“Didn't Wanna Leave You With The Wrong Impression” (First Quarter Review)

Time flies when you're having fun. And sometimes when you're not. I wouldn't exactly call the first quarter of Season 7 fun for Alex, but it was interesting (and very emotional, for the first 3 episodes anyway) – a lot more than I had any right to expect.


It began with “Summer Lovin'”, with a surprise reappearance from Sanjay (whom I figured we wouldn't see again until much later in the season, if at all), as the two of them went through the summer together, knowing that they planned to have an orderly breakup (because they figured what was the point, since 86% of all long-distance relationships fail, according to Alex) just before they went their separate ways to college (CalTech and Stanford respectively).

But as the time came for that breakup, emotions took over (apparently Sanjay took it harder than Alex, which must have been really bad since she could barely keep from bawling herself) and, after some painting therapy with Mitch, Alex went back to Sanjay and reminded them they were always above the normal in everything and should be able to rise above the 86% and make it work. They ended with a nice hug and all was well (for the moment). It was a pleasantly surprisingly good start to the new season.

One thing that was missing from the opener: no mention of the trip to Europe that Alex and Claire were supposed to take during the summer (the episode made no mention of anything that happened to the family in August, so maybe that was when they went)

There was more emotion to come in the second episode, “The Day Alex Left For College”, which made history by being the first episode with Alex's name in its title. And while it wasn't nearly as Alex-centric as that title would suggest, it had one of the sweetest moments for her in the show's history.

Being her usual low-keyed self (well, most of the time), Alex decided not to make her departure a big deal by leaving home a day earlier than she told her parents. This did not sit well with Phil and Claire when they found out, but Alex did at least give them a chance to hug her goodbye for 5 seconds each (Claire cheated a bit by taking Luke's hugging time which he didn't want).

Once at CalTech (Haley drove her over), she met her new dorm mate, but it wasn't Alaina like we were expecting (from “Crying Out Loud”) - instead it was a hyperactive young (15) genius named Maisie, and, while Haley liked her, Alex did not. In fact, Alex was about try and get a new roommate when Haley intervened, telling Alex she should be happy to have someone younger looking up to her, just like an “annoying little know-it-all” roommate used to look up to Haley (even now I question how much Alex ever looked up to Haley, but seeing what it led to I'll forgive the debatable continuity), especially now that Alex was probably nervous about being in a more challenging environment.

This led to that sweet moment as Alex realized Haley was right, and they had their farewell hug, then when the 5 seconds that Haley thought she had were up, Alex did not let go. I would find it hard to believe anyone would not have their heart melted by the end of that scene.

But now that Alex was officially away at CalTech, the big question of this season started to be answered – what would her role be going forward?

I expected almost nothing from “The Closet Case” - in fact, at first I thought all we would get is Alex Skyping to someone (this was before I rechecked the promotional photos and found there would be at least one “live” scene with Luke and Manny at her dorm room).

What we got instead was Alex's most heartbreaking moment ever.

The Skype session she had was with Luke, and she was not happy because Sanjay wasn't texting her much anymore. Meanwhile, a girl named Brie was in her room borrowing a dress (Alex has a pink dress?) and, not surprisingly, she caught Luke's attention, and that's what would bring him to CalTech with Manny the next evening.

Later that evening, during their “date” Luke leaves and heads to Alex's room to try and get some gum (he'd settle for mouthwash). There we find a despondent Alex lying on her bed, where she tells Luke that she finally got through to Sanjay, but, unfortunately, he decided to break up with her after just a couple of weeks away, having found someone new at Stanford. Eventually, while Luke tries to console her, she breaks down and starts softly crying, and saying “I am alone” in about as heartbreaking a voice as you can imagine. This was even sadder than when she cried in Claire's arms at the end of “Under Pressure”. Even weeks later, watching this scene makes my eyes misty (if not more, depending on my mood).

The one down note of the episode was the closing credits scene – they tried too hard to get a little of everything by having Alex return home in the middle of the night only to find a soon-to-be-evicted Dylan lying in her bed, then after the hysteria have her go back to being sad and tearful. They really needed to do either one thing or the other.

Nothing would happen in the next episode, “She Crazy”, as Alex wasn't even in it. It remains to be seen if that's just the first of two or three Alex-less episodes, or quite a different number (I still think it's possible, especially later in the season).

I'm still scratching my head at the premise of the fifth episode, “The Verdict” - why are college-aged girls like Alex and Haley going to “Take Your Daughter To Work Day”? And once there, why are they treated like little more than office furniture (i.e. they barely had anything to do)?

The final episode of the first quarter, “The More You Ignore Me”, had all sorts of game-changing potential for Alex that did not get lived up to, but, for once, that was a very good thing.

A key scene was spoiled even before the season started with photos of Alex taking out a case marked “Tequila” from a liquor store. This led to a boatload of speculation on my part for many weeks that Alex was about to get into trouble with somebody which would could have led to her being kicked out/dropped out of CalTech. The only question in my mind would be who would catch her – the police, CalTech, or her parents, and just how severe would her punishment(s) be?

In the end, it turned out to be nothing serious – while Phil and Claire did spot Alex leaving that liquor store, she was only buying ice for Reuben (Luke's dweeby poker shark friend whom Alex was dating on the rebound from Sanjay) who hurt his hamstring playing some silly Harry Potter game or something (though I've heard there may have been a double entendre involved with the use of the word “Quidditch”, especially since Reuben was hiding in Alex's closet for no apparent reason).

One question I did think of after I wrote last week's post – why does Alex still keep a bunch of clothes in her closet at home? She has 16 pieces of luggage to use - surely she could have packed as much as she wanted with her.

I guess the one word I'd use for the first quarter is “surprise” - a lot of things happened which I did not see coming – some good, some not so. “The Closet Case” was the best episode, while “The Verdict” was the worst (of the ones where Alex appeared, that is – oddly it actually was a decent episode except for the story she was in).

So what happens next?  I don't have (m)any clues right now.

There have been some changes in the schedule in the past week. It looks like there's only three episodes left in 2015 – next week's “Phil's Sexy, Sexy House” is still episode 7, but episode 8 is now “Clean Out Your Junk Drawer” (airing 12/2 – this might be the new title for “Playdates”) and episode 9 is “White Christmas” (12/9 – the same night the rest of ABC's Wednesday night lineup airs their Christmas episodes).

It looks like the 10th episode, “Spread Your Wings” won't air until 1/6/2016 – in any event it will not be Christmas-themed as I originally thought, so scratch the ”It's A Wonderful Life” theory I envisioned. Those titles do not leave many hints about Alex's role (if any) in any of them – I'm still holding out hope Christmas might bring some sort of reunion/closure to Alex and Sanjay's story. “Spread Your Wings” probably has the most potential of the rest, but now my guess is it probably will mostly involve the ducklings leaving the Dunphy house (though I wouldn't rule out some sort of tie-in with Alex going back to school after the holiday break).

It's looks like we'll be one episode behind schedule (they've always aired 10 before the holiday break) – will it be made up in 2016? Maybe not – so far it appears(?) that ABC might only be committing to only picking up 22 (instead of the usual 24) episodes of all its Wednesday night shows (except ”The Goldbergs”?) so there might be 2 fewer episodes in Season 7 (I'm not sure if that's normal or not to wait this long to commit to a full 24).  If I hear differently I'll let you know.