“And All We Had Was A Moment” (Third Quarter Review)

The good news about the third quarter of Season 7? It didn't take nearly as long as the second quarter - it played out over just seven weeks.

And Alex and Sanjay did get back together in the first of those episodes “Clean For A Day”. At least I think they did – Alex did talk about getting closure, but also said Sanjay professed his undying love for her. So I guess we'll have to wait and see what the next move is.

But that was about it – Alex had very little to do in the other five episodes.

In fact, she had nothing to do in “Thunk In The Trunk” - she didn't even appear in that episode. And while that one was the only Alex-less episode of the quarter (not counting “She Crazy”, the one repeat that aired in the past seven weeks), the lack of Alex in the rest of the quarter's press releases or promo photos left us hanging week by week, wondering each week whether or not we would see her.

Which should never even have been an issue with “The Storm”, an episode which featured the return of Alex's hyperactive CalTech roommate Maisie. Unfortunately, while Alex was there, her role even with Maisie around was disappointingly minimal (they were working on a school project which got sidetracked by a computer fried by an electrical storm, but we saw very little of how the two of them were getting along now that a few months had passed).

And that was still more than we saw from Alex in the remaining three episodes, “I Don't Know How She Does It” (where the biggest thing of note was she was getting a birthday present for Maisie – more on that in a moment), “The Cover-Up” (the first time all season that her role was reduced to two quick scenes at school talking over the computer/phone with other family members), and “Express Yourself” (where her seemingly throwaway line of “I don't matter” spoke a lot more loudly about her role most of the past 6 3/4 seasons than it did in the episode itself).

So, just like the past two seasons, the third quarter really was blah from Alex's standpoint.

And the one question that we had going into the third quarter wasn't really answered. Or more accurately, seemed to be answered in two opposite ways: Has Alex returned home and is commuting to CalTech, or is she still staying at the dorm with Maisie? On one hand, she was at home cleaning her room before going over to Sanjay's house, and she and Maisie were at home doing their project when the power went out (instead of at school which would have been more logical if she was still living there). And she was home studying while Phil and Claire were trying to stay awake last week for their impromptu trip to Paris.

On the other hand, if she was now living at home, why bother getting that birthday present for Maisie? Even if they seemed to be getting along better working on their project, I doubt if they were no longer roommates she'd care enough about Maisie to get her that birthday present (and at least a decent one at that, given she was buying it at Best Buy).

And she was hanging around at school when talking to Luke and Jay about their issues in “The Cover-Up”.

Also, she was doing three weeks' worth of laundry at home, implying (maybe? As I mentioned before CalTech does have laundry facilities.) she had brought it home from the dorm.

My best guess for now, until/unless we find out otherwise? Probably a simple explanation: she's staying on campus during the week and coming home for the weekends.

And with that, we head to the final quarter, with anywhere from 5 to 7 episodes left (I'm still not sure how many – we might start to get that answer in the next few days). How many of them will have Alex stories? Well, I'm not particularly optimistic (and certainly we will have nowhere near as many as we had to finish last season), but hopefully there will be at least one or two.

And I doubt the finale will be one of them – the most plausible (but still highly unlikely) story that I could see is would Alex consider transferring to another school for one reason or another? If this does happen it would be a cliffhanger, since it would probably be tied in to Ariel's real-life college choice next fall (she hasn't announced her final decision).

The other less likely possibility would be a story involving Sanjay, but since the finale almost certainly will involve the Haley and Andy story (either a breakup or proposal, more likely the latter) I doubt that leaves room for a second Dunphy love story that night, although you never know.