“Is There Anything Left In This World That Will Satisfy Me?”

I'm never happy when Alex goes missing from an episode, especially when she was the only one not seen¹. Even when I all but knew it was coming.

But I'm really unhappy about tonight.

By not having Alex be with her family at a big moment (Luke getting accepted into college, even if he has, for now, decided not to go because of how he got in), it almost feels like the show may be trying to send a message that she doesn't care about her family (of course that's absurd – she has her antagonizing moments with them but deep down she's very caring as they all are), as if to turn her fans against her (hint: it won't work, at least on me).

Even worse, they didn't even mention her once (again) – at least tell us where she is when everyone else is gathered around.

Am I being overly paranoid about this?  Probably, but given how I've felt the show often gives Alex the short end of the stick I do wonder if there is something deeper about her absence than just a simple case of the show giving Ariel a random week off.

I guess I just hate how they can give the people who hate Alex another excuse to do so, not to mention the crushing irony of possibly casting her in the worst light when she's not even there.

Another troubling thought: I wouldn't be surprised if tonight wasn't the last Alex-less episode of the season – I think there will be a #20 before we're done in May (this time I'd better be wrong).

And with that, it's break time – there is a rerun next week (“Ringmaster Keifth”), and I'd bet there will be more the week or two after that (there's only 5 episodes left and 9 or 10 weeks left in the season). It's also the end of the third quarter – I'll recap it at some point.
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¹ Heck, even Larry showed up for the first time in a couple of years (or did he?), although we didn't see Stella either (she was still busy burying parts of the East Coast, I guess).