Last night the Dunphy and Pritchett families dealt with stress on Modern Family season 5, episode 12, “Under Pressure.” Now you can read our recap of the episode and discuss the story with fans.

On Modern Family season 5, episode 12 “Under Pressure” :

The family gets together to celebrate Alex’s 16th birthday but she’s more interested in studying. They get concerned when she has a mini meltdown over nothing. The next morning Phil and Claire aren’t sure how to handle the situation but are relieved when she tells them she booked herself an appointment with a therapist!

Cam gets excited about his first open house at school and wants to make a good impression. He’s worried that the parents will only care about the academic teachers and not physical education. While Mitch deals with their environmentalist neighbor who takes issue with them over using the air conditioner.

At the open house, Gloria gets busy schmoozing up to Manny’s history teacher to get him the spot on Junior Congress. But she gets annoyed when another mother named Donna buts in and starts doing some sucking up of her own. Gloria gets her chance at revenge when she attends Cam’s class demonstration. As Donna and Gloria prepare to face off, Donna takes a cheap shot and all hell breaks lose.

Alex goes to her first therapy session and worries that she’s just wasting her time. Until he gets her to open up about how she feels about the pressure on her shoulders. Alex tells him it’s hard and exhausting being her and that she feels as though her family doesn’t understand her.

Claire finds out that she’s out of touch with Alex’s school life, especially when they give her four books to read on applying to top colleges. Her anxiety level starts to reflect Alex’s. When she realizes that Alex is getting an average of six hours of homework at night she’s dumbfounded.

After Claire leaves the open house she goes to pick up Alex. Claire admits she barely held it together and doesn’t know how Alex doesn’t have a breakdown every day. Suddenly, Alex feels understood.

Manny and Luke go on their fist double date with twins. But they have a predicament when they find that they’re better suited for the other’s date. When they ask the twins about switching they learn that the girls they’re interested in don’t find them attractive. Both are upset and call the girls shallow until the twins offer a make out session.

Haley drops off her old doll house for Lily only to find Mitch still upset about his judgmental neighbor. Her advice – to show off the award he won for being an environmental lawyer. But things go horribly wrong when they accidentally knock over his bio fuel tank all over his garden.

Phil lets Jay influence him and they end up skipping Luke and Manny’s classes. Jay is obsessed with finding a way to watch his favorite team play football. To impress his father in law, Phil hooks up the game to a projector and they have a blast watching it in the auditorium. Until the project catches on fire and they have to pay for the damages.

What did you think of ‘Modern Family’ season 5, episode 12, ‘Under Pressure’?

Photo credit: ABC/Richard Cartwright