Modern Family season 9, episode 21: The Escape

On the latest Modern Family, Haley has an unplanned reunion with all of her exes. Meanwhile, Cam, Phil, and Gloria accidentally make their own escape room.

With Modern Family one episode away from the end of their 9th season, they decided to advance the Haley love story this week. At the beginning of the episode we learn that Haley will be meeting Arvin’s parents. Haley is taking the relationship seriously though she’s not openly willing to admit it. She also has some “stress reducing” stickers that she is testing out for her boss to help her get through the meeting.

At the same time, Jay’s sister is in the hospital recovering from a stroke so the family is going to visit her. They are going out of a familial obligation alone. They all hate her for one reason or another.

The escape room

As the Pritchetts and their spouses arrive at the center where Jay’s sister is recovering, Cam mentions that he noticed an escape room across the street. Mitch, Claire, and Jay each tell their spouse that they aren’t going for a different reason. Claire says that Phil will be bouncing off the walls, Mitch says that Cam will start panicking, and Jay says that Gloria will start screaming. None of them can handle stressful situations.

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Aunt Becky

Jay, Claire, and Mitch go in to see Aunt Becky alone and expect her to be her usual evil self. However she’s pleasant, and doesn’t seem to remember the details of her life. A doctor comes in to tell them that her memories have been scrambled since the stroke so she may not remember much about them. He further points out that familiar smells, family, or sounds may help with getting some of her memory back.

Mitch turns this to an opportunity to come out to her again, hoping that he’ll do a better job than he did the first time. Claire, meanwhile, wants her to get her memory back because she stole a necklace from Claire that she wants back. She also seems to think that their father left the fishing cabin to Jay (he left it to her) so he doesn’t want her to get her memory back. Unfortunately, he does need the code from her to get in.

Meet the parents

Haley meets Arvin’s dad (Jim Piddock) at a restaurant and he seems fine. However, the father lets Arvin know that his mother also came along (she wasn’t supposed to) and both men are suddenly afraid. When Arvin’s mother (Kate Burton) arrives, Haley tries to tell her about her job at NERP. Before she can describe what she does however, Arvin jumps in and makes it sound like she works at a top-secret tech company. Haley can already tell this is going to be bad and she pops on a stress sticker.

Trapped

Back at the nursing home, Cam left the room because it was “getting too Pritchetty.” The three spouses decide that they are going to head to the escape room themselves and but end up going down a restricted access stairwell. The stairwell leads to a basement type room and when they realize it they try to go back and the door is locked. They also have no cell service so they ended up in an escape room of their own making.

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Haley snaps

At the restaurant, Arvin’s tactic of making Haley’s job sound top-secret backfires. He said that the ‘N’ in NERP stood for Nanotechnology so now his mom wants to talk about that with Haley. Haley tries to pretend to know but then overreacts and spews all of the things she learned about London at once. At this point, Arvin’s mom notices the sticker on her arm and asks about it. Haley again starts to answer before Arvin jumps in. This works in getting the subject changed and mom asks him about a fellowship that he was considering.

Arvin tells her he turned it down and she is upset. She says that he shouldn’t be turning down opportunities for a pretty girl. Haley now jumps in and says that he never told her about it either. She then stands up and tells Arvin’s mother the truth about her job before heading to the bathroom. Before she goes in though, she turns and leaves the restaurant instead.

The stickers

Haley, is walking down the street when she takes a call from Arvin. He apologizes but she isn’t hearing it. She feels like he’s ashamed of her. He tells her that his mom is a judgemental snob but she tells him that he made her feel bad about herself and that they’re done. She hangs up on him but she’s getting dizzy and passes out.

The reunion

Haley wakes up in the hospital. The stickers apparently had a lot of chemicals in them which is what caused her to faint. The nurse tells her that her boyfriend is there but instead of Arvin showing up, it’s Andy (Adam Devine). After clearing up that they are both in relationships Haley says that she just never updated her emergency contact.

Just after they’ve cleared up the mishap, Dylan (Reid Ewing) shows up. Dylan explains that he’s married now and she needs to get over him, not accepting that this was a mistake.

They were right

Back in the basement of the nursing home, Cam, Gloria, and Phil are acting exactly how their spouses said they would. After Gloria points this out, Phil makes a joke about how Claire would probably question why the wires on the camera were cut. From there, Cam says that Mitch would think it was a conspiracy and say that this was where the staff goes to do things they shouldn’t be. Gloria then says that she has smelled marijuana since they got there and checks the exit sign and finds a stash. She also finds a key and jokes that Jay would probably think the key was to the door. Phil takes the key and opens the door.

When it opens, he tells the other two that their spouses can never know how much smarter than them they are.

Becky was faking

After all three of her family members spent the day trying to manipulate her, Becky finally reveals that she was faking the entire time. She was mad at them for taking three weeks to come see her. She says that the doctor was actually just a friend of hers.

Next: Black-ish recap: Collateral Damage

Arvin shows up

Back at the hospital, Arvin finally shows up. He realizes there are two other guys there and they explain why. As Haley shoots down his apologies, her exes point out that she’s doing the same things she did to them. It eventually comes down to her not wanting to admit how real her feelings for him are. Hearing her exes say this gets her to admit that she loves Arvin. They kiss and make up, and during the kiss Rainer Shine (Nathan Fillion) arrives with flowers. He asks the other two what her forecast is.

Summary

It was good to see Modern Family go back to one of the few story lines they’ve carried throughout this season. We’ll have to see if they dedicate part of the finale to Alex’s relationship. This season has mostly coasted by and it feels like the next may be the last. There has been no word on this yet but we’ll be sure to pass any news along as it comes.

Modern Family returns next Wednesday at 9/8 Central on ABC for their season 9 finale.