MODERN FAMILY: Tableau Vivant

One thing I love about this show is the strong sense of family. No matter how many arguments or misunderstandings there are between them, they always come back to the family. I think it is important because a lot of shows are missing that. This episode was a great example of how families can bicker but all in all they love and respect each other.

This episode begins with Phil trying to figure out a nice way to fire Mitchell. He doesn’t like confrontation so it is really tough for him. As a favor, Mitchell has been providing legal work for Phil’s office. The employees at Phil’s office are under the impression that Mitchell is lazy because he turned in a few reports late. Phil shows up at his house with coffee for him. He tells Mitchell how great it has been working with him and we find out that Mitchell was actually looking for a way out. He turned those reports in late on purpose hoping that the company would fall a little “out of love” with him. So it seems like a win-win right? Wrong!

Mitchell shows up at the office to let him know that he can work through July. Phil pretends to need help carrying stuff from his car so they get in the elevator. Phil steps out of the elevator claiming her forgot boxes, and fires Mitchell as the elevator doors are closing. Unfortunately for Phil they didn’t close all the way. Mitchell ends up getting stuck in the elevator for two hours listening to the people in Phil’s office refer to him as “The Lazy Guy” among other sarcastic comments.

Luke is getting a medal at school because he put out a fire at school. Too bad it was a fire that he started. Manny saw the whole thing and tried to get Luke to confess. He knows Luke has a conscience and hopes he will use it. Well it didn’t work because Luke won the medal and didn’t think twice about confessing.

Jay takes Gloria to his favorite diner where he has a sandwich named after him. He is so proud but Gloria wants to order soup to keep her sexy figure. Gloria takes a bite of the sandwich and claims to not like it but it’s really the friendly waitress, Maxine that she is not fond of. She knows some things about Jay that Gloria didn’t know because he didn’t want her to worry.

After a silent ride home Jay admits that Gloria doesn’t have to give her opinion about everything. She could have just said she liked the sandwich to spare his feelings. This leads to a Jay admitting that he thinks Gloria can get too loud from time to time. She didn’t like that and decided to not talk at all. Well you know what they say, silence is golden.

Lily is walking around Claire’s house flipping the light switches on and off and she keeps telling Lily no. Cam tells her that they are trying an approach where they don’t say “no” to Lily because kids can have a negative reaction to that word (ya think?). He suggests to redirect her focus to another activity instead. They disagree but Claire drives her point home when Cam gets his arm stuck down the drain and Lily is headed for the switch to the garbage disposal. Once Lily flipped the switch Cam yelled “NO!” and Claire got a big laugh because it was just a light switch.

Alex is trying so hard to impress her art teacher “Mr. Gorgeous.” She is not used to a teacher not liking her and he didn’t even know her name after a year; he called her Alice. She decides to recreate a living version of a famous Norman Rockwell dinner scene starring her own family. It was supposed to be a 90 second silent representation of a caring family. Unfortunately for Alex, everyone is bickering while holding their pose. Claire and Cam are still going back and forth about parenting. Cam lets it slip that Hailey snuck in the night before and Manny spills the beans about Luke starting the fire that he won the medal for putting out. Gloria is holding a big turkey and complains that it is heavy and she won’t be able to hold on for much longer. This whole scene was hilarious! Alex ends up getting a B-minus but the best part was that “Mr. Gorgeous” finally got her name right.

After the show, the whole family was supposed to meet at the deli to try Jay’s sandwich. The separate conversations that each family had during the drive over show that each of them share blame in the arguments they had earlier. Gloria realizes she is jealous of Jay’s relationship with Maxine, Claire realizes that she can come across as a know it all, Cam realizes that he can be very defensive about his parenting skills, and Mitchell feels a little insecure about his work because he has never been fired. By the time they all meet up at the restaurant all is well. Gloria orders Jay Pritchett sandwiches for everyone. Boy do I love this family.

Modern Family Airs Wednesday nights at 9/8c on ABC.