It's Always Sunny has always been good at doing episodes based on absolutely nothing and somehow stretching it out for 20 minutes when other shows can barely find enough interesting material in an easy plot for 21 minutes. However, we not only get a Halloween episode tonight but an episode that informs us that Dee's pregnant. And no, as a warning ahead of time, this isn't a cop-out, fake pregnancy like some other shows or sitcoms might do. Kaitlin Olsen got pregnant in real life and they wrote it into the show, which means we'll be getting the second half of the season as a focus on her pregnancy. And the show never felt rushed or too filled with scenes or information. The show moved at its own pace and was somehow able to include a slew of hilarious lines, images, scenes and more into twenty minutes and somehow remind us of how well-written the show can be when it's helmed by one of the showrunners.
The episode begins with the gang making fun of Dee once again for eating a ton of sandwiches, and when she informs them that it's because she's pregnant and that one of them is the further, they stop making fun of her and everything becomes serious. We get an insane amount of flashbacks from each character, with each person having a different idea of what happened that night. Although we don't really know exactly what happened until the end, we do know this: Mac went as "Viggo Morten-stein, the guy from Lord of the Rings," Charlie went as the Phantom of the Opera (although he thought he was a vampire), Frank went as Spiderman (or a man-spider... it all depends on who you believe), Dennis went as Luigi and Dee went as an angel but was called a bird all night anyways just because she had wings.
That's just the set-up. A web of events begin to happen, involving a woman dressed in a peacock costume, the Waitress showing up with a boyfriend and Charlie's attempts to appear chivalrous in his Phantom costume, Mac's hook-up with Margeret, the McPoyle's sister (disgusting) and Dee getting splashed with the McPoyle's milk. It's hard to explain everything without giving away the best moments, but let's just say that the episode goes to places you wouldn't expect it to and includes laughs in places people shouldn't laugh. All in all, this episode works well based on the strength of the writing. Between Mac's new phrase "browned out" and the entire conversation about whether or not the Phantom of the Opera actually ate people or not, there were so many little plots here that worked that it's impossible to see this episode as anything but the best of the season, perhaps one of the best of the last couple of seasons.
I really hope we focus on the pregnancy at least a little bit for the rest of the season. And I also hope she doesn't get rid of the baby. It could not only be a great addition to the show that would help give the show new plots but could do something the show hasn't done before: give these characters forward momentum so it doesn't seem like they're caught doing nothing all the time. I loved the episode and can't wait to see what happens to Dee from here on out.moreless





