Modern Family

Modern Family

Episode 15: Aunt Mommy

By: Carlos Uribe

Modern Family is a show about a family that is supposedly modern.

Spoilers Ahoy!

Cam and Mitchell are frustrated. They have been trying for a year and they still don't have a baby boy. When some gay couple that they know buys a house from Phil, jealousy rears it's ugly head. They're frustrated because the gay couple got a little baby boy after having gone through a surrogate. The gay couple encourages Cam and Mitchell to try and go for a surrogate but they don't want to try it. Only one of them can become a father and they don't want to make the other feel left out. They also learn about the swirl. This is when the semen is mixed together so that they won't know who the father is. They consider swirling it until they see the couple's baby, and it becomes obvious on who the father is. This leads them to once again deciding not to have a surrogate and being depressed that they still don't have a baby boy.

This ties into the Phil and Claire story. Phil is loving Cam and Mitchell since they sent him clients. To repay both of them back, he takes the two and Claire out to dinner. At the dinner, they all quickly get drunk. Phil compliments Cam and Mitchell a lot. Claire recently was reminded that she has some pretty great kids. Coming of the high that she's a great mother, she builds upon Phil's compliments and offers to donate her egg to Cam and Mitchell. This way Cam can be the father and neither side would feel left out. They all agree to do this. Remember: they are drunk. Cam and Mitchell were desperate enough to accept it while Phil and Claire were in the right condition to offer. The problem comes after they sober up and realize how terrible of an idea this is.

The problem is that Phil and Claire don't want to disappoint Cam and Mitchell and vice versa. Cam is actually the only one who continues to think it's a good idea but he's willing to back up Mitchell. They don't want to tell the other couple that they want to back out because it'll hurt the feelings. They have to do this regardless because they can't go through with it. Before they can confront the other couple, the information quickly spreads to the entire family. Most of them family is against this, but there are some notable exceptions like Alex and Haley. It was one of the funniest scenes this show has done all season long.

There was also a sub-plots that happened. Jay is very concerned that Manny spends a lot of time with Gloria and not enough time with kids his own age. This causes some conflict when he gets Manny to play football and lying that the theater tickets Gloria wanted weren't available. When the truth comes out, Gloria is frustrated that Jay keeps trying to run her life. It's nothing the series hasn't done before. At the end of the episode, Jay finally realizes just how important the mother-son relationship is between Gloria and Manny. Once again, nothing this show hasn't done before. It was still very funny and it did put Manny in an electric wheelchair thing for a “football injury.”

This was a very funny episode of Modern Family. It actually built it's story on character emotions and relationships rather than on some gimmick or event out of control of the characters' lives. This made it feel more earnest than it has been feeling for a while. It was simply a great episode and this is one I can recommend.