S9E16 "Wine Weekend"
The six parents, along with Haley and Manny, go on a vacation together, as Haley's boss is letting them use a house of hers. Haley's boss letting them use the house feels far-fetched, but how they are able to stay in the house isn't really focused on. The episode mostly relies on secrets, Claire and Jay are each keeping secrets from their spouses, Claire getting rid of things of Phil's that she doesn't like and Jay has brought Stella along. Mitch and Gloria are invited to a party at Oprah's, but keep it a secret because they can't bring anyone. Phil and Cam decide to become a hip hop dance duo. Meanwhile, Manny is disappointed that he doesn't get to participate in wine tasting, and was brought along to be a designated driver.
Claire's getting rid of Phil's things on vacation seems a bit harsh, but Jay is the focus of their part of the episode. Jay's obsession with Stella is usually really funny, but I found it to be a bit too much in this episode. I found the fact that Gloria and Mitch would be able to go Oprah's very unrealistic, and Mitch stealing something seemed very bizarre. Phil and Cam is the part here that the writers obviously thought would be very funny, but as a result it feels like they put little effort into it, causing it to fall fairly flat.
Haley discovers that the tiara that no one was supposed to touch has been cracked, and all of the adults had touched it. Manny decides to investigate, to prove that he is believable as an investigator, after he got poor reviews playing an investigator in a play. Everything about Manny in this is fairly annoying, and it is strange that Haley seems smarter than him here, but the investigation is fairly entertaining, as the family members try to cover up what their night has consisted of. The reveal that Haley cracked the tiara was a fairly clever twist to add at the end.
The idea that the episode tried to pull off was an interesting one, it was just not very funny, and Manny was fairly annoying throughout the whole episode. The cracked tiara plot devise worked, but the rest of the episode didn't really.
Score: 5/10
What did you think of "Wine Weekend"? Leave your thoughts in the comments!