Modern Family recap: Haley finally shares her secret with the family

After a few stressful weeks of keeping her pregnancy a secret, Haley is finally ready to let the family know on this week’s Modern Family. Or maybe not?

Last week, Haley told her siblings about her pregnancy and the episode starts with us seeing the affect that this has had on Alex. She’s gone grey on top and as the episode goes along we see that she’s breaking out, and is on the verge of losing teeth due to the stress of keeping the secret. Haley plans to tell her mom on Christmas Eve since their parents will be heading to Bermuda right after.

As Haley and Dylan approach Claire the first time, it’s right after she realizes that Phil bought a super cheap flight (complete with two six-hour layovers, and one 12-minute one) and that their seats are “Economy Minus.” They realize that she isn’t in a good mood and decide to come back later.

Attempt #2

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Later in the episode, Claire comes home to see that the Christmas tree and the gifts are gone. Knowing that Phil often takes things out of their home to dress up houses he’s showing, she suspects this to be the case and heads to that house. While Phil is upstairs in a sound-proof room with the couple, Claire breaks in and takes the tree and the gifts back. When Phil comes back down the couple thinks the house has been robbed and the sale goes south.

As Haley and Dylan sit in the car plotting their next move in telling Claire, Dylan innocently says “she can’t stay a Grinch all day!” Just as they see her walking up the sidewalk dragging a tree and sack of gifts (with a green light shining off her face from a neighbor’s decorations.)

Attempt #3

Thinking that the tree and gifts actually were stolen, Phil goes out and buys all of the gifts he thinks he’s lost. He goes as far as stealing a present from a display at the mall. This theft sets off a chain reaction of chaos that ends with Lily being bumped by a miniature train and dropping Cam’s phone in the water. I should add that Cam had just handed her the phone and told her if she can make it through the day without losing it they’ll get her one. Oops.

When Phil walks into the house, he realizes that Claire had taken back the gifts and tree as she has set them back up in the house. That’s when the tree catches on fire and Phil ruins the gifts trying to put the fire out. When Dylan and Haley arrive back at the house, Claire is outside stomping on the tree. Again, it’s not a good time.

No better time than the present

When Claire comes back into the living room she is surprised to see the tree and presents back under the tree as perfect as ever. Phil replaced them with the ones he had bought but she never knew about them and accepts it as a Christmas miracle.

As the family is about to set up for their Christmas picture, Dylan has gotten himself stuck in the chimney. He and Haley had planned for him to come out of the chimney and present the kids with gifts, showcasing how good he is with kids before they made the announcement. This plan falls through obviously, but as Alex tells Haley her organs are shutting down, Haley finally makes the announcement (all we can see are Dylan’s feet hanging from the chimney.)

Everyone is shocked but Claire looks like she wants to cry. Haley says that they’re excited and Phil forces himself to say something positive but it works. Claire then recovers long enough to embrace the announcement and everyone else relaxes too.

With Haley distracted, Claire and Jay share a moment where he tells her that she handled it better than he did and she admits that she’s exactly how he was on the inside. When the family finally poses for the picture, Phil and Claire each have a look of panic on their faces.

It’s appropriate that Modern Family chose to go into their Christmas break on this cliffhanger. It’s actually shocking to see Phil feeling the weight of the announcement and it will be interesting to see how they handle this news in the second half of what could be the final season of the show.

Modern Family will return on Jan 9 at 9/8 Central on ABC.