“We Were Made For Each Other” (“Daddy Issues” Recap)

Well at least the lyric from “When You're Gone” I chose does have something to do with two of the stories tonight and wasn't totally random – it just doesn't have meaning to Alex's part.

Tonight was a case of putting Alex in the wrong story. I know I've been looking for a story about Alex mentoring Lily about handling life as a smart person, but tonight she could have been a different kind of mentor.

So, why were Mitch and (to a lesser degree) Cam reluctant to want Alex to be the one to talk to Lily about body changes? I know I'm tempting fate by even going there, but IMO Alex would have been the perfect choice, having gone through this, probably more than anyone else in her family. I think that would have been a very interesting (i.e. not dull) and, if done right, tasteful and frank conversation about physically growing up, and Mitch and Cam shouldn't have looked at Alex as a last gasp option.

(Not to mention it would've given Ariel Winter another great forum for body positivity – she might not have even needed a script.)

It would also have been a lot more interesting than the role Alex ended up playing tonight – being an amateur Maury trying to get to the bottom of who Manny's father is.

I was confused though whether or not she was in on Gloria's joke until I rewatched that scene – I thought she was anyway (I know Claire's boombox did come into play later in the other story¹, but it did otherwise seem kind of random for Alex to show up out of nowhere and be the one to come by to get it), but at first she did seem kind of surprised at how it ended (she wasn't laughing with Gloria which would have made it obvious).  But upon further review she did say Gloria took the prank further than she though Gloria would so, yes, Alex was a part of the joke.

If Alex hadn't appeared in the promo commercial for tonight, I wonder how many of us would have thought we weren't going to see her at all after the opening segment. Usually when we see all of the Dunphys except Alex that is a huge red flag. Not to mention we still didn't see her until after the first commercial break.

Alex's Line Of The Night: ”How many Mannys do you (Jay) see through these things (her glasses)?”

And that's that.  I warned everybody this recap was going to be pretty ho-hum.
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¹ I'm not usually a big fan of the show's wackier comedy bits, but that last scene in the old apartment was one of their best.