The second episode of Always Sunny catches up where the premiere left off. Dennis realizes that he’s made a huge mistake by marrying his old high school sweetheart, Maureen Ponderosa, affectionately known to the group as “Dead Tooth”. Dee is having an affair with Maureen’s brother, Bill Ponderosa and Frank and Charlie have gotten married so that Charlie could reap the benefits of Frank’s healthcare. Mac, as we eventually learn, lives in Patty’s Pub after being kicked out by Dennis. As per usual, everyone is in right mind and has everything figured out for themselves.
In my previous review of the premiere episode, I said that while the story wasn’t very strong it still had enough laughs to get me through the episode. This time around, however, the story does get the finality I asked for, but misses the marks in terms of humor. At the end of the first episode we see Dennis acting differently once he realizes that Maureen’s not the girl he thought he married and in this episode nothing seems to have changed except there were less laughs this time around. To be fair, I did enjoy the scene with him and Maureen, that could best be described as fake, playful strangling. As expected, their pseudo-happiness doesn’t last long when Dennis comes home drunk and tells her openly of his dislike for her and her dead tooth. As expected divorce ensues.
As predictable as this episode was, great twists came in the form of the Ponderosas. While I was quick to label them as just another set of innocent bystanders susceptible to the depravity of the Gang, they turned out to be just as deranged and manipulative. At first I believe Maureen to be a cute, loving girl that foolishly fell in love with Dennis, but the next moment we find her reenacting the scene from Fear by repeatedly beating herself and threatening to call the cops to say that Dennis abused her. Wow. Her brother, Bill Ponderosa, looked like he was seduced by Dee into buying her a BMW, but then we find out he not only had another mistress, but the car “belonged” to her first. With Dee as his accomplice, he kidnaps his children from his wife’s custody.
The revelations about gay marriage at the end of the previous episode appeared to have been non-existent as far as Frank and Charlie were concerned. They started this episode still arguing about the same thing as before except this time they’re married. I thought there was a lot of potential in Frank and Charlie‘s marriage of “two cool straight dudes, not gay“, but all we really see of them are arguments about getting married, arguments about money, and arguments about getting divorced. We do get an allusion to them eating food of the table rather than washing dishes, but it doesn‘t come close to their usual antics when they aren‘t married. On the bright side we did get to see their laminated birth certificate hanging around Charlie’s neck.
With everyone in need of a divorce lawyer to solve all their problems, who else to call in their time of need but Charlie’s pedophilic uncle Jack? There’s just something about Jack’s fetish of touching hands and posting pictures of them on his website that brings light to an otherwise dark occasion. Despite everything looking it will crash in everyone’s faces, the episode ends on a fair note with Frank and Charlie getting an annulment and Dee having slightly less pride and no car, Dennis gets the short end of the stick in having to pay Maureen’s $90,000 debt plus alimony in the divorce. Maureen was lucky her lawyer had “hands like a model”.
“Dennis Gets Divorced” finally puts an end to a storyline I wasn’t overly fund of from the beginning. Both the premiere and the second episode were nowhere near the best, but they still offered me enough laughs to make me optimistic for the coming episode: “The Gang Buys a Boat”. Unlike this present episode, I can’t possibly predict where this one might lead.
Original Author: Andrew Ebanks