A Game of Chicken is the sixth episode from Season 11 of Modern Family. It aired on November 6, 2019.
Plot Summary[]
Gloria is using her alone time with the twins as an opportunity to secretly baptize them before Haley and Dylan get home. Meanwhile, Claire is still dealing with the fallout from the smart closet fiasco and Cam is at war with his school's mascot who is threatening his chance at securing a new college coaching job.[1]
Episode Description[]
Gloria receives Poppy and George, but once Jay, Haley and Dylan leave, she wants secretely them to be baptized and calls a retired Spanish priest. Once Haley, Dylan and Jay return, they have a discussion in which Haley finally tells them she does not want any baptism. At the Dunphy's, Claire is so exhausted because she has to work even if it's saturday. Margaret comes and Claire can't really take a break or even a nap. Meanwhile, Phil is relieved he made an another invention and just tries to support her. Luke arrives and talks about a application that he wants to create, even if it means that he has to skip school. Phil is on his side, but Claire does not approve. That's when they meet Scooter, Luke's partner who is the same age as them, that their opinion slowly shift. Claire is impressed by Luke's medical app, but now, it's Phil's turn to remain sceptical. Even if Phil's opinion bothers him, Luke finally admits that he wanted to know if it was a good idea, because Phil always says yes when they practice any invention together, but that is business. Luke wins Phil's respect and so does Claire when she proudly announces that she quits.
Also, Mitch and Lilly always make fun of Cam because each time he entertains the Dolphins, he is mocked by the mascot who copies every of his gesture. When Cam's tentative of persuasion fails, Mitch talks with Mrs Pasternak and decides to follow her advice, by suddenly arriving disguised as a Chicken's mascot and fights with the Dolphin winning .
Finally, Cam picks up his husband, but it seems that Mitch is now used to be a mascot.
Main Cast[]
(The characters struck out do not appear in this episode)
- Jay Pritchett
- Gloria Pritchett
Manny DelgadoJoe Pritchett- Claire Dunphy
- Phil Dunphy
- Haley Dunphy (Haley Marshall)
Alex Dunphy- Luke Dunphy
- Mitchell Pritchett
- Cameron Tucker
- Lily Tucker-Pritchett
- Dylan Marshall
Guest Starring[]
- Jaime Moyer as Mrs. Pasternak
- Marsha Kramer as Margaret
- Tenzing Norgay Trainor as David Tashi
- Hector Elias as Father Ramirez
- Landon Klotz as Pitkowski
- Mather Zickel as Scooter
Trivia[]
- Alex, Manny and Joe do not appear in this episode, although Luke mentions Alex.
- The Father walks with a cane which is almost the same cane that Martin Crane used in Frasier, another Levitan show.
Continuity[]
- The third episode in which the title features the word “game” and the second to feature “chicken” after “Games People Play”, “The Big Game” and “Did the Chicken Cross the Road?”
- This is Margaret's thirteenth episode.
- This is Mrs Pasternak's fourth episode after "Weathering Heights", "Pig Moon Rising" and "We Need to Talk about Lily."
- With this, Lily is the only kid who appears in episodes she is featured.
- This is the third episode where Claire makes a professional mistake after “Basketball” and “A Sketchy Area”.
- Cam's rivals return after episodes Undeck the Halls, Bixby's Back, The Big Game, Spring-a-Ding-Fling, Spring Break, Closet? You'll Love It!,Knock 'Em Down, The More You Ignore Me, Finding Fizbo, Tough Love, Halloween 4: The Revenge of Rod Skyhook and Snow Ball.
- Gloria baptized Joe in “Fulgencio”.
- Mitchell almost wears the same shirt he wore in “Blindsided”.
- Cam's team returns after A Fair to Remember, The Big Game, Under Pressure, The Cold, Blindsided,Kids These Days.
- However, it seems curious that Cam has to work two different jobs, depending the writers.
- The cold also happened on a Saturday.
- Jay forgets Dylan's name even though he has shown to remember it previously.
- Claire quits, leaving her now jobless, a position she left at the beginning of “First Days”.
- Phil seems always to be optimistic, a quality Alex makes him aware of in “Did the Chicken Cross the Road?” and “Yes-Woman”.
- Pitkowski returns after “Kids These Days” and “Commencement”.
- Dylan previously worked as a mascot spinning signs in “Connection Lost”.
- Cam and Mitch's smart fridge returns from “Snapped”, though they gave it to Jay.
- Luke attempts at entrepreneurship again, though this time, he creates an medical application with a partner who is not related to him. “No Small Feet” also featured him aspiring to be an entrepreneur, and he is the only kid who appears in both episodes.
- This is Mrs Pasternak and Pitkowski's last episode.
- In Luke's files it mentions that he was in the hospital due to an allergic reaction to soy , referencing ''Arrested''
Cultural References[]
- Vin Diesel, Telly Savalas, Steve Jobs, Cindy Crawford and Mark Zuckerberg are mentionned in this episode.
- Luke's partner is nicknamed Scooter, which also was Frank's childhood friend in Step By Step, another family show from ABC. Also, actress Christine who guest starred in "Playdates" also appears as a main character in the latter show except in the episode “Talking Trash”.
- Phil calls his pancake shooter Hey Batter Batter, a reference to the baseball chant.
- Gloria wears a mantilla at the christening.
Reviews[]
The A.V. Club gave it a "B".