Grayson Berry Cements His Place As An All-Time Great ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Guest Star

The Paddy’s Pub Gang may never see the likes of Sparky again, but he will live on in their memories and in their fingerprints.

For as much as fans of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia adore and obsess over Mac, Dennis, Charlie, Dee and Frank, the world of Always Sunny wouldn’t be complete without the chaotic cast of side characters who, more often than not, suffer the dire, disfiguring consequences of the Gang’s schemes. The job of standing out in a supporting role on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia demands for a comedic performer to roll with the punches, pull off a little improv and either match or meet the Gang’s deranged energy levels on any given week.

This week, in the new episode “The Gang Goes to A Dog Track,” prolific TV character actor Grayson Berry added his name to the Always Sunny Guest Star Hall of Fame and elevated a B-plot about Mac’s TikTok-inspired quest to “raw dog” the race track with his performance as Sparky, the Zen, shoeless kennel master who proved himself to be too raw for this cruel world.

Throughout “The Gang Goes to A Dog Track,” Mac is embarrassingly devoted to the two-year-old TikTok trend of “raw-dogging,” or depriving himself of creature comforts during lengthy travels in order to become more in touch with his inner, masculine self. Unfortunately, such a dated plot line renders Mac a boring, negative presence for the majority of “The Gang Goes to A Dog Track,” but it does drive him and Charlie to spark up a relationship with Sparky.

Berry’s character presents himself to viewers and to Mac and Charlie as a dirty enigma, a shoeless man at a filthy dog track who picks up hot dogs and corn nuts off the scum-covered floors. Even Charlie, whose well-earned nickname in high school was “Dirt Grub,” is put off by Sparky’s sanitary habits, but Charlie and Mac grow to see Sparky as a sort of streetwise philosopher after he hits them with a couple of cutting lessons on spirituality and spelling. Charlie and Mac find inspiration in Sparky’s commitment to the racing dogs of his kennel, which they know is sadly scheduled to shut its doors for good.

Unfortunately, Sparky never got the message about the dog track shutting down as greyhound racing becomes even more unpalatable to the American public with each passing day. And, when Charlie and Mac unintentionally break the bad news to their new guru, Sparky uses his immense mindfulness to collect his thoughts and take action — by blowing his brains out in his trailer with Mac and Charlie in the other room.

Sparky is the perfect one-off Always Sunny character, as he’s a layered weirdo who engages with the Gang’s schemes instead of being put off by their psychopathy. Each scene in “The Gang Goes to A Dog Track” reveals a new strange dimension to Sparky’s character, deepening his ethos, logos and pathos as he expresses the anal glands of the greyhounds with his bare hands. Up until Sparky’s final moments (and for a few clueless seconds afterwards), Mac and Charlie are both in awe of and off-put by Sparky’s idiosyncrasies, and we’re all left wanting more of the mysterious dog whisperer after he goes out with a bang.

While the resolution of Sparky’s storyline in “The Gang Goes to A Dog Track” is both narratively and comedically satisfying, Sparky’s death does make us sad that we’ll never again meet Berry’s wistful gaze or hear his folksy, inscrutable riddles that hold the secrets to life and dogs. But, as Sparky would tell us, “gun” is just “nug” spelled backwards, and the nuggets of wisdom that he shot into Mac and Charlie’s brains aren’t shutting down until they hit the inhalants.