CRASH! That sound you hear is a forklift barreling through the wall in Jay's warehouse with Manny in the driver's seat. Jay's joyriding stepson is fine, but the worker who let him get behind the wheel is out of a job. This upsets Manny because he was buddies with the axed employee.
Jay is caught in a delicate situation with Gloria. She's excited about the celebration surrounding their upcoming date. Unfortunately, Jay has no idea what it is they're supposed to be celebrating. Manny knows the scoop but won't share the info unless Jay hires back forklift guy. It's a standoff!
As the time of the big date draws near, Jay has no idea where he's supposed to meet Gloria. Manny still won't help him figure it out. He wants his pal to get his job back, but Jay won't cave. He says that anyone who "puts my kid in danger doesn't get a second chance."
Manny is surprised that Jay referred to him as "his kid." He never knew Jay felt that way about him. Gloria refers to both the men in her life as stubborn burros. But it's pretty obvious that one will always be there for the other come crunch time. That's why Jay will never hire back that worker. It's also why Manny tells his stepfather where to meet his mom. Oops, did we call Jay a stepfather? We meant to call him Manny's dad.
Mitchell puts the kibosh on Cameron's desire to have Lily appear in a TV commercial for a children's furniture store. That doesn't stop our favorite stay-at-home dad from trying to turn his little girl into a child star. This sends Mitchell storming onto the set. Actually, he just kind of walked in. It's not like they're doing a big budget movie. It's a local spot being shot in a warehouse behind a mattress store.
Lily is beyond cute as she sits in front of cardboard cutouts of skyscrapers representing high prices. The buildings are annihilated by the mother of all movie monsters: Save-zilla! Cameron realizes the only reason they want Lily is because she's Asian. He accuses the director of seeing the children in the commercial as interchangeable stereotypes. Cam then takes Lily off the set. Actually, he grabs the wrong kid before Mitchell points out that he accidentally snagged the other Asian child on set. That's show biz!
Phil Dunphy is a mild-mannered real estate agent by day. But things have been slow on the housing front lately. Without a lot of places to show, Phil is available to hang at home while Claire recovers from a bad cold. And when one of the smoke detectors starts chirping, Phil is on a mission to find the one that needs new batteries.
Claire is worried that Haley will miss out on life experiences if Dylan is the only person she ever dates. She tries to convey her concerns by chronicling the sad storyline of some characters on a soap opera. Haley is hip to her mom's game. She knows the characters represent real people. Only she doesn't think it's about her and Dylan. No, Haley believes her mom is saying she made a huge mistake by marrying her dad.
Phil's having a bad day. He keeps losing clients and simply can't find that defective smoke alarm. Haley's not doing much better. She thinks her mom is leaving her dad. Haley tries to do damage control by urging Claire to run to a frustrated Phil, who is busy smashing every smoke alarm in the house with his old cheerleading baton. We did mention he's having a bad day, right? Make that a bad month.
Phil is a bit on edge because things are so bad at work. Claire does run to her hubby before he destroys another safety device during his mini-meltdown. They have a nice, supportive heart-to-heart which ends with a little sniffle from Phil. It may seem like he's crying, but super dad says he's probably just catching Claire's cold.
By the way, the mystery of the chirping smoke detector is solved when Phil realizes the noise is coming from one of the old ones Luke used for making a robot. Nothing like a little victory to turn a bad day into a good one!