“Vacation, All I Ever Wanted”

Welcome to the first pre-show thread of Season 8. For those new to this site, what I do on the morning of each new episode is post my thoughts on what I expect to happen that night. I'm still tweaking the format a little bit (I have a new section to add but it will probably be at least two weeks before I need to use it) but basically it's the same one I used last season.

Then later that night I'll post a recap with my thoughts on how life went for Alex (technically I won't be posting a recap if the episode is Alex-less, but I'll probably say something anyway). The earliest I will ever post this will be at 12:31 Eastern (U.S.) time, so as not to spoil anything for west coast viewers (obviously if you are reading this outside of North America then you do so at your own risk, as I have no clue how long it will be for other countries to air new episodes).

So with that out of the way, what are my thoughts on tonight's season opening “A Tale of Three Cities”?

Anticipation Level: Medium. It is not a coincidence that I am on vacation this week while Alex is on a vacation with her family in New York City. It's been 4 months since the last new episode, and I wanted to make sure I didn't have to work on opening night, so I took the week off. So, yes, even though this episode will not be the most important one of the season for Alex, I'm still looking forward to it.

Obviously with so little known about what will happen tonight I'm pretty much flying blind, but I expect Alex to have at least a little something to do tonight.

Emotional Moment Potential: Low. The scenes in New York will almost certainly be played mostly for laughs. When everyone gathers for the Father's Day celebration this might change, but I doubt it. We'll probably have to wait for next week for anything really heavy for Alex.

(Quick note for new readers: If there's even the slightest chance an episode will go Alex-less then I'd would next have a section in the pre-show indicating how much of a chance I think that would happen. Obviously that's not a factor this week (or next), so you'll have to wait a couple of weeks for that.)

(And this is where the new section will go, again, probably in a couple of weeks.)

And now back to our regularly scheduled blogging:

Are There Any Other Questions?  

Will whatever happens to Alex this week play a part in next week's mononucleosis story? It's highly unlikely – the trip to New York will have taken place in mid-May, and next week's episode is probably set closer to now, since Alex already will already be starting her sophomore year at CalTech (based off all the books she's already going through while sick). I'm pretty sure that's more than enough time for mono to run its course if Alex were to contract it while away.

That's about it, actually. It's about time to get this party started (don't ask if I should not stop believing).