More like it’s always crazy in Philadelphia. This time, a therapist’s involved.

This week on It’s Always Sunny… Dee, Frank, Charlie, Dennis and Mac finally, after endless fits of insanity, attend a therapy session together.

The ensuing show, “The Gang Gets Analyzed,” is (and I know I keep saying this every week, but this time I mean it) the strangest thing you’ll probably see all season. This is in part due to the fact that it’s an obvious bottle episode, featuring no people outside of the gang and the therapist and only one, fundamental set. But, perhaps in an attempt to make up for the lack of plot, every character has their full neuroses on display. It’s a blessing in terms of comedy but a curse in terms of narrative conciseness.

In fact, “The Gang Gets Analyzed” barely feels like an episode at all; I’d liken it more to a long, freewheeling improv skit. So, with that in mind, I’d crown it both the best and worst 30 minutes of It’s Always Sunny… material in recent memory.

The episode centers around Dee’s therapy session, in which she drags the gang along to settle a dispute over who should have done the dirty dishes after a dinner party. At the wishes of Dennis, who claims he dabbled in psychiatry in his own right at one point, each individual has their own alone time with the poor therapist, who becomes a punching bag for the gang’s ridiculous antics.

Mac:

Mac, who has the first session, chooses to discuss last season’s weight gain (“I was as big as a skyscraper and as small as a postage stamp,” he says at one point) and his disdain for his current physical stature. What’s strange is he tells these sad, self-critical stories with an uneasy jolliness, something along the lines of the possibly drug-addled Tom Cruise bouncing on Oprah’s couch. The therapist then insinuates that he may have reverse body dysmorphia, which leads Mac to reveal that Dennis has been giving him pills to combat hunger so he never gains weight again. This revelation peppers the nuttiness with some dark humor, but once Charlie’s session begins next, any lingering existentialism fades to black.

Charlie:

Charlie’s sequence starts off with him banging his head repeatedly against a picture frame on the wall, as if to squash any notions that he’d have something serious to discuss. And things only get more bizarre from there. He rambles about everything from getting to do the brunt of the gang’s dirty work (“I love the dark. I love slippery things. I love being naked.”) to his excessive amounts of skin, finishing off the oddball therapy session by pulling a dead pigeon out of his jacket pocket and tossing it onto the coffee table.

Frank:

Frank goes from refusing to reveal anything about himself (“This skull is like Fort Knox,” he says) to spilling his guts about an incident regarding his first kiss with a lipless girl at a “nitwit school” upstate. Do we understand him at all? No. Is it comedic bliss to watch him bawl his eyes out on the couch over his outlandish childhood trauma? Absolutely.

Dennis:

Dennis’ session proves to be far different from the rest of the gang’s, as he pulls out his own notes and begins interrogating the therapist. We learn that Dennis, unsurprisingly, is an evil sociopath who has been manipulating the gang for years. Unfortunately, this scene exists only to tie together the loose ends of the episode, marred by more contrivances and less comedic flourishes than the other sessions. We get one memorable gag where he draws a picture of him groping the therapist’s breasts from behind, but other than that, it’s the worst thing here.

Dee:

The episode ends on a hilarious note with the same way that it began: by assessing Dee’s delusions. Her compulsive dishonesty seeps through here, claiming that she was offered the lead part for The Notebook and that she’s actually a talented, established actress. The therapist buys none of this, and out of frustration, sentences Dee to do the dishes in the end. As the credits roll, we see Dee smashing the dishes (that Charlie brought for some reason) all over the poor therapist’s floor.

Overall, “The Gang Gets Analyzed” is too oddball for its own good, especially in such a plotless episode. But garnering something out of absolutely nothing is what Sunny does better than most shows on television today.

Random Thoughts:

-Dennis, after exclaiming that he studied psychology at an Ivy League school, likens the therapist’s alma matter (La Salle University) to a pasta dish.

-Mac wanted to talk about God an awful lot.

-Dee’s Boston accent while quoting Good Will Hunting was spot on.

-The “Dishes! Dishes!” chant at the episode’s end was perhaps the most impressively immature that the gang has sounded all season.

Frank Did What?:

-Apparently he went to a “nitwit school,” which I suppose is Frank-speak for a mental asylum.

-He claims he had a roommate who was a “frog kid” and that his first kiss was from a lipless girl who died two weeks later.