With the exception of a few bright moments and a Seinfeld skit that I haven’t stopped watching, last week’s Sunny episode was one of the poorest I’ve seen, so I was really hoping for something better this time around. What we got was most certainly one of this season’s more eventful episodes as it’s finally time to see what The Gang did on Super Bowl weekend.

There’s been a couple of references to The Gang attending the Super Bowl this season such as The Waiter from Guigino’s telling Dee he was helping them out there in the Boggs Ladies Reboot and The Eagles’ win being referenced in “Time’s Up For The Gang“, so it was no surprise this episode was set “One Year Ago.” Of course, this being set then means there’s no Dennis who was still in North Dakota with his family, but that didn’t matter – it might next week but that’s to be confirmed – as this first episode of two parts focuses primarily on Charlie with a brief appearance from Dee, Mac, Frank and other Sunny characters who we haven’t seen yet in Season 13 such as Ben the soldier, Uncle Jack, Rickety Cricket and Bill Ponderosa at the beginning.

The episode kick-off with another fantastic Charlie and Mac interaction where Charlie, looking for his Green Man suit, tries to get one over on his friend claiming the word is “superstitions” not “stupisitions”, only to be informed that Mac is actually saying “you’ve got stupid superstitions.” A frantic Mac is then reminded by an annoyed Charlie that he’s a Dallas Cowboys fan but rebukes at the comment in his fast-paced, tough guy voice. “I was a Cowboys fan but then Tony Romo retired now I support The Eagles and I bleed green GO BIRDS GO!“

There’s another brilliant moment outside Paddy’s between Charlie and Dee when Charlie places a sign on the door stating “Closed for Salmonella because of the Super Bowl.”

As Charlie is illiterate it’s to be expected every word is spelled incorrectly, well, expect for ‘Salmonella’. Of course Charlie can spell ‘Salmonella’, but he can’t spell ‘closed.’

Before asking what the reason is between Salmonella and Super Bowl, Dee makes sure to note “how is it ‘Salmonella’ is the only word you’ve spelled correctly?” It’s a great play on Charlie’s disability done so in classic Sunny fashion.

As Charlie then re-enters to the pub to the disapproval of Mac to search once again for the Green Man suit, Frank reveals that he’s got a huge bus to travel to the game in – we’ll see more of this next week – as somebody wearing the Green Man suit comes outside and they go on their way, unknowingly leaving Charlie home alone.

As Charlie is home alone and essentially has the mind of a child, it’s only right that after realising his friends are gone – he thinks he’s turned them invisible – we get two Home Alone montages of Charlie having a good time going through their stuff and later setting up the bar for protection against ‘intruders’. The highlights of these scenes were Charlie riding Mac’s bike (you know the one), reading his ‘sticky’ bible and, after setting up the bar with traps, stepping immediately inside a bear trap where he remains for the rest of the episode. Waking up to the sound of cheers from the people of Philly and realising that he’s missed a day and hasn’t done his superstitions, this leads to Charlie eating a rat – not something I like the thought of – to fulfil his “brown it down”, dropping a tin of paint on his head so he can “wear something green” and then having to drink his own urine for “something yellow.” It’s an episode filled of examples of Charlie being a strange human being that will do anything stupid and anything that’s completely disgusting. There’s very little else other than this, but I found it entertaining enough to watch.

Episodes focusing on one person can be risky and Sunny have had a few instances this season and in the past of focusing on only one member of The Gang, but I enjoyed this and thought there were some really good moments. As a two-parter it’s difficult to make a definitive opinion of how good it is as I expect there to be some resolution to events next week when we see Mac, Dee, Frank and co. at the Super Bowl. That might make this one better or it might make it worse, but for the meantime I felt this was a good episode that’s worth watching.

Rating: 6.75/10

FOR MORE FROM SEASON 13 OF IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA