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"Slow Down Your Neighbors" is the eleventh episode and mid-season premiere from Season 2 of Modern Family, it aired on January 5, 2011.

Plot Summary[]

Claire becomes a determined neighborhood vigilante hoping to catch and stop a car that speeds though their streets. Meanwhile, Phil is busy trying to land an important listing with a difficult client, Jay teaches Manny and Gloria how to ride a bike, and Mitchell and Cameron meet a charming mysterious neighbor.

Episode Description[]

Claire is trying to catch and stop a sports car that is speeding through the suburban streets, while Phil sells a house nearby for a difficult client, Laura, who happens to be the car driver. Claire prints out several posters, intending to say "slow down," with the license plate of the car below, signed "your neighbors". However, the rest of her family point out the posters actually state "slow down your neighbors". Regardless, Claire orders Phil to put them up. Later, Claire chases the car on a bicycle, but loses it. She meets Phil at the open house he has arranged for Laura and is introduced to her. Laura is just about to leave and offers Claire a lift back to her home. She enters the car realizing too late that Laura is the driver she despises, which makes Claire to get very angry at Phil, so he buys her a dozen Mylar balloons to apologize.

Manny is about to ride his first bicycle to school. However, Jay finds training wheels on the bike, set up by Gloria. Jay decides to teach Manny to ride without the stabilizers, and comes to realize Manny is a natural at riding a bike by himself. As Gloria has never ridden a bike either, after being traumatized by her mother that riding a bicycle is the best way to getting kidnapped, Jay tries to teach her too, but she is unsuccessful. Gloria goes to the Dunphy house and asks Phil to teach her but he is about to leave for the open house at Laura's. Luke offers himself to teach her by squirting her with a water gun, and it works, but soon goes south after Claire steals her bike while Gloria is still on it.

Meanwhile, after laying down Lily in her cradle, Mitchell and Cameron see a stranger in their hot tub. They are about to call the police until he stands up and they see a man who has nice abs. They rethink their initial thought and join the stranger, whose name is Barry, and reveals that is an expert in Reiki massages. Cameron instantly gets along very well with Barry, while Mitchell considers him weird. Cam is not too happy with Mitchell for writing off Barry for that one little quirk, as it is something Mitchell does all the time. But Mitchell tries to make nice with Barry, who is cool with Mitchell thinking Reiki is phony. Then Mitchell tries it himself and is hooked. Mitchell admits to Cameron he was right. However, Cameron goes in the backyard and finds that Barry has been living in Lily's princess castle. He tries to get him out and they wrestle inside. Mitchell comes out and Cam demands him to call the police. Mitchell agrees, but as he walks away, tells Cameron that he was right.

In the end credits, Phil tries to teach Haley her homework, but she is not getting the answers right, and Luke offers himself to teach her. He asks the answers and when she doesn't answer, he squirts her with the gun and she answers it correctly. Phil then tells Luke that it is all his now.

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[]

Trivia[]

  • Gloria and Manny learn to ride a bike in this episode, as they had never ridden it before.
  • Alex does not appear.
  • This is the first episode to air in 2011.
  • This episode has no recurring characters.
  • The poster later reappears in Clean for a Day

Cultural References[]

  • Phil parodies the famous line "Luke, I am you're father", by the fictional character Darth Vader from the Star Wars franchise.
  • Phil mentions leading a double life like Hannah Montana.

Gallery[]


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