Modern Family: Farm Strong (5x04)

Let's dive right in.

Cam's sister Pam comes to visit, and Cam doesn't want to tell her that he's getting married because she's apparently always been sensitive and she'll be upset that he's getting married before her. However, the news slips out, and Pam seems very excited. She then reveals that she's also engaged - to Cam's childhood crush. Now, Cam is acting upset. Pam seems to think that Cam is the sensitive one in the family, rather than it being the other way around. At a family gather at the end of the episode, Cam insists that everyone start telling him things they were too afraid to say because of his sensitivity. The secrets start pouring out, which upsets Cam even more. In the end, however, the combined efforts of Mitch and Pam calm him down.

There were some really cute moments in this plot line, such as Cam talking "straight" on the phone to Pam's new fiance, and his attempt to reign in his emotions when he learns that Claire met Beyoncé.

Meanwhile, Luke is on a soccer team, but he's almost constantly benched and Claire and Phil are getting tired of going to the games. Claire convinces Phil to skip the game, but she ends up finishing all of her chores early and going to the game. While there, Luke plays the game of his life. Claire feels awful for making Phil miss it, so she has Luke keep Claire's presence there a secret. At the family gathering, Cam lets slip that Claire was at the game, which causes Phil to be really angry at Claire but really proud of Luke.

This plot line didn't seem to have much of a larger point. It was decently fun, but I thought it could have been better if it had examined why Luke played such a better game when his parents weren't around. I thought they were going to make that the point, but instead it ended up being more about Claire than it was about Luke.

Finally, Gloria is having trouble seeing, but she's too proud to consider getting glasses. Jay tries to convince her in a number of ways, including pretending to be poisoned by rat poisoning and asking her to read the box. When she can't, he accuses her of putting her vanity over his life. As it turns out, Jay is losing his hearing, too, so Gloria says she'll only get glasses if he gets a hearing aid. When Gloria finally caves and wears glasses, she immediately notices all the wrinkles on Jay's face, and Jay decides that maybe the glasses weren't the best idea after all. Since Gloria won't be able to see Jay, and Jay won't be able to hear Gloria, they will be together forever!

I liked this plot line, because it dealt with the very real anxieties associated with getting older, but it was still really funny!

So, in all, this was a fun episode. It wasn't stand-out, or anything, and it's certainly not one that I'll remember particularly. But nothing went terribly wrong, either, and sometimes that's all a show can offer you.

7.5/10