Modern Family season 9, episode 17 recap: Royal Visit

In this episode of Modern Family, Cam and Mitch go on a yoga retreat, Jay tries to be a cool dad, and Haley’s professor boyfriend is coming over for dinner. Jimmy Tatro, Steve Valentine, Lauren Shaw, and John Brotherton guest star.

Cam and Mitch are on a relaxing yoga retreat when it is revealed that the Kansas City Royals are holding spring training next door. Cam being a Royals fan, decides that he has to sneak off to watch his team practice at some point. In the Pritchett household, Jay is jealous of Joe’s friend Henry’s stunt-double father. He starts working out and dressing cooler so he can impress Joe. Gloria laughs at Jay’s attempts but she’s in for a surprise.

Meanwhile, at the Dunphy home, when Haley’s professor boyfriend comes over everyone is on their worst behavior.

Cam and Mitch

Guest star Steve Valentine is hosting the yoga retreat and seems to know the right thing to say at the right time. During the retreat, Mitch initially can’t stay off of his phone until some coaxing from Valentine’s character helps him to. When he goes into a sensory deprivation chamber, he starts remember all of the horrible moments from his past. Comforted only by the thought of Cam being right next to him.

However Cam is not next to him. Rather than get into the other chamber, Cam has gone over to the Royals practice where he catches a foul ball. Things get better for him when one of his childhood idols, George Brett, comes over to talk to him. Brett ends up being too chatty and keeps Cam away longer than he initially planned.

Caught completely red

When Mitch returns he tells Cam about his experience in the chamber. He talks about remembering the horrible things but how he got past it and realizes he wants to be a better husband. That is until he realizes how red Cam is and figures out he went over to the Royals practice. That’s when the yogi returns and puts them in a quite meditation circle. They argue silently across the circle before both deciding that the other has accepted fault.

Jay and Gloria

Jay and Gloria go to Joe’s friend’s birthday party. Gloria is still giving Jay a hard time when we meet Clay (John Brotherton). That is until we meet his wife Jenny (Lauren Shaw). She climbs down from the rock wall and introduces herself as an Iraq vet who also bakes. When Joe gets stuck on the rock wall she springs into action to save him, and now Gloria has seen enough. Joe calls her cool and the competition is on.

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The chase

While they’re driving home, Gloria tries to sneak through a red light but a cop flashes her. When Joe brings up how cool Jenny is Gloria decides to run and slams on the gas. She swings into a mall parking garage to hide and now Joe thinks she’s cool. After sitting in the garage for a while however, Gloria and Jay start to realize the error of their ways. Jay goes to confess to the circling cop but instead, asks for directions to the Cinnabon.

The Dunphys

With Haley’s professor boyfriend coming over for dinner, Claire and Phil get into an argument over who is smarter. Alex ate herself into a food coma after seeing Professor Fennerman kiss Haley and set her dorm on fire by mistake. She was saved by hunky (and dim) firefighter Bill (Jimmy Tatro) and now they are dating. She tries to use him as an excuse to skip dinner but he wants to stay.

During the dinner, Professor Fennerman learns that one of his theories has been found to be false. He seems to take it decently until he later misses an astronomy question when Luke is quizzing the family. At this point he exits the table.

Meanwhile, Alex is being mean to Bill because his jokes are dumb and he also leaves the table. Later, Haley finds Alex in her room and tells her to give Bill a chance. He’s hot and he’s nice which should be a good change of pace for her. She goes on to mention that Arvin doesn’t make her feel dumb and she shouldn’t do that to Bill.

Downstairs, Phil and Claire find Arvin on the couch apparently trying to smother himself? They console him, telling him it’s alright to fail. His parents put a lot of pressure on him and he tells them they’re the opposite of his parents and that they have emotional intelligence.

Bonus

At the end of the episode, we see more of Cam and George Brett’s conversation. Cam probably didn’t want to leave.

Next: Black-ish Recap: North Star

Summary

It looks like Alex has a new boyfriend and Jimmy Tatro definitely made an impression. Professor Fennerman and Haley also seem to be working out, surprisingly. We’ll have to watch the rest of the season to see where this goes but I won’t be surprised if something dramatically changes over the course of the next five episodes. We will just have to wait and see.

Modern Family returns with a new episode next Wednesday at 9/8 Central on ABC.