At dinner #2, Mitchell and Cam are at a nice restaurant on a date, far away from Lily and wedding planning. Although they are not allowed to discuss their daughter or upcoming nuptials (planned for May, to fit in with end-of-season Sweeps), this poses a challenge for the flustered couple. When they struggle to come up with conversation, they worry that married life will become stale and future dinners will be awkward. However, their date night takes a new perspective when the couple next to them – Brandon (Eddie McClintock) and Katie (Leslie Grossman) – keep jumping around with their feelings about commitment, a sharp contrast to the togetherness of Cam and Mitchell. In the years they were together before gay marriage was an option, they learned to live with each other. It is different from the picky Brandon and Katie – she moans how it would be hard to spend the rest of her life with a guy who eats off his plate.
At dinner #3, Jay and Gloria are hosting Jay’s good friend Shorty (Chazz Palminteri, who we have not seen on the show in a while) and his wife, Darlene (Jennifer Tilly). Shorty reveals that he and Darlene are moving to Costa Rica soon and Jay does not know how to react to this big news. Another character getting the opportunity to show a different side in this Modern Family episode is Jay, who crumbles internally and becomes argumentative when he finds out his best friend wants to move to another country. The praise O’Neil receives for his restrained performance over the show’s run becomes worthwhile here, since the writers slowly build up Jay’s scattered feelings as the evening continues, until he confronts Shorty at the conclusion in a big bear hug.
Refreshingly, Gloria is not her shrill self in this episode, and Jay’s conversation with her about his inability to accept that time is moving on for him (and for Shorty) is one of the only moments in recent memory when the May-December couple have spoken sensibly to each other, without too much commotion. Both Vergara and O’Neil are superb in this episode, and we can attest to their love for each other when touching moments like that, as infrequent as they are, occur.
The episode still boasts some big laughs, but a lot of them are really juicy one-liners, not extensive gags, letting the writers focus on the bigger stories at hand. The most refreshing comic relief in the episode comes from an aloof, but charming waiter named Brian (Tony Cavalero). He becomes so well acquainted with the casualness of an intoxicated Claire and Phil that he even invites them over to his house to smoke weed – which brings some great deadpan reactions from the table.
“Three Dinners” feels less like an episode of a comedy series that’s been through 100 episodes, and more like short segments from a comedy play. That’s how sharp the writing is, keeping the laughs rolling as they keep with the theme of what time holds (for Haley’s future career, for Mitch and Cam’s future union, for Jay’s future without the close friends he loves). The writers use a night out, paced and structured expertly as the characters examine the pace of their own lives at the current moment. It’s as lovely an episode from Modern Family as we have seen in years.