‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Continues Its Noble Tradition of Gradually Deforming Guest Stars
Tonight’s new episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia made it official — there’s a new Rickety Cricket in town.
The running theme among all Always Sunny side characters (with the exception of Artemis and her bleached asshole) is that every interaction with the Paddy’s Pub Gang makes their lives markedly worse. The Waitress had a steady job, a home and her drinking problem under control when she joined the series in the pilot “The Gang Gets Racist.” Bill Ponderosa had a wife and kids before Dee returned to his life. And, of course, Father Matthew Mara, in all his unholy suffering, has gone from a valued man of God to a deformed, corrupted and completely unrecognizable street rat who may not even be worthy of the label “man” anymore, let alone worthy of God’s love.
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For all his run-ins with the Gang, The Lawyer, played by Brian Unger and first introduced in the Always Sunny Season Three episode “Dennis and Dee’s Mom Is Dead,” had escaped each of his appearances comparatively unscathed. That is, until Royal McPoyal clawed his eye out in “McPoyle vs. Ponderosa: The Trial of the Century” and put him on a collision with Charlie Kelly’s ambulance deep fryer in tonight’s new episode “Mac and Dennis Become EMTs.”
As the title suggests, in “Mac and Dennis Become EMTs,” the two roommates attempt a career change after EMTs respond to a hot-pepper-induced medical emergency at Paddy’s and inspire them to switch to a manlier profession. However, after just their first EMT training class, Mac and Dennis decide that they can spice up their lives much easier by just purchasing a decommissioned ambulance and driving around pretending to be emergency workers while micro-to-macro-dosing capsaicin.
In fact, the entire Gang spends their entire respective storylines in “Mac and Dennis Become EMTs” rapidly developing an addiction to scorching hot chili peppers, a predictable pastime for a group this prone to addiction. Charlie opens up a ghost kitchen in which he cooks smashed burgers (not quite smash burgers) infused with serious spice, Dee uses hot peppers as a performance enhancer for her new food delivery gig and Frank plots to punish one of the Gang’s oldest rivals with an extra-hot dose of peppery poison.
See, Frank was actually responsible for the inciting medical incident at the top of the episode, and a certain legal professional has been keeping his one eye open for any opportunity to litigate against The Gang. The Lawyer comes to the aid of Frank’s victim and announces his intention to ruin his old nemesis in court — only for Frank to show up at his shoddy new office and trick him into drinking the juice from a Carolina Reaper, sending the Lawyer into his own medical episode.
Mac and Dennis, who had since moved both Charlie’s ghost kitchen and Dee’s delivery service into the back of their ambulance, load up the Lawyer and drive toward the hospital at break-neck speed before Dennis overdoses on peppers and crashes the vehicle in a fiery wreck. The Gang leaves the Lawyer burned, scarred, battered and, worst of all, on-the-hook, after they put an EMT uniform on him, place him in the driver’s seat and flee the scene.
Of course, by the next time we see the gnarled, burned, partially blinded legal professional who will have to spend 30 days in jail for “his” crimes, it’s doubtful that the Gang will even remember that they were responsible for his horrific transformation. Hell, he’ll be lucky if they don’t decide to recycle the whole manhunt scheme on their new Cricket Jr.
