MODERN FAMILY: ‘Our Children, Ourselves’

I tuned into MODERN FAMILY on time and freaked out when I realized the president had pre-empted the show! You too? Yeah, this recap is for those of you who thought we were only going to see 10 minutes of our favorite family this week…

Who else was excited to have Mary Lynn Rajskub (24) guesting?  She and Jesse Tyler Ferguson were on LOPEZ TONIGHT a few days ago and previewed some clips, which got me pretty pumped for the episode. She didn’t get to show off her comedic side on 24 too often, but the woman needs to do more comedy.  She was perfect as Mitchell’s former girlfriend, Tracy (Yes, girlfriend!  Who knew?!) and possible baby mama.

After running into Tracy at the mall, Mitchell sees her standing with a red-headed eight year old whom he thinks is his since they had a tryst in the nurse’s office at their 10-year high school reunion.  After Cam and Mitchell have their own reactions (Cameron whimpering and sliding down the wall, Mitchell tearing up when Cameron says he’ll support him no matter what) to the “news,” they go see Tracy to get the real story.  I won’t ruin it for you, but I will say the payoff was worth it!

I swear the writers always give Cam and Mitch the best storylines.  I mean, come on, Cameron being “so gay” – Mitchell’s words, not mine! – that he couldn’t think of real fake names for former girlfriends and resorted to naming women from musicals instead! And then Mitchell’s callback when he did the same thing to Jay?  Ha!  It had the perfect mix of sweetness and comedy between the two and that’s why they’re my favorite couple on the show.

On the Dunphy side of things, Alex finally made an appearance!  How long has it been since we’ve seen her?  It feels like forever!  I guess she was locked in her room studying, which is what she did for most of this episode anyway.

After coming in second on a test grade to Sanjay Patel, whose parents are a surgeon and a professor, Alex says she’ll just have do the best with what she was given (aka I’ve got parents who go to the movies to see Croctopus in 3D). But at least they know they’re subpar!  They run into Sanjay’s parents in the lobby of the theater and decide to lie, saying they are going to the same acclaimed French film as the Patels.  Phil walks out and ends up going to Croctopus anyway and Claire falls asleep during Deux Jour.  When Phil comes to wake Claire up, they have a heart-to-heart and decide that two dumb people can’t have a smart child, so they must have contributed to her intelligence somehow.

Shortly thereafter, Claire and Phil run smack into a door when leaving the movies and the camera backs away to reveal the clearly marked “Not an Exit” sign.

I was “meh” about Gloria and Jay’s happenings this week.  A couple they met on vacation decides to come for a visit and during dinner out, Jay basically tells them they aren’t friends, why are they wasting their time pretending to be?  Back at the house, when they are packing up to leave, Gloria tells them Jay’s mind is going and it’s like he’s sometimes not even there.  They are immediately sympathetic and decide to stay the night.  Manny’s exchange with them the next morning was the funniest part of this story to me.  They think he’s talking about Jay losing his mind while Manny is actually taking about how he’s losing his golf game – lots of swearing and bad driving included.

What did you think of “Our Children, Ourselves” tonight?  Were you as indifferent as I was about Gloria and Jay?  Could Sanjay Patel have a more stereotypical Indian name?  Let me know your favorite moments or anything I missed by hitting the comments!