Modern Family: Clean Out Your Junk Drawer (7x08)

Okie dokie. No Luke and Manny this week, but we had lots of stuff going on with everybody else. Let's dive in.

Cons:

The main plot this week is that Gloria won a session with a couple's therapist at an auction, and this woman comes over to do her program with Gloria and Jay, Phil and Claire, and Cam and Mitchell. I liked a lot of stuff about it, and I'll talk about that in a moment. But there were definitely some missed opportunities, especially with Cam and Mitchell. Their discussions about coasters and leaving the light on didn't lead to anything deeper, and I didn't feel like their relationship shifted in any way by the end of the episode. This was a contrast to the other two couples, who had surprisingly real moments mixed in with the humor.

Pros:

That being said, Cam and Mitchell did have the biggest laugh of the night. The doctor working with them all as a therapist has them all lay in each other's arms and talk about their deepest feelings. Mitchell tells Cam that they should keep things superficial, so as to be a good example of the gay community. He specifically says "no bedroom stuff." When the doctor comes over, she asks Cam if he'd like to switch positions, referring to the fact that Cam was laying in Mitchell's lap for the exercise. Cam replies: "I'm not allowed to talk about that." That was so funny! Things only escalate when Cam and Mitchell are ask to express behaviors about each other that they would wish to change. Mitchell ends up yelling in front of everybody that it's been a month since they've had sex - or, as he says "a month since we've touched each other's pogo sticks," which piggybacks off of an earlier joke with Phil and Claire. I was cracking up through all of this!

Claire and Phil, meanwhile, have more superficial problems. Surprisingly, this part of the plot thread focused on the things Phil doesn't like about Claire, instead of the other way around. I appreciated that unexpected twist on what could have been a tired re-hash of Claire the bossy wife and Phil the lovable idiot. Instead, we see that Phil is annoyed by Claire's jokes, and her constant usage of the phrase "me likey." All of this was rather silly, but as the episode ends we see Claire confess a real fear about their relationship: she worries that she's not funny enough for Phil, and that once the kids are all out of the house, he'll get bored with her, and realize how crazy she really is. Phil tells her that he already knows she's crazy. That was actually very sweet. Examining Claire's worries about her own inadequacies is something we've seen quite often when it comes to her professional life, her relationship with her father, etc. To see it in this context was new, and I greatly enjoyed it.

Finally, there's Gloria and Jay. Jay is totally resistant to the idea of this whole couple's therapy thing, and sneaks away to watch football instead of paying attention to the exercises. When the therapist is forced to leave early due to a family emergency, and everybody is squabbling over all the stuff that got brought up, Jay brings the hammer down - he asks everybody why they need to be so damn emotional. His father was totally emotionless and taught him never to express himself. He didn't even cry at the man's funeral! This causes Jay to break down, wondering if his father knew that he loved him, despite the fact that they never talked about it.

Wow! That was actually pretty emotional. Claire agrees that Jay and Gloria "won therapy," having gotten the most out of it. I liked the fact that Gloria wanted to have this whole couple's counseling thing because she wanted to encourage Jay to be more open about his emotions. She wants her son Joe to have a chance to grow up with less emotional restraint than Claire and Mitchell, who both ended up being quite neurotic. I really enjoyed the humor of that observation, coupled with the more serious desire of Gloria's to help Jay open up.

The subplot featured Alex and Haley, each confessing their bad behavior in the romance department. Alex tells Haley about the high school kid she's been seeing, while Haley confesses that she slept with Andy. They decide that they both deserve better. Alex breaks things off with Rubin, but when Haley goes to talk to Andy, the two end up falling back into bed together.

I liked seeing the two sisters go to each other to talk out their problems. Alex's weird little tryst with Rubin didn't do much for me anyway, so I'm perfectly happy to see it end. But more importantly, I'm happy to see Haley and Andy's relationship continue. I mean I think they're both awful for sleeping together when Andy is engaged. It's truly despicable. But I think they could make each other really happy, and I don't really know Beth as a character, so I'm enjoying this plot thread quite a lot. I loved the scene when they meet up, and both say that they need to end their relationship immediately. They both agree to part as friends and stay away from each other for a while. Cut to... the two of them in bed together. I mean, it's not exactly original or anything, but I really do like the momentum of these two. It's one of the more sustained plot threads this show has ever done, and I'm greatly enjoying it.

That's all I've got! This wasn't a stand-out brilliant episode or anything, but I had fun watching it.

7.5/10