“Don't Take Me Half The Way” (Second Quarter Recap)

So, we're 11 episodes down (actually we've been 11 down for quite a while now), and 11 to 13 to go (more than likely only 11 – that's why I'm doing this now instead of after next week's episode) in Alex's freshman year at CalTech (a/k/a Season 7). While the second quarter of the season didn't have nearly as much emotion as the first quarter, it still had its moments.


Actually it had more than I would have expected – there were no Alex-less episodes, and really only one episode in which someone could argue she wasn't much more than scenery.

That would be the first episode, “Phil's Sexy, Sexy House”, in which most of the family headed out to a house Phil was selling which had many, shall we say, alluring features. Even Alex got involved a little bit, as she brought her then “boyfriend” Reuben (I still can't believe I actually had to type that) over for some math tutoring (or so she said...).

Probably the one thing about this episode that stood out was that Alex actually dressed up for this outing – over the past 6 ½ seasons she almost always only dressed up for special occasions (e.g. her graduations, a couple of weddings, etc.). I'd hardly call a date with Reuben a special occasion (let alone the 2 day after Thanksgiving leftover feast which started the episode – nobody else dressed up for that). OK, the dress itself was pretty casual, but it was still unusual for her.

”Clean Out Your Junk Drawer” featured another well done Alex and Haley story (most of their moments together the past couple of seasons have been), with the sisters chatting about their boyfriends (Reuben and Andy). Neither one is very proud of what they are doing (Alex because Reuben is a junior in high school, Haley because Andy was still engaged to Beth at that point) and they decide to break up with their “boy toys” (Alex's words). Alex does go through with her end (though we don't see it so we don't know if she let Reuben down gently or not), but Haley doesn't.

The most pleasant surprise of the second quarter was the next episode, “White Christmas”, in which Alex and the rest of the family head to the mountains for the holiday, only to find the weather a lot warmer than expected (darn metric system). Going in I didn't have much expectation for this episode from an Alex standpoint (my hope that this was going to be the reunion episode with Sanjay were dashed with the press release, and there was no mention of an Alex story at all) or in general (the show's history with traveling episodes has been spotty at best).

But we did get a small Alex story after all, in which she befriended a stranger named Fig whose own holiday family plans went awry, but, more importantly Fig turned out to be an Astrophysics professor from MIT. Unfortunately for Alex, after a while she realizes that Fig is a lot like her, and suddenly she wonders if she is destined to live a similarly lonely life. This led to Alex actually trying to change her attitude about holiday life (before the Dunphys left she wanted to cancel the vacation due to her school workload). However, not surprisingly, the rest of her family would spend most of the rest of the day mocking her efforts to “jump aboard the fun train” (her private scene words).

She did finally win them over though when she and Fig sang “Silent Night” at the piano (OK, Mitch and Cam weren't happy – Fig had overheard them planning to sing that song themselves to make up for a fiasco from the year before, and she stole their idea). This was a beautiful scene (save for Mitch and Cam's snarky comments) and a great showcase for Ariel's singing talent (she really needs to record some more songs when the show wraps up for the season).

And then, we waited. And waited. And waited.

Finally, after the three week holiday break, we got “Playdates”, a decent if not particularly game changing episode, in which Alex and her siblings are forced to scramble when Mitch suddenly decides to redeem a coupon they gave him for his birthday entitling him to a day of fun. It was fun, I guess (they ended up at a couple of famous houses after buying a map of the stars from a sketchy vendor) but not particularly memorable (except maybe the way Alex said “Seriously?” when Haley and Luke started faking being at a gas station to fool a blindfolded Mitch).

On the bright side, it was still a vast improvement over last year's “return from holiday break” episode, the abysmal “The Day We Almost Died”.

We finished with the best episode of the quarter, “Spread Your Wings”. The episode gave us something we have simply not had nearly enough of over the years: a story between Alex and Phil (pretty much the only two others are “The Last Walt” and “The Wedding, Part 1”). And this one showed why we need more of them together.

Phil goes up to CalTech to visit Alex, and the first thing he does is cause pandemonium at a robotics exhibit, much to her chagrin as she incurs the wrath of the captain of the football team (OK, since it's CalTech he's not the most hunky guy in the world, but...). Funny as this scene was visually, the funniest part was a comment Alex made about a chimpanzee playing a saxophone

Things get more emotional after that, though, as Alex confides to Phil that she's having a hard time fitting in at school, and she wants to return to living at home the next semester and commute. But when Phil tries to encourage her to try and stick things out and have some fun (including a traditional high-diving freshman party where the guests dress up in prom dresses and jump into the pool), Alex interprets that as a sign she might not be wanted back home and starts lashing out at him before heading off for class.

Alex and Phil would have one more nice scene together later back at her dorm room (Phil came back to bring Alex some headphones from home she wanted). He tries one more time to encourage her by hearkening back to his college days when it took him a while to fit in, then one day it just happened, but when Alex is still not quite buying it he realizes just how tough things may be for her and offers his support for whatever she decides. They hug (this could have been longer), then Alex looks in the bag with the headphones that Phil brought. Or did he? What she finds instead is a pink prom gown and a pair of diving goggles.

(Phil was helped out a lot too by his time with Alex – it gave him the impetus to finally let the ducklings go and get on with their lives.)

The last we see of Alex is her at the pool, in that dress and goggles, hesitantly standing on the diving board. She jumps in to the delight of the other freshman, and you can't help but be happy to see her smiling as she comes up for air. She later calls Phil (we don't hear her voice) to tell him about it (he was looking out the window, presumably watching to see if the ducklings returned) and you can also see how pleased he is to hear from her.

All in all, it was a very satisfying end to an unexpectedly satisfying quarter, even if it took forever with all of the breaks.

So next week we finally(!) get to the start of the third quarter – what can we expect from it?

The first thing I'll be looking to see is whether or not Alex changes her mind about moving back home this coming semester. Since there is an episode a few weeks out with Maisie returning (her dorm roommate) I think she'll hold off for a little while, but she might yet decide to come back.

And I'm still wondering if she has lightened up on herself a little (between that jump and earlier getting into the Christmas spirit) or is she still obsessed with her school work.  And will we see just how hard academic life has been for her at CalTech?

That episode ("The Storm", tentatively the 16th episode) with Maisie is one of two episodes that I am highly anticipating in the third quarter. The other is the next one, “Clean For A Day”, with the potential return of Sanjay (I still have no clue as to his role in it though – it could still be just a single flashback scene to when they were together). Either way I expect at least one highly emotional moment from Alex.

And with someone playing a college dean in the episode (“Thunk In The Trunk”) that follows there's potential for more interesting things to happen.

The remaining episodes are more problematic – there's still no title known for the 14th episode, and the titles for the two episodes surrounding “The Storm” (“The Cover-Up” and “The Party”) sound more like episodes where I don't want to see an Alex story, since those sound like “someone gets into trouble” titles.

One not-so-good thing I do expect to happen is for at least one (maybe more) of those episodes to be Alex-less. (However, thankfully I'm about 95% sure that my prediction of 6 at the beginning of the season will fall short.) The third quarter of each of the last two seasons have both seen Alex miss two episodes in them (“Three Dinners” [13] and “Las Vegas” [18] in season 5, “Valentine's Day 4: Twisted Sister” [14] and “Closet? You'll Love It!” [17] in season 6).

Also, there's been a bit of a trend of having an episode where Alex gets emotional followed by an Alex-less episode (“Three Dinners” after “Under Pressure”, “She Crazy” after “The Closet Case”). While that probably won't be the case after “Clean For A Day” (since, again, there's a college dean appearing in “Thunk In The Trunk” it's highly likely but not certain Alex will be there), it certainly could come into play after “The Storm”.

Hopefully this quarter goes a lot quicker. It should - there's only 15 weeks left from next week to the probable season ending date of May 18th which should mean no more than 4 weeks without a new episode (again assuming only 22 episodes this year – if somehow they do again end up with a full 24 there may only be 2 off weeks left).

And that's that for now – if anything interesting happens in a promo commercial or a sneak peek for next week I'll be back then. (There were promo photos released for “Thunk In The Trunk” but no Alex to be seen.)