Modern Family – Alliance

By: Paige Zinaman

As the episode starts we see Jay (Ed O’Neill) walking into the kitchen thinking that Gloria (Sofia Vergara) was making breakfast lasagna, but she informs him that it was for everyone to eat that night so that everyone can vote on where everyone was going for vacation. Manny (Rico Rodriguez) informs Joe (Jeremy Maguire) that they really had no say because it was mostly the adults making the decisions. Meanwhile, Jay is upset because no one is supporting his petition on the ban on cigars near the club when Gloria tells him that she didn’t want the cigars in her house either. He wonders if Stella has any room in her dog house. And actually Gloria doesn’t know where Stella is because she put the shock collar on her to keep her from running away.

Meanwhile, Cam (Eric Stonestreet) is in the kitchen as Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) walks. Cam points out he has breakfast all set for Mitchell already. When Mitchell asks who the man in the magazine was Cam jokingly says his name is Giovanni and he is love with him. Mitchell says Giovanni is leaving Cam for him and they didn’t mean for it to happen when they hear a bang from upstairs causing Mitch to ask about the Russian brothers, Serge (Leonid A. Mandel) and Minsk (David Piggott), Cam says they are gone after their thirty days are up but unbeknownst to Mitchell it seems Cam allowed them to stay one more night. At the same time, we see Phil (Ty Burrell) bringing pancakes to Claire (Julie Bowen) while talking in French to the severe disgust of Alex (Ariel Winter) who had just walked in as Phil started kissing Claire’s neck. While Phil starts playing Italian music he steps back into Luke (Nolan Gould) who tells his dad to watch the new kicks. Claire asks how he got these new shoes he explains that it’s “…. all in the tips.” When Phil starts to talk about something from his past he is interrupted by his phone going off. Cam has called to tell him that, “You’re all out of orange juice.” Only to show Gloria telling Manny and Joe she must go out for orange juice. Strange.

When we see the trio again, they are at a restaurant talking about how Cam needed their help. They talk about how being married to a Pritchett was great and wonderful, but they can also be judgmental and monsters and that’s why they formed a secret alliance where they help each other cover up each other’s mistakes. Cam tells them that he needs their help to get rid of the Russian brothers and what Mitchell’s plans were for the gym. Phil tells Cam and Gloria to get rid of the Russians and he’ll handle Mitchell. Gloria says that the gate is broken and she can’t find Stella and she got a shock collar that scared her.

Haley (Sarah Hyland) was supposed to be meeting Rainer (Nathan Fillion), but he hasn’t shown up yet. She asks Alex about it who replies with he signed a headshot she didn’t want and then he went to the bathroom. Haley is nervous about Rainer’s daughter because she really likes him and wants to show him that he can fit into the tougher more family side of things. The only problem is Rainer’s daughter, April (Brianna Askins) is a teenage girl (moody and rebellious), everything Haley should know all too much about. When Haley introduces herself, April says she’s one of her dad’s latest. When he comes back over he tells both Haley and April that they want him to cover a flash flood, when Haley tells Rainer she will watch so they can get to know each other.

When we see Claire, she is at work getting things ready for an expo while they were presenting which ones should be sent to the expo. Her co-workers notice that Claire keeps looking over to Jay on his thoughts and what his opinions are before deciding. When Jay steps out the presenters start laughing and when Claire asks what they are laughing at they answered with “It’s so cute that how nervous you are for your first expo and how you look over to your dad to see what he’s thinking.” Claire denies saying she doesn’t. When Jay comes back in and asks what they were talking about she said that she was about to decide when she realized it was too important to make now and she was going to take the rest of the day (before being informed that they had until five) to decide. When we see Claire again she’s back in the board room eating when Haley and April come in bringing Claire her clothes for the night. When April comes in the room she’s complaining about the smell and that the WIFI won’t work. Haley introduces April and Claire when April says she’s going to look for a lady’s room. When she leaves, Claire laughs causing Haley to ask why she’s laughing. Claire says that Haley looking after a teenager isn’t as easy as it looks to which Haley says she’s doing fine. Jay walks back in and asks if they will be seeing Haley at the vote for their vacation she says if it’s okay if she brings an unbearable teenager. Jay say’s “What’s one more.”

When Jay arrives at the club, he sees Luke getting into a car. He yells Luke’s name it was too late and the car was pulling away. When he asks if it was his grandkid that left in the sports car Kevin (Alex Weber) confirmed it was and said that Maggie Braithwaite (Joesly Fisher) had stuff for Luke to do at home. It seems she likes the young ones to help. Jay ask if he should be worried about Luke and Kevin says that Luke will be fine. As Kevin walks away Jay curses. Meanwhile, Cam opens the door to reveal Gloria in all black and hair pulled the side when Cam asks if they should head up. Gloria tells him that she works alone while also saying, “If you hear two bodies hit the floor it’s done. If you hear three one tried to get back up.” While Phil runs into Mitchell coming out of the gym he manages to get Mitchell’s keys away from him. Mitchell says he can’t find his keys so Phil offers to help him look for them. Phil ends up driving Mitchell home, but not before stopping at a library book sale that he “Just couldn’t pass up.” When Claire calls and says that she knows he went for orange juice this morning, but if he could stop and get wine for tonight. This causes Mitchell to question him about getting OJ saying that Cam did too, when Phil agreed how weird it was he suddenly jerked the car to the side of the road.

Meanwhile, Gloria knocks on the door and once Serge opens it she stars talking Russian (that she picked up from some Russian nannies who talked Russian to the kids they were watching at a garage). The men start asking who she is, but she keeps ignoring the men’s questions and tells them that playtime is over and that it’s was time to go. When Serge asks if Minsk thought she was for real the brother responds with, “Any woman that looks like that and speaks Russian must be connected.” Gloria then asks if they want chicken fingers and she sticks one of Jay’s cigars in her mouth. The brothers automatically lean backwards tell her “Please not my hands!” As this happens, Phil is trying to figure out what went “wrong” with his car while talking to Mitchell who he discovers is no longer there. He calls Cam and tells him Mitchell got away and says he doesn’t have much time. When Mitchell comes in the door, Cam tries his southern charm yet Mitchell tells him to stop and that Phil was clearly keeping him from the house. He asked if it had something to do with the bang upstairs. While in the background, Gloria gets Russians out of the house. Cam and Mitchell go upstairs to find an empty apartment, but with one thing left – Gloria’s cigar.

Jay has left the country club to get Luke knocks on Maggie’s door. He finds Luke shirtless because he had to move boxes and that Maggie told him to take it off so it didn’t get dirty. As Maggie comes in she tells Jay that she knows him and they talk about the cigar ban. He tells Luke to go rub Maggie’s neck just so she would sign Jay’s petition when she said she would sign it later. Luke hears Maggie say that they needed to flip the mattress so Jay comes back in and takes Luke home.

Jay and Mitchell come in as Gloria is cooking saying there was no sign of Stella anywhere, when Gloria notices that Mitchell staring. They disperse to other parts of the house when Alex brings Claire wine. She says Jay said Claire would like it. April comes back in and Haley asks if she talked to Rainer. She said that she told him Haley left the car running while getting gas and could have blown her up to which Haley asked if she told him about all the “fun” stuff they did too. April takes a picture of her to post on her friend’s Instagram page about sad things. As Mitchell tries to compare Gloria’s lipstick to the one on the cigar Manny says he won’t judge him. When April tries to leave the house dressed in a short dress, Haley goes off and tells her she’s not leaving the house and to change and go set the table. Jay tells Claire to go with her gut because she’s good at her job. Cam finally finds Stella just as Phil got the collar off her as Jay comes and asks Phil to help him. Jay finds out about the collar, causing Mitchell and Claire to come out and put the pieces together – finding out about their alliance. He says they are making the decision about vacation without them and that they are going to Italy. The trio had set it up all along, making Mitchell, Claire and Jay believe it was their idea when it really wasn’t showing that at the beginning of the episode was the start of their plans.