Message Received

"Message Received"

"Message Received" is the 22nd episode of the fifth season of the American sitcom Modern Family, and the series' 118th overall. It aired on May 7, 2014. The episode was written by Steven Levitan and directed by Jeffrey Walker.

Plot

Jay (Ed O'Neill) made a delicious sandwich for Manny (Rico Rodriguez). Unfortunately, Manny won't eat it because it contains pickles, which he dislikes. Jay decides that Manny must step out his comfort zone and forces him to stay at the table until he ate a pickle. However, Gloria (Sofía Vergara) manages to turn the tables on him when she obliges him to taste one of her mother's blood sausages, something he is not comfortable with. Jay accepts, but in turn, encourages Gloria to vanquish her fear to touch Stella the dog's belly. At first, they are all disgusted by these new things, but at the end Manny and Gloria finally manage to conquer their fears.

Meanwhile, Haley (Sarah Hyland), Alex (Ariel Winter), and Luke (Nolan Gould) find a box that contains their parents' old items. They decide to trick them when they discover that Claire (Julie Bowen) left a message on Phil's (Ty Burrell) old answering machine in which she said she was pregnant. They edit it and send it to Phil. Unfortunately, Phil gets the message during a golf party and believes that Claire is really pregnant and that her message is recent. When he comes home sooner, he and Claire discover that they have been manipulated by their kids. They then decide to get revenge and have a fake fight to scare the children. But the trick takes an another road when Claire says that she would have married her ex-boyfriend instead of Phil, Phil gets frustrated so Claire comforts him by saying that he is always here to make her laugh. She then reminds him of the day when Phil and the kids created a soap fight when they had to wash the car and says she wouldn't like to be anywhere else.

Cam (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitch's (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) wedding day is approaching, and they are thousands of dollars over budget. They realise that they will have to sell their own prized items. It turns out that Cam has an antique belt buckle which, it turns out, is worth only $20. Mitch, meanwhile, possesses a rare vintage Spider-Man comic book worth $5,000. However, he gets distracted by a spiderweb and drops the coming book into a puddle and thus, ruining it.

After, Mitch and Jay have an argument in which Jay explains that he is uncomfortable with his son's marriage because it's a gay marriage. Shocked, Mitch says to Jay that he shouldn't come to the wedding.

The episode ends with an old message from Mitch, who explains to Phil that he is sorry that Jay didn't have a better reaction to his upcoming wedding to Claire, even after Jay learned that Claire was pregnant. He also assures him that Jay will either change his mind or lose everything he has.

Reception

Ratings

In its original American broadcast, "Message Received" was watched by 8.55 million; up by 0.16 from the previous episode.

Critical Reception

'Message Received' received critical acclaim.

Joshua Alston from The A.V. Club awarded the episode an A and wrote that the script was "the perfect combination of sweet and tart". He positively compared the episode to season five's Las Vegas episode, stating, "As much of a triumph as 'Las Vegas' was, it was also an total outlier. It was a classically executed sitcom, but wasn't classic Modern Family. 'Message Received' is the genuine article". Alston further called it "a solid contender for (the show's) all-time best episode".

Madina Papadopoulos of Paste Magazine awarded the episode a 9.9/10, the highest of the season thus far. She opened her review by saying, "Modern Family took a sharp turn this week", and went on to praise the episode's emotional conclusion. She stated, "While comedy is meant to make you happy, it is best when it does not represent a happy world, but a real world. The scene between Jay and Mitch is a heartbreaking scene to watch, but its realism topped with the dialogue still manages to bring out laughter". She also labelled Mitch and Cam's wedding as "the TV wedding of the year".

Leigh Raines of TV Fanatic awarded the episode a 4/5 and singled out the episode's final scene. She said, "Modern Family strives to be realistic and, well "modern," and that fight is something that could very realistically happen. It was an honest moment between Jay and Mitchell confronting something that was uncomfortable for them".

However, Jordan Adler of We Got This Covered was less enthusiastic about the episode. He stated, "Average would be a perfect word to describe 'Message Received', an episode that squanders its interesting plots with contrived story beats".