After last
week’s great albeit not amazing season premiere, I have to say that I think
this episode is pretty much perfect and deserves to be considered a classic
episode of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. What makes this episode so great
in my opinion is that the writers are “recycling” memorable moments from
previous episodes that I along with many other fans that I’ve encountered
online consider to be classic episodes of the show. However, it’s clear that
they weren’t doing that out of pure laziness, but rather as a part of the humor
in the episode.
The two main
episodes that they included references from are episode 3x07 “The Gang Sells
Out” and episode 4x02 “The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis”. Although, the whole
thing with Dee wearing a yellow pantsuit in this episode was obviously a
reference to episode 2x03 “The Gang Gives Back”. I suppose I should probably
mention that “The Gang Gives Back” was technically aired as the sixth episode
of season two, but the production code for the episode lists it as episode
2x03, and it’s also the third episode of season two on the DVDs, but I digress.
The plot of the
episode revolved around the fact that the garbage men’s union in Philadelphia
had apparently gone on strike in an attempt to get a better contract, which was
causing the trash to pile up around town since there wasn’t anyone to pick up
people’s trash. Much like “The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis”, The Gang decided to
take it upon themselves to solve the problem, and of course hilarity ensued as
Frank insisted that they handle the situation his way since the others’ methods
for solving a problem never seem to work.
One of the main
reasons why it’s obvious that the writers are intentionally “recycling”
material from the episodes that I mention is the fact throughout the episode
Dee mentions several times that she thinks everything that they are doing seems
very familiar to her. Also, throughout the episode The Gang discusses that they
believe the reason why their plans constantly fail is that they deviate from
the formula other people use and works, which is to have someone be the brains
(Dennis), looks (Mac) and the wildcard (Charlie). Although, Dennis and Mac
repeatedly insist throughout the episode that they don’t think that having a
wildcard in a group ever does any good.
Frank thought
that they should get a van to carry out their plan, but Dennis and Mac thought
that would be a bad idea, especially Dennis, because he thought that people
would think that they were going to get raped, so they rented a limo instead. I
have to say that I thought that the sight of Mac hanging off of the back of the
limo as if it was an actual garbage truck was hilarious.
It was really
interesting to see The Gang at least trying to learn from their past mistakes,
especially when it came to their plan to solve the gas crisis, and were trying
to do things differently. They even acknowledged that they wanted to learn from
their mistakes. One of the ways they decided to handle things differently was
to sing their sales pitch to the people as they went door to door. I have to
say that I personally think that Glenn Howerton, Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day
all have great singing voices, especially after having watched episode 4x13 "The
Nightman Cometh".
This episode featured
the return of the Corporate Rep who tried to buy Paddy’s Pub in the season 3
episode “The Gang Sells Out”. However, he apparently went on to get a job
working as a corporate rep for Philadelphia’s sanitation department at some
point since we last saw him. The fact that he was the person that Frank and Dee
had to meet with as a part of their plan to get the union contract created a
problem for them since Frank had told Dee to dress like a “lady whore” so she
could flirt with the person they met with. However, this plan wouldn’t work
with him since he’s gay. I have to say that I loved Dee’s line about the
Corporate Rep being “recycled back into the mix”, and I viewed it as one of the
jokes that the writers included in the script as a way to acknowledge that they
were intentionally using ideas from previous episodes and that they weren’t
just doing that to be lazy.
One of the
reasons why I feel like The Gang was at least trying to do things differently
in this episode is due to the fact that unlike last time when The Gang took him
to a strip club for straight men only to find out that he’s gay, Frank and Dee
took him to strip club for gay men. Of course this plan quickly backfired on
them when Frank and Dee started talking about the different body types for gay
men (twinks, bears, etc.) and whether or not reparative therapy works on gay
people after he didn’t show any interest in the strippers at the club. Unlike
last time, he didn’t leave while they were talking, but the reason he didn’t
leave this time was because Frank was apparently pointing a gun at him under
the table. I have several things to say about this.
First off, what
is with Frank and guns? I always think it’s hilarious when he pulls out a gun
at random moments, and that scene was no exception. Second, I was as surprised
as Frank and Dee were when they saw that he was still there after they had been
arguing with each other. I was really expecting him to have left while they
were talking like he did last time. Although, given the fact that this episode
referenced a lot of moments from previous episodes I glad that he didn’t leave
this time, because I feel like it made the scene somewhat original and fresh.
Finally, I loved the ending of that scene when Frank and Dee awkwardly walked
off. I thought that was hilarious.
I’ve always
loved scenes between Frank and Dee, because I think they have a very weird and
funny father-daughter relationship. The other main reason why I love watching
scenes between Frank and Dee is because I think Danny DeVito and Kaitlin Olson
play off each other very well, so I really enjoyed watching the scenes where
they were together in this episode. A few of my all-time favorite episodes in
terms of Frank and Dee scenes are 2x05 “Hundred Dollar Baby”; 3x03 “Dennis and
Dee’s Mom Is Dead” and 7x06 “The Storm of the Century”.
Being bisexual
myself and growing up with parents who really tried to instill their own religious
beliefs in me, they made it clear to me when I was younger that they believe
that reparative therapy works on people. Personally, I don’t think it works and
I believe that it only harms people psychologically and emotionally, not help
them, so I loved Dee and Frank’s whole conversation about the various
subcultures in the LGBT community and their debate about whether or not
reparative therapy works when they were at the strip club.
Speaking of
returns, Dee once again took on her alter ego Martina Martinez when she and
Frank crashed the garbage men’s meeting regarding the deal that they were
trying negotiate with the union. I have to say that I thought that scene was
absolutely hilarious, and that might be my favorite appearance by Martina
Martinez. Usually I find jokes that involve the subject of rape in molestation
extremely offensive, but I have to admit that I was howling with laughter when
Dee started yelling “Rape! Rape!” as the guy leading the press conference was
trying to take the microphone from her the first time that I watched this
episode. The reason why I wasn’t offended by it was because the show has always
had the tendency to be politically incorrect at times and has always pushed the
envelope in terms of the show’s humor, so it didn’t feel out of place for the
show to have a moment like that.
In true It’s
Always Sunny In Philadelphia fashion their scheme failed after the garbage
men’s strike ended, and it was clear at the end of the episode that they hadn’t
really learned anything in the long-term sense when it comes to figuring out
how to carry out their plans effectively, and they just moved onto their next
scheme, which apparently was going to involve selling rugs. Although, they did
know that they should probably check the brakes on the vans ahead of time in
order to make sure that Charlie hadn’t cut the brakes like he did in “The Gang
Solves the Gas Crisis”, which he had indeed done. However, after Charlie told
them that he had cut the brakes he jumped out of the van like he did the last
time, but in order to lead Charlie to believe that they hadn’t known about the
brakes ahead of time they started freaking out. It was only after Charlie had
jumped out of the van that they all made it clear that they had already known
about him cutting the breaks and had already gotten them fixed. I know that the
episode ended with their scheme failing and things going back to normal as they
decided to move onto their next scheme like they pretty much always do, but I
still have to give them credit for at least trying to learn from their mistakes
in this episode.
Last season the
writers did a terrific job of slowly developing the idea of Dennis becoming a
full-on sociopath, this episode has really left me wondering if this season the
writers are planning to have Mac slowly come to the realization that he’s gay
and come out of the closet at the end of the season. I say this because the
comment that he made about the government “plowing them in the ass” with taxes
to pay the garbage men, and then followed his comment up by saying “Not gay
sex.” seemed kind of weird to me. In addition to that, he did try to kiss
Dennis later on in the episode and Dennis did make a comment afterwards about
how he thought Mac might be gay. Plus, I’m wondering if his on-off again fling
with Carmen A.K.A. “The Tranny” in previous seasons has always been meant to
hint at the idea that he’s gay and is on some level struggling to come to terms
with it. It will be definitely be interesting to see if the writers go any
further with that this season as well as the show’s future seasons.
This episode
really was pretty much perfect in my opinion. The only issue that I have with
it isn’t so much just about this episode, but the season premiere as well. The
issue that I have with the first two episodes of season eight is the fact that
they both featured a lot of strong references to previous episodes that many
fans think of as being classic episodes of the show. It sounds like a few
upcoming season eight episodes will be continuing this trend based on this
article that I recently read:Cast Previews 'Darker' Season 8. After reading that article,
I have to say that I’m really looking forward to the upcoming episode that’s
tentatively titled “The Gang Dines Out”, because it sounds very reminiscent of
the season 5 episode "Mac and Dennis Break Up" since they will
apparently be revealing some more details about Mac and Dennis’ bizarre and
codependent friendship in that episode, and "Mac and Dennis Break Up"
has become one of my top favorite episodes of the show.
Don’t get me
wrong, I’m loving season eight so far, and it’s great to see them making
references to previous memorable moments from the show, but the idea of them
having so many references to popular episodes seems like something a show would
do in its final season. Given the fact that we already know that the show has
been renewed for a ninth season and that there’s also an option for a tenth
season, the idea of them having season eight feature so many references to
classic episodes feels a bit out of place and is something that I feel the
writers should wait to do in the show’s final season. Despite my concerns about
the writers making so many references to previous episodes feeling a bit out of
place this season, I’ll try to trust that the writers will be able to give the
fans an excellent final season when the time comes.
Based on the article that I mentioned, it also sounds like
the writers will be continuing the idea of Dennis acting like a full-on
sociopath this season. I was starting to wonder if the writers had decided to
“reset” the extent to which Dennis demonstrated sociopathic tendencies, because
he’s been acting very mild-mannered for him so far this season. Perhaps I was
wrong to be watching and waiting for Dennis to do something in the first two
episodes where he did something that was very sociopathic, but it just seems
weird to me that Dennis was acting very dialed back in the first two episode.
The way I see it, once they took Dennis’ behavior to the level that they did
last season, there’s no going back from that. The writers have to continue
writing Dennis as a full-on sociopath from now on, so I’m glad to know that
they will be continuing that this season.
All in all, this
episode was truly amazing and I’m definitely planning to watch it again many
more times in the future. That being said, I give this episode a rating of an
A+.
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