'Modern Family' Season 6, Episode 23 Recap: It's An Emotional Ride On 'Crying Out Loud'

This week’s episode of the hit ABC comedy series “Modern Family” was titled “Crying Out Loud,” and there sure was a lot of crying. Claire lets Jay’s tears influence her decision about accepting a job offer, while Mitch and Cam wonder why Lily can’t show her emotions. Meanwhile, the Dunphys get emotional about graduation; they force Alex to enjoy senior ditch day.

Claire Dunphy has been working for her dad’s closet company for some time, but she recently got a great offer from a prominent hotel chain. She tells Jay about it even though she doesn’t plan to leave the company. When he doesn’t seem to care if she leaves, she decides to go for the job. As she was about to tell Jay about her decision, she sees him getting teary-eyed while looking at her photo.

Claire feels guilty and turns down the job offer. When she returns to Jay’s office, she discovers that he was only getting teary-eyed because he was using her photo frame as a mirror while plucking his nose hair. Claire gets hurt and tries to go back to accept the job.

The hotel company calls Jay and tells him that Claire has been indecisive. They say that not only will they not hire her, they will drop their accounts with Jay’s company as well. Jay confronts Claire and finds out what happened. He tells her he only acted that way because he didn’t want to hold her back. When Claire doesn’t react to his sweet gesture, he then puts up a big act just to show how much he cares about her and makes her start bawling like a little baby.

While Claire is at work, her husband Phil is busy with the kids. It’s senior ditch day but Alex doesn’t want to go out and have fun. She wants to concentrate on finding a college roommate. Phil tricks her into getting in the car with him, Haley and Luke. On the way to the amusement park, they pass by the old Rialto Theater.

Phil sees that the place is boarded up and is getting ready for demolition. He stops and tells the kids that before he became a real estate agent, he was in construction. He says that he worked on the theater as it was getting built many years ago. He breaks in and shows the kids their footprints in the concrete floor of the backstage area. He insists on taking the slab of concrete as a memento of the best thing he’s ever made.

Haley and Alex are not into the activity and they end up arguing. Haley accuses Alex of looking down on everyone else in the family. While the two of them are fuming, Luke and Phil start making fools of themselves backstage while trying to extricate the concrete slab. Haley and Alex couldn’t help but laugh and they end up apologizing to each other.

The two open up and Haley talks about her fear that they will no longer be close when Alex goes off to college. The girls start to bond and Phil sees that he doesn’t need to keep a memento of the only thing he built. After all, he saw that his best creations are his kids.

At the Tucker-Pritchett household, Mitch and Cam are worried because Lily does not seem to show empathy for anybody. She doesn’t care when they get sick and she isn’t concerned at all when anyone is sad or hurt.

Mitch thinks he might need to cry in front of Lily so she can see that it’s OK to show emotions. However, when Lily walks in on Cam having an emotional moment, Lily complains and acts exasperated. Mitch starts to blame Cam for being too emotional around Lily and desensitizing her.

They finally confront Lily and she says she doesn’t want to answer because Cam might cry. They ask her why she didn’t care when they were sick and she says they always get better anyway. They say that one day they might not get better and she freaks out at the thought that they might die. Lily is distraught and the two of them are satisfied that she has emotions after all.

The emotions are also running high in the Delgado–Pritchett household. Manny has a new girlfriend named Kylie and Gloria doesn’t like her. When Manny gets a wisdom tooth procedure done, he becomes groggy from the painkillers. Gloria takes the opportunity to try to sabotage his girlfriend. Once Manny comes around, he recalls everything and confronts Gloria.

Gloria admits that she doesn’t like Kylie. She starts describing Kylie and ends up realizing that she and Kylie are very similar. Manny sees that he’s practically dating his mother and freaks out. Gloria gets offended and they have an argument. In the end, Gloria admits that no woman will ever be good enough for Manny in her opinion. However, she knows he is bound to find someone eventually. She vows to hold on to him a little longer while she still can and Manny happily enjoys the pampering.

It’s a very emotional week on episode 23 of “Modern Family”; however, the series still delivers its fair share of laughs. “Modern Family” airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on ABC.

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