This column follows the ABC show “Modern Family,” which airs at 9 PDT on Wednesdays. Check here regularly for a synopsis and commentary on each episode.
Author’s note: “Modern Family” is rated TV-PG, so I recommend that each viewer discern for him or herself whether or not the show is appropriate to watch. For young audiences, parents should determine if the show is acceptable.
“Hit and Run” (Ep. 5)
While on the way to the store, Phil and Claire walk by a town councilmen, Dwayne Bailey, who declined the stop sign proposition. Dwayne is re-running for a town counsel position, but since he and Claire had a bad encounter this bothers her.
Mitchell and Cam decide to attend a scary movie during the day at the local theater. While they were waiting for the movie to start, a man and his children walked in and sat behind the couple. Cam turned around and tells the man that he really shouldn’t be in this movie with his children, since he knew the movie was scary. The man tells him that he knows what he’s doing, and to leave him alone.
Cam is persistent and tells him he should really consider taking his kids out of the theater. The man begins to become angry, and his daughter tells him that she is scared of the “crazy man”, which is Cameron. As Cam is about to climb over the chair and get into a fight, the scene switches to Mitchell saying that they were in the wrong theater. The couple ended up being in the Muppet’s movie, thus causing Lily to be upset when she found out.
Jay calls Gloria to tell her that he will be late for dinner due to an interview that is starting late. Gloria asks him if he told the man he had family coming over for dinner, but Jay tells her that since the man he is seeing fired his own father, he doesn’t really think the man is a family guy.
After getting off the phone with Jay, Gloria asks her son if anything is wrong, since he seemed to have a depressed mood. Manny responds by saying that he wants to be home-schooled because he doesn’t want to write the essay his teacher assigned. He doesn’t understand why the teachers only look at the flashy stuff, and not the actual substance of the paper.
Manny says the paper is on the mafia, so Gloria says she can easily help. She offers to help him with a paper mache since one kid did a rap for his presentation, but Manny reminds her that he doesn’t want it to be too flashy. Gloria also gives the idea that they could chop off his old rocking horses head to prove a point, but Manny quickly responds that he still loves his horse.
Gloria is frustrated with Jay and Manny because they wont listen to her advice. According to her, she has all the answers.
While in the meeting, the man tells Jay that he wants closets to blow him away, but Jay sticks to his original opinion by stating his closets are currently fine. The man is asking things of Jay that he doesn’t want to do, so he gets up and leaves.
To Alex surprise, Haley asks her sister for 900 dollars, but Alex tells her that she doesn’t have that kind of money. Next, Haley asks Luke who also responds with a no, but unlike his sister, Luke actually has 1200 dollars saved up.
As Phil and Claire walk into the kitchen, Phil suggests that Claire should run for office. Claire is hesitant about doing so since she feels like she is incapable and does not know who will take care of the kids. Phil decides to step in, because he wants to see her succeed, not fall down. As he is telling her to “fly”, he accidentally pushes her down.
While driving home from the movie theater, Mitchell and Cam are rear ended. After they pull over they guy in the other car got out and talked to them; apologizing and said he was getting insurance information out of his car.
While Cam and Mitchell are talking, the car quickly speeds off and the guys are in shock that they were victim to a hit and run. Cam starts yelling at Mitchell to get in the car and chase him down, which he will not do, so Cam decides to chase after the car on foot.
While in the city council building, Claire encounters Dwayne again, but the two do not have a friendly chat. Dwayne metaphorically tells Claire that he will not give up until he has beaten her down; he also refers to her a bored house wife. While she is thinking of a comeback, Claire’s phone rings which distracts her and allows Dwayne is be rude once again.
While Phil is trying to take care of the kids’, he ends up accidentally punching Luke in the face, and giving Alex the wrong medicine, which causes her to become drowsy. Both the kids complain about wanting their mom there to take care of the problems.
Later that night, the entire Pritchett clan meet up at Jay’s house for dinner. While Cam, Mitchell and Lily walk in, the couple informs the family that they were victim of a hit and run. They ask the family’s opinion if they should have chased after the guy or not; everyone has a different opinion.
After the fiasco with Cameron and Mitchell, Claire barges into the house explaining to Phil that Haley was trying to get fake I.D.’s. Haley explains that it wasn’t for drinking, but to get into a club so they could see a band. Haley took money from all her friends and then lost it, which is why she needed the 900 dollars. The family is trying to figure out how to get the money back so Haley could pay back her friends. Jay and the rest of the men decide to track down the guy who ripped Haley off, and Mitchell tries to stop them, but is unsuccessful.
Gloria is talking to Claire about why she changed her mind on running for office. Claire explains that she no longer wants to run because she does not think her family can take care of themselves. Claire eventually realizes that her real reason was that she did not want to lose. Gloria tells her that sometimes stepping out of your comfort zone is a good thing, and that it will not kill her to do it.
The men arrive at the guy’s house how ripped off Haley, had he says he’s actually tried to contact Haley about ten times but her inbox is always full. The guys ask for the money back, but the guys attempts to run away to escape. As he is tries to jump over the fence, Mitchell grabs him and tackles to the ground, thus allowing Haley to get back the money.
Gloria announces that Claire will be running for town council and even though she probably will not win she will be okay. Gloria asks Manny and Jay why they never ask for help, Manny says it is because he feels to proud, and Jay just doesn’t want to bother her.
The episode ends with Gloria showing up to the man’s office who was wanting Jay to design closets for him. Gloria is in revealing clothes promoting the same closet Jay originally designed, but this time the guy thought the idea was amazing.
This wasn’t my favorite episode; I didn’t really like how there were so many events going on at once. I did start to like it at the end when Gloria talks about when a person has a dream and how they should just go for it. Whether you think you will win or fail, at least you tried and it will not kill you to do it.
I thought that was a really good moral because I know in my life there has been times when I flat out wouldn’t try something because I didn’t think I would be able to do it. Now, I have the perspective that if it wont kill me, I might as well try it.
At the end of the episode when Gloria was wearing the low cut shirt and basically seducing the man to agree with Jay’s ideas, I felt that this was unnecessary. They could have used a less provocative way to get across the point that Jay really could use Gloria’s help.
Overall, I didn’t really like this episode that much, yes there were a few funny parts but there was too much going on. I hope that next weeks will be a little simpler.
For the previous week’s article on Ep. 4, read ‘Modern Family’ Season Three, Part 1.
