The Butler's Escape
"The Butler's Escape" is the fourth episode of the fourth season of the American sitcom Modern Family, and the series' 76th episode overall. It aired October 17, 2012. The episode was written by Bill Wrubel and directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller. Plot Phil (Ty Burrell) can not accept that Luke (Nolan Gould) wants to quit magic and he tries everything to change his mind about it but it does not seem to work. The real reason Phil does not like Luke's decision it is because that is the first time his son does not share the same interests with him and he is afraid he is losing him. At the end, he tells Luke that he can decide whatever he wants to do and he will support him. In the absence of Haley (Sarah Hyland), Alex (Ariel Winter) takes on a high-handed role as the new big sister in the house. Claire (Julie Bowen) can not understand why her little daughter is acting like that the last few days and tries to figure out why and what is happening. Later she realizes that Alex's strange behavior is because she misses Haley. Gloria's (Sofia Vergara) snoring keeps Jay (Ed O'Neill) and Manny (Rico Rodriguez) awake for days. They are both exhausted and try to find a way to get some sleep. Jay has a meeting in San Francisco and he takes the opportunity to sleep one night away from Gloria. The meeting ends up earlier than he thought, so he has to come back home. Instead of this, he goes to a hotel without telling Gloria that he is back. Gloria though finds out and she goes to the hotel thinking that Jay has an affair. Not having a choice, Jay tells Gloria the real reason he wants to sleep at the hotel. Mitch (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cam (Eric Stonestreet) struggle to deal with their reversed roles as Cam takes on his new job as a music teacher. Now that Cam is teaching again, Mitch has to do everything at the house, including taking care of Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons). But he is not very successful, so he calls Claire to help him out. Meanwhile, the kids at school do not seem as excited as Cam is with teaching. Both Mitch and Cam seem to have a horrible day and they both agree that they just need time to adjust to the new reality. Reception Ratings In its original American broadcast, "The Butler's Escape" was watched by 12.28 million; down 0.03 from the previous episode. Reviews "The Butler's escape" received mixed reviews. Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club gave a B− grade to the episode saying: "This season is off to a strong start, even if this week’s episode represents more of a holding action or slight backtrack than a confident step forward." Leigh Raines of TV Fanatic rated "The Butler's Escape" with a 4/5 stating that Claire was literally everywhere on that episode. "Claire was on fire in this episode! She