It’s Always Sunny season 14 premiere recap: The Gang Gets Romantic

In episode 141 of FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the gang tackles rom-com tropes, discovering intentionally clogged toilets and toe spoons.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has triumphantly returned, and “the gang” is up to its old tricks. This time they’re tackling romantic comedy tropes or something like that. The episode starts with Dee Reynolds (Kaitlin Olson) revealing a flyer she found posted by the “gruesome twosome” ⁠— Frank Reynolds (Danny DeVito) and Charlie Kelly (Charlie Day) ⁠— looking for exotic European housemates, presumably to hook up with. Similarly, Mac (Rob McElhenney) has it in his mind to set up a “meet-cute,” which is where soulmates meet under cute circumstances in romantic comedies. Of course, Dennis is still Dennis (Glenn Howerton), so he calls the meet-cute a trap, akin to spider meeting fly.

The spiders do catch some flies, as Lisa (Britt Lower) meets Mac about his Airbnb listing. As part of their plan, Dennis shows up, prompting Mac to say he accidentally overbooked. Sly dog Dennis says he’d be willing to share a room with Lisa. However, things go south for him when he learns she’s married to a guy named Greg (Timm Sharp). Adapting to the situation, Mac offers to share his room with Dennis, but Dennis insists that he could find some other place (Dennis doesn’t want to appear closer to Mac than he really is).

Meanwhile, Frank and Charlie discuss their own scheduled meetup and lay down ground rules about not exploring each other’s bodies if things start getting kinky. However, the Nikky and Alexi they meet aren’t women at all, but older European men (with Nikki played by David Agranov and Alexi played by Alexander Leeb).

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Unromantic spins on the “cute-meet”

It’s Always Sunny often has verbal mix-ups, mutations, and misunderstandings, and this episode’s no exception. For example, Dennis twists “cute-meet” by calling Lisa “cute meat” ⁠— as he’s known for being sleazy. Frank and Charlie also twist the term, believing it to be “cube meat.” Mac and Dennis make a number of assumptions about Lisa and Greg, based on them overhearing an argument. It must mean their marriage is on the rocks, right? They overhear the name Teddy, which they assume is a guy Lisa’s cheating on Greg with. They then assume Greg needs to find love, and who better for the new romantic lead than Dee Reynolds, the giant bird of love?

There are complications for Frank and Charlie, too, as Nikki’s yodeling music is weird for them, and he also wants to boil his lederhosen. Alexi doesn’t speak English well, either, and Frank feels odd about them using a toe spoon instead of a toe knife (a well-established element of Frank Reynolds’ long and storied life). To top it off, Frank feels weird about facing Alexi while sleeping.

The plunger plan and apricot jam

What would It’s Always Sunny be without a bizarre plan? Mac jams up the toilet and removes the bathroom plunger, all to inspire Greg to “randomly” meet Dee at the hardware store. Also, because Lisa apparently missed Teddy, Dennis is still considered the leading man. Unfortunately, when Dee meets Greg, it’s totally unromantic (though, oddly enough, she doesn’t particularly do anything to mess it up). She assumes it’s just a rom-com moment of him “pushing away his soulmate.”

Meanwhile, at Charlie and Frank’s, the guys are starting to warm up to their exotic European housemates. Charlie’s impressed with Alexi’s peanut butter and apricot jam sandwiches heated by the radiator. Frank appreciates the toe spoon over the toe knife (though one gets the feeling he’d alternate between two-cleaning methods). However, the two are booted out when two European women ⁠— Minka (Tania Fox) and Sasha (Cody Kennedy) ⁠— show up in response to their flyer.

The good, the bad and the ugly

Dennis finally has his big, pervy moment, informing Lisa that he understands that Lisa’s sad, but sex is a great way to feel better again. This only makes her cry. Meanwhile, Mac (who came out of the closet big time last season) thinks that Greg may have been the one cheating on Lisa with Teddy. As Dennis plays an uplifting song suited for rom-coms, Mac admits that he “dumped up his toilet” for Greg (though he did it with the best intent). However, when Lisa returns, it’s revealed that Teddy is actually their son who recently died of leukemia, which has strained their relationship. As the upbeat music plays, Dennis shuts it off, awkwardly informing then he doesn’t have a “dead kids appropriate song.” In other words, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is back in full force!

Finally, Frank and Charlie initially love having the ladies over, especially as they don’t mind the men’s bohemian lifestyle. They are also “free with their bodies” and want to share the bed. However, it’s eventually concluded that the ladies are actually too sexual, and they used Alexi’s toe spoon to cook heroin! Ultimately, the gruesome twosome want to go back to Alexi and Nikki, especially after finding the literal meat cubes they left behind as a present! On the bright side, when they catch up to Alexi and Nikki boarding the bus, they assure Charlie and Frank that they’ll return in exactly 1 year. In other words, we can probably expect to see them next season on It’s Always Sunny.

What are your thoughts on the big It’s Always Sunny premiere? Was it everything you dreamed it would be? Let us know in the comments!