zingers from Alex).

• The titles for episodes 7-9 are out, but there's not many clues in them as to Alex's involvement:

             Episode 7: “Strangers in the Night” (could Alex actually have a date for a change?)
             Episode 8: “Queer Eyes, Full Hearts” (eh – no clue here)
             Episode 9: “Three Turkeys” (presumably the pre-Thanksgiving episode –
               potential fireworks with Alex at the Dunphy house, maybe?)

I think that about covers it – I'll let you know what I think about what happened tonight tomorrow-ish.