After being told to leave a private pool because their club membership was “at capacity”, Mac (Rob McElhenney) and Charlie (Charlie Day) spitefully attempt to make their own exclusive swimming pool to prove that they are not lower class. In an effort to prove that they aren’t lumped into the same category of “white trash” with Mac and Charlie, Dennis (Glenn Howerton) and Dee (Kaitlin Olson) plan to get into the exclusive pool. Staying aloof of their shenanigans, Frank avoids their “class conflict” in favor of living life as he sees fit.
When Frank turns down Mac and Charlie for cash in their business venture to set up their own pool, they set out to clean up an extremely deep abandoned pool. In a lapse of judgment, they get themselves stuck in the pool with no way of getting out. While stuck, the death of their old friend, Jimmie Nelson, that drowned in that very pool was a good recurring joke. Allusions ranged from the casual mention of his name in the passing in the afternoon to praying for the peace of his ghost once night had fallen. We also get to see Charlie freak out in cut-offs, something very uncommon in this show for some reason, as he finally calls out Mac for his pseudo-knowledge of karate and back flips. Notwithstanding their failure, part of me wanted to see them succeed in building their pool so that Charlie’s underwater “cans connected by string” communication device would come to fruition.
Despite their claim to being upper class, Dee and Dennis get the same “at capacity” claim from the pool guy and are forced to go to the public pool like the rest of the lower class. It was funny to see their disgust at everyone wearing shoes at the pool only to realize that the bottom of the pool was, in fact, covered in broken glass. Meanwhile, Frank is busy living life like he wants to by trying to breaking a fire hydrant to cool off and greasing up a watermelon and throwing it in the pool to see people play “grab the watermelon”. Getting fed up with the public pool, they ambush a small family from a bush in order to get sponsorship for the private swimming club. Their plan fails and Dennis attempts to bum rush the pool only to get tackled by a very attentive pool guy.
On a separate, Kaitlin Olson’s pregnancy during the filming of season 6 becomes apparent through subtle clues throughout the episode. The people at Sunny did a great job concealing her stomach while keeping her at the forefront of the episode; were it not for a slight bulge from a towel wrapped around her waist at the pool, a towel Frank traded for a bite of his hotdog, it would‘ve slipped me completely. With this in mind, you can see Dee’s stomach hidden from view throughout the episode by the pool, nonconforming clothes, and a giant purse. I’ve seen other shows come up with ways around main character pregnancies, but I’m curious to see how Always Sunny handles this new obstacle.
In a fashion unlike many episodes, the gang learns a lesson and join Frank’s class-free lifestyle by cooling themselves off with a fire hydrant. While a fairly average episode, it was still enjoyable to watch the gang come together in all of their lower class, self indulgent glory.
Original Author: Andrew Ebanks