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For the most part It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has always stuck to a format. Unlike most shows which would occasionally shake up its structure or experiment with different opening credits, It’s Always Sunny has stayed the same for seven seasons. However, this season has showed that the show is interested in shaking things up. Last week was almost a clip show with its constant throwback references and overwhelming sense of Déjà vu, and this week pulled a Community and played around with the horror genre.

The episode tells you upfront that it’s going to be twisted and violent. From the title to the strobe light shaky-cam opening, it’s obvious that something horrible has happened and the Gang might be to blame, and as is usual with It’s Always Sunny, they very well could be. I loved the structure of the episode, which threw us in to the story and made us ask a lot of questions – Where is Dee? Why are they covered in blood? – and slowly answered them one by one. Having the Gang describe their adventure and try to get out of trouble called back to “The World Series Defense”, one of my favorite episodes of the show, and this episode easily ranks there with it.

Since this was a Halloween episode the McPoyles – some of the most twisted and perverted characters to ever be on television – had to make an appearance. The McPoyles are so sick that they make the Gang look innocent in comparison, and this episode upped the ante by introducing an entire wedding full of them. “Maureen Ponderosa’s Wedding Massacre” was basically a haunted house with the Gang wandering through a dark dirty place with McPoyles constantly popping up, and it got even worse when they ingested bath salts and began tearing each other apart.

Though Maureen Ponderosa is in the title and the McPoyles are the highlight, this is Dennis’ episode. He wants the wedding to go well so he can quit paying alimony, but Dee and Frank don’t want his life to have anything resembling happiness so they set out to ruin it. That setup gives the episode an excuse to have the trio wandering around running into all sorts of weirdoes, and for the most part that’s what the episode is. We get side tangents like Charlie and Mac crashing Dee’s car and Dee getting thrown in a freezer, but mostly this is a wandering episode. That’s not a bad thing, though, because the result is one of the most enjoyable episodes of It’s Always Sunny I can remember.

What I most enjoyed about the episode is its commitment to the horror genre. It was scored like a legitimate horror film and even had stretches where it wasn’t necessarily playing things for laughs. Sometimes it was just focused on showcasing the horrifying prospect of a room full of McPoyles. The opening gave the episode a sense of foreboding since we knew at some point things would turn ugly, and I spent most of the twenty-two minutes waiting to see whether the entire place would be blown up or the McPoyles would sacrifice Maureen Ponderosa at the alter. The reveal that everyone was on bath salts was great, although it wasn’t as apocalyptic as I was hoping for.

The episode ends in an interesting place that could possibly guide the rest of the season. Maureen Ponderosa bails Dennis out of jail and is now once again obsessed with him. It’s Always Sunny doesn’t normally extend episode arcs longer than two episodes so I’m interested to see what they do here. They might just drop the storyline and move on, which would be completely fine, but they could also make it a plot point in the next couple of episodes. When the camera zoomed in on Dennis I expected a fakeout that it was all a dream, but it appears we haven’t seen the last of Maureen Ponderosa.

So far into this season of It’s Always Sunny things are looking good. Each episode has been an improvement on the last and the show isn’t showing any signs of aging. We could be looking at a repeat of last year’s fantastic season, and I really hope that’s what we get. As for tonight, we got a strong riff on horror films that gave us a room full of zombie McPoyles and Guillermo del Toro, and I think that’s a sign of a hopeful future.

Loose Ends:

I didn’t even catch Guillermo del Toro in this episode until I saw his name in the credits. What a delightfully unexpected cameo.

Next week, “Charlie & Dee Find Love”.

-Jeremy