Modern Family season 5, episode 19, “A Hard Jay’s Night,” just finished airing. Read our recap and discuss with fellow fans.
Modern Family season 5, episode 19, “A Hard Jay’s Night,” starts out with Cam and Mitch discussing that their wedding singer wants to make a few changes to Cam’s medley to avoid any overlapping with his. Cam receives a package from his father and it’s a cake topper of the both of them made of soap, with a very flamboyant looking Mitch. Mitch plays it off as if he loves it but tells the audience that he would have used one of his three wedding vetoes if he had any left. A flashback shows that they both used theirs up on each other’s wedding board.
Phil is helping Gloria sell her apartment that she had before meeting Jay because she’s tired of renting it out. The first potential buyer wanted to flip it, but Gloria wants it to go to a nice family. While they wait for the next appointment they go across the street to the salon where Gloria used to work. The women at the salon are all excited to see her and the owner asks if Gloria could fill in for the new girl who no-showed. She asks Phil to help her shampoo so she doesn’t ruin her nails and Phil says he’s happy to but he “hasn’t shampooed professionally since college.”
Back at the Dunphy household, Claire is telling Alex and Haley about all of her accomplishments and changes she’s been making at work. She continues with all of her work stories with the kids in the car on their way to Jay’s, much to their dismay. Upon arrival, Jay opens the door in an apron and says, “Welcome to Jay’s night!” He is excited to be hosting a dinner for the family. He tells Claire that he heard she had a busy week at work, and while she waits to hear praise, he says nothing. Haley and Alex notice his lack of acknowledgment and they try to make their mom feel better.
Luke tells Manny they should ditch the family dinner and go to Christy Hughes (aka Christy Huge Ones) for a pool party a couple of blocks away. Manny asks if Luke was even invited and he says no. Claire is helping Jay in the kitchen, but he seems peeved that shes making all these changes to his old recipe. Claire brags about work a bit more, but Jay isn’t biting.
Mitch, Cam and Lily finally arrive at Jay’s after a bathtub incident with the soap topper – it survived. Cam shows off the soap topper to everyone while Mitch and Jay have a “non-versation” about having the soap topper go missing.
Gloria and Phil are a hit at the salon. Gloria feels back in her element and Phil is great therapist shampooer. He tells Gloria that they need to get a move on to meet the next potential buyer, but Gloria says to reschedule because she’s swamped.
Mitch freaks out because he notices the cake topper is missing and Lily says she saw the dog Stella with it and she must have buried it. Cam goes to look and Mitch feels obligated to help. Luke sneaks out to Christy Huge Ones’ and Manny follows. When Christy answers the door she says, “Manny! You made it! Who’s this?” They both leave and Luke is upset that Manny was invited and he wasn’t. He doesn’t want to be the freaky outsider; that’s supposed to be Manny.
Claire and Jay have a minor food fight about the new ways of doing things versus the old ways and the kids come in to break up the fight. After digging several holes out back, Cam finds the cake topper and Mitch finally tells Cam that he absolutely hates it. After some bickering, Cam says he doesn’t want something at the wedding that makes Mitch feel uncomfortable and Mitch says he doesn’t have any more vetoes anyway. Cam sneakily says he’ll give Mitch one more veto if he gets another himself. Mitch is happy about that and Cam immediately says, “the wedding singer.” Turns out this was Cam’s plan all along. A quick flashback shows us the picture Cam sent to his father to base their cake topper on with Mitch and his turned up heel, which he obviously knew Mitch would hate. Well played, Cam.
As Phil and Gloria are cleaning up at the salon, Phil says all they have left to do is meet up with the potential buyer and then they can go to Jay’s. Gloria has another excuse and says to reschedule. Phil uses his therapist skills while fixing Gloria’s hair and gets her to admit that she is sad to get rid of the last piece of the old her. Phil tells her he will be there when she’s ready to sell it.
It’s finally dinnertime and Cam dumps a bucket of all the things they found buried in the backyard. Turns out Jay has been using Stella to bury random gifts he hates that everyone has given him. Claire finds one of the items from some coworkers calling him an ‘old-timer,’ and she realizes that she was reaching for a torch that he wasn’t ready to pass. He’s not ready to pass the company to her, so she tells him that she’s glad he’ll always be right down the hall at work if she ever needs anything. Jay smiles and says of course he will.