S9E17 "Royal Visit"
As Phil and Claire prepare for lunch with Haley and her boyfriend, they express their surprise at Haley's improved intelligence, which is hilarious, and Claire ends up commenting how she and Phil are of different intelligence levels and work. She has a hilarious response when Phil asks who she thinks is smarter: "I think I'm smart enough to not have this conversation." There are some funny moments as the lunch happens, but the highlight of this story is after, when Haley causes Alex to realize how she treats attractive, dumb people, prompting Alex to be nicer to her new boyfriend.
Jay and Gloria go to a birthday party for one of Joe's friends, and become jealous of the parents. It's obvious where the episode is going when the mom is introduced, yet the show goes to lengths to prove the point. This then somehow leads to Gloria refusing to pull over for a police officer, and instead speeding and hiding in a parking garage. The connection here is a stretch, and so is the ending, where they decide to teach Joe that being cool isn't important, and then Jay doesn't confess like he said he would.
In this edition of Mitch and Cam are selfish people that can't get along, Cam finds out on a yoga retreat that the Kansas City Royals are playing Spring Training games right next door, so he sneaks away and lies to Mitch. Mitch obviously finds out, and the two continue to fight as they go into a silent meditation. The resolution here is weak, as both Mitch and Cam believe that the other accepted responsibility for the fight, and then undermined when Cam discovers that Mitch wrote an extra message on the ball that Cam got signed.
One very strong story couldn't save this episode weighed down by two weak ones. The Dunphys were easily the highlight of this week's episode, as they were the funniest and their story made sense. The other stories had occasional funny moments saving them from being complete disasters, but I was still not a fan of either at all.
Score: 5/10
What did you think of "Royal Visit"? Leave your thoughts in the comments!