“I'm Really Bored It's Getting Late” (Season 9 Recap)

I'm sorry I'm late with the recap, but, honestly, it was hard getting motivated to do this, given the nothingburger this season turned out to be.

“She Turns On TV And Guess Who She Sees?” (“Clash Of Swords” Recap)

Admit it, going into the last part of the episode, you thought just like I did that Alex really wasn't going to show up¹.

And then, from out of nowhere, there she was, if only really for one scene (plus one quick look of her getting busted by Claire faking reading a magazine when she was really reading a library book).

That one small scene with Manny would have made for probably the most interesting Alex story of the season, if they had actually made it a full story and had them go on that road trip (of sorts) and Alex and Manny came to a self-realization or two (e.g. Alex finally is forced to face the “fear” of actually having to relax for a change, because something happens to her laptop along the way).   It still was the most interesting scene of the night².

The one bad news aspect about that scene was that it did confirm that Alex will not be doing that internship at MIT this summer (I had held out the smallest of hopes she'd changed her mind after Phil had talked her out of it and into enjoying her summer).

Alex's Line Of The Night: ”Of course I know you're right. But it's hard - people are out there discovering planets, and I'm in here doing BuzzFeed quizzes like 'if I were to be a Beatle who'd I be' and I'd be Ringo. Who cares, Manny?”   Just who was the smartest Beatle, anyway?

That actually sounded a lot like her Sweet 16 birthday rant (where she feels she's seriously underachieving compared to others), just before she smashed her cake, albeit a lot calmer.

And so, Season 9 finally comes crashing to its disappointing end.  Final thoughts to come this weekend, I guess.
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¹ Luke and Lily were both missing again, which I still can't believe they'd do to two main characters on the final (two) episode(s).  I'll probably speculate about what that might mean for Alex next season as it draws closer.

² Tonight was OK, but it sure didn't have much of a season finale feel to it, save maybe for Jay possibly merging his closet company with that hipster hi-tech one (presumably how that plays out will be one the show's biggest stories of next season).  And maybe Mitch and Cam finally having a "brother" for Lily.

“When You Turn Around Can You Recognize My Face?”

The biggest question about tonight's finale, “Clash Of Swords”: At the end of the night, if Alex were to ask us the above question¹, would we be able to say yes? Well, if she ends up not being there, would we? After all, we won't see her again until September.

“When The World's Crashing Down”

A promo commercial for Wednesday's season finale was posted online tonight:

“All I Want Is To Forget”

So much for faint hopes.

When Modern Family's Twitter account (@ModernFam) posted a 10 second clip this afternoon showing Phil and Claire at home (before they went to see Jay's sister) talking about Haley's boyfriends (in what turned out to be the opening scene), I thought there was at least a chance that Alex might show up after all, even if only in one scene.

But, of course, it was not meant to be.

So now the Alex-less episode count stands at five¹, which means my prediction before the season started has sadly come true. Unless...

There was only one small possible silver lining tonight, and I'm not even totally happy about that (for non-Alex reasons): It appears that Haley and Professor Fennerman are still a couple for now, so maybe next season Alex could find her way into a story or two about them.

But in spite of that possibility, I'd still rather see Haley and Andy back together (from an overall show standpoint, that was the bigger “so much for faint hopes” moment), even though that seems highly unlikely now (never say never though).

One more episode to go – one last chance to salvage something from this season which for Alex has made the Titanic look like The Love Boat.
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¹ And 24 in total, which means Alex has missed effectively an entire season over the course of the series.

“Hey, Those Days Are Long Gone”

I'm not sure what's more depressing – today being my last day of vacation, or the possibility that tonight's “The Escape” could really finish it on a down note.

I'm going to go out of order today with my pre-show thoughts, and start with the worst:

“You Make Me Wanna Scream” (“Mother!” Recap)

My take on the “bad news” that Alex had tonight? I feel like she overthought things about what really didn't seem like much of a deal at all.

“Before It's Too Late This Could All Disappear”

Yes, I know it's now the month of May, but I figured I'd keep the Avril lyrics going for a while. Maybe until I go on semi-hiatus for the summer, but no guarantees.

Anyway, tonight's “Mother!” is likely to be the final chance this season to see Alex play a part in a story (giving bad news of some sort to her mother, which is the main theme of the Dunphy story tonight). Whether or not it's the last chance to see Alex at all remains to be seen (I still think it's highly unlikely she'll miss both of the final two episodes, but the chance is not zero).