“You're A Little Late, I'm Already Torn”

OK, so for most of you the weekend has long since ended, but since I have Mondays off (for now) I still have a few hours to go. So here's my “upon further review” post about “The Day Alex Left For College” I mentioned:

(NOTE: much of this post will be readable from the home page, but I do have some thoughts that involve “that” future episode so, again, don't click “Read more” if you don't want to see them.)

I'll still a bit disappointed by this episode, but the more that I watch “The Hug”, the more I realize how much that scene's ending made up for the rest of the show being not what it could have been.

As for the farewell at home, why didn't Claire go with Haley and Alex anyway? I know Alex wouldn't have been happy, but if Claire wanted some more time with Alex before she let her go she really should have taken advantage of the opportunity – it wasn't as if she was that excited about going to Lily's soccer game.

By the way, unlike with his missing Alex's graduation (the date of which he knew before going on that business trip), here Phil gets a pass for not going – he was relying on Alex telling the truth about her departure date when he planned on when to schedule the open house, and this time a last minute switch wouldn't have been feasible - he had a client relying on him to be there.

Having said all that, I still think Alex should have let them have their moment.

One other thing that I wish happened – I wanted to see one private camera scene for Alex to share her thoughts. She doesn't get many to begin with (e.g. she only had 3 all last year) and now I wonder if she'll have any at all this season.

And now, for the thoughts about how what happened last week may affect the future:






As you may recall, one of the questions I had going into this episode was would there be any foreshadowing about what might happen in a few weeks. My first instinct was “not really” so I didn't mention it afterwords.

But, having had time to reflect, I think there was a portent to trouble: Haley's speech (Don't get me wrong about my feelings about it – that it could lead to something bad later doesn't ruin how beautiful the ending was).

 First, there was her mentioning how Alex put her on a pedestal. Maybe I disagreed with that notion about the past, for good reason (the closest I could think of was Alex faking the canceling of her cello lesson to hang out with Haley in “Someone To Watch Over Lily”). And while Alex seemed to scoff at that as well, could they be hinting at a change in attitude that could lead to Alex emulating Haley at the worst possible time? And what could drive that change?

Maybe it was the other thing that Haley said – that she “knew” that Alex was scared of the possibility she might not be the best in class any more. Assuming that's true (and again I think it might be), could an early struggle to cope with college life (either in or out of the classroom, or both) be the trigger that sends Alex off to get that “package” that could ruin her life?  Earlier I didn't want to speculate on what might cause what might happen (I really still don't as a reason still borders on being a moot point to me) but they may have introduced that as a possibility this past week.

Anyway, that's that for now. There's still time for this whole thing to come into sharper focus.