"I Can Take Care Of Myself" (First Impressions - "The Long Goodbye" - Season 9, Episode 2)

Not surprisingly, it looks like from the press release for this episode, the title mostly fits the story of Manny heading off for college.

But while Alex doesn't look like she's going anywhere (well, anywhere new, anyway), there is still a story for her, and unusually it's the first story mentioned in the release:

"Phil and Claire realize that Alex may be more self-sufficient in college than they give her credit for when they drop in for a quick visit."

It will be interesting to see exactly in what way Alex isn't considered self-sufficient - I know there was this whole issue with her trying to clean up spilled sugar and learning how to restart a hot water heater in "The Wow Factor" but that was more than four years ago - I would think she'd be smart enough to figure those out, and it's not like she's going to have a bag of sugar in her dorm or be asked to fix the hot water heater.

(Her rat-killing struggles from the even earlier "Moon Landing", OTOH could come into play - especially if her's or someone else's lab experiment goes bad...).

Ben is not listed in the press release as a guest character, so it probably will have little to do with that relationship (which is understandable otherwise this story would be little more than a re-do of the one in last season's "Five Minutes").

The one most likely possibility I can think of - maybe her social life is (finally) getting better?

Obviously the next biggest question (and the one that probably decides how much I'll like this story) will be a familiar one:  Will this story be more about Alex, or more about Phil and Claire?

And could Alex starting the season back in the dorm be the setup for a scenario where she spends most of her time at college instead of at home (and probably less time on screen¹)?

Or (better but unlikely), will we finally get to see more stories about Alex at school this season?

I think this episode's developments mean the chance that Alex moves into an apartment this season are now significantly lowered from where I hoped.  Unless everything takes a 180 at the end. 

I don't expect a lot of emotion from this one, though - most of that will probably be spent on Manny's story.  But it's not 100% out of the question.
 
That's all I have for now - I may have some random stuff to talk about later this week.
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¹ (P.S. Back in real life, the fall term at UCLA starts next week, with classes commencing on Thursday, the day after the season opener. So if Ariel is going to spend less time doing the show we should start seeing clues about that then. Since she not surprisingly said nothing last night at the Emmys about another deferral I'm assuming all systems are a go.)