Very funny episode. Best we've had all year. This is one of those episodes that plays to Modern Family's strengths. A series of silly misunderstandings, interconnecting plots bringing all the characters together, and a clear theme. Very nice!
Cons:
The only slight misstep of the episode was Manny's subplot with baby Joe. It wasn't even necessarily a bad subplot, but it didn't get a lot of time to be fleshed out, and wasn't particularly stand-out in any way. Basically, Manny uses Joe's adorableness to win favor with a girl he's invited over. Joe doesn't behave, latching on to the girl's leg and biting, pretending to be a "bad dog." Manny puts Joe in Stella's cage to punish him. Like I said, this just didn't have very much to offer.
Pros:
Gloria and Jay's plot thread was pretty great. As the whole family meets for Thanksgiving leftovers, Gloria is being particularly affectionate, hugging everybody for a long time. Turns out, she's doing this to steal their licenses out of their wallets. Gloria and Jay are buying everybody a surprise trip to Miami! Things go wrong when Jay surprises Gloria by getting tickets to Colombia instead. Turns out, Gloria has already invited her whole family over to their house. They come in as the episode ends, apparently there for a long visit. This was so funny! Watching Gloria pickpocket the family was great, especially her intensive groping of Phil in the name of subterfuge. And then the ending, with the surprises on top of surprises, was a great punch line. Will Gloria's family stick around for a while? They always make for great comedic material!
The rest of the episode all centers around a house that Phil is helping to sell. It's a ridiculously fancy and "sexy" house, and throughout the episode various people come by to use it. Let's go through the list.
Haley and Andy. Haley comes to the house to try and hide evidence of her earlier soak in the tub. She runs in to Andy, who is there to prepare for an open house. The house conspires to nearly get them to hook up, as they inadvertently turn on sexy music, dim the lights, turn the couch into a bed, all by pushing buttons on a remote control that they can't seem to figure out. They're interrupted by everybody else coming in to the house, and end up hiding. After everybody else is gone, they decide it was the atmosphere of the house that almost made them hook up, and Haley starts to leave. Then, she runs back, and the two share a passionate kiss. There were so many funny and clever little details here. I loved the famous bathtub, that had apparently been used in several rap videos, and Andy asking Haley if she'd been burning incense, oblivious to the fact that Haley had been smoking pot. And then, of course, there's the kiss. Finally, it seems as if we're moving forward with their story line. I hope this momentum continues, because I want Haley and Andy to be happy!
Alex and Rubin are found using the house to hook up, but Alex tells Luke that she was just there to help Rubin with homework. Luke doesn't suspect the truth for a minute, telling Alex that Rubin is probably a lost cause.
Luke and his friends sneak in to drink beer, Luke humorously remarking that since they only have one six-pack, it's actually a good thing that all the girls turned them down.
Cam and Mitch come by to try and spice up their marriage. Mitchell ends up poll dancing inexpertly on a lamp, and calling himself "Magic Mitch," which was just too good. Their time at the house seems to be the inverse of Haley and Andy's. Everything they do seems to make the house less and less sexy, as the universal remote turns the station away from music and towards unpleasant news, and the bed turns back into a couch, etc. The best part is that the whole decision to go to the house was based on their desire to be more exciting than Phil and Claire, who apparently have a mundane marriage. That doesn't end up panning out, of course, given the crazy shenanigans Phil and Claire get into!
Phil and Claire were the strongest part of the episode for sure. Claire thinks that Phil is mad at her for snapping at him when she got home after a long day of work. Jay advises Claire to set aside some quality time for her husband and not let work monopolize her time. Meanwhile, Phil isn't actually mad at Claire at all - he's just preoccupied by an online role-playing game he's been into recently. He tells Claire that she can make it up to him by letting him indulge his interest in role-play. Misunderstanding this, Claire shows up in a sexy medieval outfit at the house, while Phil is attempting to play his interactive game. Claire and Phil were the perfect balance of goofy and relatable in this episode. A real pleasure to watch.
So there you have it! Lots of chaos and interconnecting stories made for a very satisfying thirty minutes of television!
9/10
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