“Upside Down(side)” - “Strangers In The Night”

So, after two months I finally have a reason to do another one of these posts, as we have our first episode with an Alex story since “Do Not Push” way back on October 1st (obviously this doesn't include her brief sleep deprivation story from “Queer Eyes, Full Hearts” since there was no notice of that one coming).


This story (Alex says she has a boyfriend, but is she just making one up to placate Phil and Claire?) could go any number of ways (and this is not an exhaustive list – watch them give us something entirely different):

1. She really does have a boyfriend, at least for now (I still think the episode where she goes on a date with a boy played by that guy from The X-Factor comes up later).
2. She doesn't have a boyfriend, but she manages to talk someone into coming to her house and pretend he's it.
3. Same as #2, but it turns out he really likes her (and vice versa) and they become boyfriend/girlfriend (again for now).
4. She doesn't have a boyfriend and can't come up with somebody to fake it.
5. Or they drop Alex's role after 10 minutes and just focus on Phil and Claire questioning if they put too much pressure on Alex having a social life (IOW, they pull a “Baby On Board” or “Our Children, Ourselves”). OK, this last one would seem unlikely, but...

So what's the upside and downside this time?

Upside: The focus of this story is more on Alex than Phil and Claire, and we get either #1 or #3. I don't see this week's story having a lot of drama (though they may save that for that potential date episode a few weeks later), and I really don't see it as a game changing episode for Alex, but I'll take it if we get it.

Downside: Phil and Claire's side of the story gets most of the focus (although maybe not as extremely as #5).  I'll also be a bit disappointed if this turns out to be the episode with that X-Factor guy after all, since who knows how long we'll have to wait for another Alex story? Again, though, I don't think that's the case since he wasn't named in the press release.

If there are any breaking developments (i.e. in a promo) before Wednesday night I'll pass along my thoughts, otherwise, I'll review what happened sometime Thursday.