Modern Family: Crazy Train (7x21)

This season has been underwhelming to say the least, but every once in a while we get an episode that reminds me of the glory days. This episode, while perhaps not a stunning work of art or anything, did get a lot of laughs out of me.

Cons:

Luke and Manny's plot thread was the weak link in the chain, as often seems to be the case with these two lately. The whole family is taking the train to Portland for Jay's ex-wife's wedding to her new husband. Manny and Luke decide to use the time to pick up girls, since, as Luke puts it, trains make girls crazy. The vibrations do something to girls, plus they're trapped, so that's nice. Ew. Manny thinks that Alex has a crush on him, which is just disturbing, and Luke flirts with an older woman and thinks she wants to sleep with him, when it turns out she just wants to give him a geography lesson. Both of these plot threads were lacking in laughs, and in Luke's case I just felt highly uncomfortable about the whole thing. Have we seen a single plot thread with these two that didn't involve hooking up with girls? Any amount of lovable idiocy that Luke had going for him has been replaced by utter bro-ish douche-baggery.

Pros:

The reason this episode works overall, despite the one bad plot thread, is because it mixes things up. Modern Family always shines the brightest when it finds creative ways to group its characters, and get them all in a unique situation to shake up the mundane nature of normal life. This week, it was the train ride to DeDe Pritchett's wedding.

Jay talks about how relieved he is that DeDe is getting married so he won't have to pay alimony any more. While he's talking about how crazy and awful she was, he realizes that the children of the man DeDe is about to marry are also on the train. They try and call their dad to warn him away from DeDe, which makes Jay try and backtrack. Eventually Jay and the others figure out that the guy DeDe is going to marry burned down his house when he was with his ex-wife, so maybe he's the crazy one. When Jay, Claire, and Mitchell call DeDe to warn her, it turns out that she already knows, and is still going to marry him. Claire and Mitchell work out their own feelings about their mother throughout this episode, as Mitchell reveals only he was asked to write the toast, and included Claire because he felt bad, and Claire tells Mitchell that their mother uses him as a scapegoat and has him deliver all bad news the rest of the family.

This plot thread worked really well because it integrated a lot of jokes in a short period of time, remained focused on a few key concepts, and had good moments of bonding between the nuclear family of Jay, Mitchell, and Claire. I liked the idea of Jay running in to the son of his ex-wife's new husband. That was such a random yet still plausible coincidence. When the family of this new guy eventually comes to the conclusion that Jay is the crazy one, not DeDe, Jay goes with it, just happy that DeDe will be somebody else's problem from now on. I also liked playing up Mitchell's relationship to his mother. We see that Jay has a stronger bond with Claire than with Mitchell, and it's nice to remember that it goes the other way with their mom. I hope next week's finale can take advantage of this dynamic.

Meanwhile, in my favorite plot thread of the night, Cam and Phil see their favorite mystery writer on the train. They get a sneak peek at the first chapter of his new book, but uncover a plot hole that derails the entire story. They have to work to find another way to make the plot work. Once they work it out, Haley derails the whole story again by pointing out another gaping plot hole that makes the initiating event of the novel totally impossible.

I liked this plot thread because Cam and Phil have a great comedic chemistry between them. Ty Burrell is really this show's secret weapon - you can pair Phil Dunphy with any other character in the show and usually end up with the highlighted plot thread of the episode. The writer character was really funny, too. They did the cliché trappings of a artistic brooding soul, with his scruffy appearance and his habit of typing on a typewriter on a train, but they didn't go too far with it. In one memorable scene, he talks about how he is going to burn his manuscript upon arriving at his destination, and that this will be the final act of his career. But he then qualifies this dramatic statement by saying that he'll still go to the writer's panel in Portland, because it would be rude to cancel and there's a wine and cheese reception following. That was hilarious!

The other plot thread that I rather enjoyed was Alex's. She gets hit on by a guy from coach. She leaves her first class compartment and goes back with the rabble to spend time with him. The whole thing becomes a Titanic parody, as Alex and her new love dance around in coach, and draw a tic-tac-toe board in the mist on the window, in parody of the famous sex scene. Alex even starts the episode wearing a big hat like Rose wears when we first see her approach the Titanic. The whole thing ends when Alex heads to her compartment to await the guy from coach, and then learns that he got off on the next stop, with her wallet to boot.

Alex has been totally underutilized and confusingly handled all season, and I still can't quite remember when her relationship with Sanjay was supposed to have ended the second time. But regardless of all that, I enjoyed this plot thread within the bounds of this specific episode. The parody aspect snuck up on me, and I didn't realize what was happening until they started dancing around with the other people in coach. I loved the idea that a $20 price difference would create these two different cultures between coach and first class.

Haley spent the episode dipping in and out of other people's plot threads - giving Alex advice about her new love, telling Manny that Lily has a crush on him, leading to his misunderstanding about Alex, and talking to the mystery novelist. I almost wish Andy could have come along for the ride, because there might have been some good comedic material with him in the mix. Gloria similarly didn't have a lot to do, but she did end up trapped in coach without her ticket, and she couldn't get back to first class, which got a few laughs as well.

Well, there you have it! If next week's finale can keep up with this episode's momentum, we can go out on a high note.

8.5/10