"I Don't Know Why Love Has Set Me Free"

Time for Round 2 - let's see how my predictions for Season 7 turned out.  As before, the updated comments are in green.  I left in most of the original formatting though (I took out one link at the beginning).


"Oh, Crystal Ball, Crystal Ball, Save Us All - Tell Me Life Is Beautiful"
 [Original Post Date: August 29, 2015]

Two more episode titles have been released.

The third episode is titled “The Closet Case”, which in and of itself doesn't hold promise for an Alex story (obviously some combo of Jay, Claire and possibly Mitch, if “case” refers to a legal issue).   [Oh, Alex would have a mini-story in this one, just not a good one for her.]

The fourth one is harder to gauge: “She Crazy”.  I would guess it probably refers to something involving Haley and psychotic Beth, or possibly Gloria and her (also psychotic) sister Sonya.   But if the title relates to Alex somehow it could be very interesting.  [Instead, we got the first of three Alex-less episodes here.]

OK, having gotten that out of the way, time for my Season 7 questions and predictions.  A word of warning, much of this may not be pretty (and many of my guesses will belie the title of this post and be very pessimistic, especially the final and most important (to me) question):

Will Alex's worst fear about being the dumbest kid at CalTech be realized?

Probably not. I do think there will be a few bumps in the road early on, some of which could be quite a handful.  But I think academically she'll do fine – maybe not top of the class anymore, but she'll be close.

[There were a couple of times when Alex did say academic life at CalTech was hard,  but we really didn't see much of her academic life to gauge just how hard (that unfortunately hasn't really changed to this day).  I think she managed well enough, but, given she needed to find someone else at school to help Jay when he was being trolled on-line by his nemesis, I'm guessing she wasn't as close to the top of her class as she would have liked either.]

Will Alex encounter a problem in her life which leads to her turning to alcohol again?

Sadly, I see this having a better than a 50/50 chance of happening (or at least it crosses her mind), but hopefully it happens only once.   There's that possibility of a little bit of early self-doubt I mentioned, and there's also rumblings that at some point Alex might get a bit homesick.  Not to mention there's her continuing quest to have a steady boyfriend which usually goes wrong.  Any of these could drive Alex into a depressed state looking for a coping mechanism.

Also, who knows what kind of an x-factor Alaina (her new roommate [Who? Hold that thought.]) will be (there's no law that says being a brainiac precludes being a party animal)?

But even if any of this comes to pass, while Alex would likely face some sort of consequences, I highly doubt Alex is going to follow in Haley's footsteps and be disciplined by CalTech.

[Thankfully we dodged a major bullet here, as Alex bringing out of a liquor store a crate marked "TEQUILA" (a story line I fretted about for almost two months when a set of spoiler photos of this came out) turned out to be a false alarm ("The More You Ignore Me").  She mentioned that some of the students at school knocked at her door offering beakers full of margaritas, but she wasn't happy about it so I''m guessing she didn't partake too much that year.]

By season's end, will Alex and Alaina be good friends or bitter enemies?

I'll be optimistic and say they'll end up friends, but I think there will be a time or two during the season they will hate each other, too.  And I don't know if we'll see a lot of them together (maybe only in a couple of episodes – we'll have to see if there's any announcements of whomever playing Alaina being cast as a recurring character).

[Well, Alaina had a panic attack in Norway (does Dr. Clark do European house calls?), so instead Alex ended up with a hyperactive (at least the first time we saw her) prodigy named Maisie.  We only got to see Maisie once more after the start of school ("The Storm"), but since they were working on a project together, and since Alex did go out of the way to get her a birthday present the following week, it looks like they got along well enough.  Unfortunately we never saw Maisie again in the two seasons that followed.  Of course she would not be the only person Alex knew who vanished without a trace after Season 7...]

Will we see Sanjay this season, and will Alex and he still be in a relationship?

I think the distance between the two will be too much to overcome as far as them continuing their relationship is concerned, but I do think we will see Sanjay again.  My best guess is he comes back to compete against Alex in some sort of “College Bowl”-like television quiz show. There might even be an attempt to rekindle the relationship, but I wouldn't see it being successful.

[Charles Dickens said it best: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times".  Alex and Sanjay did stay with their relationship even after Sanjay went to Stanford, but it only lasted a couple of weeks before he broke up with her (Alex crying "I am alone" in her dorm is still the most heartbreaking moment in the series).   Thankfully they did get back together a few months later, so they were happy together again for a little while.  But the last we heard about Sanjay was about his parents throwing him a big "welcome home" party when he returned for summer vacation at the end of the season.  His name wasn't even mentioned the past two seasons, and Alex has moved on to other men.  But more on that next month

And still no sign of any academic competition between them either.]

What about Jason (the boy she befriended from the CalTech tour)? Will he be there, and will he become more than just a friend to Alex?

I'm guessing no – even if he thought CalTech better suited him academically, I think in the end he decided to stay home and attend MIT.  

[Another Alex acquaintance lost to the sands of time.]

If there is to be a new boyfriend in Alex's life, it'll probably be someone we've yet to see.

[Oh, we had seen Reuben before. but the less said about where that went the better.   And also the less said the better about a guy she fell for on a family train trip who probably still has her wallet.] 


Will she go to see Dr. Clark, her former therapist, again?

I doubt it, but, again, she may need to turn somewhere if something goes wrong.   Actually, even though she's still a teenager, Alex might be too old (ironically given what she said about Dr. Clark early in her session) for Dr. Clark's assistance and may look to another therapist.

[Again, maybe he was busy with Alaina in Norway?   Honestly and seriously though there was no surprise to me we didn't see him again.]

Which episode has the most chance to be the most emotional?

Probably the most logical one - the bi-annual Christmas episode, since that will in all likelihood involve her homecoming.

[Christmas wasn't particularly emotional, but we did get to hear Alex sing.  Of course "The Closet Case" wound up being the correct answer to that question.]

And now, for the question I most dread asking and answering:

On average, Alex has been missing from about 2 episodes per season. With her living away from home, will there be a significant increase in this number?

This is another painful answer which I hope ends up wrong, but yes, I think she's going to be in fewer episodes than usual this season.  I'll go way out on a limb (please feel free to saw me off that tree) and say she misses six, but that number could easily double if this season does turn out to be that transitional year towards writing Alex off the show entirely that I feared a few weeks ago could happen  (for whatever reason – I'm not ready to even hazard a guess as to that possibility).  [There actually were rumors prior to season 8 that Ariel was going to be dumped from the show to split her salary up among some of the adult cast members, but thankfully those turned out to be unfounded.]   Also, if there are going to be a high number of Alex-less episodes, look for the frequency to increase as the season goes forward.

[Obviously I was too pessimistic here, as Alex "only" missed three episodes.  On the other hand, since there were two fewer episodes starting in Season 7 than there were the first six, it would not have surprised me if there would have been at least one more if the season was still a full 24 episodes. 

Oh, by the way, the episodes missed were #4 ("She Crazy"), #13 ("Thunk In The Trunk") and #17 ("The Party"), so the frequency did sort of increase as the season went along.] 

And while I still think it's unlikely, they could go the Skype route again (like Haley), leaving Alex with some (or even many) "one (scene) and done" episodes, even if she's only completely missing from the usual 2 or 3.

[There was only one episode where we only saw her via Skype or phone, "The Cover Up".  But that was mostly because she spent more time at home than I expected.]

And that's all I can think of for now – sorry for all the cold water of pessimism I've splashed on everybody.

[In fairness a lot of that pessimism was warranted, albeit not all of it.  And there is much, MUCH more to come in the next two prediction threads I'll review next month.]