Leap Day (Modern Family)

"Leap Day"
Modern Family episode
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 17
Directed by	Gail Mancuso
Written by	Danny Zuker
Production code	3ARG19
Original air date	February 29, 2012
Season 3 episodes
2011–2012 "Dude Ranch" "When Good Kids Go Bad" "Phil on Wire" "Door to Door" "Hit and Run" "Go Bullfrogs!" "Treehouse" "After the Fire" "Punkin Chunkin" "Express Christmas" "Lifetime Supply" "Egg Drop" "Little Bo Bleep" "Me? Jealous?" "Aunt Mommy" "Virgin Territory" "Leap Day" "Send Out the Clowns" "Election Day" "The Last Walt" ← Season 2
Episode chronology
← Previous "Virgin Territory" Next → "Send Out the Clowns"
List of Modern Family episodes

"Leap Day" is the 17th episode of the third season of the American sitcom Modern Family, and the series' 65th episode overall. It aired on February 29, 2012. The episode was written by Danny Zuker and directed by Gail Mancuso.

Plot

It's February 29, a.k.a. Leap Day, and it is also Cameron's birthday. He is turning 40, but as his birth date, being Leap Day, only occurs once every four years, he likes to think he's turning 10. So Mitchell is extremely pressured to arrange the perfect party for him. He decides to throw a Wizard of Oz-themed party and sets everything up while Cameron is away. However, when Cameron comes back home, he tells Mitchell that he will be busy for most of the day talking to his family in the aftermath of a tornado that hit his hometown. Realizing the Wizard of Oz is famous for a tornado, Mitchell abruptly cancels the Wizard of Oz-themed party and is forced to come up with a different party idea within a couple of hours.

Meanwhile, Phil is especially excited about Leap Day that he takes the day off from work to do something fun with his family. Claire decides to sign the family up for a trapeze class at a local amusement park. However, Claire gets on her menstrual cycle and Phil gets horrified when Haley and Alex get on their cycles as well. Thinking their moody behavior will ruin his day, Phil conspires with Luke and Manny to go to the trapeze class without the girls, telling the boys not to mention the cycle. Phil has Luke pretend that he's similarly feeling under the weather like the girls, but this backfires as Claire insists Luke stay home, prompting Manny to go home. Phil decides to have Luke feign a cut on his finger using fake blood, but Luke accidentally spills a lot of fake blood on himself. When Claire finds the container of fake blood, Luke is forced to admit Phil wanted to leave the girls home due to their menstrual cycles. Claire berates Phil over teaching Luke to fear women over their cycles.

Jay and Gloria go to a bar to cheer on a soccer game. When one of the patrons gets competitive with Gloria, Jay takes her away to another table to avoid confrontation. Gloria wishes that Jay fought the patron and his manliness comes into question, even more so when he puts on a pink robe, which was originally white before his white clothes got mixed with red ones in the laundry.

Mitchell decides to throw a birthday cruise for Cameron, with Jay's family, the Dunphy family, and others in attendance. However, the captain ( John DiMaggio)says they can't fit the whole party on the boat and that it was the biggest boat they could get within two hours. Gloria tries to reason with the captain, but the Captain gets confrontational with her, prompting Jay to get confrontational with him. Gloria tells him to calm down, saying she prefers that he's calm and reasonable. When the captain makes a remark about Jay's age, Gloria punches him, and the captain kicks the party out, with Cameron walking away upset. When Phil mentions Cameron's sadness to Claire, she berates him over his understanding of emotions. Phil responds that it has been an emotional day for him as well because he couldn't do what he wanted, prompting the girls to give him a hug.

When Mitchell tries to explain what happened to Cameron, Cameron berates him for being unable to throw a decent 10th birthday, to which Mitchell reminds him that he's actually 40. Cameron breaks down, and Mitchell sees that his sadness is over the fact that he's 40 and wanted to be 10 for his birthday. When Phil mentions to them all he wanted was to go to the amusement park, Mitchell decides to take Cameron there. The Dunphy family also goes, where the girls use their menstrual anger to pressure the trapeze attendant to allow Phil on. The girls let their anger out playing Whack-a-mole.

Reception

Ratings

In its original American broadcast, "Leap Day" was watched by 11.68 million; up 0.14 million from the previous episode.

Accolades

Jesse Tyler Ferguson submitted this episode for consideration due to his nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series at the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards.