Modern Family - Season so far recap

Claire and Phil
Hayley got accepted to college in the last episode of the last season, and we see how the family adjusts to the change in the first few episodes – mainly through Hayley skyping in. However, the adjustment doesn’t last long as she gets kicked out after a “misunderstanding” with the cops at a house party. This “misunderstanding” happened while Hayley was running away from the cops, climbing down a ladder, she was told to “freeze” and Hayley of course, froze – let go and fell off the ladder. At the bottom of the ladder, a cop happened to be standing there. She was then subsequently charged with assaulting a police officer and evading arrest for underage drinking. As a result she kicked out of school but only received community hours. Throughout the season, she has been living at home but also working at a boutique. She has had some different love interests; as she was with Dylan from last season and then broke up with him. She also briefly dated a much older man who worked at the same place as her, but she was doing it to rebel against her parents, that ended in a very touching moment between Phil and Hayley. In the last few episodes, Hayley has been discussing with Alex about the thought of returning to college, and despite throwing away pamphlets that Phil gave her, she secretly takes them out of the trash and reads them at night.
We also see Alex maturing and trying new things. We see Alex in a phase where she goes Goth, in a relationship with her prom date (from last season) who is seemingly gay, and developing herself as someone confident in a pretty cool band where she plays the cello (both Hayley and Claire were thoroughly impressed). We also see the relationship between Hayley and Alex evolving. They do have their typical sister moments where they fight, but there were a lot of “awww” moments between them with Hayley taking Alex under her wing (mostly teacing Alex the way of the boys).
Alex was not the only Dunphy who got involved with a gay guy, one of the funniest episodes was when Phil was hit on by Matthew Broderick. And of course, because of Phil’s clueless personality, he didn’t even know what was happening.
Claire has been trying to grow herself, by taking more responsibilities – and eventually a job! In the last few episode’s we see Claire on the job hunt. At first, she takes on a job with Phil’s nemesis, Gil Thorpe, and Phil is absolutely against the idea, but realizes that it would make Claire happy. However, after one day at the job, Claire quits, calling Thorpe a pig. In the episode after that, we see Jay offering Claire a job at his company. However, Claire doesn’t want it as she doesn’t want to disappoint her father. She later sees in that episode that people change, especially when it comes to her father. Claire also get’s involved with some projects involving Cameron (see below!)

Mitch and Cameron
We see how Mitch and Cameron take care of Lily as she gets older, and particularly how they handle certain problems as gay parents. Some things that the family goes through with Lily include her cultural background, the tooth fairy, and some of her extra-curricular activities including gymnastics!
Similar to Claire, Cameron also goes on a little journey of his own as he goes from a stay at home dad, to getting a job at Manny and Luke’s middle school as a music teacher, to designing and fixing up a baseball diamond with Claire, to eventually “flipping a house” with Claire. At first Cameron had a hard time adjusting to being a teacher as his old tactics and jokes didn’t transfer over to this new school. But after a while, the students seem to love Cameron. After “Clameron’s” (Claire and Cameron – dubbed by Phil ,of course) successful refurbishment of a baseball diamond, they decide to go into business together and flip a house – buying a house, renovating it, and then selling it. Although unsuccessful at first, they eventually sell the house!
P.S. Lily has been having some hilarious one-liners this season.

Gloria and Jay
In the last episode of the last season we see Gloria announce to the camera that she’s pregnant. The first episode of the season picked up where it left off. Many episodes this season center on Jay, his old fashioned and pessimistic opinions and views, and how his family underestimated his willingness to change. In the first episode, we see Jay speaking about Mitch and Cameron’s unfortunate situation where they were not able to get another child last season - speaking about all the good things about not having another child. However, he was actually very excited and happy with the news of Gloria’s pregnancy. The first half of the season shows the family’s transformation and change with the announcement of Gloria’s pregnancy. For the second half of the season, we see Gloria and Jay’s journey of having another kid – Fulgencio Joseph, a.k.a. Joe, who was given birth mid-season. The name stems from a tradition from Gloria’s side of the family, Jay was skeptical at first, but eventually wanted to please Gloria so gave the named the baby, Fulgencio Joseph, but they usually just refer to him as Joe. We also see how Manny is responding to Gloria and Jay having another kid. We see Manny “maturing”, as he writes more poetry but also as tries to get some girls this season.

The season finale airs tomorrow, where there is unfortunate death in Phil’s side of the family. We’ll see how he copes with his mother’s death, as he’s usually the positive guy. Do you think Claire will find a job? How about Hayley’s future? Sound off in the comments below.