“You-u Said 'Hey, What's Your Name?'” (First Impressions - “Patriot Games” - Season 6, Episode 22)

Well it took me a while, but I finally got a lyric from Avril's song "Smile" into a post title...
 
OK, calling my thoughts on the press release for this episode as “First Impressions” is more than a bit of a stretch, since I've been basically discussing this episode for almost two months, but since that's what I've been doing with them all season...

Anyway, here's the money statement from the release:


Alex's worst nightmare is realized when she gets news that she has to share the Valedictorian title with her number one competitor, Sunjay! Both sets of parents get equally caught up in the rivalry and convince Principal Brown to let them break the tie via a gym grade they both have not completed - a one mile run.


First of all, I'm not sure if I've been misspelling Sanjay's name all along (that is the most common spelling of it, although I think Sunjay can be an uncommon but alternate spelling). I'll keep referring to him as Sanjay for now, but we might have to wait until the closing credits to find the correct answer.

Do the kids have any input into this tiebreaker taking place? It sounds like a case of the parents butting in – I could see Sanjay's parents doing this given how driven they are, but that seems out of character for Phil and Claire (especially when it involves Alex) unless they're provoked. Remember how earlier in the year I thought we might see a “Romeo and Juliet” scenario play out between Alex and next door neighbor Ronnie Jr. and their parents? Maybe this is why we never saw that – they may have been saving it for this story.

So what's my early take on how the race plays out? I really doubt Alex will win the race outright, but not because Alex is a girl and Sanjay is a boy (Alex did play lacrosse earlier in the series and we have zero idea of Sanjay's athletic prowess, so Alex isn't automatically at a gender-based disadvantage). I'm basing it more on the fact that the season finale on her graduation day will have little or nothing to do with the ceremony – if she's not valedictorian then there's not much point in showing it since her only role at the ceremony would likely be walking up to receive her diploma (unless she wanted to go all Kanye on Sanjay when he'd give his speech). That and Alex hasn't been allowed to win a lot of anything this season.

I think the more likely outcomes are either she loses, possibly as a sacrifice to win Sanjay's heart (or maybe first he guilts her into losing because of how he lost out to her on being valedictorian back in middle school), or it ends up in a tie (possibly they'll decide together to just finish the race and cross the line together out of new-found respect or new-found love).

I'll guess it's a 50% chance Alex loses, a 40% chance of a tie, and a 10% chance Alex wins. I'll still be rooting for that 10% chance, but I won't be bitterly disappointed if she loses, unless... (You'll have to tune in for the “Upside/Downside” post in two weeks for that, although you can probably guess what I think the worst-case scenario is.)

One disappointment about the press release: no mention of who's playing the role of Sanjay (the guest star listing simply says TBD) – maybe they don't want anybody (like me?) Googling his name to see what he looks like.

And, finally, one non-Alex note: now I probably see why this episode is now titled “Patriot Games” - I forgot Gloria was trying to become a U.S. Citizen in this episode while having to deal again with her ex-husband Javier.