Thursday’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia proves no amount of training can prepare a mental health professional for the Paddy’s Pub gang.
In “The Gang Gets Analyzed,” Dee’s therapy session is crashed by Mac, Frank, Dennis, and Charlie, all of whom demand her doctor settle an argument about who should do the dishes after a joint dinner.
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Dennis (Glenn Howerton), who apparently took some psychology courses in college, considers himself a colleague of the doctor's and ushers his friends in and out of the therapy sessions. Here's how they went down:
Mac
Diagnosis: Body Dysmorphia
After famously gaining 50 pounds last season, Mac (Rob McElhenney) has lost the weight, and he's not happy about giving up what he considers muscle mass, not fat.
“I was as big as a skyscraper, and now I’m as tiny as a postage stamp,” the mass-obsessed man tells the therapist.
Mac says Dennis has been feeding him “size pills” to help him bulk back up. The doctor suggests he has Body Dysmorphia, which causes a person to see a distorted view of one’s own body. Mac doesn’t get it, and thinks that’s a disease causing him to be so thin.
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Charlie
Diagnosis: Surprisingly well adjusted
Ostensibly the strangest of the gang, the doctor ends up being impressed with how well Charlie (Charlie Day) is doing despite his life obstacles, such being an abortion survivor and eating cat food to go to sleep. She praised Charlie for being comfortable in his own skin, but he completely mistook the point.
“So if I got more skin, or something, then I could never do a bad thing in my life,” he says. “Maybe I’ve never done a bad thing, because I have a lot of skin.”
He goes on to produce a dead pigeon from his jacket. Classic Charlie.
Frank
Diagnosis: Repressed memories
Frank’s (Danny DeVito) session takes a sad turn when he recalls memories he’d repressed from his time at an institution for mentally challenged youths. He fell in love with a girl who died after pretending to be a “spaceman with a plastic bag for a helmet.”
“You unzipped me. It’s all coming back,” he yells after the memories return. Later, he's seen crying about a third child that Dennis and Dee devoured in their mother's womb.
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Dennis
Diagnosis: Delusions of Grandeur
Dennis reveals he has compiled detailed psychological profiles of the rest of the gang, including a file on Dee started in the second grade. As for the “size pills” he’s been giving Mac, they are actually appetite suppressants from Mexico.
Oft the gang’s puppet master, Dennis says having such power over people is like “being near the executioner’s switch,” knowing he’d never pull it. On second thought, he decides that yes, he probably will pull the switch eventually.
Dee
Diagnosis: Pathological Liar
Dee (Kaitlin Olson) takes her longtime acting ambitions to her therapy session, where she tells her doctor she was the first choice for the female lead in The Notebook. After reciting a speech from Good Will Hunting, she claims her lying about her past film work was acting, proving she is actually a great actor.
By the end of the day, the doctor says the gang has deep issues that need to be resolved, but they are only interested in her ruling on the dishes problem. Exasperated, she assigns them to Dee.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia airs at 10 p.m. on FX.
E-Mail: aaron.couch@thr.com
Twitter: @AaronCouch
