The Gang Gets Vulnerable.
Over its 15-season run (so far), It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia has gained a name for itself as a show about bad people that don’t take anything seriously – which is both accurate and why people love it.
Now officially the longest-running live-action sitcom on television, Sunny frequently subverts expectations of the genre. Every now and then, however, the writers like to flip the script on the audience and subvert the expectations of the show by being completely sincere.
In season 12’s Valentine’s Day episode, Paddy’s Pub is busier than ever, and Dennis (Glenn Howerton) challenges the gang to engage in a brand-new scheme: actually doing their jobs. Across the course of the episode, everyone vaguely attempts to complete their tasks while also trying to decipher the secret meaning behind Dennis’ instructions (of which there is none). Eventually, the bar is completely cleared out by their nonsense, and the chaos causes Dennis to break down.
There has been a running theory across fans of the show that Dennis is, in fact, a sociopath – something that has been very much supported by the text. This episode plays into that by subverting the expectation and showing Dennis emotionally ranting about how he hates Valentine’s Day because his friends never gave him a gift. He caps this rant off by stating “Of course I have feelings – I have BIG feelings!” Eventually, Mac (Rob McElhenney) comes in with a gift that he brought for Dennis (a rocket launcher, like he always wanted), and the episode ends with not a joke, but a heartfelt Valentine between best friends.
The bulk of this episode is spent following Mac, Charlie (Charlie Day), and Frank (Danny Devito) as they gather Dee’s (Kaitlin Olson) ex-boyfriends and lovers to determine the baby’s father, which Dee refuses to tell them, while Dennis looks after Dee in the hospital. Eventually, she has the baby, and it is revealed that she is actually a paid surrogate for Mac’s ex Carmen and her husband.
Like most Sunny episodes, these plots are played entirely for laughs, until Dee finally emerges from the delivery room. All pretense is dropped, and the music swells as she is wheeled down the hallway by a nurse, baby in her arms, while the boys all look on lovingly. With this entire plotline being written due to Olson's real-life pregnancy with McElhenney, the scene feels very personal and emotional, and to cap it off, the episode ends with a photo of their newborn.
One of the first (and only) permanent changes in the show came in the form of McElhenney’s character Mac coming out as gay in season 12 after his assumed homosexuality being a long-running joke in the series (and a taken back coming out scene at the end of season 11).
Though the plot of “Hero or Hate Crime?” revolves around an arbitration to determine the correct owner of a lottery scratcher ticket, it ends up being an excuse to get Mac out of the closet for good – in order to claim the money, of course. It is a sweet moment of genuine sincerity, as Mac has the opportunity to rescind his “claim to be gay” and decides not to, simply stating “I think I’m out now”. Since then, the comedy of the show has remained the same as it always does, but the change enacted in this episode has been permanent.
In a classic Sunny plot, this episode is a general tale of revenge and exploitation in order to get out of a very basic task. Dee is upset that Charlie has been given the opportunity to take over from Frank while he explores his love life, which results in her having to do the “Charlie work” around the bar. As Frank starts dating, Dee and Dennis’ mom Barbara (Anne Archer) becomes jealous and decides to seduce Mac as revenge.
What follows is a series of manipulations from Dee, who exposes everyone’s misgivings to one another until it eventually results in Charlie’s long-time love, The Waitress (Mary Elizabeth Ellis), sleeping with Frank. Ridiculous as this plot is, the show ends with its first emotional beat as Charlie, an unsuspecting victim in all this, hears The Waitress’ tearful confession to Dennis, and the episode ends with a tight shot on his devastated face. While in future seasons it has been made abundantly clear that Charlie stalks this woman, in the very early episodes this very much resonates as an emotional moment.
The season 12 finale is a big one, as it is revealed that in season 10’s “The Gang Beats Boggs” Dennis accidentally fathered a son on a layover in North Dakota. The mother and child come to Philadelphia to have a relationship with Dennis (or Brian Lefevre, as they know him), and he and the gang work to dissuade her from staying with multiple schemes.
After Dennis fails to fake his death, Mandy (the child’s mother, played by Christine Woods) decides to go back to North Dakota. As Dennis hugs and says goodbye to his son, he hesitates and clearly doesn’t want to give him back. It’s a small moment, played brilliantly by Howerton, that is followed by Dennis deciding to leave Paddy’s for good in order to be with his family rather than continue living a meaningless life with the gang. In true Sunny fashion, he comes back in the first episode of the next season, but this acceptance of reality and exploration of true emotion is a rarity in the show.
Season 15 of Sunny is different from others, with half the season taking place with the gang in Ireland. On this trip, Charlie discovers the truth of his parentage and meets his father, Shelley Kelly (Colm Meaney), a cheesemonger who had an affair with his mother years back. The two spend time getting to know one another in the following episodes, only for it to be revealed that he died off-screen. In respect to his final wishes, Charlie enlists the gang to help carry his body up a mountain to throw off a cliff for him to be at rest at sea.
The gang helps for a while before naturally giving up, and they abandon their friend as he drags the body uphill in thundering rain. Charlie can’t do it alone, and he begins ranting about how the gang abandoned him, which leads to a full-on breakdown about his father wasn't there for him. It comes out of nowhere and is absolutely heartbreaking, and the emotion is relieved not with comedy but with comradery as the gang comes back for their friend in a symbolic show of found family that is shockingly sincere.
In the season 13 finale, the gang tries to get Mac to dance on a float for pride week, but he just isn’t feeling it as he doesn’t think it’s the best way to express himself. Naturally, the gang doesn’t care about how he feels, and so Frank spends the day with him to try and convince him to do it. Over the course of the episode, Mac tries to explain his identity to both Frank and his father, who he has not come out to yet, with the metaphor of a storm that he’s stuck in the middle of. Frank continually states that he just “doesn’t get it” and thinks he probably never will.
In order to explain this feeling, he performs a dance with a woman on stage while Frank, his father, and a room full of prison inmates watch in the audience. The dance is presented very seriously and is absolutely beautiful, as Mac and his partner move across the stage under a rain machine, in an interpretive piece that represents Mac’s struggle with his identity as a catholic and a gay man. While Mac’s father, walks out halfway through, when the dance ends Frank appears moved and tearfully states “Oh my God… I get it!” as the episode ends.
Rebecca is a freelance writer from NSW, Australia. She is a film and television list writer for Collider. Rebecca also has an interest in music, and hopes to one day begin the Church of Michael Giacchino.
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7 Times 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' Got Emotional – Collider
