S11.E05: The Last Halloween

[JTMacc99]

Phil is determined to scare Claire on Halloween; Gloria feels self-conscious about her age when someone correctly assumes she is Jay's wife; Mitch and Cam go to the WeHo Halloween Carnival after Lily decides to go to her first Halloween party alone.

[BookWitch]

Lily laments that her fathers won't know what it's like to like a boy that doesn't like them back? She's met them right? Sheesh.

Phil's plan was good. 

[readster]

7 hours ago, BookWitch said:

Lily laments that her fathers won't know what it's like to like a boy that doesn't like them back? She's met them right? Sheesh.

Phil's plan was good. 

Yes on both accounts. Also, interesting that Joe already doesn't want to hang with his parents and go Trick or Treating. As for Alex and Luke's breakups, in one way I was happy that Luke's past came back to haunt him. However, Alex's was: "yeah, we have to show just how bad Alex is with relationships while Haley is living the great dumb life." 

[BusyOctober]

Phil is still the only one I really like on this show.  Despite the theme of relying on "plausibility", Phil's elaborate Claire-Scare was probably one of the most improbable farces written for a TV sitcom.  And I LOVED it!  Phil for the win.  Although, now he's stuck in an escalating mind game cycle, worrying about how his wife will try to scare him to death every Oct 31.

Why hasn't Lily called Child Welfare to rescue herself from her two idiot dads?  They didn't know she was a cheerleader??  Never saw her uniform before (which means neither dad ever attended a game or practice).  They don't keep track of her social media use, didn't know she had Insta?? Then when they were worried that their TWELVE YEAR OLD kid could possibly be coerced into having sex with an older boy, they casually discuss how "cool" they will be when confronting her & the boy?  There are so many other parent fails poor Lily has had to deal with too.  

Glad Gloria was finally shown to be aging.  Yes, Sofia Vergara has a beautiful face & figure no matter what her age and I am definitely envious of her good genes fortune! But the Latina sex-bomb storylines week after week, year after year have grown tiresome.

[Snow Apple]

8 hours ago, BookWitch said:

Lily laments that her fathers won't know what it's like to like a boy that doesn't like them back? She's met them right? Sheesh.

To be fair, Cam and Mitch doesn't seem to have met Lily either. 

I bet Phil knew Lily is a cheerleader and bonded over it.

The writing is all over the place. Last week Lily was embarrassed about a one piece bathing suit but now have no problem with her skimpy cheerleader uniform.

Edited October 31, 2019 by Snow Apple

[readster]

50 minutes ago, Snow Apple said:

To be fair, Cam and Mitch doesn't seem to have met Lily either. 

I bet Phil knew Lily is a cheerleader and bonded over it.

The writing is all over the place. Last week Lily was embarrassed about a one piece bathing suit but now have no problem with her skimpy cheerleader uniform.

I know and then you add in that neither one of her parents knew she was in middle school cheer leading or on social media even though she has a phone now. I mean come on! What was the conversation: "Dad, I'm heading to the game." "Ok, have fun." Yet never take a look that she is in a uniform or anything. Or the fact she is 12 and should know the birds and bees by now. 

[ams1001]

I loved Phil's name choice. My grandmother's name was Ida May. 🙂

"Judge Judy" was cute.

The premise of Alex's breakup was stupid. Why would she be sending texts to the random number he called her from? Doesn't she have his number in her phone already? If my boyfriend of [months?] calls me from a number other than the one I have in my phone, I wouldn't assume he changed his number, I'd just assume he didn't have his phone for some reason, unless he told me otherwise. 

1 hour ago, BusyOctober said:

Although, now he's stuck in an escalating mind game cycle, worrying about how his wife will try to scare him to death every Oct 31.

The beauty of that is...she doesn't actually have to do anything for him to freak out. 

[Traveller519]

I enjoyed the Dunphy stuff (as silly as the break-ups were, they were at least humorous) but everything else felt quite tacked on. I actually felt let down when we transitioned from the Dunphy Kitchen to Mitch and Cam's. All the good energy and flow just felt like it hit a wall. 

Edited October 31, 2019 by Traveller519

[incandescent]

So I guess Alex is going to be ending this series single? Because the fireman was by far the best boyfriend she's ever had, and I highly doubt they'll be successful in setting her up with a better one when they've got less than twenty episodes left.

If my six-year-old decided he didn't want to go trick-or-treating with me I'd be in a funk about it too.

[tennisgurl]

As usual at this point, Phil is the best part of the show by far. His prank was so elaborate, and so ridiculous, that it went that extra mile from ridiculous to hilarious. After his brilliant Claire Scare though, he know has to live in fear that Claire will get him back! Beware of Ida May! I also loved the super scary super Japanese movie, because I am basically Phil during those kinds of movies. Its scary! 

Seriously, the running joke of Cam and Mitch being awful parents is not funny, its just sad. They need to take parenting classes alongside Bow and Dre from Black-ish and learn how to actually not neglect your kids! At least Bow and Dre have other kids, Cam and Mitch only have the one! They dont even know she has an Instagram? Or is a cheerleader? Do they all live in the same house? 

[biakbiak]

The thing about not knowing about the cheerleading is especially ridiculous given that Cam loves sports and performing. It also makes no sense because does she have a credit card where she can just pay the fees and for uniforms, not to mention sign permission slips and things!

[Aryanna]

Lilly's 12? I thought she was like 15. Must be her height that makes me think that.

Phil's plan was great but instead of Claire saying good job Phil or being proud of him she just saw it as an invitation to escalate things. Being with her just seems so tiring.

I felt like they cut away from the Mitch, Cam, Lilly story when it finally got interesting. I wanted to see her dads console her. The lead up to that part was dull. 

I was hoping Alex would end the series going off into her future with someone but now that she's broken up with the dumb fireman I guess she'll be single til the end. I thought the fireman was okay I just didn't like that he had to be so dumb. Why not finally put Alex with someone who is good for her and challenges her. But this show never does that as they made Haley end up with Dylan who is terrible and let Andy, who was wonderful, go.

[Suzn]

10 hours ago, BusyOctober said:

Phil is still the only one I really like on this show.  Despite the theme of relying on "plausibility", Phil's elaborate Claire-Scare was probably one of the most improbable farces written for a TV sitcom.  And I LOVED it!  Phil for the win.  Although, now he's stuck in an escalating mind game cycle, worrying about how his wife will try to scare him to death every Oct 31.

Why hasn't Lily called Child Welfare to rescue herself from her two idiot dads?  They didn't know she was a cheerleader??  Never saw her uniform before (which means neither dad ever attended a game or practice).  They don't keep track of her social media use, didn't know she had Insta?? Then when they were worried that their TWELVE YEAR OLD kid could possibly be coerced into having sex with an older boy, they casually discuss how "cool" they will be when confronting her & the boy?  There are so many other parent fails poor Lily has had to deal with too.  

Glad Gloria was finally shown to be aging.  Yes, Sofia Vergara has a beautiful face & figure no matter what her age and I am definitely envious of her good genes fortune! But the Latina sex-bomb storylines week after week, year after year have grown tiresome.

I'm at a loss as to where the humor is in neglectful parents who have no idea what their daughter is doing. Cam and Mitchel are narcissistic and it's bad enough the way they treat each other, but truly disgusting that they stopped parenting Lily about as soon as she started school.  I can't help thinking that in the real world children that ignored can often be doing very dangerous things.

Edited October 31, 2019 by Suzn

[chitowngirl]

It was the Twins first Halloween! No cuties in costume??

[ams1001]

59 minutes ago, chitowngirl said:

It was the Twins first Halloween! No cuties in costume??

You know, it didn't even register that they weren't in it...

[Blakeston]

I thought the Phil storyline and the Gloria storyline were way, way too obvious.

Once Claire said she couldn't be scared, of course it was going to happen, and of course Phil had set up the scenario with the old woman's house. The only thing part of it I liked was that he was the old woman. (And I have to say it's awfully lucky that someone bought a house in his neighborhood, through him, and had no intention of moving in for a year.)

And of course the drag queens thought Gloria was a man. It could have been a surprise if it hadn't been so obvious that the women who approached her were drag queens.

It just made me miss the Halloween episode of Happy Endings where Elisha Cuthbert's character is mistaken for a drag queen. Now that was some good writing!

The best writing was about Jay and the candy bar. It made me very sad that he never got what he wanted, and that Joe wanted nothing to do with him.

One other thing - wasn't Bill's whole appeal for Alex that he was hot in bed? He was such a prude in this episode that I have a hard time believing he was ever a great lover. He seemed to think it was an appalling act of disrespect for someone to ask their partner for a racy pic. Dude, get over it.

[foxfreakinmulder]

7 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

As usual at this point, Phil is the best part of the show by far. His prank was so elaborate, and so ridiculous, that it went that extra mile from ridiculous to hilarious. After his brilliant Claire Scare though, he know has to live in fear that Claire will get him back! Beware of Ida May! I also loved the super scary super Japanese movie, because I am basically Phil during those kinds of movies. Its scary! 

I really enjoyed Phil this episode he was the best part.

Didn't care for Luke, Alex or Cam and Mitch. Poor Lily!

Laughed at Gloria being mistaken for a drag queen.

It's sad to say but I think Manny could play the part of an old man lol.

[One4Sorrow2TooBad]

OMG, Manny was excellent as Freud,lol. I agree with you, he did a good old man routine!

[mojito]

I didn't even recognize Manny until he spoke. That was quite a good costume.

For me, the best parts were: 1) seeing Phil in the wig and earrings, and 2) Gloria being assumed to be both Jay's wife and a drag queen. I bet the writers had quite a discussion about which was better comedy, having Jay tell Manny to leave it alone and not inform his mother what kind of contest she had won, or having Gloria find out.

Except for Joey and Stella, I prefer the focus of the show to just be on the original adults than their offspring. I once enjoyed teenage Hailey's shifty-eyed talking head segments, but the young adult Dunphys, once-humorous Manny (when he was a middle-aged child) and wooden Lily are of boring.

[rhys]

Help a girl out. Ida May Mann = I am a man??? TIA

[Pamela]

7 hours ago, rhys said:

Help a girl out. Ida May Mann = I am a man??? TIA

If I recall correctly, Ida May Mann = I Da Main Man (Phil's boast to Claire).

[SevenCostanza]

On 10/31/2019 at 11:32 AM, biakbiak said:

The thing about not knowing about the cheerleading is especially ridiculous given that Cam loves sports and performing. It also makes no sense because does she have a credit card where she can just pay the fees and for uniforms, not to mention sign permission slips and things!

  My daughter was a cheerleader for a brief time and there's no way she could have done it on her own without a parent.   You'd think Cam of all people would know about it and enjoy going to the games with her. 

Edited November 3, 2019 by SevenCostanza

[ljenkins782]

On 10/31/2019 at 1:32 PM, biakbiak said:

The thing about not knowing about the cheerleading is especially ridiculous given that Cam loves sports and performing. It also makes no sense because does she have a credit card where she can just pay the fees and for uniforms, not to mention sign permission slips and things!

Actually, there was a throwaway mention of Lily having her own credit card in an episode, but yeah, it doesn't really track that they'd have no idea.

And I continue to be baffled as to why the show goes out of its way to highlight Mitch and Cam not knowing anything about their daughter. It's not actually funny and I just don't get why the writing is so fixated on that particular theme.

That aside, I have to say that I've enjoyed the last few episodes of the show. It's nowhere near what it was at its peak, but it's been more enjoyable that the slog that was Season 10. 

"One other thing - wasn't Bill's whole appeal for Alex that he was hot in bed? He was such a prude in this episode that I have a hard time believing he was ever a great lover. He seemed to think it was an appalling act of disrespect for someone to ask their partner for a racy pic. Dude, get over it."

I didn't think he was objecting to the idea of a pic, he was objecting to the phrasing that "Creepy Craig" used to ask for it and how it wasn't anything that he himself would have ever said, which seemed like a fair point to me. If you're involved with someone, you know their style even over text, so for her to not even pick up on the difference was the issue. 

I liked the character of Bill, but the actor's voice drove me bananas. Was that a put-on voice or is that really how he speaks? 
 

Edited November 4, 2019 by ljenkins782

[Perfect Xero]

1 hour ago, ljenkins782 said:

Actually, there was a throwaway mention of Lily having her own credit card in an episode, but yeah, it doesn't really track that they'd have no idea.

And I continue to be baffled as to why the show goes out of its way to highlight Mitch and Cam not knowing anything about their daughter. It's not actually funny and I just don't get why the writing is so fixated on that particular theme.

That aside, I have to say that I've enjoyed the last few episodes of the show. It's nowhere near what it was at its peak, but it's been more enjoyable that the slog that was Season 10. 

"One other thing - wasn't Bill's whole appeal for Alex that he was hot in bed? He was such a prude in this episode that I have a hard time believing he was ever a great lover. He seemed to think it was an appalling act of disrespect for someone to ask their partner for a racy pic. Dude, get over it."

I didn't think he was objecting to the idea of a pic, he was objecting to the phrasing that "Creepy Craig" used to ask for it and how it wasn't anything that he himself would have ever said, which seemed like a fair point to me. If you're involved with someone, you know their style even over text, so for her to not even pick up on the difference was the issue. 

I liked the character of Bill, but the actor's voice drove me bananas. Was that a put-on voice or is that really how he speaks? 
 

He speaks pretty similarly on the Netflix Series American Vandal and I've seen a few interviews with him. It seems like his real voice, maybe slightly exaggerated.

[xander874]

Maybe that professor guy will come back and he and Alex can live happily ever after (I forgot what happened with him so that may not be possible).

I did think that Gloria looked like a grandma in that Elsa wig. It looked too gray to me. And yes, SV is still smoking hot, but she does not look 30 anymore so I actually liked the story where she is seen as Jay's wife.

I would've rather had the episode with Mitch, Cam, and Lily just talking about boys and heartache. That would be fun and sweet - not the farce they did tonight. I know this is just a show, but they really are terrible parents and that's not funny - it's stupid.

Edited November 7, 2019 by xander874

[TV Anonymous]

On 10/31/2019 at 5:39 PM, Blakeston said:

(And I have to say it's awfully lucky that someone bought a house in his neighborhood, through him, and had no intention of moving in for a year.)

I recently dealt with selling/buying properties and this was the part that I failed to suspend my disbelief.

So a 'European couple' bought the house - residential, not seasonal - a year ago and did not move in. After furnishing the house completely, not even once did they visit the house, otherwise Claire would know. They paid mortgage, insurance, taxes, utilities and everything without even visiting or renting the house or put it on Airbnb. And this broker had full access to the house, even after he sold it.

[msrachelj]

On 10/31/2019 at 7:47 AM, BusyOctober said:

Phil is still the only one I really like on this show.  Despite the theme of relying on "plausibility", Phil's elaborate Claire-Scare was probably one of the most improbable farces written for a TV sitcom.  And I LOVED it!  Phil for the win.  Although, now he's stuck in an escalating mind game cycle, worrying about how his wife will try to scare him to death every Oct 31.

Why hasn't Lily called Child Welfare to rescue herself from her two idiot dads?  They didn't know she was a cheerleader??  Never saw her uniform before (which means neither dad ever attended a game or practice).  They don't keep track of her social media use, didn't know she had Insta?? Then when they were worried that their TWELVE YEAR OLD kid could possibly be coerced into having sex with an older boy, they casually discuss how "cool" they will be when confronting her & the boy?  There are so many other parent fails poor Lily has had to deal with too.  

Glad Gloria was finally shown to be aging.  Yes, Sofia Vergara has a beautiful face & figure no matter what her age and I am definitely envious of her good genes fortune! But the Latina sex-bomb storylines week after week, year after year have grown tiresome.

I can’t believe she is supposed to be 12 years old!😳