Modern Family: Season 2, Episode 24 – The One That Got Away

The season finale of Modern Family aired last night. “The One that Got Away” ended the second season nicely, and prepared the audience for a few things that the writers have planned for season three. The episode focuses on Jay’s birthday, and this year all he wants to do is go fishing. (Last year he was surprised with a trip to Hawaii with the whole family, so this year some alone time is in store.) A series of unfortunate events interfere with Jay’s plan, however.

Mitchell and Claire decided to recreate a childhood photo for their father. They got the idea from Phil, who did the same thing for his parents last year (by the way, his picture is hilarious.) The Pritchett kids dress in the same outfits as the picture (Mitch in a sailor suit, Claire in bell bottoms and pig tails) and drive to their old house, but nobody is home. Claire forces Mitchell to hop the fence with her, and they are scared by a dog and run up the tree into their old treehouse. With no way down and no cell phone, they crack open the bottle of wine they had and reminisce. In the end they distract the dog long enough to get Claire’s cell phone off the ground and call Jay to pick them up.

Lily’s crying is annoying Cam, so he drops her off at Gloria’s house. As he’s heading out the door, Manny asks him for advice about how to impress a girl he’s pursuing. He has a date to play catch with her, but he’s never used his baseball glove. Cam offers to help. After leaving, Manny calls Cam to report that all is going well. Cam offers him advice, but his phrasing is less than appropriate for being in public. He gets kicked out of the bakery he’s in, so he has to call Jay and have him pick up his own cake.

Phil goes to the mall to pick up Jay’s gift, but gets distracted when he runs into his old college rival, Glenn, the captain of the cheerleading squad. When Gloria and Lily walk by, someone in the mall mistakes them as Phil’s family. Phil asks Gloria to come to the shoe store with him, hoping that Glenn will make the same mistake. When Glenn spots Gloria, he’s impressed, but confesses that he thought Phil would end up with Claire Pritchett. It turns out that Glenn was always jealous of Phil for dating Claire.

Everyone heads over to Jay’s house, and Jay hasn’t had a moment of peace. He gets over himself and is ready for cake and presents. Of course, those are ruined as well. The dog knocks over the cake, everyone’s presents are terrible, and Gloria gets Jay a “sexy phone” when he wanted a saxophone. Finally we get to see the video that the Dunphy kids had been apparently working on for a year. It’s thirty seconds of spliced together clips; most of the footage was unusable. Manny calls Jay to the backyard where he has Jay’s fishing boat in the pool, ready for some bonding time. The entire family circles around, joking and teasing each other. During these final moments of the episode, Mitch and Cam talk about the fact that they are ready for another baby, a boy this time.

Now we are forced to wait an entire summer for the next episode of Modern Family; I don’t know if I’ll survive. What did you think of the season finale?

–

Cam: You’re pretending to be something you’re not. Boys do that for girls…or really dreamy boys.

Alex: Who’s Clive Bixby?
Phil: A friend of your mom’s.

Cam: Not so good with the bat?
Manny: I am, so long as I’m using it to roll out dough.

Jay: Now the old Jay would have said “I wanted to be on a lake with a fishing rod and sunshine, not bobbing around at night in a swimming pool.” I miss the old Jay.