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Red Alert is the sixteenth episode from Season 10 of Modern Family, it aired on February 27, 2019.

Plot Summary[]

Lily has reached a womanly milestone that Cam and Mitch are not prepared for - at all - so they call in reinforcements.[1]

Episode Description[]

Phil and Luke visit a house because Phil is scheduled to be in a commercial real estate advert, Luke tags along because of Phil's insomnia helping Haley out with preparing her for becoming a good mother. When they arrive at the house, Phil tells Luke that he recently attended a prenatal class with Haley since Dylan was unavailable, and she proved that she may be a clumsy and incompetent mother. Phil's role in the commercial advert proves difficult, due to Phil's insomnia, as he's sleepy throughout the filming of an advert and falls asleep during a take and cries during another take, so it becomes difficult for them to be efficient.

Back at Claire and Jay's office, Claire is fed-up with her dad's attitude because he never lets her decide and make her own choices. She gets the opportunity to become a CEO when she is recruited for an offer, and realizes that the people hiring her as CEO are heavily inadequate to be in the position they are in, they are only chairmen of the board because of their father and have no idea what they're doing. She refuses their offer both because she doesn't want to work with bad businessmen and because she believes she should stay with Jay's company. However, when she comes back, Claire learns that Jay had a change of heart and decided to retire indefinitely from his company, leaving it in his daughter's hands. He plans on starting a new project: Managing a company that sells personalized dog baskets.

Meanwhile, Cameron and Mitchell learn that Lily has had her first period, but can't help her properly since they've never had experience dealing with periods or the menstrual cycle. Since Claire is unavalaible, Cam sends a group text to the women in the family. Haley, Alex and Gloria try to give advice, but they don't help Lily. Manny also shows-up due to Cam's error, and is also rejected by Lily. Finally, Mitch and Cam are able to convince their daughter that they'll be there for her, they'll make mistakes but if she wants to talk about anything, she can. They find that a warm chat between just themselves and her is what she actually needed.

Phil comes home from work and finally manages to find comfort when Haley finally proves to him that she will be a good mother, when she swaddles him in a couch blanket while he's laying on the couch. Dylan also provides comfort in being a human white noise machine.

Main Cast[]

(The characters struck out do not appear in this episode)

  • Jay Pritchett
  • Gloria Pritchett
  • Manny Delgado
  • Joe Pritchett
  • Claire Dunphy
  • Phil Dunphy
  • Haley Dunphy
  • Alex Dunphy
  • Luke Dunphy
  • Mitchell Pritchett
  • Cameron Tucker
  • Lily Tucker-Pritchett

Guest Starring[]

  • Reid Ewing as Dylan
  • Eric Tiede as Desmond
  • Scott Deckert as Evan
  • Abby Roberge as Ben
  • Christine Garver as Anna
  • Lindsay Mendez as The Monrovia Mangler

Trivia[]

  • This is the first episode to be directed by a main cast member, Julie Bowen in this case.
  • Joe does not appear in this episode, Manny only appears in one scene and Jay and Gloria both appear in two scenes.
  • The Pritchett Delgado house is never seen in this episode, and Cam and Mitch are the only parents who share a scene with all members of their family and never get out of their house.
  • Though this episode is Lily-centric, she actually only appears physically in two scenes.
  • The scene in which Haley and Dylan reassure Phil is probably based on a scene in which Mike from the Middle does the same for Sue in episode Eyes Wild Open.

Continuity[]

Cultural References[]

  • Cam claims that if Lily were a sheep she'd be dealing with this every 17 days -- they do go into estrus about every 17 days, but only primates menstruate. Female sheep absorb the endometrium and do not bleed it out of their vaginas.
  • The house is located in ZIP code 90212, in Beverly Hills.

Reviews[]

  • The A.V. Club gave it a "C". The advice ranges from the scientific (Alex) and mythical (Gloria) to rebellious (Haley) and downright creepy (Manny, of course). None of it helps Lily, and it certainly doesn’t help the episode. Every single joke is cliché, every punchline the most obvious thing you can think of. It’s beyond frustrating because this does feel like an opportunity for the show to add some depth to Lily’s character while also meaningfully exploring the relationship she has with her dads.

References[]

Gallery[]

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