“A leather shop? In Arizona? They’ll be out of business in a week’s time!“

With It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘s record-tying fourteenth season set to begin on September 25th, I thought I’d build up to it by reviewing my five favourite episodes, talking about the premises, moments and quotes that make these stand out above others.

The plot of “The Gang Gets Trapped” is perfectly simplistic, and it perfectly epitomises what’s wrong with these five characters. Dennis, Dee and Frank have broken into a house to steal a priceless artefact while Charlie and Mac keep an eye out across the road. The only problem is that the homeowner is home. Starting with Dennis and Dee stuck inside a wardrobe, there’s a brief bit of self-awareness from Dennis about The Gang’s antics, as he urgently and frustratingly whispers about how they “always escalate everything to a ten”, whilst berating Dee for how her breath smells (and everything else). Every character has at least one moment of brilliance in this episode, and this is one of the many for Glenn Howerton, who also nails the flaw of their heist in his tone of saying “the homeowner, is home!“

Dennis’ rant is then interrupted, via walkie talkie, by Charlie and Mac for updates of the heist. With Charlie, uncharacteristically wearing a leather jacket and Mac sporting a stetson, it immediately has you asking, “are they trying to be Indiana Jones?”, and when Frank pops out from under the bed brandishing a whip, that question is answered. They’ve gone full Indy. Of course, the best thing about this is that we just know there’s been an argument about who gets to wear or wield what, because, like Dennis says, everything’s escalated to a ten. Mac also lets us know of another Dennis comment via the walkie talkie, reminding everyone that Dennis took charge of the heist by claiming he’d be “in and out like a demon’s whisper”. With what’s been implied of Dennis over the course of the show, that line is unnervingly hilarious. One thing that isn’t unnerving, however, and is just outright funny is Mac – who is here currently cultivating fifty extra pounds of mass – eating his bag of chips that he bought from the hamburger store and his refusal to share just one with Charlie. Fat Mac’s angry rants were something special during this season and him screaming at Charlie with a mouth full of chips is tremendous. It all culminates with Rob McElhenney on the brink of ‘corpsing’ eating one when Dee asks Charlie he’s not allowed to use the walkie talkie.

Back in the house a lot of the comedy comes from those inside’s inability to stay quiet, with Dee ignoring Dennis’ qualms about DNA spray and using the toilet (and flushing) while Frank guts a little girl’s teddy bear because he thinks the artefact they’re looking for is hidden inside. This leads to one of my two favourite moments where Frank – after learning this little girl is in the house and coming upstairs – says “I’m gonna whip this little bitch in the face if she makes a peep“. For me, it’s right up there with the funniest lines he’s ever said. I feel the same in regards to Mac’s impression of a Swedish plumber (the second of my favourite moments). How proud he is about his awful attempt of an accent and Dennis’ fury was what sealed this as my favourite episode of the show.

The episode ends with The Gang doing what they do best in not caring whatsoever about the consequences of being caught by simply walking out, which leads to an interesting reveal of the southern residents of the house and Frank finally using his whip for what he hopes is a triumphant finale (it’s not).

With the build up to their plan hardly explained let alone shown, “Trapped” lets us see The Gang deal completely with the consequences of their actions, and in doing so leads to twenty minutes of lunacy, anger and The Gang attempting – and in some ways succeeding – in ruining people’s lives. For me it’s everything this show should be.

Rating: 10/10