‘Modern Family’: Watch the Dunphys Learn That Character’s Cause of Death

It’s been a week since Modern Family revealed which character died during the tenth season, but the cause of death is still a dark, yet hilarious revelation.

With the ABC comedy series airing a new episode, originally set to air before the Halloween-themed death reveal installment, the series unveiled a clip of the lat minute of the episode which revealed how DeDe (Shelley Long) lost her life while on a trip to Greenland with her women’s group.

In the clip, Claire (Julie Bowen) makes Phil (Ty Burrell) read an email that DeDe’s husband sent her from the women’s group revealing how she died, read in a hilariously dark manner.

“Our sincerest condolences on the loss of your loved one,” Phil begins. “On the third night, DeDe wandered away from the group and encountered a pack of starving timberwolves…”

“Oh my God,” the family interrupts, assuming the worst.

“As you know, DeDe long believed she could communicate with animals, so using a mixture of howls and barks she convinced them to seek food elsewhere. Huh, I guess that wasn’t it. Let’s see,” Phil assumes as he keeps reading.

“Later, she ignored a thin ice sign and plunged… hang on, saved by a wolf. Yada yada yada,” he skims. “She deeply offended a tribe of Inuits by interrupting a secret dagger dance… briefly swallowed by a whale.”

Then on the end of the email he finds the answer: “On the trip’s final morning, DeDe was found in her room she had apparently passed away peacefully in her face as a smile graced her face, and her hands clutched ten pages of suggestions for the hotel staff.”

“That’s so mom,” Claire says, happy her mom died as she lived.

After the episode aired, co-creator Steven Levitan said that the decision to have a death on the series came from the desire to see how the family would deal with the tragic situation together.

“It occurred to us that death is a giant part of the family experience and while Phil (Ty Burrell) had lost his mother in a previous episode, we’ve never seen the entire family have to deal with such a loss. It seemed like an interesting thing to have happen,” Levitan told The Hollywood Reporter.

While Wednesday’s episode will not deal with the aftermath of the death reveal, Levitan said DeDe’s husband Jerry will be making an appearance later in the season to continue the storyline.

“We do a follow-up episode where DeDe’s widower brings a bunch of things to various members of the family that she wanted each of them to have and [viewers will see] the effect that has on each of them,” he said.

Modern Family airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.