BWW Recap: The Pritchett-Dunphys Learn INTEGRITY the Hard Way on MODERN FAMILY

Good evening/morning/insert-other-time-of-day-when-you're-reading-this, MODFAM fans! Hope you've had a good week, and are ready to dive in to another exciting episode. Here's the rundown on what happened this week:

Jay's assigned to, with Phil, pick up Lily's princess castle for Joe, 'cause Lily's too grown up to use it anymore. But Jay's got a gripe about Joe playing with "girl toys" - "What's fun about a lifetime of gender confusion?" he asks Gloria. (I gotta say that mani/pedi line was SPOT ON!)

In a separate plot, Phil awaits the arrival of a vintage Ms. PacMan machine, and Claire's disapproval sparks a discussion with Jay later en route to Mitch and Cam's with the princess castle. Which brings up the issue of Gloria "feminizing" Joe and leaving any of Jay's parenting decisions completely in the dust.

In an effort to save Phil's manhood, Jay clicks "Buy" on the Ms. PacMan Amazon page (or I'm guessing it was Amazon), telling Phil "I'm sure you'd do the same for me." Welp, Jay spoke to swoon and crumbles as Phil releases the strings on the princess castle and it tumbles out into the road before being run over by a truck. (Oh, castle, we hardly knew ye). So, it's back to the drawing board, and Jay finds himself at Gloria's mercy again.

I'm super excited about the parallels between Phil and Jay's storylines, if only because it means they finally found common ground. It's great to have them relate to one another, as they're (well, Jay's) usually less than thrilled to connect with his son-in-law. And I have to admit, some of the dialogue here is hilarious (Raise the roof!!) A plot well done.

Claire's plot involves her attempting to console Luke on his Awards Day at school. But being typical Claire, she goes a little too far. First, she sits down with the principal and attempts to bribe him into bumping out another kid and giving Luke the Integrity Award, for which her son was in the running. Ironic, huh? Then, when that doesn't work, she goes further, pushing the award recipient's car into handicapped parking. Of course, the whole thing snowballs into a huge brawl, the cause of which is revealed to be a huge misunderstanding on Claire's part (of course!). The way it wraps up is sweet, though - and it's even sweeter when we find out what Luke did for Manny. ;-) Loved that it fit so naturally into the wraparound at the end, too. Brilliant work!

After the upstairs neighbor dies and leaves the place vacant, Mitch and Cam decide to buy the unit. Both separately want to use it as a nursery for another baby (!!!), but neither knows the other one's thinking this too. Cam reveals that's the reason why he agreed to watch Joe - "to remind Mitchell how nice it is to have a baby." Yeah. I can tell where this one's going. And yes, it goes there, as they put Joe down for a second, and he draws on the curtains. And it keeps getting worse. Until they decide they don't want a baby.

Predictable plot of the week? Sort of. Though it did seem like at first, this plot could be the beginning to a season finale cliffhanger with Mitch and Cam deciding to adopt again (which made me super excited despite the fact that it's been done before), as soon as Cam said that quoted line, I knew where the plot was going. But those sneaky little writers come in at the end and give us two incredibly touching moments where Lily first pulls Joe away from the house, and then helps him to nail together a wood board. That cutaway to Mitch and Cam was equally wonderful and chilling. What will happen next? Does it mean another baby for the family of three?

Haley's got a plot of her own, too, and involves her b*tchy boss, Gavin Sinclair (Broadway's Michael Urie, who's back this week btw). He's totally overloading Haley, and Gloria can't take it. So, she speaks up on her step-grandchild's behalf. But, as you might have guessed, it doesn't go over so well.

Two things: I'm so happy Haley's sticking up for herself and saying what she really feels. As I've said many, many times before, this is just another example of how she's become her own character with feelings, and that the writers feed us all this information about Haley through her eyes - and not just through Claire's demeaning comments, and whatever Alex and Luke say about her - makes us relate to her more. Second, I really appreciated the parallel between Gloria and Claire helping the kids. Though they both end up hurting rather than helping (well, Gloria kind of), it really is nice to show that they at least care for the younger ones enough to help... not only because it supports the theme of the episode - "No one wins anything without help from family and friends..." - but because (and I know I've said this many, many times too!) I think it's one of the core values and messages of the series overall. It stresses the importance of family, and being there for one another when they need you most. And it's great themes like this that keep me coming back and being there for this show week after week, year after year. MODERN FAMILY, you've done it again!

Overall, a nice episode this week. Gettin' down to the wire, guys! Who'll miss this show over the summer?

SOME FAVORITE QUOTES

- Jay: I wanted two rough-and-tumble boys; I got a Manny... and a pedi.

- Claire: I always worried Alex winning all those awards would bother Luke, and looks like it finally did. It can't be easy growing up in the shadow of a superstar sister. Look at Mitchell.

- Cam: (to Lily, playing cards) Do you have any queens?

Lily: Yeah, two big ones.

Cam: Okay. You know what? It was funny the first time. Now, it's just getting mean.

- Gloria: In this family, they think I am a Columbian hothead. Which is crazy, because a Colombian hothead is when you set somebody's head on fire. It smells terrible, but it sends a message.

- Gloria: (to Haley) You need to learn how to stand up for yourself.

Haley: Do you know how easy that is for you to say?

Gloria: No, no. Nothing in English is easy for me to say.

- Jay: (re: building the house) Window looks good... let's raise the roof!

Phil: I don't think it's time to celebrate, Jay. We haven't even put on the roo- Oh.

STRAY OBSERVATIONS

- Loved the callbacks to the white Vanderkoff couch and the Santangelo bowl from earlier in the season!!

- Since when did Joe learn to talk?

Photo Credit: ABC

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