Analysis of Punkin Chunkin

This week’s episode “Punkin Chunkin” refers to a story Cam  tells about his childhood, a grandiose story about sling-shotting a pumpkin across a football field. The overarching theme of the episode is the battle between the Pritchett’s and the ‘Dreamers’ because Mitchell, Claire and Jay always tend to shoot down the ideas of their family members.

Scene 1- An old neighborhood kid, maybe 10 years older than Haley, has turned into a playboy billionaire. He and Phil had a very close relationship and Phil is excited to see him. Claire, not so much. A Plot

Scene 2- Cam & Mitchell talk to another couple and Cam attempts to tell the Punkin Chunkin story and Mitchell “wa-wa’s” it. B Plot

Scene 3- Manny makes a centerpiece for Thanksgiving. Gloria is showering him with praise and Jay confronts her about giving him unrealistic expectations. C Plot

Scene 4- Childhood friend, Kenneth & the Dunphy’s have coffee. He says he’s in town to buy a blimp. He says Phil has been his inspiration and he always asks himself “WHAT WOULD PHIL DUNPHY DO?”. A Plot

Scene 5- Alex and Haley are driving while researching Kenneth online. Haley looks over to Alex’s phone and dents the minivan on a trashcan. They blame the other. D Plot

Scene 6-Alex freaks out about not telling Claire about the dent. Haley devises a plan to make Claire not see the dent, but Alex isn’t buying it. D Plot

Scene 7- Cam is upset with Mitchell for making fun of his Punkin Chunkin story. Cam reflects back to his funny stories and Mitchell eludes to the fact that the story is made up, and Cam gets very upset. B Plot

Scene 8- Luke & Phil set up the tables at Thanksgiving. Phil tries to be innovative with the place settings. Luke wonders why they aren’t rich if Kenneth was trying to be like Phil. Claire shoots down his idea of the four bistro tables. A Plot

Scene 9- Manny has second thoughts about the centerpiece. Manny criticizes Jay’s rice pilaf. Gloria coddles him and stops Jay from telling him the importance of criticism. C Plot

Scene 10- Claire heads to the store while Alex and Haley stop her from seeing the dent in the driver’s door. D Plot

Scene 11- Phil tries to be creative with the napkins. Claire is critical and he lashes back at her. Tells Claire that she ‘squelches’ his success and shoots down her ideas. Claire reviews all the ideas Phil has had that has failed. They show a home movie infomercial called the Head-Scratcher featuring Phil and Luke. A Plot

Scene 12- Gloria, Manny & Jay get to the Dunphy’s and Alex works to hide the dent. Manny brings up the fact that Jay doesn’t like the centerpiece. He takes it as an opportunity to tell him the importance of knowing when people are lying to you and why it’s good to know what you’re good and bad at. Manny takes it harder than he shows.  C Plot

Scene 13- Manny walks into the house to acclaim from everyone for the centerpiece. Manny acknowledges that it isn’t his best work, because Jay had told him everyone was being too nice. Gloria yells at Jay for being too critical. Phil says he does it because he’s a Pritchett, calling out Claire and Mitchell as well. Claire tells Phil to get the Head-Scratcher to show everyone at Thanksgiving. It malfunctions. Cam brings out Mitchell making fun of his story. Everyone acknowledges that they thought the story was made up. Cam brings up the dividing line between the Dreamers and the Pritchett’s. They decide to go to a football field to settle the Punkin Chunkin story for once and for all. A, B, C Plots

Scene 14- Whole family at a football field with a slingshot. Jay, Claire and Mitchell stand to the side, commenting on the unrealistic views of their family members, and how they need their critical views to help them. A, B, C

Scene 15- Cam fires the pumpkin, and it goes about 10 feet. The Realists feel bad that the pumpkin didn’t go far enough and say that winning didn’t feel so good. Jay, Claire and Mitchell decide to go get more pumpkins to try it again. A,B,C

Scene 16- Cam Interview- Talks about how a lot of the time, the realists end up with the dreamers instead of with people from their same team. Mitchell launches the pumpkin and it goes really far. B Plot

Scene 17-Cam launches another pumpkin while Alex confesses that Haley hit the car as Cam’s pumpkin crashes into the same place in the car that was dented. D Plot

Great episode! However, it had a lot fewer scenes than I expected in the episode. I need to find better ways to interweave the stories.

7 Scenes centered around the A Plot

6 Scenes centered around the B Plot

6 Scenes centered around the C Plot

However, scenes 14-16 contained aspects of A,B and C.

4 Scenes centered around the D Plot