Charlie and Mac Do Some Soul-Searching
FXX
This week’s second episode, “The Gang’s Still in Ireland,” splits the gang into three separate plots. Charlie and Frank go find Charlie’s pen pal, who turns out to actually be his father. For years, Charlie has assumed that Frank is his father due to the latter’s affair with Charlie’s mother. Now, he’s discovered that his biological father is in fact Shelley Kelly, a cheesemonger in rural Ireland who smashes rats, loves ghouls, and breaks into song much like Charlie. As they bond, Frank is pushed to the side, leaving a rift between the gruesome twosome like we’ve never seen. These are two grown men who share a pullout bed in a one-room apartment, were married for a time, and are as close as two people could ever possibly be. As exciting as it is seeing Charlie finally feel at home, Frank’s abandonment makes it bittersweet.
While Charlie’s digging deep into his Irish roots, Mac is trying to figure out his identity. He’s struggled throughout the years, bouncing in and out of the metaphorical closet for multiple seasons before finally coming out as a gay man for good in the season 12 episode “Hero or Hate Crime?” He has struggled to reconcile his Catholicism and his homosexuality, so his Irish identity always won out. With that gone, the battle for his soul has begun, and Mac’s decided to embrace the Catholic side. He attempts to join a seminary, in the hopes that God will give him some answers. Dee and Dennis get a bit less to do this week, though Dennis makes a fool of himself while trying to hide his COVID symptoms from a travel agent and Dee gets a rare upper hand on him. That bit of sibling schadenfreude doesn’t last long, however, as they end up staying in a haunted rental castle and Dennis has gone a bit psychotic in the wake of his fever. The episode ends on kind of a cliffhanger: will Mac become a man of God? Will Dennis finally put Dee’s head in a box? Will Charlie and Frank’s friendship ever be the same?
Chaser: Mac Finds His Pride
FXX
“The Gang’s Still in Ireland” only served to set up future wackiness for Dee and Dennis, but there’s some real meat to everything going on with Charlie, Mac, and Frank. Frank has served as a surrogate father to both Charlie and Mac for 13 years. He was a terrible father to the two children he raised, Dee and Dennis, but he’s made several big efforts to help both Mac and Charlie deal with their lack of a good paternal figure. The most poignant example of this is in “Mac Finds His Pride,” a season 13 episode that follows Mac as he tries to figure out a gay identity for himself. Frank drags him to leather daddy clubs, drag queen brunches, and more, but Mac decides he’s going to explain himself in his own way. He puts on a performance for his father and the rest of the inmates in prison with him. It’s a complicated and emotional dance number with a female partner, and Luther walks out halfway through.
The episode ends with one of the most emotionally resonant moments in series history, closing in on Frank’s reaction to Mac’s dance. “Oh my god. I get it. I get it,” he says, tears welling in his eyes. Even though the gang are terrible at showing each other love or kindness, they do genuinely care for one another. Though their own familial connections are tenuous, the gang have become a kind of found family all of their own. “Mac Finds His Pride” is one of the series’ best episodes, and one that highlights the special connection between even its two most disparate characters. It also serves as a reminder that though Frank may be a horrible, terrible human being, he does have a heart.
Only Two Episodes Left
FXX
There are only two episodes left in the 15th season of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and it’s looking like the gang won’t return to U.S. soil before the season ends. Next week are “Dee Gets Stuck in a Bog” and “The Gang Carries a Corpse Up a Mountain.” The former will probably focus on Dennis and Dee in their nightmarish lodgings, while the latter is probably going to involve a funeral for Shelley Kelly, the only person in Ireland whom I could possibly imagine the gang willingly carrying up a mountain. Maybe his death and the subsequent misadventures of the gang will help reunite Frank and Charlie, but if the trailers for this season are any indication, it’s going to be a long and painful road.
“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” debuts new episodes Wednesdays at 10 P.M. EST on FXX and streams the next day on FX on Hulu.
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia Takes Its Special Brand Of Sunshine To The Emerald Isle
FXX
The gang from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” have made lots of jokes about the Irish over the years as the proud proprietors of an Irish Philly dive bar called “Paddy’s Pub.” Ronald “Mac” MacDonald (Rob McElhenney) and Charlie Kelly (Charlie Day) also have their fair share of Irish pride due to their heritage, so this season’s promised trip to Ireland feels like it’s been years in the making. Just like the past two weeks, “It’s Always Sunny” dropped double episodes, so I’ll be giving you two episodes paired with them to make the perfect “Sunny” shot and chaser. If you need to know where to stream or buy the rest of the seasons, I’ve got you covered.
This season has been all about looking back at the gang’s inability to change despite having 14 seasons of madcap adventures. The first two episodes filled viewers in on how the world-shaking events of 2020 did very little to change the gang, though they did plenty of event-making of their own. Episode 3 showed us how Dee got so mean and the gang ended up buying Paddy’s in the first place, while episode 4 showed us that trained monkeys could theoretically replace the gang and Paddy’s wouldn’t be much different. With the gang finally headed to Ireland this week after teasing the trip in the marketing for months, it’s time for the characters to do a bit of soul-searching in an unfamiliar land.
Spoilers ahead for season 15 of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”
This season has been all about looking back at the gang’s inability to change despite having 14 seasons of madcap adventures. The first two episodes filled viewers in on how the world-shaking events of 2020 did very little to change the gang, though they did plenty of event-making of their own. Episode 3 showed us how Dee got so mean and the gang ended up buying Paddy’s in the first place, while episode 4 showed us that trained monkeys could theoretically replace the gang and Paddy’s wouldn’t be much different. With the gang finally headed to Ireland this week after teasing the trip in the marketing for months, it’s time for the characters to do a bit of soul-searching in an unfamiliar land.
Spoilers ahead for season 15 of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”
The Gang are Awful American Tourists
Each of the gang is seeking something different in Ireland. Dee wants to finally succeed as an actress. Mac wants to find his ancestral home and Irish roots. Charlie wants to find his longtime pen pal, a man he believes to be his brother named Shelley Kelly (Colm Meaney). Dennis wants to try and find out something creepy about women with red hair having a distinct scent. And Frank (Danny DeVito)? He needs the gang to help him do a “shred and spread” with some documents that tie him to business dealings with deceased criminal/sexual deviant Jeffrey Epstein.
Chaser: Charlie Catches a Leprechaun
Charlie and Mac Do Some Soul-Searching
This week’s second episode, “The Gang’s Still in Ireland,” splits the gang into three separate plots. Charlie and Frank go find Charlie’s pen pal, who turns out to actually be his father. For years, Charlie has assumed that Frank is his father due to the latter’s affair with Charlie’s mother. Now, he’s discovered that his biological father is in fact Shelley Kelly, a cheesemonger in rural Ireland who smashes rats, loves ghouls, and breaks into song much like Charlie. As they bond, Frank is pushed to the side, leaving a rift between the gruesome twosome like we’ve never seen. These are two grown men who share a pullout bed in a one-room apartment, were married for a time, and are as close as two people could ever possibly be. As exciting as it is seeing Charlie finally feel at home, Frank’s abandonment makes it bittersweet.
While Charlie’s digging deep into his Irish roots, Mac is trying to figure out his identity. He’s struggled throughout the years, bouncing in and out of the metaphorical closet for multiple seasons before finally coming out as a gay man for good in the season 12 episode “Hero or Hate Crime?” He has struggled to reconcile his Catholicism and his homosexuality, so his Irish identity always won out. With that gone, the battle for his soul has begun, and Mac’s decided to embrace the Catholic side. He attempts to join a seminary, in the hopes that God will give him some answers. Dee and Dennis get a bit less to do this week, though Dennis makes a fool of himself while trying to hide his COVID symptoms from a travel agent and Dee gets a rare upper hand on him. That bit of sibling schadenfreude doesn’t last long, however, as they end up staying in a haunted rental castle and Dennis has gone a bit psychotic in the wake of his fever. The episode ends on kind of a cliffhanger: will Mac become a man of God? Will Dennis finally put Dee’s head in a box? Will Charlie and Frank’s friendship ever be the same?
While Charlie’s digging deep into his Irish roots, Mac is trying to figure out his identity. He’s struggled throughout the years, bouncing in and out of the metaphorical closet for multiple seasons before finally coming out as a gay man for good in the season 12 episode “Hero or Hate Crime?” He has struggled to reconcile his Catholicism and his homosexuality, so his Irish identity always won out. With that gone, the battle for his soul has begun, and Mac’s decided to embrace the Catholic side. He attempts to join a seminary, in the hopes that God will give him some answers.
Dee and Dennis get a bit less to do this week, though Dennis makes a fool of himself while trying to hide his COVID symptoms from a travel agent and Dee gets a rare upper hand on him. That bit of sibling schadenfreude doesn’t last long, however, as they end up staying in a haunted rental castle and Dennis has gone a bit psychotic in the wake of his fever. The episode ends on kind of a cliffhanger: will Mac become a man of God? Will Dennis finally put Dee’s head in a box? Will Charlie and Frank’s friendship ever be the same?
Chaser: Mac Finds His Pride
“The Gang’s Still in Ireland” only served to set up future wackiness for Dee and Dennis, but there’s some real meat to everything going on with Charlie, Mac, and Frank. Frank has served as a surrogate father to both Charlie and Mac for 13 years. He was a terrible father to the two children he raised, Dee and Dennis, but he’s made several big efforts to help both Mac and Charlie deal with their lack of a good paternal figure. The most poignant example of this is in “Mac Finds His Pride,” a season 13 episode that follows Mac as he tries to figure out a gay identity for himself. Frank drags him to leather daddy clubs, drag queen brunches, and more, but Mac decides he’s going to explain himself in his own way. He puts on a performance for his father and the rest of the inmates in prison with him. It’s a complicated and emotional dance number with a female partner, and Luther walks out halfway through.
The episode ends with one of the most emotionally resonant moments in series history, closing in on Frank’s reaction to Mac’s dance. “Oh my god. I get it. I get it,” he says, tears welling in his eyes. Even though the gang are terrible at showing each other love or kindness, they do genuinely care for one another. Though their own familial connections are tenuous, the gang have become a kind of found family all of their own. “Mac Finds His Pride” is one of the series’ best episodes, and one that highlights the special connection between even its two most disparate characters. It also serves as a reminder that though Frank may be a horrible, terrible human being, he does have a heart.
The episode ends with one of the most emotionally resonant moments in series history, closing in on Frank’s reaction to Mac’s dance. “Oh my god. I get it. I get it,” he says, tears welling in his eyes. Even though the gang are terrible at showing each other love or kindness, they do genuinely care for one another. Though their own familial connections are tenuous, the gang have become a kind of found family all of their own. “Mac Finds His Pride” is one of the series’ best episodes, and one that highlights the special connection between even its two most disparate characters. It also serves as a reminder that though Frank may be a horrible, terrible human being, he does have a heart.
Only Two Episodes Left
There are only two episodes left in the 15th season of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and it’s looking like the gang won’t return to U.S. soil before the season ends. Next week are “Dee Gets Stuck in a Bog” and “The Gang Carries a Corpse Up a Mountain.” The former will probably focus on Dennis and Dee in their nightmarish lodgings, while the latter is probably going to involve a funeral for Shelley Kelly, the only person in Ireland whom I could possibly imagine the gang willingly carrying up a mountain. Maybe his death and the subsequent misadventures of the gang will help reunite Frank and Charlie, but if the trailers for this season are any indication, it’s going to be a long and painful road.
“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” debuts new episodes Wednesdays at 10 P.M. EST on FXX and streams the next day on FX on Hulu.
“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” debuts new episodes Wednesdays at 10 P.M. EST on FXX and streams the next day on FX on Hulu.
