Meanwhile, Gloria gives Manny's (Rico Rodriguez) surprise date, Whitney (Kristen Schaal), a shabbily dressed young woman, a makeover so that she can feel better about herself.
Claire (Julie Bowen) has troubles working with Phil's (Ty Burrell) universal remote for their new home theater system because she thinks it is too complicated.
The episode featured a big list of guest stars including Chazz Palminteri as Shorty, Kristen Schaal as Whitney, Reid Ewing as Dylan, Darius Dudly as Dale, William Jones as Scotty and Bernardo Badillo as Delivery man.
"[4] Jason Hughes of TV Squad gave it a positive review saying that "As usual, there was a ton going on this week, with all three families dealing with different types of crises.
You can't really describe how she came to be on the episode without it sounding all kinds of creepy, and yet the show managed to avoid any of the cliche reactions to what happened."
[5] Lesley Savage of Entertainment Weekly gave it a positive review saying that " Tonight’s overarching theme was about change – big and small.
From guest star Kristen Schaal’s makeover to Jay’s slow acceptance of his friend’s supposed (but ultimately false) homosexuality, to Claire’s ability to handle technology and admit she can be wrong.
Club gave it an A with readers giving it a B+ saying that "It can be a little easy to think that the Dunphy stuff isn't as interesting when it's in its own little bubble, particularly as so many of the stories boil down to the sort of "Husbands are dumb, and wives are smart!"
Yet, at the same time, this is the kind of storyline that still rings true enough to life that it has some bite to it, and it also gives Phil one of the rare occasions when he's the smart one in the relationship, with Claire having to turn to him to figure out what's going on".