“Mmmmmm, If I Could Melt Your Heart” (“Snapped” Recap)

I don't know if anyone else here was worried, but when Claire'\s interviewer mentioned that Alex was (still) in Antarctica, I was beginning to think that we wouldn't see Alex after all tonight.¹  So, yes, there was a sigh of relief when she showed up at the start of the second act.   As it turned out, that scene I found in that Instagram post wasn't from tonight's episode (maybe next week?).

Unfortunately, once again, Alex was denied a big homecoming.  Now, in fairness, this wasn't quite the same as her coming home from her freshman year at CalTech, where she went to the trouble of marking up the family calendar in the kitchen announcing her return, only to be basically ignored by everyone.  Tonight was actually more like her early return from her humanitarian house-building project before her high school senior year, when everyone got mad at her because they felt her return had jinxed their perfect summer.

At least tonight only Claire wanted her back out of the house right away (and at least she didn't try to send her back to Antarctica, although that freezer Alex got briefly locked inside was probably about as cold), instead of her whole family.

Now I can almost understand Claire's rationale for two possible reasons: 1) Alex apparently (based on the cat's attraction to her at the market) did smell strongly of fish from her ride home on a fishing boat, and 2) Claire might have felt that having Alex returning after just a short amount of time might not reflect well on how well she raised Alex (i.e. would the interviewer feel like Claire raised Alex to be a quitter).

However, I still think Claire wasn't being fair to Alex.  And that includes laying the guilt trip on her (and Haley and Luke) when she was finally caught faking being sick.

I guess it was Alex's turn to get locked inside a room – that's usually Phil's downfall.  Maybe this is another case of the apple not falling far from the tree after all?

Let's just hope that Alex doesn't become a story on Phil's new favorite show (“Snapped”).  As it is, she's hanging around (OK, this time sort of) with cats again.

Alex's Line Of The Night:  ”I couldn't take the c.c.c.cold any more.  I was so desperate, I took a Japanese fishing boat part of the way home.”  Actually, there weren't a lot of good choices this week.

Don't forget that Ariel makes a guest appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit later this evening.  I may or may not recap that episode - stay tuned.
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¹ By the way, the fact that Lily, Manny and Joe already went missing in only the second episode of the season could be an ominous sign for how often Alex won't appear this season.