Modern Family Season 3 Episode 14 “Me? Jealous?” TV Recap
Finally, Modern Family is back with all-new episode after the show’s mini hiatus and with new episodes just in time for February Sweeps and what an episode it is!
The episode starts off with Phil being nervous, for an upcoming dinner he has scheduled with a potential client, Tad (Greg Kinnear). When the dinner does happen, everything goes smoothly except when Phil tries to go in for a hug with Tad, who just weaves and blocks the hug for hand shack instead and gives Claire a kiss goodbye…on the mouth. Claire is surprised to say the least and for Phil he happy that an “almost” hug happened.
Tad appears at the Dunphy’s house the following day unannounced to help Claire with her wobbly table explaining to Phil when he arrives home that he was just “giving Claire the tool that she needed.” After Tad leaves not before giving Claire a lingering kiss on the mouth once more, Claire is creeped out even more and tries to explain this Phil, who believes this as some farfetched way of Claire needing attention and being told she is pretty. Not cool, Phil. So, not cool.
Haley, on the other hand, is not looking forward to her being signed up to be a Big Sister, after mistakenly putting on her college applications as being a “Big Sister,” but referencing her sister Alex and not the mentoring program. However, when Haley starts liking her “little sister,” Alex gets a touch of the green-eyed monster over the attention Haley is dishing out.
Meanwhile, Cam and Mitchell are staying with Phil and Gloria, because their own house is being fumigated. There are little hints of tension between the adults as Phil makes nonstop lawyer jokes to Mitchell, while Cam and Gloria are upset at the other for taking over each other’s role i.e. Cam being more of the domestic type and Gloria being the more motherly type to Lily.
Then tension is further fueled when Phil shows up to one of Mitchell’s meetings with a client who happens to be one of his favorite old school radio DJs and starts “fangirling” all over him. Mitchell snaps at Phil and tells him to leave and Gloria and Cam buttheads when Cam decides to completely reorganize her kitchen and when Gloria decides to dress up Lily exactly like her, well let’s just say everyone has reached their boiling point.
Manny decides to take the initiative to try to help is mom and Cam patch things up since coming from a divorce background he is well versed in the art of conflict resolution. He tries to reach out using a similar “story” hoping they find similarities in the story to apologize to one another, except neither understands and they think that Manny have some really difficult friends. The situation finally resolve itself when both realize they were letting their own issues get in the way of their friendship, with Gloria being insecure of not being a natural domestic and with Cam being sensitive of Lily not having a mother. The two make up when Lily gives Cam a leopard printed apron similar to the jackets that that Gloria bought Lily and herself and the two enter fall into an easy cooking tango routine around the kitchen the delights them both.
Mitchell apologizes to his dad expressing his feelings that he felt bad when his father kept on sharing his favorite lawyer jokes. Phil apologizes too and lets Mitchell know that he is proud of him and Mitchell surprises his father with a visit with his favorite DJ at the house.
Phil and Claire are invited to Tad’s house for dinner and Claire agrees to go to support Phil no matter how uncomfortable she feels. When they arrive Phil agrees to kick Tad’s ass if he tries anything just to appease Claire and not because he believes her. Tad does try to kiss Claire again, but she quickly turns her head, but ends up witnessing Tad kissing his kid’s elderly babysitter and children all on the mouth. So, I guess Tad never really met anything by the kiss he just extra, extra friendly with his hellos. The dinner goes smoothly after the initial realization, well up until the point Tad makes Claire laugh uncontrollably and gets Phil jealous. His reasoning is that you can do anything with his wife, except make her laugh. So Phil storms out of the house with Claire and she thanks him for being jealous because it makes her feel loved and noticed.
In the end, the Dunphy parents head home were they see Alex and Haley dressing up Luke in a dress and makeup after the girls find out the Luke has been feeling left out because of all the fighting the two older siblings have been doing lately. Claire and Phil reprimand their children for not picking up their mess and when the girls leave they tell Luke to stay put to take photos of “Betty Luke” to capture this special moment.
Originally posted on Affairs Magazine
