This is the ‘significant’ Modern Family character that was killed off

Needless to say, this story contains spoilers for Modern Family.

Really. It does, we swear. Modern Family fans have been a bit on edge ever since it was confirmed earlier this year that a "significant" character was going to be killed off. Mostly because they thought it was going to be one of the members of the core three families. Well, the scenes officially played out last night - and here's what happened...

(Last chance to avoid spoilers, folks.)

Within minutes of the Halloween-themed episode, Claire Dunphy got a call from her step-dad to tell her that her mum, DeDe, had passed away. Throughout the episode, she and her brother, Mitchell, used the Halloween festivities as a way to distract themselves from the sad news - as Phil and Cam tried to cheer their partners up. Claire and Phil's kids also dealt with the news in their own unique ways. Luke cracked jokes about his grandmother coming back as a zombie, while Hayley tucked into the Halloween candy as a way to cope. [caption id="attachment_432653" align="alignnone" width="620"] DeDe Pritchett[/caption] Meanwhile, Alex had a more out of character  (and kind of surprising) reaction to the news - what, you didn't think we were going to spoil that, did you? The series' co-creator, Christopher Lloyd, said last month that a "significant character" was going to pass away and it "will be a moving event — an event that has repercussions across several episodes.” He told Entertainment Weekly: 

“We’re handling some bigger life events in this season. “We do deal with a death, which is certainly a topic that families have to deal with, and on television, it’s not easy to do because that’s a heavy subject. "But at the same time, it would seem unusual for a family not to go through it.”