The Butler's Escape

"The Butler's Escape" is the fourth episode from Season 4 of Modern Family, it aired on October 17, 2012.
==Plot Summary==
Luke wants to quit magic and Phil just can't seem to accept it. Meanwhile, one of Gloria's new pregnancy symptoms is snoring and she's keeping the whole house awake, forcing Jay to take desperate measures; and Mitchell and Cameron's household dynamic is put to the test when they decide to swap duties - Mitch staying at home with Lily while Cam goes off to work at his new job as the music teacher at Luke and Manny's school.
==Episode Description==
It's a late night for everybody. There are many ways for a fire to start in a household, but Luke's box of magic tricks (The Great Lukini) is a new one. Phil, naturally, is proud of him; he even gets Luke lessons from a man he has found online. (Because that never goes wrong.) On the other hand, Jay is up for an entirely different reason: Gloria is snoring like a buzzsaw thanks to her pregnancy. To make things worse, Manny has already claimed the couch downstairs. And Mitchell is being kept up by Cameron practicing for his first day as a music teacher. Mitchell decides to let it go, but Lily takes the direct approach, unplugs his electric piano, and throws the plug at him.
As Jay thanks his lucky stars, he has a trip to San Francisco and gets a night away from the snoring machine. Cam is excited and confident that he'll knock the socks off of middle school students. But Mitch is being supportive, even handling Lily duties for the day, the list of which Cam must remind him of, naturally. Meanwhile, Luke wants to quit doing magic because he isn't interested in it, and Claire thinks Phil will be OK with that. (No, he's not).
Give Cameron credit for the enthusiasm, but middle school kids are the toughest to teach. But Cam has pushed forward and tried to teach the kids about his good friend...music. And Luke and Manny have pretended that they didn't know him. Mitchell isn't having much more luck getting Lily to school, thanks to traffic, not strapping her seat in the car correctly, and Lily pointing these things out to him. Cam is checked in with him at the grocery store and even helped Mitch find Lily when she has wandered off in the store.
Jay ended up not needing to stay in Frisco ("They hate it when you call it Frisco.") overnight and he hadn't slept in a week. Claire's advice about Gloria's snoring? Suck it up.
CLAIRE: Your hot wife, who was learning to walk when you were 30 years old, is pregnant with the baby you conceived doing something most men would kill to do!
And Claire has said that Gloria is going through so much with the extra weight, which is up to forty-five pounds by the time Jay has hung up. By the time Jay has gotten home, even Stella is begging for help. Jay sneaks out and heads for a hotel.
Meanwhile, Phil has made a deal with Luke: he could quit magic if he could execute The Butler's Escape, where Luke is shackled in a butler's uniform and obviously must get out of it. Which he has done...even before Phil has finished tying him upside down. Phil is upset because Luke doesn't share one of his interests, but Claire has found some wisdom in what is going on. Alex has been sniping at everybody and Claire can't figure out why. But the opposing forces need to make the Butler's Escape work is figuratively what Claire has needed. Alex had been missing her opposing force: Haley. But one nasty Skype call to Haley, and the family is balanced once again.
At home, Lily has her braids done, the dimmer switch is fixed, and there is even a nice meal on the table...all thanks to Claire, but Cam doesn't need to know that. But Cam breaks down and has admitted that his first day was a disaster. Even the other teachers don't like him. Mitchell has tried to still take credit for his work, but Claire rats him out, saying that Mitch is every bit the failure he was today. But Cam hugs Mitch, figuring he was on the receiving end of many sisterly insults that day. (CLAIRE: Is this going to work its way around to a 'thank you', ladies?)
Gloria calls Jay to surprise him and says that she has taken a plane to San Francisco. Jay panics, grabs all of his stuff, and runs down to the hotel lobby. Where, of course, a ticked-off Gloria is waiting for him. Apparently, Manny is already at the hotel looking for peace and quiet, since the house has been a little noisy lately and the school library is a total pickup scene. Gloria has thought that he was having an affair, but Jay has confessed needing a night away from her snoring and hogging the bed like Rush Limbaugh. Gloria is mad at him for not saying anything, even though he doesn't want her to get mad at him like she had gotten mad at Manny earlier. But she wants that because she knows he can take a little yelling: she loves that about him, in fact. And at least his hotel room won't go to waste: Gloria will sleep at the hotel while Jay takes Manny home and makes him dinner.
==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
==Trivia==
* Haley only appears via Skype in this episode.
* No recurring characters appear in this episode.
==Guest Starring==
*Malachi Smith as Delroy
*Lucia Vecchio as Goth Girl
==Continuity==
*Phil's interest for magic appeared previously in "Up All Night".
*This episode aired exactly six years before "Torn Between Two Lovers".
==Cultural References==
*Cam plays snatches of "Für Elise", Beethoven's 5th Symphony and "The Entertainer" on the keyboard.
==Gallery==
TheButler'sEscape1.jpg
TheButler'sEscape2.jpg
TheButler'sEscape.jpg
TheButler'sEscape3.jpg
TheButler'sEscape4.jpg
TheButler'sEscape5.jpg
TheButler'sEscape6.jpg
TheButler'sEscape7.jpg
TheButler'sEscape8.jpg
TheButler'sEscape9.jpg
TheButler'sEscape10.jpg
TheButler'sEscape11.jpg
Category:Episodes
Category:Season 4
Category:Content