Did Mac come out and then stay out?
That was awesome. Needless to say, I'll be hugely disappointed if things return to the old status quo next week and Mac goes back to denying all of this, but for right now - man, what a sweet moment. You don't get to say this too often with Always Sunny, or at all really, but this episode delivered a really touching and powerful few seconds. There was even a bit of silence involved. A quiet surrounding his decision to come out and feel free. I loved it.
I won't fully go into how this move was long overdue, but it's safe to say that the running gag of everyone else in the Gang thinking Mac was gay -- aided and egged on by all the farcical gay things Mac did and said -- outstayed its welcome several seasons ago. There was simply nowhere new to take it. So for the final push over the edge, the last hurrah, they brought out the anal fisting bike (ahem, "Asspounder 4000") and had Mac crazily explain his way around it. It was the final prop in this "bridge too far." And with that final burst of absurdity, Mac came clean.
Behind all this too was Mac's fervent desire call attention to Frank's use of the F-Word. And it made sense, because underneath Mac's closeted-for-the-sake-of-comedy life was someone who'd become more and more hyper-aware of offensive language and ideas. We saw this behavior as recently as the Season 12 premiere when he and Dennis were wondering whether or not they were making too many racist assumptions."Hero or Hate Crime?" had a lot jammed into it. A lot of ideas to expound upon and many messages to get across. That sounds bloated and pretentious, sure, but it wasn't. This episode had the benefit of having all five cast members together in one room for a majority of the time and this, as we know, can be a recipe for greatness. Everyone can bicker among themselves and insult each other while also coming together as an awful united front against an outsider. One of the funniest bits here was the constant firing of mediators who failed to coddle their insanity. To them, an argument over a potentially worthless scratch lottery card was worth the thousands of dollars spent on arbitration and anyone who didn't encourage this stubborn slice of stupidity was ejected.
Everyone also got to get in their bits. Dennis got to be a creepy lech ("a deposit's a load, right?"), Mac got to be holier-than-thou, Dee got to be a sad punching bag, Frank was his usual equal opportunity offender, and Charlie got to purposefully step in a giant pile of dog s*** (if it smells like s***, you must acquit"). The Gang each got to slide into their respective rolls while the hot button topic of hate speech was discussed. And much like "Making Dennis Reynolds a Murderer" felt like a companion to "Old Lady House," this one felt like it was tethered, thematically, to "The Gang Turns Black."