Claire and Mitchell try to recreate a photo of the two of them while they were kids to make a special gift to Jay, Cameron goes to bakery to buy a cake but he gets into trouble, Phil tries to pass Gloria as his wife at the mall when he runs into his college nemesis and the kids try to make a special video as a gift to Jay.

Claire (Julie Bowen) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) plan to recreate a photo of the two of them from when they were kids as a gift to Jay.

Phil (Ty Burrell) runs into his old college nemesis, Glen (Rob Huebel), while at the mall with Gloria and Lily.

Glen gets impressed when he sees Gloria, but he tells Phil that he was thinking he had married Claire and that he was jealous of him back in college because he was dating her.

Haley (Sarah Hyland), Alex (Ariel Winter) and Luke (Nolan Gould) plan to compile a video of the whole family talking about Jay and wishing him happy birthday.

"The One That Got Away" was written by Paul Corrigan, Brad Walsh & Dan O'Shannon and was directed by James Bagdonas, his first and only credit for the series.

This marked a slight rise in the ratings from the previous episode "See You Next Fall" and stayed flat with the first season finale, "Family Portrait".

[3] In its timeslot, "See You Next Fall" was defeated by Fox reality series, American Idol which received a 9.2 rating/26% share in the 18–49 demographic.

He also complimented the writers for featuring "versions of the characters I feel the most affection for" and for using a plot for Cameron that "didn't revolve around him being a whiny, overly-sensitive diva".