Yes, This Is Just Fiction, But...

I am really starting to worry for Alex.

It's been a few days since “Queer Eyes, Full Hearts” first aired, and I'm still shaken and depressed how Alex's short story played out. We've see her stress out about her studies before, not just in “Under Pressure”, but even earlier than that, with these being the three most obvious examples:

1. “Our Children, Ourselves” (when Phil and Claire had to drag her outside to the trampoline just so she'd take a break from her intense studying for a test);
   
2. “Tableau Vivant” (when she stayed up half the night preparing her art class project, and even mentioned her “usual crushing workload”);
   
3. “First Days” (where she was already freaking out about her junior year, studying even before it started, and walking around aimlessly at school with her eyes solely on her textbook, just like Wednesday night)
   

However, this past Wednesday night she took it to a new, alarming level, as she spent three sleepless nights studying for a test, and was working on a fourth when Claire finally and thankfully intervened when she saw just how severely Alex's mental and physical state had deteriorated (the way she said “Read it to me, Mommy?” in a voice like a toddler asking to be read a bedtime story was particularly heartbreaking).

Ever since “Under Pressure”, we've waited for some sort of follow-up to her therapy, to see what effect it had on her. Sadly, I think we have the answer: it didn’t help her.

 Not only is she still stressed about her education (and her future), but she's clearly become worse, coming closer and closer to a point where she might just start having a meltdown every day (i.e. what Claire was surprised hadn't happened yet after the school open house). I fear Alex may soon (if not already) need serious help before she hurts herself, either accidentally (e.g. the infamous step breaks again, and oblivious to it, Alex trips and falls down the stairs), or, even worse, on purpose (I don't even want to think about that possibility). I hope it doesn't come to needing something pharmaceutical, but I don't think simple therapy will cut it anymore.

The only saving graces? 1) Modern Family is still more comedy than drama, and right now I don't think they'll go that darkly (if this was more of a drama series I believe there would be a strong possibility of an attempted suicide story later this season), and 2) the writers don't usually give Alex's stories much continuity (normally a bad thing), so this whole story will probably be totally and eternally forgotten by next week and Alex will be back to normal.

A couple of other thoughts about her parents' roles in her story:

At first the only problem I had with Phil's reactions was at the end when he was happy that Claire was wrong about Alex (and Haley), even as he could see that Alex had fallen completely apart. That was to me a totally inappropriate reaction. However, in the past few days, I realize that while Phil was worried about her he could and should have stopped this right from the beginning – once he saw that Alex was unresponsive to his questions, he should have intervened and taken her upstairs to her room, taken away her textbook and told her she had to stop studying and get some sleep before she caused herself harm.

As for Claire, I am still upset that she didn't take Alex's plight more seriously until it was (almost?) too late. She's the one who spent 2 hours in Alex's shoes at the open house and could “barely hold it together”. And yet, seeing Alex bouncing off everything in the hallway with her eyes solely focused on her book did not raise alarm bells in her head? And even after a third night when Alex went sleepless, Claire still thought she'd be fine? To quote Phil, “Why The Face”?

Yes, I'm aware that at the time Claire was worried about Haley's apparent lack of direction in her life.  But at least Haley wasn't causing herself physical problems like Alex - that should have been an overriding factor.

The two of them need to realize that their “self-cleaning oven” named Alex needs serious repairs.