“Oooo, This Could Get Messy.”

Oh, boy – things may be about to get awkward.

I finally saw a promo for tonight's “Crazy Train” last night, and Alex appears for about ½ second, grabbing then pulling away (or maybe being yanked by a sudden stopping of the train they're riding) from Manny with a weird expression on her face – I'm not sure if she's happy or repulsed:


I hope this turns out to be a totally innocent moment (e.g. Alex is telling Manny she's happy about something, just as the train hits the brakes) or at worst a complete misunderstanding, and I'm about 90% certain that will be the case, but...

If Manny is making a play for Alex, while it wouldn't be the biggest shock in the world (he's had a romantic thing for Haley at times almost from the beginning of the series, so he's not afraid of using the technicality of the fact that although they are currently part of the same family, Alex and Haley are not blood related to him, and, unlike the somewhat sizable age difference between him and Haley, Alex is just slightly older than him), it still would be very creepy – if on a creepiness scale of 1 to 10 Manny trying to get with Haley is a 10, then trying to get with Alex is about a 9.995¹.

(And, if she's happy when that clip starts, don't get me started on the reverse possibility – for starters it would be absurd on so many levels.)

So what does this do to what I think about tonight?

Anticipation Level: Medium. So now we sort of know what was meant by the press release line of ”Alex gets caught up in the romance of the train herself” - it looks like it would involve actual romance (if unintentional and hopefully not necessarily about her) rather than about her feelings for train travel. That kind of takes a little of the potential out of this episode – I actually would have found the latter more interesting, even if it covered similar ground to “White Christmas (i.e. Alex getting into the spirit of things instead of hating and dreading).

Plus there's the possibility that what happens could theoretically put her relationship with Sanjay into jeopardy. OK, that's not very likely, but stranger things, etc.

Emotional Moment Potential Level: Low. In an episode which appears to be headed for maniacal comedy territory, I was hoping Alex's story would be a counterbalance. That ½ second clip has pretty much erased those hopes. Will it instead be funny enough to compensate for the probable lack of emotion? We'll just have to wait and see.

Do You Have Any Questions? Will we see any hints about next week's finale, especially concerning Alex? Probably not tonight – ABC really hasn't done much to promote the following week's episode during the current episode over the course of the season. We'll probably have to wait until next week for a promo, and even then I don't have high hopes for any hints about Alex and her homecoming.

Once again I'm working until 10 tonight – I'll tweet when to expect the recap to be posted. That won't be an issue next week as I did get Wednesday and Thursday off as I asked.


¹By comparison, on that scale Alex's earlier fling with Reuben would be about a 9.8.