Screen: ABC
Claire Loves Her Realtor
In the latest Modern Family, Claire effuses about Phil to strangers! (There's a reason.)
As "Larry's Wife" begins, it feels like classic Modern Family in the sense that the cold open features Claire (Julie Bowen) nagging Phil (Ty Burrell) about chores she wants him to do, and ends with her giving a look of such put-upon, bone-deep weariness at Phil and everything he stands for that it turns out to be the image that sends us into the credits.
When Claire returns home later to find that Phil hasn't done any of the shit she asked him to because he's been distracted with his new divorced female clients, he tries to reassure him with a gentle touch to her cheek -- at which, naturally, she flinches, before lecturing him that he doesn't know what he's doing being so flirty with his clients and is going to fuck it up.
Of course, because Claire is a henpecking wife in a sitcom aimed at middle America, she ends up being right, and happens to be at the supermarket when Phil's harem happens to converge and accuse him of not being sufficiently attentive to them -- giving Claire the chance to swoop in and defend him. Claire actually touches him fondly on the back, proof that she's totally in character as a satisfied past customer who likes Phil, as opposed to the wife who barely tolerates him.
I guess Phil learned a lesson about seeking validation from women, huh?