S9E21 "The Escape"
Jay, Gloria, Claire, Phil, Mitch, and Cam visit Jay's sister Becky after she has had a stroke. The stroke has impacted her memory, and now she doesn't remember that Mitch is gay, or that Claire gave her the necklace she is wearing. There are also a couple of jokes about things she can't remember, when Jay freaks out that she can't remember Pritchett's Closets, and when she refers to Gloria as Dede. The three of Jay, Claire, and Mitch try to manipulate Becky's memory, Jay so he can make her think that her fishing cabin is his, Claire so Becky will remember that she got the necklace from her, and Mitch so that he can come out to her again.
Putting these three motivations up against each other has their flaws, as Jay and Claire are being selfish, especially Jay, who is trying to get his sister to believe a lie, while Mitch is dealing with something important to him. In the end, it turns out that Becky was faking the memory loss, which I guess fits with how they established that the character is mean. Still, it seems pointless. There was a good funny moment in the tag though, where it is like an action movie when Claire and Phil steal the necklace.
When Gloria, Phil, and Cam don't like what is going on with their spouses, they decide to go to the escape room across the street. However, they end up getting trapped in the basement of the nursing home instead. While the escape room plot is overdone, this is a clever twist on it. It is also very funny and clever when the steps the group takes to get out is what they can hear their spouses saying in their head. I had a good laugh at "They can never know how much smarter they are than us."
Haley actually puts some effort in when she is meeting her boyfriend Arvin's parents. Things are not made any better when Arvin lies about her to his parents to make her seem more impressive than she is. This causes Haley to leave the restaurant, but when she passes out due to a weird sticker she has to wear for her boss (whose appearance in the episode was thankfully short), her emergency contact is contacted, which turns out to be Andy. He has some funny lines, and reminded me just how likable he was.
The appearances of Dylan and Rainer don't really add much (and Rainer also hardly appeared, which I am also glad about, as that is another character I am not fond of), but the whole thing leads to Haley realizing how much she likes Arvin, which the events of the episode don't do anything to support.
The escape room parts of the episode were easily the strongest, as it was a clever, funny story. The others lacked, though they weren't unfunny.
Score: 5/10
What did you think of "The Escape"? Leave your thoughts in the comments!