Haley and Dylan are back together, and ask Phil and Claire if Dylan can move in. Phil accepts, however Claire decides she doesn't want to be the bad parent in this case and allows it reasoning that Phil will hate knowing that Haley and Dylan are having sex under his roof and kick Dylan out first. Indeed, Phil does quickly get uncomfortable as the two flaunt their relationship in front of him however when he doesn't order them to stop but to instead sneak around, Claire admits defeat and orders Dylan to leave the next day. Luke and Manny go to Caltech ostensibly to visit Alex but really they want to chat up cute college girls who live in Alex's hall. The two manage to find the girls and after some talking the girls agree to make out with them. However when Luke goes to drink mouthwash he finds Alex crying as Sanjay has met someone else at his college and broken up with her. Luke decides to stay and comfort his sister instead of returning to the girls. While Manny is away, Gloria goes to his high school in order to decorate his locker since a tradition obliges cheerleaders to decorate the lockers of football players. However, Manny's locker is actually empty and Gloria and Cameron have a disagreement regarding the tradition. Jay learns that Mitchell is still jobless but accepted an offer from his rival Earl Chambers. Though Mitchell sees at first Chambers as a good person, he changes his mind when Chambers humiliates him and Jay. The two visit his workplace at night in order to get revenge by rubbing Jay's genitals over Chambers' cigars, however Chambers catches them before he does so and the two get into a brawl. Fleeing the office, Jay feels better when Mitchell reveals he stole back the rolodex Chambers stole from him years before. Driven to despair due to break-up with Sanjay, Alex goes back to her home only to find Dylan sleeping in her room; Phil tells Dylan to leave Alex's room and spend the night with Haley instead.
Reception
Ratings
In its original U.S. broadcast, "The Closet Case" was watched by 7.99 million people; down by 0.73 from the previous episode.
Reviews
The episode received mixed reviews. Kyle Fowle of The A.V. Club gave episode a C+, saying "The Closet Case” boasts a lot of the shows worst tendencies, from ridiculous situations to a total lack of thematic cohesion." Shirley Li of Entertainment Weekly was similarly negative, saying that the episode had "too much overreaction and too little laugh-out-loud moments." Liz Estey of TV Fanatic gave the episode a score of 3.5/5, praising Jay and Mitchell's storyline, calling it "definitely entertaining" and saying "it's been nice to see their relationship evolve over the years." However, she criticized Dylan's appearance, believing that he is "funniest in small doeses", found Alex's story "really boring", and called the interaction between Cam and Gloria "argumentative without any playfulness." Zachary Anderson of Out Loud Culture gave the episode a score of 7.5/10, calling Luke's interest in girls "a step in the right direction", and believing that the scene between Luke and Alex "a great moment that shows major signs of maturity for both characters," but disliking Cam and Gloria's storyline, saying he "lost interest three minutes in." Hunter Vogt of The TV Ratings Guide thought that the episode was "pretty good", and especially liked Mitch and Jay's storyline, while he found the others to be "alright" or "mediocre". Lisa Fernandez of Next Projection called it a "decent episode" and gave it a score of 7.1/10. She thought that the episode was "definitely not grating as the premiere was", and "entertaining all around", but found that Gloria and Cam's concern over Manny's locker "seemed an odd thing to concern themselves with."
