It’s Always Sunny season 14, episode 3 recap: Dee Day

In episode 143 of FX series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Dee has a full day to make the gang behave how she wants. Can they resist comparing her to a bird?

Fans of It’s Always Sunny will likely find “Dee Day” sounding familiar. In season 9, episode 5 was called “Mac Day.” It was a special day allotted to Ronald “Mac” McDonald (Rob McElhenney), where everyone at Paddy’s Pub had to do whatever he wanted without complaint. If they wished to express frustration or annoyance, they were allowed to occasionally give a muffled scream into a pillow. For Dee Day, the gang has plenty to scream about. However, if they are too obvious in their discomfort, Dee (Kaitlin Olson) wins an additional day. To gauge the time left in her day, she has a handy-dandy cuckoo clock.

The episode begins with the gang arguing as usual, while discussing some vague scheme. Dennis (Glenn Howerton) accuses Mac of having the “tendon dexterity of a sow.” They get sidetracked when Dennis uses the expression “make the world your oyster.” Frank (Danny DeVito) prefers clams while Charlie (Charlie Day) preaches the merits of barnacles. However, Dee Day begins, distracting them. In addition to the punishment of adding a day if they screw up, she’ll blow an air horn — the sound of which disturbs them (especially Dennis).

The gang’s already off to a rough start, as they struggle to listen to her feelings. Dennis thinks of his plans, Mac worries about Charlie outshining him to Dennis. Charlie is interested in candy which he thinks Dennis has. Frank is thinking about clams. When Dee ends her sentence about “toxic masculinity,” they all agree blindly as if they had been listening. Because they’re so bored by her, Dennis hatches a plan to further hatch their initial plan during bathroom breaks. Their plan? It starts off rather unclear. Charlie breaks into the school where he used to work as a janitor. He hits a stumbling block, though, when someone named Terry (Winston Story) refuses to let him use the phone (in retaliation, Charlie promises to wreck his bike).

More from Show Snob

• The Santa Clauses season 2, episode 6 recap “Wanga Banga Langa!”
• Lawmen: Bass Reeves season 1, episode 7 preview: Non-spoiler thoughts for Part VII
• Goosebumps season 1, episode 6 recap: “Night of the Living Dummy”
• Beacon 23 season 1, episode 3 recap: “Why Can’t We Go on as Three?”
• Upload season 3, episode 2 recap: “Strawberry”

Frank’s clam confession

As always, It’s Always Sunny doesn’t shy away from awkwardness and weirdness. Dee has the others dress up. Mac is Taiwan Tammy, Frank is Martina Martinez and Dennis is Crazy Paddy. If that’s not enough, Frank is getting sick, though he steadfastly denies it’s the clams he’s been eating (claiming it’s his literally and figuratively offensive makeup). When Mac and Frank finally get away for a bit, Mac makes clear his plan to get the keys of a councilwoman (Mercedes Colon).

In enacting the plan, Frank acts as a valet. However, the staged car accident is badly timed. With the plan botched, we learn that Frank wanted to break into the councilwoman’s apartment to set her clocks back. Shortly after he vomits, he finally admits it was the clams. Meanwhile, back at the bar, Charlie is now dressed as Mr. Covington, and Dee makes him passionately kiss Dennis (who’s still dressed as Crazy Paddy).

Dennis confounds the councilwoman

After an outing of bird watching (“an ostrich’s eyes are bigger than its brain”), the gang unravels further. As Mac tries to outshine Charlie for some of Dennis’s sweet candy, Dennis mentions his plan to seduce the councilwoman. Like Frank, he wants to set her clocks back so she’ll miss a crucial vote. However, Dee interferes with this by making Dennis wipe off some of his makeup (in past seasons he confessed to wearing “a base”). Dennis loses his brash over-confidence quickly and indeed looks significantly worse for the wear.

When he approaches her flirtatiously, everything he does is clumsy. He randomly offers her hard candies, forgetting that he threw them for Mac and Charlie to fetch. He then says he got sick off clams, poignantly adding that “anything can make you throw up.” He then simply asks for her house key, then says he wants to break into her house. use her makeup and share the bathroom. We later learn their plan: They wanted to distract her so an ordinance allowing public urination would pass.

The semi-surprise

As we’ve seen throughout It’s Always Sunny, no one in the gang is good. While the others were bad, Dee confesses to arguably being worse this time around. She prevented the councilwoman from voting by stealing her wallet and slashing her tires. Why? She too wants to be able to legally pee in the streets of Philadelphia! On top of that, she later reveals she pushed the cuckoo clock ahead an hour, with their recent insults adding another day. D’oh!

What are your thoughts on It’s Always Sunny? Let us know in the comments!