Patriot Games

"Patriot Games"
Season	6
Episode	22
Total Episode Count	142
Written By	Vali Chandrasekaran
Directed By	Alisa Statman
Production Code	6ARG22
Air Date	May 6, 2015
Episode Guide
← Previous	"Integrity"
Next →	"Crying Out Loud"

"Patriot Games" is the twenty-second episode from Season 6 of Modern Family, it aired on May 6, 2015.

Plot Summary

Alex's worst nightmare is realized when she gets news that she has to share the Valedictorian title with her number one competitor, Sanjay Patel. Both sets of parents get equally caught up in the rivalry and convince Principal Brown to let them break the tie via a gym grade they both have not completed - a one-mile run. Elsewhere, Gloria is studying for her upcoming U.S. citizenship test and a visit from Javier throws her off her game, and Mitch and Cam blindly agree to join a protest against a local restaurant that they are actually secretly excited about.

Episode Description

Alex (Ariel Winter), Phil (Ty Burrell) and Claire (Julie Bowen) are called into the principal Brown's (Andrew Daly) office and they assume that the principal wants to announce them that Alex is going to be the valedictorian of her class. Alex's rival though, Sanjay (Suraj Partha), also gets called with his parents and the principal announces them that they are going to be co-valedictorians, something that they refuse to accept. Alex and Sanjay convince the principal to let them compete over one last grade, for gym class, and Cameron (Eric Stonestreet), being the gym teacher, will decide which one deserves to be the valedictorian. One day before the competition, Sanjay goes to Alex's house and tells her that he likes her and that she is the reason he can attend Stanford University because she was always pushing him to study more and become better. Alex believes that he only said those things to distract her from winning the race but the next day, Sanjay forfeits the race to prove her he was telling the truth and the two of them end up kissing in front of their parents.

Gloria (Sofía Vergara) studies to become an American Citizen, something that Jay (Ed O'Neill) approves and helps her. Javier (Benjamin Bratt), who is visiting to see Manny (Rico Rodriguez), disapproves of what Gloria is doing and he prevents her from doing it by saying that she forgets and rejects her roots. After Gloria finds out that Jay wants her to become American Citizen is because he hates waiting in the long lines at the airport, she decides to abandon the idea. Jay talks to her and convinces her that the airport is actually not the reason he wants her to do it and Gloria takes the test eventually. She passes and she is now officially an American Citizen.

Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cameron are at a store with Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons) buying things she needs for a school project. They run into Longinus (Kevin Daniels) and Jotham (Matthew Risch) who inform them that they are going to participate in a protest against a local restaurant that is against gay rights. When Longinus and Jotham accuse Cameron and Mitchell not being very political after they adopted Lily, Cameron and Mitchell tell them that they still are and to prove it they will attend the protest too. They get at the restaurant but no one is there yet for the protest so they enter the restaurant. In reality, Cameron and Mitchell love to eat there and they sit to have lunch. On their way out they run into the protest and they join it without letting the rest of the protesters realize that they were actually into the restaurant having lunch.

Main Cast

(The characters striked out do not appear in this episode)

• Jay Pritchett
• Gloria Pritchett
• Manny Delgado
• Claire Dunphy
• Phil Dunphy
• Haley Dunphy
• Alex Dunphy
• Luke Dunphy
• Mitchell Pritchett
• Cameron Tucker
• Lily Tucker-Pritchett

Guest Starring

• Benjamin Bratt as Javier Delgado
• Andrew Daly as Principal Brown
• Suraj Partha as Sanjay Patel
• Anjali Bhimani as Nina Patel
• Ajay Mehta as Vish Patel
• Kevin Daniels as Longines
• Matthew Risch as Jotham
• Maile Flanagan as Immigration Officer
• Megan Sheehan as Hostess
• Rowan Russell as Waiter
• Alfred Rubin Thompson as Customs Agent

Continuity

• Principal Brown's fourth appearance ("First Days", "Under Pressure", "Integrity").
• Javier Delgado's fourth appearance ("Up All Night", "Lifetime Supply", "Flip Flop").
• Second episode to revolve around Alex's valedictorian class ("See You Next Fall").
• This episode marks Sanjay Patel's first on-screen appearance, who was previously mentioned in "Our Children, Ourselves", "See You Next Fall", "Career Day", "Under Pressure", "Sleeper", and "Integrity".
• This is the second episode in which Mitchell and Cameron's plot revolves around a restaurant they hope to eat in, after "Caught in the Act".
• Longines's eighth appearance.
• Vish and his wife Nina reappear from Our Children, Ourselves. Nina also appeared in Under Pressure.

Trivia

• This episode was originally produced under the title "We're Number One".
• This episode is the first with Sanjay Patel. Vish and Nina appear for the last time.
• Haley is absent in this episode.
• A family only needs one person who is a US citizen to use that US Citizen line at airport immigration.

Cultural References

• The title references the film Patriot Games.

Gallery

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