“Fairytales Don't Always Have A Happy Ending, Do They?”

I mentioned earlier this evening that there is a Season 11 preview post on TV Guide's website with an interview with co-creator Christopher Lloyd which among other things, most importantly for Alex fans, clarifies her role for the season a little bit more.

I figured I'd use that as a starting report for my very much tardy annual prediction post.


For those who don't want to read other spoilers about the show, here are the salient points:

”Alex graduated at the end of last season.  She goes through a head-versus-heart struggle.  She wants to bring her skills into more of a humanitarian place, working for a nonprofit or saving the world.  We find her shivering in Antarctica, having signed on with an environmental concern, but she's hating it.  She tries the other side, a more corporate path, which pays her well and offers her a lifestyle she's unaccustomed to, but there's a bit of a conscience thing there.  What that results in is her living a more superficial life while Haley is loafing around the house in sweatpants, dealing with her twins.  It's a bit of a role reversal for those ladies.”

And, later in the article:

”Alex has always been the adult of the family; now she's an actual adult, and that sort of frightens her, and she regresses a bit. ”

So it looks like Alex is going to switch career tracks a couple times, including right at the beginning: the description of “environmental concern” concerning her Antarctic job does not exactly sound like the governmental job she interviewed for (and got) midway through last season.   It looks like she got a second offer that she found to be a better fit for her.   Or so she thinks.

But then, it looks like she going to switch again, trading in a more noble calling for a more materialistic one.  I'm guessing again that the “corporate path” is non-governmental either.

So the first big prediction question of the season for Alex is this: Where will she be at the end of the season?

I see four possibilities: 1) she switches back a further time to a less lucrative but more fulfilling/noble job;  2) she stays in the purely corporate track;  3) she finds a happy medium and finds a career which is both noble and financially rewarding (the best scenario);  or 4) her “regressing a bit” as an adult somehow leaves her with nothing (the worst scenario)

Thankfully I think #4 is also by far the least likely – as much as we may be looking at a “bit of a role reversal” for Alex and Haley, I highly doubt Alex reverses that far.  But I don't see #1 or #3 as being particularly likely – after her Antarctic job ends, Alex is probably going to doubt the worth of doing humanitarian endeavors, seeing how (now at least) twice she'll have found the effort more than she could handle (remember how she gave up on the house-building for the needy project before her high school senior year?)

So my prediction here is that she sticks with the more corporate/profitable track.


Now, on to other predictions:

Will Alex and Bill still be together at the end of the season?


I'm going to say ”No”.  History is simply not on the side of them being together, and I think Alex is going to be the one to move on.

I really have no guess though as to what direction (if any) she goes if I'm right.

If I'm wrong, will they get married?

Again, my answer is going to be ”No”.  I feel like the show won't want to do a “one of the kids gets married” story again this season.

Will we finally get the Alex mentoring Lily story for which I've been wishing for more than two years?

No.  AFAIC that ship sailed away when they had Claire babysit Lily in “Stand By Your Man” last season, never to come back.

And finally, the annual “elephant in the room” prediction:

How many Alex-less episodes will we endure this season?

The last two seasons have seen an increase in this number from the typical two or three in the first eight seasons to five in each of the last two.  That seems like a good starting point for this final season, but there are a couple of wild cards to consider as well.

First there is the probability that there will be fewer episodes this season – as few as 18 (we'll probably find out by the end of 2019 whether or not there are going to be more). This would make a lesser number this season more likely.  On the other hand...

With Dylan now being a regular character (bringing the total to 13) and, to a lesser extent, with the twins being added to the family as well (and the sub-theory that Haley will get more stories because of them), there is going to be a supply and demand issue for screen time/stories which could leave Alex squeezed out even further than before.

I think the former will be the larger X-factor of the two, so I'm going to guess Four Alex-less episodes. But I'm not very confident of this.

Yes this once again doesn't paint a pretty picture for yet another season.  I want to claim that I'm actually using reverse psychology to force good answers, but I'm not that good at doing that deliberately.

We'll start finding out in about 24 hours.