Mitchell is at the office, with his boss in the break room. He makes light of seeing each other at the intersection to see if the boss heard what he said, claiming any comments were about Cameron's boss. Mitchell's boss doesn't seem to know what Mitchell is talking about. He has more important things to talk about. They have a lot of work to do, so Mitchell is going to have to come in on Sunday. When Mitchell says, no, he's going to be with his family, the boss gives him an ultimatum: come to work tomorrow, or never come back to the office again. Mitchell, slowly takes off his ID badge, and puts it around the boss' neck: he quits! As Mitchell makes his way to the elevator, he turns around. He actually needs the ID to get the elevator to go down to the lobby, and freedom!
At the Shel Turltestein Memorial, Manny rises to speak before the gathered crowd of Jay and a mourning shroud-clad Gloria (note the photo of Shel -- he lived from "Nov. - March" Hilarious!). He begins, but he can't continue without crying. Gloria insists that Jay get up to finish Manny's tribute. Jay finishes, but Manny has something to say. Shel's death is his fault -- Manny left his window open and a bag of chips by Shel's tank. Gloria asks Jay if he has anything to say to Manny. "Yeah, Shel forgives you." Back at the Dunphy home, Denise is showing Phil and Claire pictures of Phil in the old days. Denise loves pictures (even those of Phil with a jheri curl), especially the one she took today. She shows Phil one on her phone, from which he recoils upon seeing it. Meeting his worried eyes, Denise bites at the air toward him. Alone in the kitchen, Phil tells Claire that she was right about Denise. "She wants me," Phil tells her. "To do what?" Claire earnestly asks. "It! ME!" Phil exclaims. "She bit the air right in front of me!" Claire says he's crazy and leaves the kitchen to find a corkscrew. Denise enters and lays it on thick with Phil, every time . She starts to unbelt his pants and slap his butt. "I still have my cheerleader outfit," she coyly tells him. "So do I, but this can't happen," Phil tells her. "Why are you wussing out?," Denise prods. "I never wussed in!" Phil pleads. Denise angrily leaves the kitchen, asking "How many other women have you led on?" "Now, I don't know," Phil replies. Claire finds one of Denise's pictures and notices one in which he was wearing a cast on his arm. When Phil and Claire started dating, he had broken his arm. Did Denise and Claire overlap? Phil admits they did. Seeing that Claire is peeved, Denise says that Claire should kick him out. Maybe he'll appreciate Claire if he spends a night at a hotel. Like the Radisson. By the airport. Denise, finally leaves.
Mitchell returns home and tells Cameron he quit his job. He's a new, empowered man. A man that even drops his tie on the floor! Mitchell wants to be home to be with Cameron and Lily. Cameron is excited, and wants to celebrate. Mitchell says Cameron can go back to teaching music, and Mitchell can take a few months off and be with Lily and watch her do her "firsts." The men watch their daughter intently, but Mitchell begins to panic that she's not doing anything right now. He starts having a true panic attack, which makes Cameron begin to panic. Mitchell just quit his job! How will they pay their mortgage? "I'm used to nice things. What are we going to do?" Cameron worries. Mitchell decides he is going to do what he does best, "lie, grovel and debase myself until I get what I want. I'm a lawyer!" Cameron says no; he just wants Mitchell to be happy. They will figure it out.
Back at Jay's house, Jay is having trouble getting comfortable in bed. "Hard to sleep on a bed of lies, huh, Jay?" Gloria asks. Jay gives up, and goes to Manny's room. His stepson is ready for him and throws a spotlight onto Jay. When asked why he is up, Manny responds that he's waiting for the truth. Jay admits that he killed Shel, and he lied about it because things have been so good between he and Manny, he didn't want to mess it up. Manny eventually understands. Further, since they're confessing things at the moment, Manny wonders if Jay knows how the scratch got on Jay's car. Oh, Jay knows. It was a raccoon.
In the episode tag, Jay and Gloria are over at Mitchell and Cameron's. Jay tells his son that the best thing he ever did was quit a miserable job he once had. Jay has a gift for Mitchell: another inspirational poster. In fact, Jay gave Mitchell the exact same poster when Mitchell's snake, Zsa Zsa Gaboa, died. "Oh, that's adorable," Cameron says as the couple move into the kitchen. Gloria leans over to Jay and says, "You really didn't know he was gay?"
Commentary
I thought this was the funniest episode of Modern Family in a long time, maybe since "Fizbo." There were a number of times I laughed, heartily, out loud. From Phil and Denise's physical comedy, to the stunned silence at Luke's "burns" on Alex, to Mitchell and Cameron's hysteria, all of the ways a sit-com could be funny were present in this episode. I mean, some of these lines were absolutely hysterical ("recreating a faux pas," "I'm used to nice things," "your second lesson because you just got schooled!"), and that's really the most important part of any sit-com. If I had anything to criticize, it felt like a couple stories just ended without any resolution. Specifically, the Alex/Luke plot and how Claire and Phil resolved their tension went missing. In fact, there was no summarizing voiceover at the end. When the final act went to black, I was actually thrown off because the voiceover was missing. I know I've complained a bit about how the typical Modern Family ending can be a bit too sentimental, but I actually missed it here! I do like that the series is still playing with the formula of the show, I was just a bit thrown not having it there. Not necessarily a bad thing, just unexpected. All in all, though, I thought "Truth Be Told" hit major highs.
What did you think? Were you laughing as hard as I was? Did you notice the lack of voiceover? Did you feel some of the plots were unfinished, too? Please leave your thoughts, comments and favorite moments down below. Also be sure to check out the photos for next week's episode, "Starry Night," and TVOvermind.com for all of your TV needs and news. Until next week, I'm off to complete my set of coffee mugs.
