Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't yet watched Modern Family's latest episode.
Through most of its first decade of seasons, Modern Family successfully jumped from one year to the next without doing much to shake up the status quo. Season 10, however, has already shown off some unusual storyline shifts. To say nothing of that overhyped death that didn't do much to win audiences over, the ABC mainstay threw another bump in the road by revealing Sarah Hyland's Haley Dunphy is pregnant. What the what?
That's right, Haley started off "Did the Chicken Cross the Road?" by wanting to prove herself more mature than how Luke's personality assessment pegged her. Her attempts fell flat, and she ended up going to ride bumper cars with Dylan. While applying lipstick inside one of the cars, which is something every mature person does with frequency, Dylan rammed into her, sending the lipstick tube up her nose, requiring a hospital trip.
The tests she took inside the emergency room clued nurses into the fact that Haley is an expectant mother, which technically does make her a more adult person than she was before the episode's events took place. So...yay?
Sarah Hyland and others were heavily teasing just such a twist in the aftermath of DeDe Pritchett's death, but came short of making a full reveal. Still, fans were tuned into the possibility, with Haley's mega-appetite in that death episode cluing some in on potential body changes.
Speaking of body changes, Sarah Hyland took to social media to show off the process of getting fitted for a faux baby bump.
The reveal, while only somewhat shocking in the scheme of things, was not exactly one that got fans hyped about where things are heading. Many spoke out on social media about how bothered they are by this turn of events, but it's not so much that Haley is pregnant. It's that Modern Family seems to be telling us that Haley is pregnant with Dylan's baby, which is not everyone's ideal relationship for Hyland's character.
When the newly divorced Dylan came back into Haley's life in Season 10, it almost necessarily meant that relationships were no longer viable with previous boyfriends Andy or Arvin. Granted, Modern Family wasn't 100% explicit in spelling out that Dylan is the father, so there's still some wiggle room for the comedy to drop yet another big shocker on fans. But will it?
It's certainly interesting that Modern Family would choose to bring a pregnancy storyline into the fray in Season 10, at a point when conversations are swirling around this possibly being the show's final season. Everyone seems like they'd be fine with it, but wouldn't turn down the chance to come back for at least one more year.
ABC hasn't made any decisions yet. However, the ratings are no longer dominating and with the cast's salaries regularly among the largest in TV, the decision to end it wouldn't come out of left field.
Hot Take Theory Time: What if Modern Family's creative team is making Haley pregnant in order to give Sarah Hyland her own spinoff series in the wake of the flagship's departure? Sure, there are plenty of characters that a follow-up show could center on. However, what would be more fitting than watching the next generation of the Pritchett-Dunphy bloodline getting reared?
Modern Family airs on ABC on Wednesday nights at 9:00 p.m. ET. To see what all the other new and returning shows dotting the schedule are, be sure to keep current with our fall TV premiere guide.
