Death Brings Out The Best In Claire

Well, we've had a fun season here monitoring the prickly Claire (Julie Bowen) and her sporadic willingness to express her sporadic love for her husband Phil (Ty Burrell) through physical touch, so naturally the finale was built around an event that even a jerk like me couldn't be snarky about: the (offscreen) loss of Phil's mother. We learn in the cold open that the late Mrs. Dunphy had as good a passing as anyone could hope for, in that everyone knew it was coming, she wasn't in pain, and her husband and son were with her, so that the gentle comedy the show makes of the fallout doesn't seem too insensitive, like Phil's excitement at being reunited with his...pillow.

And for the rest of the episode, Claire -- who may be a shrew, but is not an actual monster -- just does a good job of being a kind, supportive, loving wife to Phil during this hard time. When he asks her to read a note his mother left for him, she does, tightly gripping his hand.

Claire then goes on to follow Phil's mother's request to make contact with Annie (Anita Gillette), a local woman the late Mrs. Dunphy thought would be a good second wife for Phil's dad (Fred Willard), and although Claire does so over Phil's explicit objections, it does lead to a nice scene between Phil and Annie that, even though the show is not my favourite, really worked on me.

Finally, Phil gets another hand-hold at the memorial service, and I must head into the show's hiatus knowing that Claire is nice sometimes.

But Phil shouldn't get too used this kind of affection...unless he loses a treasured loved one in every episode of Season 5.