Modern Family: American Skyper (6x24)

Cute finale! Poor Haley and Andy... let's jump right in.

Alex has graduated from high school, and the whole family gets together at Jay and Gloria's house for a party. The whole family, that is, except for Phil, who got stuck out of town. He still manages to be at the party, sort of, by staying on a video chat on a rolling camera so he can move around and communicate with the whole family. Throughout the party, lots of shenanigans take place, with Phil trying to mediate all the chaos.

Mitchell and Cam have plans to buy the unit above theirs and expand their home, but Cam notices that Mitchell doesn't seem too excited. We learn that Mitchell has actually lost his job, and has been going to the park during the day and hanging out with an old man named Spencer. He didn't tell Cam that he lost his job, and now he wants Phil to help him so that they don't have to buy the unit upstairs, because they can no longer afford it. Cam is suspicious of Mitchell's behavior, and when he sees texts from a guy named Spencer on his phone, he thinks Mitchell is having an affair. When the truth comes out, Cam is just relieved that Mitchell hasn't been unfaithful, and they decide they'll buy the unit upstairs anyway. They can rent it out for now - it's still a great opportunity. Also, during all of this, Cam has been having trouble with his speech, because he got adult braces.

This plot thread didn't really do much for me. The braces thing was funny for a second, but it actually just got really annoying to hear Cam talk with a lisp. They purposefully wrote his lines with a lot of "s" words to really emphasize the impediment, and it felt sort of childish. Also, it's pretty horrible of Mitchell to hide such a huge secret from his husband, and I feel like the episode didn't really address the more serious aspects of Mitchell's mistakes. However, there were a few cute moments, like when Cam read Mitchell's phone through the bottom of a glass table.

Meanwhile, Gloria's cousin is staying at the house, and Jay is getting increasingly annoyed. Jay asks for Phil's help to find something in the closet, picking up Phil's robotic representation and looking on the high shelves. Phil sees a box with Spanish writing on it, and Jay looks inside. They find what looks like a bag of drugs, but Gloria comes in and explains that it's the ashes of her dead horse. Jay tries to apologize to Gloria's cousin for thinking he'd bring drugs into the house, but it turns out the cousin was stealing stuff after all.

This plot thread had a lot of really funny moments. I loved that Gloria knew the street value of the drugs, and how Gloria translated Jay's apology to her cousin by instead telling him to put back what he had taken and get out. I will say that the presence of Gloria's cousin felt a bit underutilized. There were a lot of things going on in this episode, and I was a bit confused as to why they needed to bring in a guest character for this finale. It wasn't a big deal, but I did notice that that was strange.

Andy and his girlfriend Beth are also at the party. Haley says that Beth is great, and that she's going to try and move on from her feelings for Andy. However, Beth then starts threatening Haley, indicating that she knows Haley is interested in Andy, and that she'll do whatever it takes to protect what's hers. Andy goes to Phil for advice - he says Beth has been hinting that she wants him to propose, but that he's torn, because there's another girl out there that he feels a connection with. Phil tells him that it's natural to wonder about another path, but that if he loves Beth, he should go for it. Later, Phil talks to Haley and realizes that Haley has feelings for Andy. When he witnesses the two of them hugging goodbye, just before Andy is about to go off and propose to Beth, he realizes that they both love each other. He tries to say something, but the sound cuts out on the video chat!

I absolutely love the Haley/Andy romance. It's one of the only continuous plot threads this show has ever done, and I absolutely love it. Nothing too original was happening here, though. I've seen plenty of examples of a group of people thinking that a newcomer is nice, while only one person sees the truth of their evil nature. Also, the misunderstandings, the convenient inability of Phil to speak up... it was all pretty cliche. That being said, I don't mind a cliche every once in a while, as long as the acting keeps it fresh. I can't wait to see Haley and Andy realize their feelings for each other. It's going to be so cute!

Finally, there's the plot centered around Alex's graduation. Claire wants to give Alex a gift that will be personal between the two of them. She has a key chain with a picture of them, but just as she goes to give it, she sees that Mitchell has gotten Alex a scrapbook with all the drawings and letters she ever wrote him. Claire tries to come up with something better. What about a trip for the weekend, just the two of them? Just as she's about to announce this to Alex, she learns that Jay is getting Alex a trip to Europe for graduation. Claire then turns to Phil to pull out the big guns - they will sing a song that Phil wrote for Alex when she was a little girl. However, just before they're about to sing it, Gloria makes a little speech in honor of Alex, about how when Gloria first entered their family, Alex was the first one to really accept her by writing about her as a member of the family for a project in school. This story is so touching that Claire decides they can't sing the song anymore. Ultimately, Alex tells Claire that she doesn't have to give her a gift. She's already given her everything. Alex tells Claire she wants her to come with her on her trip to Europe!

This was where the real heart of the episode was, and it also had the best moments of humor. I loved all the great gifts that Alex got from her family, and the way each of them outdid whatever Claire tried to offer. I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get to hear the full song that Phil wrote for Alex, but I did like the little bits that we did hear. And I loved the sweet and sappy conversation between Alex and Claire. It's so wonderful to know how much they love and respect each other. Alex is often, despite being so brilliant, disregarded by her parents because she's the middle child. This season, we had quite a few episodes with a focus on Alex, and I really appreciated that.

Sorry that this review is so late! I'll be looking forward to this show coming back in the fall.

8/10