"The Feud" is the fifteenth episode from Season 5 of Modern Family, it aired on February 26, 2014.
Plot Summary[]
Phil is upset to have lost his elected office of social chair to his nemesis Gil Thorpe, so when he finds out Luke is competing against Gil's kid in a wrestling match (and Jay finds out his nemesis is Gil's father), they make it their own personal battle. Gloria accompanies Manny on his school field trip, but runs into trouble with the other moms. Claire has a meeting with an important client, which occurs after she catches Lice from Lily. Cam tries to avoid Lily himself, while Mitch deals with his sister at the meeting. Alex and Haley hide from a possum in the basement.
Episode Description[]
Phil's unending battle with Gil Thorpe seems to be just that: unending. He even had to give Gil his necklace...sorry, medallion...back because Thorpe was the new social chair for the local realty association. Didn't take long for Gil to pick it up and rub it in Phil's face. And if you thought Gil was done for the night, he wasn't. Luke was having his first match with his school's wrestling team and trying to make weight like all wrestlers do: sweating it out with no regard to hygiene or the house's other occupants. But it turns out Luke's first opponent was Gil Thorpe's kid, who was an excellent wrestler. Phil changed tactics from his usual "just have fun" advice to wanting Luke to beat this kid within an inch of his life. Luke probably should have counted on Jay being more reasonable about it, but no such luck. Jay had this one person who always seemed to be around when he was at his worst, like Jay's fear of being trapped in an elevator or tearing up thanks to the disinfectant sprayed on the wrestling mats. In both cases, the same guy gave him some Kleenex and tortured him about being such a wuss. That guy was Gil Thorpe's father. Now both Jay and Phil wanted Luke to kick Thorpe's behind, but to no avail. He was pinned in only a few seconds.
While Manny and Gloria tried to avoid embarrassment at the museum...Manny because he was wearing squeaky shoes and Gloria because she was having an allergic reaction to her medication...Mitchell and Cameron had asked Claire to pick up Lily from school before her sales meeting because they had to meet with a director of photography for their wedding. They conveniently left out the little detail that some of the kids may have caught a case of head lice. Sure enough, Claire spent her entire meeting scratching her hair without even knowing of the little parasites up there. Of course, the client was thrilled with her sales pitch and figured they were well past handshakes, so he went in for a hug.
As Haley and Alex tried to escape their basement from the possum that had made it down the stairs, Phil and Jay took Luke out to eat but were feeling guilty about letting their war with the Thorpes trickle down to Luke. The look of disappointment they gave Luke when he lost still haunted them, but Luke figured it was his first time wrestling and he would eventually get better. They were relieved...until they saw Luke attack Thorpe's kid in the restaurant. Gil tried to pull Luke off, Phil tried to pull Gil off, Gil's dad tried to pull him off, and Jay tried to pull Gil's dad off. It turns out Gil's kid was choking and Luke saved his life. On the car ride home, Phil and Jay both said how proud they were of Luke to take the high road. Except Luke had interpreted Gil's kid giving the sign for choking as a statement of how Luke wrestled. Phil and Jay decided they should all keep quiet about that.
The good news was, the Dunphy house was well prepared for dealing with lice and had a kit that Cameron and Lily could use. After getting scared to death by Haley, Alex, the possum, and one of those blow-up streamers you see on car lots, everything settled down. And Gil Thorpe came by to say how classy Luke was for helping his kid. Of course, that didn't stop Gil Thorpe from being a jerk to Phil, so Phil decided to introduce Gil to Lily. And show that Lily's favorite thing was a piggy-back ride.
GIL: Ah, these little buggers always love me.
PHIL: That's the plan!
Main Cast[]
(The characters striked out do not appear in this episode)
- Jay Pritchett
- Gloria Pritchett
- Manny Delgado
- Claire Dunphy
- Phil Dunphy
- Haley Dunphy
- Alex Dunphy
- Luke Dunphy
- Mitchell Pritchett
- Cameron Tucker
- Lily Tucker-Pritchett
Guest Starring[]
- Rob Riggle as Gil Thorpe
- John Heard as Gunther Thorpe
- Rib Hillis as Jim Perlowe
- Zachary Conneen as Miller
- Sonari Jo as Mumbles
- Jake Hendrickson as Giggles
- Rachel Axelrod as Mom #1
- Alyssa Preston as Mom #2
- Austin Michael Coleman as Manny's Schoolmate
- Chloe June O'Shannon as Waitress
- Edith Fields as Elderly Woman
- Chelsea Harris as Receptionist
Continuity[]
- Gil Thorpe reappears from "Flip Flop" and "Career Day".
- Jason Miller returns from "The Big Game".
- Gloria says that misses the time when Manny wore his Colombian poncho and played his Colombian pan flute ("Run for Your Wife").
- Claire is seen using the head scratcher that Phil invented in "Punkin Chunkin".
Gallery[]