'Modern Family' Fans Don't Think That 'Significant' Death Was Worth All the Hype

Even before the season began, the creators of "Modern Family" were promising the death of a "significant character." On Wednesday night, it happened, and fans were immediately disappointed by who died.

Perhaps the key is in what "significant" means. The person -- and yes, it was a person -- was clearly very significant to all of the characters on the show, but it's pretty hard to argue that she was significant in any way to the viewers at home.

The show wasted no time, either, ripping off the band-aid right away to reveal that Jay's ex-wife, and the mother of Mitch and Claire, DeDe had passed away on a trip to Greenland. It put an immediate damper on the show's annual Halloween episode, which is usually played for huge, awkward laughs.

Instead, they explored how grief affects everyone differently, from Alex apparently getting aroused by it, to Haley eating her feelings and Luke making terrible jokes. Jay obsessed over a sandwich, Phil and Cam set aside their own grief to try and be their for their spouses, and Gloria thought DeDe was haunting her.

It was actually Lily, because that girl is a little monster, but it totally makes sense that Gloria would believe that. As for poor Manny, he wasn't even in the episode. But for that matter, neither was DeDe. In fact, she only appeared in seven episodes throughout the show's entire run. Spoiler alert: We are in Season 10.

For that reason, fans weren't particularly convinced that her death quite lived up to all that pre-season hype. Many of them were banking on it being Jay or even his beloved dog, Stella, but no.

We were ready to be disappointed at how unceremoniously Shelley Long was being written out of the show, without an appearance even, when the episode closed with a touching voicemail she'd left behind for Claire ... before criticizing her. If anyone happened to catch any of her seven appearances -- the most recent being last season -- they would know that this was the perfect tribute.

Perhaps the biggest problem was that the show's creators felt the need to hype the death at all. They didn't say exactly when it was coming, so it felt more like a desperate ploy to try and convince people to give the show another chance. Ratings dropped significantly last season, and death is a pretty common tactic to garner attention.

Nevertheless, it seems like many fans felt duped by the hype and ultimate reveal who died, with many joking they didn't even know who DeDe was. We've gathered some of their disappointment below:

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