Its Always Sunny Mac Finds His Pride Review

'Mac Finds His Pride' is the testify at its bravest, most serious, and absolute best.

By  · Published on November 8th, 2018

Spoilers for the season 13 finale of 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'

The thirteenth season of It's Ever Sunny in Philadelphia has come and gone. Between a ingather of new writers and Glenn Howerton's simply partial commitment, it'southward been an uneven 10-episode run. There were some low points (that Superbowl two-parter didn't quite live upwards to the hype) and some truly high points ("Time'due south Up for the Gang" proved that even a xiii-yr-old evidence tin have a fresh take on social issues).

And then there's the concluding five minutes of the finale.

To quote one of the show'south often-used phrases, Jesus Christ, dude.

Rob McElhenney (Mac) has passed off his latest outrageous body transformation as purely comedic, a riff on the tendency in media for regular guys to take off their shirts for no reason and exist unbelievably buff underneath. And that'southward certainly part of information technology. It's a joke that plays well in the premiere, when he unveils his new physique to confusion and absolutely no acclaim from the residuum of the gang. Only let's be honest: It was really for the spectacle (and the sheer athletic feat) of that dance sequence.

And good God was information technology worth it.

The episode, entitled "Mac Finds His Pride," centers effectually what is probably the show'south rarest pairing: Frank and Mac. (Honestly, have those two had any adventures alone together since Rum Ham?) The decision makes a lot of sense, and Frank is the perfect foil for Mac's search for his new identity as a gay homo. A good 35 years older than everyone else, Frank has forever been the gang'due south most outdated and out of touch member. (Mac's coming out last year was kickstarted, after all, by Frank calling him a faggot).

And then Frank'southward role as reluctant fairy godmother to the bar's Pride float's "prize gay" makes for some swell lines shouted across cultural and generational divides that only Danny DeVito could evangelize. It makes up a large portion of the episode, and it'south funny enough in its ain right. But it as well leads to the show's greatest moment of growth and reconciliation, as Frank is moved to tears by Mac's attempt to come out to his father. With Mac's dad having long ago stormed out, Frank takes on the role of the proud parent Mac has always sought.

The episode may be called "Mac Finds His Pride," but in that terminal moment, Frank has discovered a pride all his ain, for the only member of the gang who isn't in some way his child, and who's always badly wanted a begetter.

It's an unimpeachable emotional performance from DeVito, and another reason he's the just logical choice for Mac's counterpart. Danny DeVito is a veteran motion-picture show actor, and while he usually relishes the dirtiest and strangest things the show can throw at him (the man can eat on camera like no i else), he'south also capable of incredible depth.

Those final five minutes accept a cinematic quality to them that the show has never even approached before. Here's an exercise: Choice out someone you know hasn't seen this episode, show them that last shot of DeVito, eyes wet with revelation and respect, and ask them what information technology's from. I dare you to find a single person who guessesIt'due south E'er Sunny in Philadelphia.

But while Frank's moment of revelation is beautiful, information technology'south nothing compared to Mac'due south dance. The whole sequence, in which Mac tries to voice the struggle he's felt his entire life, is artful and audacious and honest-to-God stunning.

Its explanation is parsed out skillfully — Mac gives a straightforward (if muddled) interpretation early in the episode:

"In that location's this storm inside of me, and it'south been raging my whole life, and I'm down on my knees and I'm looking for answers, and and then God comes down to me, and it's a very hot chick, and she pulls me up and we start dancing."

At the fourth dimension of the explanation, it comes off every bit a joke, and a adept ane at that. For years i of Mac'south defining features has been the disharmonize betwixt his sexuality and his religion, and the mental acrobatics he'due south done both in and out of the closet accept been the source of a lot of laughs.

Even this season, when asked if he's more gay than he is Cosmic, Mac shows wonderfully genuine consternation and says "I don't know. They're at war." Mayhap he started choreographing his dance that very 24-hour interval.

Information technology's a good thing he did. Because while Mac'south hopeless attempts to define his feelings become fifty-fifty funnier with repetition (his dad's interpretation that he's "finally knocked someone up" is as hilarious every bit it is heartbreaking) they go the hard parts out of the way and pave the route for the dance itself, offered up perfectly without explanation and without any attempt at humor. Five minutes straight without a joke in this show is across a record.

But they're arguably the all-time five minutes it'south always washed.

Emotional moments in Ever Sunny are exceptionally rare. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don't. I tend to be a sucker for them, largely because their scarcity gives them such a punch.

Only this emotional moment is a different creature altogether. There's no stinger, no last-infinitesimal joke to let the air out a little. The episode (and the season) ends on a conflagration of intense emotions: Mac'southward struggles with God, his male parent, and himself, and on Frank's epiphany: his understanding, at 75 years onetime, of a completely unlike indicate of view that he vowed several times over he was never going to get.

It's goddamn cute.

The emotional payoff comes not just from the characters, merely from the creative achievement of the bear witness itself. Information technology means so much not just because of what it is, but because of where it'south come from and how much it's evolved. It doesn't look or experience annihilation similar the evidence it began as thirteen years ago.

Hell, it doesn't fifty-fifty feel like the bear witness information technology was last week.

Not that there's anything wrong with what it was like before. Simply after thirteen years of doing something that works, trying your manus at something that might not work is worthy of praise. Five minutes without a joke in a half hour comedy is dauntless. A wordless, completely serious dance on a dark stage with a comedian who is non a dancer is something else entirely.

And the payoff is exquisite. The dance, performed in the rain with the outstanding Kylie Shea and ready to "Varúð" by Sigur Rós, is a sight to behold, and not just considering of McElhenney'south body. Information technology's spare, and emotive, and gorgeously shot. It's a lotion of visual and aural dazzler that gathers upwards a decade and a half of jokes and insinuations and transcends them into something raw and fiercely human.

Granted, Rob McElhenney wrote near of those jokes and insinuations himself, and there's nothing incorrect with that, either. This bear witness has a fascinating history of evolution over the years every bit it'south ridden with the times and what it is able or willing to attain for. McElhenney createdAlways Sunny in 2005 out of a sense of frustration and desire for creative control.If it's anyone's prove, information technology's his. And this is very much his episode — shared with Charlie Twenty-four hour period, this is the simply one of the season he has a writing credit on. And only like no ane asked him to make this prove, or to gain sixty pounds, probably no one asked him to get into incredible shape, or to perform a deadly serious interpretive coming out dance.

Rob McElhenney does precisely what he wants with the end of this episode, conventions be damned, and the result is maybe the most stunning scene on television this twelvemonth.

All that being said, the residue of the episode isn't perfect.

Dee and Charlie are barely seen, conspicuously at that place only for the sake of beingness in the finale… which is all the stranger due to Dennis' absenteeism. He's at least mentioned, pregnant he hasn't run back off to N Dakota for the hiatus, but it'due south an odd choice to pay such brusque lip service to Dee and Charlie'southward presence and not at to the lowest degree moving picture information technology on a day that Howerton was on fix.

Even Frank and Mac's scenes aren't trouble-free. Frank's incessant barrage of confront battery and his attempts to "set" information technology are fun, certain, just like much of "Charlie'southward Home Solitary," they lean a little too hard on grotesquerie and shock. With so many serious conversations well-nigh identity and acceptance, Frank's latest remedy is sometimes the only funny matter to happen in a scene, and it's relied upon perhaps also much to do the heavy comedic lifting.

Granted, information technology'south like shooting fish in a barrel to read Frank'southward self-destructive balms as an analogy for Mac'due south ain years of repression, and information technology'due south all but shouted when Frank exhorts him to let the claret out, like he has. Information technology's a prissy illustration. I only wish it hadn't already been used last week, when Frank's kidney rock represented the pent up frustrations of Philadelphia Eagles fans. I'd be curious to know which was written showtime.

There's also the slight hiccup that, canonically, Mac's dad has had sex with men outside prison before. Nosotros learned near it in "Mac Kills His Dad," and and then did Mac — at the fourth dimension it was yet some other opportunity for him to willfully misinterpret the obvious signs before him to comedic effect. Now it'due south something we more or less have to retcon to give the finale its full impact, simply that'southward easily done. I'd forgive and forget nearly anything for the sake of that ending.

As far as this episode is concerned, Mac is a man who's ever sought his father'due south approving, performing a massive feat of bravery by sharing something in a vulnerable and intimate mode that'south probable to exist met with disapproval. Information technology's a special, daring, and essential story to tell.

And information technology came from that comedy y'all and your buddies watched in college and didn't fifty-fifty know was notwithstanding on.

Ever Sunny hasn't ever been on signal this season, merely information technology's been on more than enough. In recent years information technology'due south gravitated more and more toward the artistically and creatively audacious, giving united states a musical episode, a true offense episode, one inside Frank's head, one inside a locked room slowly filling with water. We even got a parody of Ski Schoolhouse, a film not much of the show's main demographic has probably even seen.

But this episode is something else entirely, an expression of artistry that'south beautiful in its own right, but fifty-fifty more beautiful in context. It's as stunning for its exquisite execution equally for the fact that it came admittedly out of nowhere.

"Mac Finds His Pride" isn't flawless. But those last 5 minutes might be.

Related Topics: Comedy, Culture, it'due south ever sunny in philadelphia

Liz Baessler is a frequent correspondent and exceptional columnist at Motion-picture show School Rejects. She has an MA in English and a lot of time on her hands. (She/Her)

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