When they go to the Dunphys' house to apologize or try to erase it, they find Claire and Phil in a state of dismay because their kids have just walked in on them having sex.

According to the Nielsen Media Research, "Caught in the Act" dropped four percent in the ratings from the last episode of the series to air in its regular timeslot and received a 4.6 rating/12% share in the 18-49 demographic.

[2] The Dunphy children prepare a nice anniversary breakfast for their parents Phil (Ty Burrell) and Claire (Julie Bowen), but end up walking in on them having sex.

Claire is much more upset about the kids seeing them than Phil is, largely due to her similar experience of walking in on Jay (Ed O'Neill) and her mother having sex when she was a child.

However, the lock makes a loud ricochet sound when Phil and Claire use it, thus horrifying the Dunphy brood anew as an indicator of unseen parental sexual intercourse.

Jay and Gloria (Sofía Vergara) prepare for a vacation to Las Vegas (and a three-tower restaurant wine room).

Claire then confronts Jay for burying her own accidental sight of him making love to his wife, and Phil figures out what Gloria was really looking for.

Mitchell and Cameron accidentally hear the speaker phone feed and realize Amelia is an incredibly angry woman, and when they agree to watch her son Jackson while she goes to talk to the contractor who enraged her, they see that one of Lily's juice boxes was pierced and spilled red liquid over a $50,000 carpet.

The guys ponder whether to move the entire carpet around to hide the stain but then they agree to blame Jackson when Amelia gets back by lying that he took one of the strawberry juice packs and drank some before spilling the rest.

[8] The Dunphy plot was based on an incident when Levitan's daughter walked in on him and his wife having sex, which they kept quiet about for a long period of time.

[9] In an interview, Richman stated that: "After having pitched the story from my life and finding out I had done something so unlikable, to have actual characters on television do that, I realized America wouldn't like them.