MODERN FAMILY: Games People Play

Each week we watch this family and it never gets old. The writers of this show continue to keep the laughs coming and I love them for it. This episode was no exception. Manny stole the show for me this week. Let’s get to it!

Phil calls a family fun meeting to show off his new RV (it pays to sell a house to a top RV dealer). Everyone is thrilled except for Claire. Phil wants to take it for a ride up the east coast, but Claire doesn’t want to be stuck in a RV for 10 days with the kids. She doesn’t want to be the bad guy, so she hopes Phil will see the kids’ true colors if they take it for a spin. She claims the Kraken will be unleashed. We will just have to see about that.

Lily is taking Gymnastics and she is pretty good. Cam and Mitchell came to her meet to support her and they were so proud (although Mitchell didn’t realize how good she was, he thought Cam was just bragging). Once Mitchell saw how good she was and that she had a chance of winning, he got really excited and a little too competitive.

Gloria, Jay and Manny show up to the Dunphy’s place because Manny left his backpack there (with his poem for a poetry reading in it). Nobody was home so Gloria snuck in the house and told them not to ask any questions. Jay goes through the mail and Manny says to him “Going through other people’s mail? Keepin it classy Jay.” Seriously I love this kid. After not finding his backpack, Manny remembers that he left it in Cam’s car. Jay wonders why Manny is so scatter brained and Gloria says it is because he is nervous about his poetry reading. Gloria will be there to ease his nerves and to support him. Manny doesn’t want her there. He is testing out some darker material he isn’t sure she is ready for. Poems like the umbilical noose, a jail called mom, and smother nature.” Hilarious!

 The Dunphy’s are rolling in the RV and Claire is waiting for the kids to start acting up. But to her surprise, they don’t. They are pleasant and polite to one another.  This startles Claire so she tries to stir the pot by pointing out that Alex is wearing Hailey’s sweater, but that didn’t work either. Ah sibling love. Take that Claire! As long as Phil focuses on the road, they might survive this trip.

Gloria, Jay and Manny go to Mitchell and Cam’s and they aren’t home either. Gloria mysteriously gets in their house too (she is good) and Manny looks for his backpack. Gloria and Jay both begin to snoop (starting to pick up on a pattern here). They notice that Cam and Mitchell had a game night and didn’t invite them just as Manny found his backpack. They can’t believe they were snubbed. Then Jay found a drawing that was a pile of coins and a woman’s chest. He thought it was making fun of him and Gloria and that made him upset. He decided to send them a little message with a picture of lips and a donkey. You do the math. Gloria couldn’t figure it out so she cheated. Jay said she was the reason they weren’t invited. They started going back and forth and Manny cut in. Manny told them they weren’t invited because of the bickering, and competitiveness. He also pointed out that the picture wasn’t making fun of them; it was a treasure chest. Just as he made them feel bad, he knocked over his backpack and an invitation fell out. Woops! Jay and Gloria were invited, but Manny forgot to give them the invitation. He didn’t want them to know, so he put it back in Cam’s briefcase. Sneaky Manny! Snooping around, Gloria found it and figured out Manny was playing them. She knew the invitation wasn’t in the briefcase the first time she snooped, so she knew Manny put it there. She figured out that he didn’t want them at his poetry reading and was scheming to keep them from coming. Instead of being upset, Jay and Gloria were proud that he wasn’t such a goodie two shoes after all.

At the gymnastics meet, Lily was on the beam and Mitchell and Cam were nervous for her dismount but she nailed it and got a 9.4! Go Lily! If no one beat her score she would make pre-team. Mitchell started rooting for the other girls to fall (out loud) and yelled out “Yes!” when a girl fell. Yikes! Mitchell realized he might be turning into his “too competitive” father. Cam and Mitchell were talking and missed Lily hug a girl who fell and Lily fixed her hair because her head hurt. Lily’s daddies thought she pulled out the girl’s bun as bad sportsmanship. They apologized for her bad behavior but really embarrassed themselves. What happened next? Lily made pre-team and her daddies are only allowed to watch her meets from 100 feet away (but they are appealing that).

Claire can’t get over the perfect harmony and realizes, maybe she was the one who brought out the worst in her kids. Then it happened. A bee was flying around and Luke tried to smack it but smacked Alex instead. Yelling, fighting and freaking out followed. Claire just sat there and let it unfold. Ladies and gents, the Kracken has been released and Phil had to pull over. He was so upset he got off the RV. Claire and the kids felt bad and started talking to one another. Luke admitted he can’t go on a road trip this summer because he is failing pre-algebra and has to go to summer school. Alex admitted she was trying to juggle two boys, and Hailey shared that she tried out to be a Laker girl that morning. It was a cool family moment and unfortunate that Phil missed it.

Claire got off of the RV and told Phil that she was wrong. Being stuck on the RV made the family open up to each other and a road trip might be what they need. Clear the roads folks; the Dunphy trip is back on!

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