Modern Family: ClosetCon '13

Modern Family Season 5, Episode 8

ABC, Wednesdays 9:00pm

By Nicole Sandoli

            This episode is called ClosetCon ’13 for a number of ingenious reasons.  ClosetCon is the name of the convention that Claire and Jay are attending to do some networking. Cam, Mitch, and Lily are visiting Cam’s farm and family in Missouri, where Cam still has yet to tell his grandma, “Gram Gram,” he is gay. Back at Jay’s house, Phil gains access to Jay’s closet that is usually locked with all his keepsakes.  This week, we are back to the mockumentary tv formula with multiple plot lines happening at once.

            At ClosetCon, Jay is less than enthused to be there, while Claire is excited for the experience. Jay runs into an old colleague named Rita, who gets Claire to thinking Jay has had an affair with. She is only given this idea because of what the bartender says to her moments before, “Let’s just say when the name tags come on, the wedding rings come off.” Jay mingles with some old friends, but him and Rita seem to be closer than the rest.

            Cam and Mitch being in Missouri is hilarious in itself.  Mitch is clearly out of place, while Cam thrives as a farm-body. Cam’s over-touchy mother continues to make Mitch uncomfortable, and Lily starts to use Cam’s southern lingo.  Perhaps the best part in this story is when Mitch tells the camera, “Missouri…misery, huh?” This line could not be more perfect to describe exactly how he feels about Cam’s ridiculous farm life and chores.

            Back at the Pritchett's, Phil, Luke, Gloria, Manny, Alex, and Haley have plans to go out for dinner.  Haley and Alex fight over the pizza delivery boy and who likes him more. Phil gets sidetracked before their reservation, and starts to play with Jay’s collectibles that are in a closet in the kitchen.  He has a blast going through Jay’s stuff because that door is usually locked.  In there, he finds a plethora of airplanes and baseballs, but is specifically infatuated with a replica of the Apollo 13 aircraft. What happens next is predictable Phil – he knocks it on the floor and it shatters into a hundred pieces. As they all panic, Phil makes Gloria cancel the reservation, which is ironically at a place called Houston’s.

            At ClosetCon, Claire happily attends all the sessions and meets up with her father before dinner.  She finds him with Rita outside their door, and her suspicion continues. What she doesn’t know, is that Rita and Jay have a tradition of hanging a skeleton in the closet to scare someone they know, which in this case is Claire. When Jay blows Claire off for dinner, and she asks him about his situation with Rita before they both go to bed.  He explains that he only used Rita once to try and get Phil to move away and break-up with Claire.  Naturally, this wasn’t what Claire was referring to, so more information is revealed – coming out of another “closet.”  She corrects him and meant about the affair, but is now angry that he tried to split them up and goes for her coat in the closet to leave the room  She sees the skeleton and is not amused as she heads for the front door. Jay fires back that he received a call from immigration when he was dating Gloria, which shuts Claire right up and puts her back in bed.

            Mitch has had a change of heart and decides to embrace Cam’s upbringing, emerging in overalls and a plaid shirt.  In the meantime, Cam’s grandma showed up unexpectedly, and still doesn’t know that Cam has a partner and a child.  Cam pretends that Mitch is their helper named Bud, which causes a tiff between them and discussing acceptance. When they are locked in the basement because of a tornado warning, Mitch agrees to pretend he is the help and Lily is his daughter. Right before Mitch can elaborate too much, Cam stops him to break the news to his grandmother. Naturally she isn’t happy when he says he has a child with a man and she comments, “Now I know why God gave us this storm.”

            Phil and the boys have his dad on Skype, in hopes of him helping them glue the plane back together.  Alex and Haley get stuck to the same airplane propeller, and they fight over who will answer the door for the pizza boy. They continue to bicker, and apologize to each other right before Gloria threatens to cut their hair. Phil orders the boys to leave the garage so he can add the finishing touches, and the rest of the family watches from the new security system Gloria had installed. It is humorous to see everyone gathered around the screen barely breathing, as if it were an important surgery.  He glues the final piece together, and they all let out a huge sigh and celebrate with Phil's favorite gesture - hugging.

            Overall, this episode was pretty so-so. The laughs were there, but I wasn’t hysterical the whole time.  The title of the episode was great for tying in the three separate stories, though. It was important they tied the themes together, as it unified the episode.  Claire acts like Phil at some points in this episode, which is interesting to see his characteristics rubbing off on her. Jay runs as the dominant male out of the three families, and it’s nice to see him as powerful at the conference – knowing and mingling with everyone. Mitch and Cam always end on a happy note, being strong for Lily and showing their love for each other. Phil somehow always manages to pull through, despite his clumsiness. Alex and Haley make up…until their next fight. It was a typical Modern Family episode, but hopefully the next episode will hold my attention better.