“You'll Go Along With And Then Drop It” (Season 8 Wrap-Up Rant)

I feel like Season 8 for Alex can be summed up in two words:

Why bother?

“These Are The Pros And Cons Of Hitchhiking” (“The Graduates” Recap)

Yes, that's a weird lyric for this post, but I'll get to that later.

“Will We Still Remember Everything We Learned In School?“

Season 8 wraps up tonight with “The Graduates”. No, contrary to what Alex said to Jay the day she got accepted into CalTech she did not graduate in 2 years, so tonight isn't about her. I suppose we can hope that when Season 10 (and, in all likelihood, the series) ends she gets to go out with one last big commencement speech, but, hey, let's not get ahead of ourselves – back to tonight:

“If I Could Turn Back Time” (“Alone Time” Recap)

So, now that the future is settled, let's go back to the present (at least I don't need 1.21 gigawatts to do that...)

"We'll Fast Forward To A Few Years Later"

Well, two years, anyway - it will be at least that long before we have to wonder about how Modern Family ends.  How much we see Alex the next two years remains to be seen - this should take her through graduating CalTech hopefully.

“We're At Full Circle”

A longer clip from a scene at the Dunphy house from tonight's “Alone Time” has been posted to Twitter:

"Tell Me What's On Your Mind"

A couple of quick notes/thoughts:

Alex appears in the promo commercial for Wednesday's episode so no worries about her missing any more episodes this season.  My expectations are still pretty low but at least there's something.

I kind of gave it a glancing mention in my recap a few nights ago, but the more I think about "All Things Being Equal" the more unhappy about how sub-optimal Alex was intellectually portrayed in it.  They really made her out to be not her usual smart self.

Finally, also last Wednesday, several of the cast members (including Ariel) attended the  season ending episode/Emmy consideration screening.  At that screening, there seemed to be a cautious optimism that there would be a ninth season.  And Ariel mentioned she wanted to see Alex's role evolve more into life as an adult, so if there is a ninth season she does expect to be back.  I still wouldn't be shocked if things fell apart at the end (I would assume we'd find out this week or early next week what happens), but it is looking better.

“Who's Gonna Drive You Home, Tonight?” (“All Things Being Equal” Recap)

Well that was underwhelming, and that's being generous – if this somehow does turns out to be Alex's final story it barely will even rate as a “last yippee”.  She wasn't totally just a piece of scenery as has been the case a couple of times previously this season, but it was close.

“We're On The Road To Nowhere(?)”

I wish I could say that the past four weeks since the last new episode have flown by, but, not really.

Anyway, we're finally at the final three episodes, starting with tonight's “All Things Being Equal”. Sadly, it looks likely this will be last episode this season (if not ever) with any sort of Alex story, barring a hidden story in the final two, which seems highly unlikely¹:

"School's Out Forever(?)" (First Impressions - "The Graduates" - Season 8, Episode 22)

There are no real surprises to be found in the press release for the final episode of the season.  As expected the main focus will be on Manny and Luke, while there doesn't appear to be much going on for Alex (there is one promotional photo in that link that shows her and Haley getting a little emotional - I'm guessing it has something to do with whatever speech Luke gives as class president).

So the season is going to go out with a whimper for Alex after all.  There's still no word on whether or not I'll have to substitute the word "series" for "season" (hence the question mark in the post title).