Modern Family: Good Grief (10x05)

Modern Family has always been at its best in fun holiday episodes, but this one took a surprising turn as we learn that Mitchell and Claire's mother, DeDe, has passed away. How did the episode do at exploring this death?

Cons:

Well, I've got to admit that from a marketing standpoint, it's a little bit stupid that they pushed so hard on this "major death" that we would be getting this season. Sure, DeDe was a fun guest character, but it's not like Jay dropped dead or anything. That's not a critique about the episode itself, I'm just saying it was odd to push on this in the buildup to the season so heavily.

There's a really unsettling joke about Haley starving herself in this episode. Basically, in her grief over her grandmother, she starts eating a ton of food, and suddenly she seems to get smarter. Alex hypothesizes that her brain is working for the first time because she's not starving herself. That's... not a funny or cool joke to make.

Pros:

All in all, I felt that this episode did a good job blending tragedy with comedy. We see how each character reacts to the death of a complicated woman. Jay distracts himself with concern over a sandwich, and we later hear a touching story about how DeDe would go out of her way to get the special bread that Jay liked, back when they were first married. Haley eats, Luke turns to humor, Alex decides to have sex with her fireman boyfriend, who we finally meet in this episode.

Of course, most of the episode is focused on Mitchell and Claire. Mitchell remembers the last conversation with his mother, and is glad that they had such a nice final chat. Claire, it turns out, got into a huge fight with her mom the last time they spoke. This is a bit of a cliche, dealing with the grief of a character by going over your final exchange with them. But this final phone call business was really only a microcosm of the bigger issue. Mitchell always got along better with his mother, while Claire always butted heads with her. I like the way the episode worked through this complicated sibling feud in the wake of DeDe's death. It's nice to see Claire and Mitchell get some significant screen time together. Adult siblings, both with their own spouses and kids, might be expected to drift apart, so it was nice to see them come together in this moment.

Speaking of the spouses, Phil and Cam are at a loss when it comes to comforting the prickly Pritchett children in their moment of grief. They try to be there for them, but of course Claire and Mitchell aren't really the touchy-feely types when it comes to this kind of thing. Eventually, Phil and Cam go on a quest to get ice cream, because they heard Claire and Mitchell reminiscing about a specific shop that DeDe had taken them to. They get caught in a Hollywood Halloween parade, and instead sit in the car, eating the ice cream and remembering their own fond DeDe memories. I really liked this scene. It was nice to see these two sons-in-law thinking about the complicated woman who played an important role in both of their lives, just because of who they ended up marrying.

Adding some comedy to events, Gloria becomes convinced that DeDe is haunting her. These creepy little statues that DeDe had given to her grandchildren keep cropping up in unexpected places. Although Gloria is scared, she ends the episode by trying to appease DeDe. She says that although they had a rocky history, Gloria always respected DeDe for raising such great kids and for helping turn Jay into the man that Gloria fell in love with. We also learn that it was Lily who was putting the little figurines everywhere. She figured she'd do a final tribute to her grandmother, who would have loved tormenting Gloria. That was kind of sweet, while also being funny!

Of course, we get the cheesy plot contrivance whereby Claire remembers that she had one final message from her mother, and listens to it to hear her mother apologizing and saying that she loves Claire. It was cheesy to the extreme, but I don't even care, it actually got me feeling a bit weepy!

What I admire about this episode is that it still managed to squeeze in a lot of the traditional Modern Family humor when it comes to Halloween episodes. All of the couple costumes are great. You've got Gloria and Jay as Marilyn Monroe and Joe Dimaggio. They looked great, and I loved that nobody said who they were the whole episode. You've got Mitchell and Cam as Prince Harry and Megan Markle, and you've got Claire and Phil as a spider and a fly. Alex is Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I like that the trappings of a traditional blow-out Halloween episode are still there, but that the focus is on something else entirely.

So... yeah. This was a pretty superb installment of Modern Family. I hope the rest of the season can produce further gems.

9.5/10