Modern Family: “Someone to Watch Over Lily” (Episode 2.20)
In this week’s episode, “Someone to Watch Over Lily,” the kids of Modern Family were given a little more scenery to chew on, and Rico Rodriguez, who plays the child-man Manny Delgado, ate up every line given to him and spit ’em out like a seasoned pro. The show’s opening scene has Manny advising Mitchell and Cameron to accept Jay’s coffee: “It’s French press,” Manny says. “I was doubtful, too, but I can’t see myself going back to drip.” Spoken like a true, pint-sized hipster.
Cameron and Mitchell (with baby Lily in tow) have dropped by the Pritchett household to evaluate Jay and Gloria as possible guardians for Lily if something disastrous were to ever happen to the both of them. Jay’s household is a little calmer than Claire’s, which they visited earlier.
Flash back to a scene of amped-up chaos: Haley yelling at Claire that she’s the worst mother in the world, Alex getting locked in the garage for 20 minutes with no one noticing and Phil’s cooking going up in flames…twice. Claire’s got the classic retort, too, when Mitchell asks if they should stop by at a more convenient time: “Come back in seven years and five months when they’re all gone!”
Continuing their evaluation of Jay and Gloria’s household, Cameron and Mitchell follow Jay and Manny to a sporting goods store to prep for Manny’s camping trip. Cam sees Jay picking on Manny for not climbing the rock wall, and he decides that Jay isn’t such a great guardian candidate after all. They are even more convinced when Gloria comes back from a mall outing with baby Lily — who now has pieced ears. Mitchell misheard Gloria when she said she’d “make her pretty with hair-rings.”
The secondary plots of the episode included sister bonding while vandalizing a school and taking Luke to a child psychologist, where Claire reveals her real fear about her son: “I’m worried he’s turning into you, Phil!” Ouch. And Phil, of course, comes back in the most immature ways possible, much to the audience’s benefit.
While these storylines had their moments, the evening belonged to Manny and Jay. Knowing that Cameron has crossed Jay off the guardian list, Manny pulls him aside and tells him to reconsider. He and Jay had a heart-to-heart talk in the car about why he didn’t climb the wall (though he could) and why he didn’t want to go camping. We find out that Manny is a little self-conscious about his body and the possibility of group camp showers. Jay comes through with the best pep talk ever: “You’re a brave kid already. You wear blazers to school, you read girls poetry. I couldn’t even talk to girls when I was your age.”
It was a heartwarming, winning moment that showed once again that Modern Family can hit its stride the when it puts the family before the funny.
Stray Observations:
-Phil yells, “Son of Jor-el!” in the kitchen when his cooking catches fire.
-Claire almost dies when her baby Luke says about his dad’s administrative assistant, “One time she gave me a Woody…..” (She remembered that he was her favorite character from Toy Story.)
-Cameron (who’s from Missouri) tells Mitchell, “No one says ‘Missoura.” To which Mitchell responds, “I’m so sorra.”
-Gloria to Lily: “When something happens you are going to be all mine!”
-“I haven’t quite reached my target height.” (Manny to Jay about his body weight issue.)
-The kicker scene at the end had us ROTFL. Mitchell comes home early, and Cameron is hiding something — it’s a photo shoot with Lily as Carmen Miranda, complete with dangling “hair-rings.” “I just wanted to get one [picture] before the holes closed up.”