Modern Family: Kiss and Tell (10x02)

This episode felt off to me, and I'm not sure if I can quite articulate why. It felt like a lot of characters were acting just slightly out of character? Maybe? I don't know.

Cons:

Let's start with Haley. She feels guilty about kissing Dylan, she tells Arvin about it, then goes to tell Dylan that the kiss was a mistake... only to fall right back into his arms when he tells her he loves her and is trying to become a better person for her. This isn't out of character for Haley, in a sense, but it is a little frustrating that this is the last season of this show, and we're retreading old ground in this way. I like Arvin, even if he and Haley are a little awkward together. I like Dylan, too. I just don't want to watch Haley screw people over like this. It's not fun or interesting.

Manny comes back from his road trip with a Canadian girlfriend, and his family thinks he's making her up... because he's actually gay? In the end Manny proves that the girl is real, but for the majority of this episode we see Gloria going out of her way to prove to her son that she'd be okay if he were gay. I'm not sure what they were going for here, but they made it look like Gloria was overcompensating for how uncomfortable she was with the idea of Manny being gay. In the first place, if he was gay, it's his business when and how he tells people. And in the second place, Gloria was acting out of character by getting all worked up about it. I think this might have been part of the larger plot thread of Gloria not wanting Manny to grow distant from her, but it came across really weird.

The most annoying plot thread for me was also the one that had the most potential: Jay and Phil's Mean Girls feud. Phil decides to "mean girl" Jay because he realizes that Jay is always being a bully to him, and if he ices him out, he can get his revenge. This backfires and Jay starts "mean girl"ing Phil right back. In the end, Gloria announces the big reveal that Jay admires Phil and wants to be more like him. This... doesn't work. For ten years, this show has done a good subtle job of showing that Jay likes Phil, but doesn't usually come out and say it. He respects Phil, but he doesn't identify with him. He respects him despite how very different they are from one another. It's part of his journey with his own son Mitchell as well. Just last week we saw Jay giddily participating in a very campy overblown Independence Day parade, and this week we learn that he envies Phil for being able to let loose and make a fool of himself as long as he's having fun? That doesn't track. Jay has never been afraid to express himself in wacky and goofy ways. This plot thread would have worked with a dash of subtlety, if Gloria hadn't revealed the "shocking truth" in such a blunt fashion. I can see Jay getting his feelings hurt by Phil's actions, and I could see a genuine resolution coming out of that. But they didn't pull it off here.

Pros:

I probably sound a little harsh. This episode wasn't total crap, and I did like a few things about it.

For one, I think it's oddly perfect that nobody in the family knows why they've all gathered at Jay and Gloria's. At first Claire thinks it's Gloria and Jay's anniversary, then Jay thinks it's for an award Alex won... they never answer this question. This may have been something that got cut from the script or something, but I actually thought it was pretty funny that it was never resolved.

I also liked how Haley's relationship drama pulled in Cam and Mitchell's relationship drama. We learn that very early on in Cam and Mitchell's relationship, before they were exclusive, Mitchell kissed someone else at a bar. Of course Cam gets all worked up, and Mitchell downplays it, but in the end they make up. Last season we saw some serious cracks in their relationship, and I wonder if this is a sign that we're continuing that trend, or just a little goof for this single episode. Since this is the last season, I'd be okay with just letting sleeping dogs lie, but I'd be equally interested to see some actual drama explored. Claire lying to help Mitchell was also pretty great. I thought it sounded out of character for Mitchell to call his sister crying about how much he loved Cam... and turns out, the story was completely made up!

There were quite a few individually funny moments in this episode, even in the plot threads that didn't work for me. Phil's deadpan snarky delivery to Jay was amazing throughout, and I loved the moment when Alex accidentally started talking about hot fireman sex within Phil's earshot, and they both just stared at each other for a moment and then dropped it. That was pretty great. I also liked Manny's new girlfriend from Canada having to make a FaceTime call to prove that she was real. She says this isn't the first time she's had to do this, which made me laugh.

So there you have it. I like it when Modern Family can get everyone in the same room together, even if the characters themselves don't know why. Unfortunately, this episode was filled with a lot of weirdness that just did not quite click with me.

6.5/10