"I Can't Stop, 'Cause I'm Having Too Much Fun(?)"

OK, that's one adjective I wouldn't exactly use for Season 9, but since "What The Hell" was next on my list, I figured, um, well, you know...

Anyway, there were promo photos added for next week's "Mother!", and most of them involve the Dunphy story.

The possibly most significant thing about them is we see that Alex is atypically dressed up for this story.  Whether or not that has anything to do with her bad news remains to be seen. 

Up until a couple of seasons ago, I'd say it was likely - until "The Day We Almost Died" in Season 6 I couldn't recall Alex wearing a dress unless it was a special family occasion (such as her graduations, or family weddings, etc.).  But we have seen her wear dresses for less formal reasons a couple of times since (e.g. "Phil's Sexy, Sexy House", "Ringmaster Keifth", and "The Long Goodbye").  And since nobody else is dressed up I don't think there's a special occasion going on (her grandmother Dede will make an appearance but I don't see Alex treating that as particularly special - her connection was with her other grandmother¹).

I think it's more likely that there would have been a correlation between Alex dressing up and bad news if there was a special occasion going on than here where it looks like it's just her dressing up semi-randomly (she might have a reason but it probably won't have anything to do with bad news).

There's also a large portrait of Claire involved, but I'm nor sure if that plays into Alex's part of the story - had Alex only recently started wearing glasses (like a certain other middle child from a long time ago) it may have been more likely.

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¹ Not to mention Alex wasn't even there the first time Dede appeared ("The Incident").