'Modern Family' Season 06 Episode 12 Recap: 'The Big Guns'

In this week's episode of "Modern Family," the three different but related families in the hit comedy series confronted different issues and hilariously dealt with them in their own unique ways. Guest stars Andrea Anders and Steve Zahn returned as the Dunphys' obnoxious neighbours.

Ronnie and Amber La Fontaine decided to park their speed boat on their driveway. Phil and Claire Dunphy had a hard time parking and getting out of their car because the car's door was hitting the wide boat. Claire also feelt that it is an eyesore and asked Phil to find a way to make the neighbours to dock the boat in the nearby marina. When Phil and Claire's attempt at diplomacy didn't work, Phil called in "the big guns" a.k.a. his dad and his bunch of retiree friends to settle the issue.

When his dad arrived, he parked his RV along with a few others out on the street in an attempt to annoy Ronnie and his family. They started making a nuisance of themselves and Phil became certain that after a few hours, Ronnie will be so annoyed that he would decide to get as far away as possible. To Phil's surprise, his dad's group and Ronnie all have a history with the military and they have bonded over a few beers. The plan backfired so Claire decided to call the police and complain about the illegally parked boat on the driveway.

Meanwhile, over at the Tucker-Pritchett household, Cam decided to take Lily to clown school in secret because he knew that Mitch won't approve. After investigating some suspicious behaviour, Mitch discovered what was going on. Cam insisted that Mitch should at least see if Lily is any good before he condemns the lessons. When Cam and Lily suited up as clowns to perform for Mitch, he got bored until Lily decideed to take it up a notch by hurting Cam by hitting him and making it look like part of the routine.

Cam blameed Mitch for Lily's behaviour and said that she actted of desperation because Mitch refused to appreciate her normal clown routine. Mitch spoke to Lily and she admitted that the real reason behind her behaviour is that she hated being a clown and she's trying to be bad at it so Cam would make her stop. Lily knew the truth will hurt Cam so she lied and fed him with flattery and Mitch was impressed by the way she got out of clown school with her words. He concluded that she should be a lawyer like him.

Finally, at the Delgado-Pritchett household, Jay wanted to potty train Joe but Gloria felt that it's too soon. Jay insisted and bought a potty trainer. He also got several books and other gadgets that would help him. Gloria told Jay that she can handle these things and he should trust her. Eventually, Manny figured out that Jay wanted to potty train Joe himself because he was too busy to do it with Claire and Mitch. Manny completely nails it and the family all hug it out upon the realisation. Joe capped off the warm moment by finally peeing into the potty.

COntact the writer at: c.caparras@ibtimes.com.au