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Virgin Territory (Modern Family)

"Virgin Territory" is the 16th episode of the third season of the American sitcom Modern Family and the series' 64th episode overall. It aired on February 22, 2012. The episode was written by Elaine Ko and directed by Jason Winer.

Plot
At family brunch, confessions of past sins prompt Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) to ruin Jay's (Ed O'Neill) hole in one by confessing that he kicked the ball into the hole; Jay is upset and goes to the club to cool off. Luke (Nolan Gould) and Manny (Rico Rodriguez) set a trap to get Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons) in trouble by framing her for spilling milk. Instead, Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) takes the bait, slips on the milk, injures his back, and breaks Lily's doll. Phil (Ty Burrell) takes Alex (Ariel Winter), Haley (Sarah Hyland), and Lily to the store to repair it while Claire (Julie Bowen) leaves for yoga; Gloria (Sofía Vergara) asks to join her but is promptly dismissed. Cameron encourages Mitchell to reconcile with Jay at the club, but once he believes he's alone in the house, he reveals his back was never injured when he begins a frantic search for a tupperware he insists Claire never returned to him. In the car, Alex accidentally reveals that Haley lost her virginity to her boyfriend, Dylan after mishearing the phrase “Haley’s aversion” as “Haley’s a virgn” and laughing. Phil is horrified by this and begins talking in euphemisms. At the mall, Haley feels guilty when Phil implies how disappointed he is; there is brief tension between the two before they reconcile and Phil tells Haley that he trusts her. Meanwhile, Alex - who never played with dolls growing up - finds she likes playing with one of Lily’s dolls after tidying it up for her, and Phil agrees to purchase it for her. Arriving at her yoga studio, Claire is shocked to find that Gloria has followed her and insists on joining. Eventually, Claire confesses to Gloria that she doesn't go to yoga but instead goes to an indoor shooting range to relieve her stress. Gloria is supportive of Claire and surprises her by casually shooting a bullseye. At the club, Mitchell mistakenly reveals that false hole in one to Jay's friends. Over lunch, Jay dismisses Mitchell's theory that the hole in one was significant because Mitchell had his first beer later that night as part of the celebration, saying it was special simply because it was a hole in one. However, he reveals that Mitchell's actual first beer was on his fourteenth birthday--something Mitchell had forgotten--and was significant. Luke and Manny walk in on Cameron searching for the Tupperware, but he gives them his keys and offers to pay them to wash his car. Instead, Luke suggests taking the car down the street to impress Manny's crush. Awkwardly driving, Manny is successful until he hits a dead-end and, unable to do a U-turn, is forced to reverse down the street and back past his crush. Inside the house, Cam finds his Tupperware on a top shelf and climbs on drawers to retrieve it. In the driveway, Claire almost catches Luke and Manny in the car, but is distracted by a crashing sound coming from the kitchen. Rushing inside, she finds Cameron and parts of her counter on the floor; he's satisfied to have found his Tupperware. Claire reveals to Phil that she'd known about Haley and Dylan for three months; he thanks her for not telling him. ==Reception==
Reception
Ratings In its original American broadcast "Virgin Territory" was watched by 11.54 million; up 0.32 million from the previous episode. Reviews "Virgin Territory" received positive reviews. Leigh Raines of TV Fanatic rated the episode with 5/5. "I found this episode to be the perfect combination of funny and heartwarming. It never hurts to add realistic moments in every . That's what Modern Family is good at and I'm glad they embraced it so well this week." Meredith Blake from The A.V. Club gave a B rate to the episode saying that the episode was very funny but it suffered from a bit of narrative entropy. Tim Martens of Custodian Film Critic rated the episode with 4/5 stating: "We really got to some deep subjects on this week’s “Modern Family.” [...] this week’s episode (titled “Virgin Territory”) touches on all the secrets that are kept deep within a family." Shayelizatrotter from The Comedy Critic gave the episode an A− rate. "While this episode was, in my opinion, not as hilarious as the last, it was still full of great, comical moments!" Accolades This episode won the Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Episodic Comedy. Jason Winer was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for this episode. ==References==
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