This week on Modern Family, Phil feels a certain kind of way about the fact that the baby ducks have imprinted on Claire. Oh, and Luke gets arrested.
He took the car to help a girl he likes to find her cat but got caught two blocks from her house. Phil is livid and punishes him by making him clean the duck village.
At the local farmers market, Cam, with Mitch’s help, sell Tucker’s famous ketchup from his parent’s farm in Missouri. Only their product isn’t selling as well Simon and Andrew’s beef jerky. They go over to investigate, and both couples throw all kinds of shade at each other. In the midst of their back and forth, Simon extends an olive branch and offers Mitch a job. He thinks he’s joking at first but realizes he’s serious when Simon tells him, “On a social level I think you are hopeless but I think you are actually a good lawyer.” Mitch is speechless.
Jay makes a video for his presentation at the chamber of commerce since he is being honored with a titan in business award. He shows it to Manny and Gloria and immediately knows that it is boring. “I have to start over.”
Hailey and Dillon go to the movies and run into Beth and Andy, which is super awkward for Hailey. She tries to get away but the only two seats together in the theater is right by them. It also doesn’t help that they are watching a movie who’s plot mimics their situation. After the movie, she dashes out but not before Andy invites them to get some food. Dillon jumps at the chance and his girlfriend’s heart sinks.
At the restaurant, Hailey asks Andy why the movie didn’t bother him since the plot dealt with their situation over the summer. He tells her that he stopped caring about two women and focused on Beth.
On the way home, Hailey breaks up with Dillon because everyone in the world (Andy and Beth) are moving forward and they are not. He gets out of the car and walks because he’s tired of being jerked around. “Now I’m moving forward.”
Phil continues to get the feeling that Claire doesn’t feel he is dangerous enough. As they talk about it in the car, they see Alex, who was supposed to be at school. They call and catch her in a lie as they watch her as they speak to her, but Claire lets it slide. “College kids do that kind of thing.” Phil accuses her of liking that their children are running wild since it means they are less like their “mayor of vanillaville” father. Their conversation is cut short when they see Alex come out of the liquor store with a case of some something and get into a sketchy white van. Now Claire is concerned. “Follow the van!”
At the house, Luke cleans out the duck village when Manny comes over to tease him. They realize that one of the ducks is missing, and they track it down to their neighbor’s backyard. They go through a bush to get it only to be accused of being a peeping Tom by the girl lying in a bikini getting a tan. But because Manny is smooth as butter, she ends up thinking he’s the sweetest thing for taking care of the ducks, to Luke’s chagrin.
Cam and Mitch visit Jay, who reaches out to his son to help him with video, but that doesn’t last long as he becomes impatient. They eat lunch, and Gloria shares her secret sauce to Cam’s consternation. He doesn’t like that everyone loves it over his so when she passes the recipe to Mitch, Cam, “accidently” knocks it into a glass of water, destroying it. Gloria is heartbroken as her great aunt gave it to her, and Cam is devastated. He offers to help her recreate it and everything around Gloria reminds her of sounds connected to different ingredients in the sauce.
They make the sauce, and Cam has to admit that it is better than his. He tells Gloria that they need to sell it at the farmers market, but she says she can’t. “I’m not allowed at the Farmers Market.” Why you ask? Because in 2011 she sold a hair product that didn’t go over so well.
Claire and Phil have lost the van but plan to track Alex from his computer once at the house; only they don’t have to because the van is sitting right in the driveway when they pull up. They get out and run upstairs to find Alex hiding Reuben in the closet. Not knowing who it is, Phil punches him in the nose and immediately apologizes. Alex says that she just needed a break from CalTech and didn’t want anyone to know that she and Reuben are an item. Claire also takes the time to let her husband know that she has also seen him as a brave and dangerous.
Mitch gets advice from his dad as he continues to help him with his video. He tells his father about the offer from Simon but also that he has been thinking about starting his own practice. Jay tells him to take the offer because it takes a certain kind of person to run a business. He gives Gloria the same advice about not being able to handle it, which in turns makes her and Mitch want to prove him wrong.
In the end, Jay’s realizes that his quest to prove the naysayers wrong is the reason for his life success, and that’s what he puts in his video. And the Ducks finally follow Phil.