Modern Family recap: Phil finds new love and Mitch comes out of his shell

In the latest episode of Modern Family, Jay and Phil both deal with epic mix-ups and Mitch still can’t get a win.

After airing their Halloween episode last week (despite the show airing on Halloween day), it was a standard episode for Modern Family. It was an interesting night of mix-ups for the crew as both Jay and Phil ended up in awkward situations.

If you recall, Phil has been teaching  a realty course at Luke’s school, and at the start of the episode he’s hosting office hours at his house (Claire and Luke both grope students thinking they’re Phil). He’s worried about keeping his class enrollment above 17, because if he doesn’t he’ll lose the course.

Elsewhere in the family, Jay is meeting with Cam and Mitch at his golf club (everyone else was unavailable and he needs to use a certain number of points). Cam is going to be performing at Lily’s school along with every other father but Mitch. Before he leaves though, Jay reveals that he’s been secretly corresponding with one of the mom’s from Joe’s class.

The Cam and Mitch problem

Jay asks Cam and Mitch to use the spa at the club and that’s where the problems occur. As Cam and Mitch start their massages, Cam gets very….vocal. Mitch can’t take it and eventually leaves. Later, in the lockers, Cam calls out Mitch for not allowing he and Lily to live out loud without his judgement. He then drops his towel in the locker room and pirouettes in front of all the other patrons, walking off in his glory.

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Flirty Phil

At the college, Phil notices a student not paying attention in class and fears she may be the next to cancel. He lies, saying that she’s a natural and talks her up the rest of the class period. After class, she leaves her book and he sees “Mrs. Paige Dunphy” written on it. He fears he’s done too good a job, but when she leaves the room she meets up with Luke and offers to come over and cook for him.

Jay makes it awkward

After being called out by Cam and Mitch for his flirty conversations with Joe’s classmate’s mother, Jay over-corrects. He’s making their entire exchange awkward when Gloria shows up. Joe has had a lazy eye corrected and has to wear a patch so it heals properly. Gloria doesn’t trust him and is at the school to check on him. Jay sees Gloria glaring and thinks she’s glaring at him when she’s actually glaring at Joe.

When Jay gets home, Gloria is on the phone talking about how she doesn’t trust “him.” He of course thinks she’s talking about him and comes clean. She’s confused so he shows her the emails. Gloria immediately blows them off and says the girl is 35 and gorgeous so she isn’t worried. She goes as far as to say there’s nothing wrong with a little flirting and that she doesn’t worry about him because his conscience would eat him alive if he ever did anything wrong. She’s worried that Joe inherited his lying from her side and has no conscience about it (alarming Jay a bit about her ability to lie.) When Joe comes in from school however, he confesses to all of his misdeeds and Jay and Gloria both relax.

“On the same Paige”

At the Dunphy house Paige (Sheridan Pierce, One Day at a Time) is cooking for Luke as Phil walks in thinking she’s cooking for him. The deadline to drop hasn’t passed so he plays along and eats all of her food. Luke meanwhile tells his mom that Paige fixed the paper she gave him for his history class. Claire wanted a second opinion on an old paper she thought was great that earned a C and she’s livid.

The two men then switch and Phil hears Claire complain about Paige and how she’s taken something that Claire built from nothing and made it her own. She’s talking about the paper but Phil thinks she’s talking about him. He goes back out and forces down some more of Paige’s food as the deadline to drop hits. He then tells her that she’s being inappropriate and disrespecting his wife.

That’s when Claire walks in, after reviewing the paper and realizing Paige did make it better, and says that she was wrong about her. She is glad for what Paige did and thinks she’s going to be “just what he needs.” Phil is confused but with Claire’s new approval Paige jumps all over him (Plot Twist!) It turns out that she was dating Luke just to get close to Phil and really did want him. It turns out she has a thing for older men.

Nothing goes right for Mitch

Mitch realizes at Lily’s school that he’s literally the only father in the crowd and he goes backstage to join the show. One of the other dads allows him to take over for him as the bee who will be swinging across the stage and it goes perfectly! Lily and Cam are both happy and as Cam is telling him, disaster strikes. Mitch is still wired up as a memorial performance for a teacher who passed away begins and he slips. He swings back across the stage and, of course, knocks over the pictures of the lady that were set up on the stage.

Modern Family returns next Wednesday at 9/8 Central only on ABC.