I miss Fat Mac. (Also, why didn’t anyone call him Big Mac? It’s too perfect.)
Even before the opening credits roll on this week’s It’s Always Sunny… we are treated to, perhaps, the most harrowing plot point of the season: Charlie’s pious, lovable mother has lung cancer.
The episode that unfolds as a result has some nice, bizarre moments of fundamental Sunny-ness, but it’s a subplot featuring a crazed Frank that truly pops.
This subplot begins with Dee’s claim that most old men, such as Frank, are senile and useless, demonstrating to the gang that she can zap $100 from his pocket using even the laziest of pleas. She really does need the money, though — so she can continue to see her scam artist mindreader Psychic John, who convinces her there is lots of money in her future.
We eventually do see Psychic John during a session with Dee, where he mumbles and fumbles his way through blind guesses regarding both her subconscious and basic background. But when Frank wanders in mid-way through, John unleashes a bold, outlandish vision regarding him: That Frank’s dead hooker wife is actually not dead, and that her fortune is still attainable.
The scenes of Frank and Dee digging through old property, specifically a dead dog’s grave in his former yard, to look for the buried treasure is brilliant because he’s about his most madcap. The best of these perfect gags comes when, instead of finding the shriveled exterior of a deceased canine, Frank discovers his old blonde toupe that he said he used to wear in Miami… along with $5000. I mean, you just can’t make this stuff up.
Convinced that the $5000 is a sign that there’s more cash hidden in her casket, Frank and Dee take the gang to the graveyard to dig all the way to where Mama Reynolds is supposed to be resting. But, in a hilarious and somewhat disturbing twist, we discover that Frank’s wife is in fact dead, and that he planned the whole scheme, including the theory by psychic John, to convince the gang that he was not as senile as they had suggested. “Score one for the old people,” he emphatically shouts after the reveal, while Dennis loudly weeps at the sight of his mother’s crumbling pile of bones.
The A-plot is not nearly as demented as this, but it still has its fair share of nutty flourishes. When Charlie learns of the cancer news, he immediately blames Mac’s chain-smoking mother, who has been rooming with his mom.
The news really resonates with him, more as fuel for his manic energy than any true sorrow, but Dennis doesn’t feel the same way. In fact, Dennis’ response to the announcement is so cold and obnoxious, it spurs his episode-long quest to find anything that may make him “feel” again.
Fueled by their individual desires- Charlie wants to find a remedy or cure for his mom’s illness, Dennis wants to feel warm-blooded and emotional again and Mac has a giant rash on his upper arm, they all visit a zany, herb-loving doctor played by Sean Combs. This proves to be useless, especially for Charlie, who is skeptical of the doctor’s low prices for cancer treatment, so nothing comes of this. Only Mac receives help, as he gets his rash sprayed with a mysterious liquid that the doctor claims will help. Yet, this ultimately makes it worse.
Combs truly hams it up for this short, spirited roll. You wish you could see more of him, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he shows up again at some point this season.
Charlie, Mac and Dennis then try faith as a way of solving their problems. They attend a church service and then get the brilliant idea to host a “beef and beer and Jesus” outing at Paddy’s to raise money for Charlie’s mom’s treatment. If the pastor can coax his spiritual disciples into forking over some coinage, they ponder, then why can’t a cancerous old woman do the same?
The event itself is a big disaster, with Dennis attempting to give a stirring sermon about Jesus to convince the attendees, who seem to have only come for the steak and suds, to donate to the cancer fund. We think for a moment that he’s finally conjured some emotions — he starts dancing and flailing his body parts like a impassioned preacher — but at the end he attests he still feels nothing.
And things get worse when Charlie’s mother, forced to sport a bald cap and fake scars, reads a speech written by Dennis and Charlie about how she needs money because she’s dying. You truly feel bad for her — the woman is sick and weak but she’s being pressured into all of these dim-witted antics.
This is until she reveals to the entire crowd that she does not, in fact, have cancer. Instead, she fibbed everyone so they would donate to her and she could repair a Virgin Mary statue outside of the church she bumped into with her car. The realization, while undeniably predictable, as Sunny hardly ever forays into bleak tonal terrains without pulling back at the end, is quite funny and also quite fitting. She was able to convince everyone for a decent amount of time, which aligns with the overall moral of the episode: “Score one for the old people.” Who knew they could be so crafty (and desperate)?
In the end, “Charlie’s Mom Gets Cancer” is not a masterpiece, as its B-fodder overshadows the main plot. But it’s a solid episode that marks the return of crazy Frank. Long live crazy Frank!
Random Thoughts:
–Psychic John — a jab at John Edwards (the spirit whisperer)?
–Mac’s mother is really a living, breathing version of Patty Bouvier from The Simpsons.
—The steak could not have looked more chewy and disgusting at the “beef and brew and Jesus.”
–Did anyone notice Charlie is the one who gets to open Mama Reynolds’ casket at the end? He really does do all of the dirty work for the gang…
–“Mother earth don’t play,” said Sean Combs, as the doctor. Pretty solid rap lyric, I’d say.
What Else Did Frank Do?:
–He’s a blonde South Beach resident, apparently.
–He gives Dee $100 on two separate occasions for no reason at all. Senile much?
–“My head is turning to soup!” he said at one point, baffled by the turn of events regarding the money scheme.
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