Modern Family: The Day We Almost Died (6x11)

Very cute. The setup for this episode is simple, and it goes in a lot of really fun directions. Let's get going.

The Dunphys, plus Manny, are all driving back from going out to breakfast together when they are nearly killed by a truck. Each of them has a different reaction to this, all of which spiral into crazy behavior.

Claire decides that she has to stop micro-managing her life and live in the moment. She pulls Mitch away from work to take him rollerblading, but Mitch is not so much into this. He ends up getting mugged in a dark tunnel, before rushing back to the office for his meeting. Claire realizes eventually that she can't let go of all of her control and planning.

Phil has pretty much the opposite reaction. He decides he's going to take total control over his own life. He goes to a house and yells at Gil, his rival in the real estate business, and then he helps Cam to get the dryer that he ordered. Apparently, Cam had ordered eggshell, but the one that had arrived had been white. Phil's assertiveness and power make Cam realize that Phil might actually be hot, but this thought is immediately derailed when Phil decides to get an alpaca, something he has always wanted.

After the near-accident, Haley grabs for her phone and says "I thought I lost you!" And Alex, thinking that Haley is speaking about her, is very touched. The two sisters decide to spend the day together. Haley insists that Alex get a makeover, which doesn't go so well, and when Alex finds out that Haley was talking about her phone, and not her, she gets really angry and attacks Haley with some of her martial arts skills.

Luke, meanwhile, starts to cross things off his bucket list, including a mentos jet pack.

Manny is so shaken by the accident that he never wants to get into a car again, but Jay plays hardball with him and demands that he get into the driver's seat to get over his fear. Just when it looks like Jay is going to back down and not make Manny drive, Gloria pretends to see the evil man who stole her phone earlier, and Manny immediately revs up the car to chase the guy down. Manny's manic driving causes Jay to fear for his own life, and Mitch, rollerblading by, nearly gets run over by the car.

In the end, the Dunphys all embrace, as Phil realizes how close he came to losing all the people he cares about, and everybody realizes that while life can be unpredictable, they already have things pretty good.

My only larger complaint is that the Haley/Alex plot line was rather weak. I knew from the second Haley said "I thought I lost you" that she was going to be talking about her phone or some other valuable possession. The plot line offered no surprises and had no real satisfactory conclusion.

Other than that, I thought this episode had a lot of good laughs.

First of all, I was very impressed by the multiple angles and perspectives of the almost-crash itself. Everybody had something different going on, so we got to see the same event skewed through a different mind multiple times. Very impressive stuff.

I think Claire was probably my favorite near-victim of the crash, since she acted so completely out of character, and yet still somehow remained in character. As Mitch pointed out, she was being very controlling even in her lack of control.

The other highlight was Phil, who actually did come across as rather sexy when he took control of the situation and yelled at Gil, then later helped Cam with his conundrum. Cam's little crisis of attraction was also excellent, as was the exhaustive list of color names which all sound like just another way of saying "white."

Manny's plot line got a few laughs as well, especially when Jay got out of the car and decided to walk, fearing for his life. He comes in and joins the Dunphy's group hug at the end, which I thought was a nice touch.

Well, there you have it! This was really strong, and a lovely way to open up the second half of the season.

8/10