Episode no. Season 7
Episode 3 Production code 7ARG03 | Directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller Original air date October 7, 2015 | |
Written by Paul Corrigan
Brad Walsh | ||
"The Closet Case" is the third episode of the seventh season of the American sitcom Modern Family, and the series' 147th episode overall. It aired on American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the United States on October 7, 2015. The episode was written by Paul Corrigan and Brad Walsh, and directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller.
Contents
Plot
Haley (Sarah Hyland) and Dylan (Reid Ewing) manage to get back together and want to live together. But Haley has to convince Phil (Ty Burrell) to let Dylan move in the Dunphy's House; Phil accepts, but soon starts to regret it and secretly hopes that Claire (Julie Bowen) will kick Dylan out of the house. However, Claire sees her husband's plan and a little competition begins between her and Phil in order to see which of them will go ballistic.
Luke (Nolan Gould) and Manny (Rico Rodriguez) go to Caltech in order to visit Alex (Ariel Winter). Luke learns that Sanjay has broken up with Alex and instead of seizing the opportunity to have a girlfriend, he chooses to stay with Alex.
While Manny is out of town, Gloria (Sofía Vergara) goes to his high school in order to decorate his locker since a tradition obliges girls to decorate boy's. However, Manny's locker is actually empty and Gloria and Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) have a disagreement regarding the tradition.
Jay (Ed O'Neill) learns that Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) is still jobless but accepted an offer from his rival Earl Chambers (Jon Polito). Though Mitchell sees at first Chambers as a good person, he later realizes that Chambers wants him to be against Jay. The two visit his workplace at night in order to get Jay's roller dex back. Though Chambers sees them and fights with Jay, Mitchell manages to get the roller dex, much to his father's delight.
Driven to despair due to break-up with Sanjay, Alex goes back to her home and learns that Dylan has moved in to her room; Phil tells Dylan to leave Alex's room.
Ratings
In its original U.S. broadcast, "The Closet Case" was watched by 7.99 million people; down by 0.73 from the previous episode.
Reviews
The episode received mixed reviews. Kyle Fowle of The A.V. Club gave episode a C+, saying "The Closet Case” boasts a lot of the shows worst tendencies, from ridiculous situations to a total lack of thematic cohesion." Shirley Li of Entertainment Weekly was similarly negative, saying that the episode had "too much overreaction and too little laugh-out-loud moments." Liz Estey of TV Fanatic gave the episode a score of 3.5/5, praising Jay and Mitchell's storyline, calling it "definitely entertaining" and saying "it's been nice to see their relationship evolve over the years." However, she criticized Dylan's appearance, believing that he is "funniest in small doeses", found Alex's story "really boring", and called the interaction between Cam and Gloria "argumentative without any playfulness."
Zachary Anderson of Out Loud Culture gave the episode a score of 7.5/10, calling Luke's interest in girls "a step in the right direction", and believing that the scene between Luke and Alex "a great moment that shows major signs of maturity for both characters," but disliking Cam and Gloria's storyline, saying he "lost interest three minutes in." Hunter Vogt of The TV Ratings Guide thought that the episode was "pretty good", and especially liked Mitch and Jay's storyline, while he found the others to be "alright" or "mediocre". Lisa Fernandez of Next Projection called it a "decent episode" and gave it a score of 7.1/10. She thought that the episode was "definitely not grating as the premiere was", and "entertaining all around", but found that Gloria and Cam's concern over Manny's locker "seemed an odd thing to concern themselves with."