Modern Family: Season 3 Episode 15 “Aunt Mommy” TV Recap
On this week’s episode, the show revolves around the fact that Cam and Mitchell are thinking about using surrogacy as means for them to have another child. They get this idea from their friends, Stephen and Stefan, who just recently had another child, a baby boy, through a surrogate. Cam and Mitchell like the idea of it, but as Cam delicately puts it, who gets to “ice the cupcake?” Stephen explains that is why they use the “swirl” method. Both partners donate, the clinic mixes it up, fertilizes the egg and no one is the wiser of who the father is. Hearing the explanation, Cam and Mitchell seem to warm up to the idea of surrogacy and possibly be one step closer to having another child.
Meanwhile, Jay wants Manny to start hanging around with kids his own age and play football, so when the neighborhood kids call to invite Manny to play with them one afternoon, he jumps at the chance. The only thing is that Gloria and Manny have plans already to go see a play with Gloria’s friend Margo, so when Margo calls to say that she got the tickets, he lies saying that something else came up.
Phil is showing Stephen and Stefan, friends of Cam and Mitchell, a house that they are looking to buy, but this happens to be the fifth time Phil has showed this house. Phil dubbed this as “Commission Impossible” so when Claire calls he says that it is the boss calling, the couple assumes that someone else is interested in the house. As the phone calls goes on, the couple misconstrues the call which is originally about having Luke and his friend Leon throwing away a rackety old chair away, to a couple who happens to be named Luke and Leon interested in looking at the house. So when the phone call ends, Stephen and Stefan want to buy the house and Phil just says “Commission Accomplished.”
Back at Manny’s football game, Gloria and Jay are thrilled to see Manny play, but Jay isn’t so stoked to have to tell Gloria of how he lied to Margo and to them to get Manny to play football, but he decides to tell Gloria after she witnesses seeing Manny having fun. Manny does have a fun time playing, but when he stops in the middle of the game to pick up a penny, a tradition that he and his mother started back in Columbia and gets tackled horribly to the ground, Jay isn’t so sure that his idea was good one anymore, especially since Manny now has to use a motorized wheel cart to move around. At dinner, Gloria finds out what Jay did and Jay explains that Manny needs to play with kids his own age and basically criticizes Gloria’s parenting.
Phil, Claire, Mitchell and Cam go out to dinner and slowly and steadily the four of them start to get drunk and start rambling off about their life and their kids. As the dinner progresses and more alcohol is consumed, Cam and Mitchell explain their dilemma about using a surrogate and how they don’t want use the “swirl” method because they could still figure out who the father is and that is when Claire gets the drunken induced bright idea to let Cam and Mitchell use one of her eggs so that it would be half Pritchett (Mitchell) and half Tucker (Cam). The only thing is that the following morning when the hangovers are in full bloom, comes the realization of what the couples have agreed to.
Phil, Claire, and Mitchell are all having their own perspective doubts, while Cam is the only one rooting for this idea all the while using programs to create a mash up of what his and Claire’s baby would look like. The creation is a surprising cute baby, as his mash up with Justin Timberlake and his mash up with Gloria which has eerily resemblance to Manny. Mitchell explains that he doesn’t feel comfortable with the whole idea saying that it is more Appalachian than anything else.
Everyone meets up at Gloria and Jay’s house for brunch, where news spreads like wildfire of the possibility of Claire donating her eggs. Her kids are surprisingly okay with the idea, while Jay and Gloria say it is unnatural. Both sides of the family get into an argument, so Mitchell and Claire climb underneath the dining room table to have a private talk of their own. They both tell each other why they want to back out and both agree it is for the best. Cam is a bit heartbroken, but both Cam and Mitchell recognize when looking at Lily, that even though they didn’t make her, she is 100 percent them, so adoption is their way to go. As for Jay, he realizes that he made a mistake of lying to Gloria and Manny to get them to do something that maybe Manny didn’t want to do in the first place and that whatever interests Manny has, Jay is going to fully support them because that is what family is supposed to do.
Originally posted in Affairs Magazine
