Under Pressure (Modern Family)

Alex (Ariel Winter) suffers a stress-related meltdown on her sixteenth birthday and books an appointment with a therapist (John Benjamin Hickey). During her session, she explains that several years ago, she participated at a spelling bee contest and she wanted desperately to win even though she knew that there was no prize or money involved. She feels bad about always wanting to be the best and feels under pressure since she has the impression that no one in her family understands her.

Meanwhile, it is open house at the high school and Claire (Julie Bowen) takes Alex's advanced classes while Phil (Ty Burrell) takes Luke's (Nolan Gould). Claire finds that Alex's class is highly competitive with several hours of homework assigned every day. She admits that while she has always helped Haley (Sarah Hyland) and Luke, it's because they are not as self-reliant or as driven to succeed as Alex is, so Claire has neglected to consider the pressures she faces. She later meets Alex after her therapy session, who responds gratefully when Claire demonstrates her newfound understanding of her life.

Phil and Jay (Ed O'Neill) attend a lesson of Luke and Manny's (Rico Rodriguez), but Jay decides to have fun with Phil by giving him a flask and then pretending that it belongs to Phil. They eventually bond when Jay convinces Phil to "skip class" and go to the teacher's lounge to watch a football game on TV. When Jay tells Phil that is so cool that he could fix the TV, Phil wants to impress Jay even more and they move to the gymnasium where they can watch the game on the big screen using the school's projector. However, their match abruptly ends when the projector breaks and they both end up at the principal's office.

At the same time, Cam (Eric Stonestreet) prepares his presentation to the parents as the gym coach. He suggests a dodgeball match but the principal forbids him to do it. Despite that, seeing that everyone is bored and wants to leave his class, he allows the parents to play dodgeball after all. During the game, Gloria (Sofia Vergara) and Dr. Donna Duncan (Jane Krakowski) butt heads with one another over each of their boys getting the single spot in the junior congress. When they are the only ones left, Donna seizes the opportunity to attack Gloria. Subsequently, Donna admits that her behavior is a result of her divorce since she feels her son still blames her and has an admiration for his father despite the fact that he is never around. Gloria assures her that she was in the same situation and that her son will eventually figure out who the caring parent is.

As their parents are busy during the day, Manny and Luke have a double date with twin girls but during the date it turns out that Manny's girl has a lot in common with Luke and Luke's has a lot in common with Manny. However, when the boys suggest to exchange their girls, Manny's date reveals that she likes Latino guys and Luke's date says that she loves dumb boys, which offends both of them. As they get up to leave, the girls suggest to them to go at their home and make out since their parents are not there.

Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons) meet their neighbor Asher (Jesse Eisenberg), an environmentalist who also has a passion for ecology. Mitch is offended when Asher claims that he is not as environmentally friendly as he is. While Mitch and Haley are trying to get her old dollhouse out of her car for Lily, the styrofoam peanuts blow into Asher's yard. Asher gets back home and Mitch apologizes to him while Asher admits that he does not have any friends because of his eco-friendly ways. Mitch suggests that Asher have dinner with them, but Lily objects when he asks her if her dollhouse was built with sustainable materials.

• "Under Pressure" at IMDb
• "Under Pressure" at ABC.com