Obviously one of the biggest talking points of this season was the unprecedented (but not particularly unexpected) five times we were stuck with Alex-less episodes. But while it was not unexpected (I figured Ariel being off to college herself would probably limit her availability to the show somewhat, and I did predict she'd miss five), the fact is it was still disappointing, albeit for a very different reason.
The troubling part is that Alex being missing so much wasn't isolated to Alex – all of the kids missed at least five episodes this season (Haley missed 6, Lily 8). This does not bode well for next season – the fact that Ariel isn't returning to UCLA this fall doesn't necessarily mean well see more of Alex next season, if this season's expanded number of absences wasn't attributable to Ariel's lack of availability, but instead was due to the show's lessening reliance on its younger actors in general.
Will this continue for the final season? Well, if the idea was to cut costs (the kids all got raises for the final two seasons, but keeping them out of more episodes might have been the show's cynical way of not paying them all that much more) I can see them doing that again next season.
In other words, that Alex was not alone in being on the sidelines far more than usual was not comforting at all, but instead concerning.
One other thing – had Sarah not taken ill early in the season (five of her six absences were in the first eleven episodes) that number of Alex-less episodes could easily been six or even seven. I'm totally convinced that “No Small Feet” (the episode where Alex and Luke started a used shoe business) would have been a Haley and Luke story1 if Sarah were available. And given how little Alex was used in a couple of other episodes with no Haley, I wouldn't be surprised if there was another last minute switch as well.
Now, as to when Alex was there, unfortunately things didn't get a lot better.
In fact, my biggest disappointment with the season wasn't the five Alex-less episodes. It was the fact that we never got that story of Alex mentoring Lily that I wished for at the start of the season. Of course, since Lily suddenly becoming known for being smart wasn't mentioned even once this season made it that much harder for such a story to develop. And I'm not holding out much hope for this happening next season.
Also as expected, her relationship with Ben did not last very long, ending around Halloween (“It's The Great Pumpkin, Phil Dunphy”). She started taking an interest in one of her professors, Arvin Fennerman, but he had eyes for Haley instead, in spite of their intellectual differences. She did finally find someone, a hunky if less than bright fireman named Bill. For the same reason that I think that Haley and the professor will not last next season, so too do I think that Alex and Bill really aren't made for each other either.
One thing I didn't like about either romance: Alex wasn't always the kindest to either Ben or Bill. This was one of the weak points of this season – normally only about once a season does Alex say or do something that even I can't defend, but it seemed like it happened much more frequently this season (and not just with Ben and Bill – I still can't believe she threw Gloria under the bus at Thanksgiving). Yes it would take a lot to turn me against her (she could probably kill most of her family and I'd say 'can you blame her?') but I still felt the show made her look bad too much.
She also apparently isn't among the most well-liked students at CalTech who thinks she shows off too much. Hey, it's not bragging if you can back it up.
At least she made it through the whole school year without getting sick again, although she almost died in a fire caused by falling asleep with the toaster running in her dorm room. Of course that's also how she met Bill, so, maybe it worked out for the best? Well, probably not, actually.
Now, not everything was bad about this season, but even its best episodes had “on the other hands” attached to them:
“The Long Goodbye” Alex being thought of as a show-off notwithstanding, there was a nice scene where she helped a fellow student with her robot project, and tried to build up her self-confidence. On the other hand, I still can't buy the notion that Alex had become (in Phil's and Claire's eyes) a scatterbrain who couldn't even leave the house without forgetting her pants. I'm still shaking my head about that one almost a year later.
“Written In The Stars” OK, Alex
getting her heart broken yet again (a phone call from her professor
while he was on a date with Haley that had gone wrong made Alex think
that he was interested in her, but when she came to see him Haley had
already come back into the picture, leaving poor Alex to deal with
crushing reality again) was far from a happy story, but since it was
easily her most emotional story it needs to be added here. On the
other hand, I still think the professor is too old for her in the
first place (older even than Ben), so I'd have doubts if a relationship between the two would even work.
“Spanks For The Memories”2
Like “Spread Your Wings” two seasons ago, the best episode of
the season featured a story with the far too rare combination of Alex and Phil. I
wish there were more of these, since the two of them alone always seem to have very
good stories (this one was about Alex trying for and getting accepted
for a {very stressful in her own words} summer internship at MIT,
with Phil worrying that Alex was once again taking on too much on her
plate). On the other hand, from a going forward standpoint, I still
wish Phil hadn't tried to change Alex's mind about taking that
internship, and that Alex hadn't let him.
One more thing about that episode: I think had Alex not changed her mind, it would have given her a much more interesting story for the finale (and possibly a scene or two about her impending trip in other episodes). Maybe instead of a small moment about Alex being reluctant to have fun this summer, maybe they could have had a much larger story, where Alex is getting ready to leave for Boston for the summer, only to start to have second thoughts about it (e.g. maybe Bill isn't happy with Alex leaving for the summer, or maybe Alex doesn't want to leave Bill?). And if she still left after all, it could have been a well-done emotional ending to a season instead of the really flat ending that we got (not just for Alex, but for the whole episode in general). I think that was a case of the show closing a door way too soon.
And that's about it. I wish I was hopeful for better things next season (certainly there are opportunities for big things for Alex in the final season, and I'll elaborate further as summer moves along), but the way this season went I'm far from optimistic about the future.
Thanks again for putting up with me and my off-the-wall rantings for another season. As usual I won't have a lot for the next couple of months unless something major breaks, but I do have an idea of something I want to do during the early part of summer.
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1 I know in that story Alex helped increase the business through her acumen, but Haley does have at least some savvy in marketing herself, so she could have improved on Luke's idea as well, IMO.
2 This episode actually repeats tonight, but not until 10:00. That gives me a chance to re-record it, since the first time it aired it was interrupted at the start for a winter weather alert (and the picture was squished a bit throughout by a 'no school' announcement ticker). Fittingly, the first post-season repeat (tonight at the usual 9:00) is the Alex-less “Catch Of The Day”.
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