“If You Change Your Mind, I'm The First In Line” (“Baby Steps” Recap)

Well, I did add up some of the pieces correctly.  I'd say good enough for government work, but, given the way they're handling things right now, I might actually be overachieving.   Not at Alex's level, of course (that would take a miracle along the lines of hitting Powerball), but...

“Baby Baby, Always And Forever”

R.I.P. Stella (a/k/a Beatrice in real life).   Given how much Ariel loves dogs in real life, I'm surprised Alex never had much (if any) interaction with her on the show.   Needless to say this was not good news at a time in real life when we could use some.


With only four episodes left - tonight's “Baby Steps”, an episode titled “I'm Going To Miss This” on April 1st (there is press release out which I'll discuss later this week), and the two part finale on April 8th, tonight's episode title seems out of place – I'd hesitate to call anything happening a baby step at this point.  And that really might be true for Alex. 

"Comin' In and Out of Your Life" (First Impressions - "Baby Steps" - Season 11, Episode 15)

I'm surprised there actually will be a new episode  on March 18th, as I'd expected ABC to wait until the following week to start the final four episodes - I presumed single episodes on the 25th and April 1st, and a two-part finale on April 8th.  Now I'm not sure how the rest of the schedule will look.

Anyway, the potential big story is not in the synopsis nor in the promo photos - Alex is nowhere to be found in those.  But, Arvin (the professor from CalTech who taught at least one of Alex's classes and had a brief relationship with Haley, somewhat to Alex's chagrin), is returning.

And this might not be a one-shot deal - during filming of the final episodes a couple of weeks ago both Ariel and Sarah posted selfies on their Instagram stories with Chris Geere, the actor who plays Arvin.

Now this could just mean Arvin is trying to get back into Haley's life, even though she's married to Dylan and has the twins.  But, maybe, just maybe, one way or another, his road may (finally) take him to Alex?  Yes, I still think the probable age difference is a bit much, but, at least, since Alex is no longer at CalTech that possible conflict of interest is off the table.

Or, maybe there is one more possibility - maybe Arvin offers Alex some sort of job (e.g. assisting him at CalTech)?   Since we haven't heard anything about Alex's current job since she let Margaret go as her assistant, maybe she's having second thought about staying there?

Let's keep an eye on this - this last month may still have a happy (or sad) twist for Alex.

“Flashback, Warm Nights Almost Left Behind”

Given that I'm posting when I said I might not be tonight should answer the most obvious question:

Even though Alex was only there in flashback mode (two blink and you'll miss it moments from long-time ago episodes), my feeling is that technically qualifies this to not be an Alex-less episode.

That's all I have to say – I still have a ton on my mind right now (and some of the scenes tonight didn't help take my mind off them), and semantics are really the furthest from my mind.

Just a quick post today

I'm sorry, but I've got a lot of stuff on my mind today (it's been a pretty rough last 24 or so hours), and right now any thoughts about what happens to Alex have to go on the back burner for a while (that's also why there's no lyric in this post).

Not that there's a lot going on tonight for Alex in "Spuds", anyway.  While there is at least a small (20%?) chance we actually see her tonight (unlike last week when there was zero chance), I still expect tonight to be the second of back-to-back episodes, and even if she is there (the best chance would be before the rest of the family goes to that restaurant) I don't expect much for her.

I'll post something later if she does show up, otherwise I'm going to be taking a break from posting for a while.

Also, I was trying to tweak the Disqus comment settings and I found out that setting comments to moderated is pretty much irreversible.  I'm not sure what will happen if someone tries to post, but likely either a) you might have to verify your Disqus account and/or email (not through me, but the system, I think) or b) I'll have to approve any messages before they show up (I'll try to do that when I can - I'm probably not going to be on this site much the rest of this week).  I'm sorry about that too.

"One Week Without You"

With Alex not appearing in tonight's episode ("Paris"), I really don't have a lot to say - not even enough for a typical pre-show post.

The best I can hope for is that they give us a plausible explanation as to why she didn't go on the trip (e.g. a major project at work which prevented her from taking time off).

And unless something happens that could change her life even if she isn't there, I'm not planning on doing a post tonight.  That and I have to work tonight so I don't know when I'll get around to watching it anyway.

"And I'm Hungry Like The Wolf" (First Impressions - "Spuds" - Season 11, Episode 14)

I was beginning to think we weren't getting a new episode on February 19th, until this press release came out today.

But having seen it, I think I'm going to wish there wasn't one.  It's an episode where it appears all the action will occur in just one setting (a restaurant), and Alex isn't mentioned in any of the three stories.

It looks like back-to-back Alex-less episodes may be in the cards (we already know next week's episode in Paris will be Alex-less) - maybe they should sub-title this "Three More Dinners"?  And even with only four episodes left after this one, I wouldn't be shocked if this one still isn't the last one.