[9.5/10] You don’t expect It’s Always Sunny to get serious. Not even a little bit. Sure, there’s been hints of it before, whether it’s The Gang’s boat rescue a couple of seasons ago or Dennis leaving last season. But it’s typically pretty brief, so the show can get back to its delightfully deranged brand of comedy.
That’s not what happens in “Mac Finds His Pride.” Even beyond the boffo final performance, this is an episode centered squarely on Mac coming to terms with his homosexualty and self-identity and resolving those things with his old life and the people in it, especially his dad. That’s heavy stuff!
Granted, most of the episode isn’t that heavy. Sojourns to a BDSM club or a drag queen show as Frank’s solutions to Mac’s problems feels like something early season IASIP would do. And there’s the running gag of grodiness of Frank continually shoving things in and out of his bleeding nose. And there’s a solid number of amusing bits of Charlie and Dee chastising Frank because he “had one job” to retrieve a dancing Mac and hadn’t managed it.
But holy hell, this episode is basically a two-man story featuring Mac trying to express his inner turmoil and Frank learning to understand it. The metaphor the episode uses -- of Frank needing to stop trying to stem the bleeding and let it run out so that the healing can begin -- is a bit on the nose (so to speak), but at least adds a point to all that trademark Frank grossness in the episode.
And my god, the dance! Reading about what Rob McElhenney went through in order to be able to perform that makes it all the more impressive, but even without that knowledge, it stands on its own as a beautiful, artistic surprise. There is such legitimate emotion and artistry in that sequence. You don’t anticipate IASIP being affecting, but I have to admit, when the music swelled, and Mac’s dance partnered moved in concert but also in tension with him, or cradled him, on a rain-soaked stage, it was hard not to feel your heartstrings rent amid the beauty, talent, and pathos on display.
Make no mistake, there’s real emotion in these scenes and this episode. There’s legitimate arcs for both Mac and Frank here, and they’re not easy sitcom arcs either. Mac is, after so much internal struggle, finally able to express himself through art. But as he so feared, he loses his dad in the process. That too is heart-rending, and the effect it has on Mac is sadly moving.
But when Mac loses one dad’s understanding, he gains another (surrogate) dad’s understanding. I love the choice to have Frank admit that he “doesn't get it” and never really got Mac at all. It ties into a certain perspective of an older generation, one IASIP often uses Frank as a stand-in for, that may accept gay people but still just not really grok homosexuality in a way that younger generations, who were more socialized with LGBT acceptance in society, might be able to.
But in the end, he does! For however long Danny DeVito has played a deranged troll on IASIP, it’s been enough to make you forget that he’s a really good dramatic actor! Seeing him admit his lack of understanding, eventually encourage Mac, and then tear up when, through the majesty of dance, he finally does understand him, is incredible. The idea at play here, that by interpreting the “storm” inside himself through dance, by coming up with artistic representations of the light and dark inside of him, Mac can reach people and find his place is a moving, life-affirming one.
I ask you, what can’t this show do? What started as a clever enough hangout show that devolved into raunch and edginess whenever it fell into a jam has evolved into a series that is just as ribald, just as boundary pushing, but also fiercely intelligent and ready to push whatever boundaries and expectations people have of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Every year, it seems to top itself in terms of where it takes these characters, what it’s able to pull off, and even the level of emotional depth its able to wring from these self-admittedly terrible people. Thirteen seasons in, It’s Always Sunny has delivered its best season yet, buoyed by Mac’s striking, emotional finale, and that alone is an accomplishment.
