Valentine's Day 4: Twisted Sister

Plot

On Valentine's Day, Phil wants to reprise the roles of Juliana and Clive Bixby with Claire, as they have done in recent years. Claire initially seems uninterested in role playing, but she surprises him at the bar as Juliana, and the two have a great time together. Claire realizes that Phil is in love with Juliana, and on the way home she decides to take Juliana down and get her husband back. Gloria's sister Sonia is in town, and Gloria tries to fix their relationship by arranging a dinner for herself, Sonia, and Jay.

When Jay sees Sonia sad, he gives her the present he bought for Stella, saying he bought it for her. Sonia misinterprets this and begins hitting on Jay. Jay tries to tell Gloria, but she thinks he is crazy. Manny thinks Sonia wants to kill him and Gloria to have Jay, but Gloria is furious at the accusation.

When Sonia attacks Jay in the bedroom, the two sisters fight over Jay again. Mitchell and Cameron bought a wedding present for their friends Anders and Cooper and visit them to give it. They like the present so much they want to keep it. They discover Cooper left Anders and filed for divorce, so they decide to take their gift back.

Their attempts to retrieve it lead them to leave with their present for Anders and Cooper as well as the present their friends bought for them.

Reception

In its original American broadcast, the episode was watched by 9.77 million viewers, down by 0.10 from the previous episode. The episode received positive reviews. Gwen Ihnat of The A.V. Club gave it a B+, stating that making a Valentine's Day episode for a fourth time is tough and Modern Family brought in guests for help. Ihnat noted an extraordinarily high percentage of LOL lines and credited writer Jeffrey Richman and director Fred Savage for their familiarity with the genre. Leigh Raines from TV Fanatic rated it 4.5/5, calling it not the best or worst Valentine's Day episode but a good laugh. Lisa Fernandes of Next Projection rated it 8.3/10, calling it a mixed bag and adding that Phil and Claire had the best and most charming plot.