This Cut Line From ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Season 17 Makes Mac’s Obsession With Dennis Even Sadder

In case it wasn’t abundantly clear to the in-apartment test audience, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s power non-couple, Dennis and Mac, are just roommates, and they’re definitely not lovers. Hell, Dennis isn’t even sure that he likes Mac.

Regardless of what Dennis may claim while his vampiric face is taped back so far that you can practically see inside of his skull, it is not, in fact, normal for two men to live together in a completely platonic, non-sexual relationship from their mid-20s to the point when they’re pushing 50. Depending on when, exactly, Dennis and Mac unromantically shacked up together before It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia began, there really isn’t a good reason for why they have spent half of their lives together, staying in the same home through multiple moves and an apartment fire that tragically burned and disfigured no one of any particular importance. 

Reasonably, the test audience in the penultimate It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 17 episode “The Gang Gets Ready for Primetime” assumed that Dennis and Mac were boyfriend and old, angry boyfriend, much to Mac’s delight. But, in a cut line that FX revealed in the official Always Sunny Season 17 blooper reel, we learned that Dennis’ true feelings toward his roommate might not even be warm enough for their relationship to be considered platonic.

In multiple outtakes from “The Gang Gets Ready for Primetime,” Charlie asks Dennis, “Do you even like Mac?” before Mac stares desperately at his unrequited love, much like how Dennis Jr. probably once stared at Mac, one last time:

The fact that Dennis can’t even bring himself to answer Charlie’s question certainly puts a damper on the equally desperate community of MacDennis shippers’ theory that Mac’s longtime love of his roommate and coworker may yet be reciprocated. While Dennis’ insistence that he’s definitely, unquestionably heterosexual may not hold much water when you consider that he had gay sex while blackout drunk in the show’s very pilot, Mac is going to have a hard time pulling the S.I.N.N.E.D. system on his roommate when Dennis doesn’t even enjoy being in the same room as him.

Frankly, Dennis outright loathing Mac despite deciding to spend his life with him is way funnier and much more on brand for It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia than Mac ever successfully grooming his lover, à la Charlie’s eventual victory in wooing The Waitress back at the end of Season 12. Dennis will probably continue to despise Mac while inexplicably sharing an address with his biggest admirer for the rest of Always Sunny, and Mac will continue to love Dennis until the day he dies, probably with Dennis, and almost definitely in the Always Sunny series finale.