“It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday” (“Goodnight, Gracie” Retro Recap)

Last week at the end of my “Baby On Board” rant about how they treated Alex's big moment as an afterthought after only a third of the episode, I mentioned in passing how they did make it up to her a bit in the next season's finale.

(Actually they probably owed her more than one – at the end of Season 2, they produced “See You Next Fall” last, but that episode with Alex's middle school graduation wasn't the finale – they switched it out with “The One That Got Away”. And, to add insult to injury, in one of the key moments of that episode, the family movie tribute to Jay, they completely left Alex out of the movie.¹)

So, did they do that good a job of it?

”Goodnight, Gracie” (Season 4, Episode 24, Originally aired May 22, 2013)

The main plot of this episode, of course, was the passing of Phil's mother (Alex's paternal grandmother), Grace.  This death hit Alex particularly hard, as she felt she had the strongest connection of her siblings with her grandmother.  The whole family ends up going down to the retirement community in Florida (Phil's father, Frank still lived there) for the funeral service.

Early on, Phil brings in a box which Frank gave him, containing gifts and messages from Grace for the three kids.  Haley received a necklace, and Luke received a pocket watch.  And Alex, the one with the closest bond to her grandmother?

A lighter.  And, the message didn't seem to add any clarity: “This is a lighter.”   To say that seems weird is an understatement, but, as we'll see, it wasn't quite that simple.  In a good way.

Later, Haley and Alex go out to the community pool to relax, but there is a problem – the pool is for residents only, and security is there to tell them to leave.  Haley, as is usually the case, stands her ground, but Alex bails.  This is more of a “hold that thought” scene, other than the fact that Alex is already questioning how much of a bond she and Grace really had.

She finally gets some answers when she has a talk with her grandfather Frank².  After he talks about how unhappy Grace was about sleeping through the fireworks at their last Fourth of July (her favorite holiday) celebration (another “we'll get back to that later” discussion), Alex brings up the question of what was up with the gift and the note.   Frank points out the the note is more than one page long (humidity caused it to stick), and once Alex reads the rest of the note, she smiles, presumably realizing that their bond really was strong.

The last time we see Alex is at the ceremony, where she gets to eulogize her grandmother.  After a few words, she takes the lighter and sets off a fireworks display as a beautiful final tribute (which I'm sure as we now know her grandmother would have loved).   In the background, Alex narrates the full text of her grandmother's message:

”This is a lighter.   It belonged to my favorite actor, Paul Newman.   One day, he came into the restaurant where I was waitressing, and accidently left it behind.   For the first time in my life, I did something I wasn't supposed to, and slipped it into my pocket.  One of the customers saw, and said 'Don't worry, your secret's safe with me.' 

That customer turned out to be the love of my life, your grandfather.  So, my Alex, who I love so dearly, who is probably too much like me for my own good, every once in a while, don't be afraid to break the rules.  You never know what can happen.”

(I'm not sure if trying to use a retirement community pool when it's residents only and rebelling when told to leave would still be such a good idea, though...)

Interestingly, the music they used in this final scene was the same music they used at the end of “Under Pressure”, when Alex was crying and hugging Claire, thanking her for understanding what Alex was going through.

One thing I've wondered through the years - as much as it seems like the tribute was meant to give Alex some closure with her grandmother, did it really work that well?  It seems like that Alex has seemed a lot less sure of herself since Grace passed away.  If nothing else, maybe she doesn't get as stressed out over her junior year if her grandmother was just a phone call away to guide her through things?  I may want to get back to that thought another time.

So, was this a really good job of making things up to Alex?  Eh.  Certainly the ending was beautiful, as was the scene with Alex and Frank, but, other than that there wasn't as much for her as there could've been.  On the other hand, they could have made this episode more about Phil than they did (and, honestly, given Grace was his mother, I could've understood it if they did) and left Alex with even less, so I can't really complain.

I still think “The Wedding, Part Two” was the better season finale, but, having watched this entire episode again for the first time in a while, I think it does come in a closer second than I thought last year when I ranked the episodes.

Now you may have noticed I didn't say that Alex narrating her grandmother's letter was her line of the episode.   I'm going to get very picky here and disqualify it because it wasn't an actual thought of Alex.   So, that leaves us with this line just before she set off the fireworks (the one I glossed over earlier):

Alex's Line Of The Episode: ”My grandmother and I had a very special bond.³ This may not make sense to everyone, but I'm pretty sure she would have loved it.”

I'm even more sure she did, Alex.
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¹ OK, technically that was Luke's doing, but...

² Someone can quickly correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is the only time the two ever had much of an interaction.

³ Out of Alex's earshot, at this point Haley interjected, “Seriously, again?”.