The Gang is enjoying Charlie doing a butt dance before they open up a time capsule they buried from ten years ago. Inside, things they thought would be valuable in ten years; Gregg Jeffries baseball card, Korn CD, a Cider House Rules laserdisc (remember those!?!), and a letter Dee wrote to her future self.
Dear Future Dee,
How’s Hollywood? Congrats on all your success. Stay grounded. Enclosed is a check for $1 million. Be sure to give it to Dr. Larry Meyers as a thank you for all of his inspiration.
Dee’s hormones go into overdrive, she’s upset she hasn’t fulfilled her dreams and she leaves.
The rest of the Gang continue through the time capsule and find old pictures including one of the “original” Gang that included a guy named Schmitty.
Frank asks “Who’s this jack off?” and Charlie explains how he wasn’t a good fit and got on their nerves. Dennis and Mac remember that he never got on their nerves, but he got on Charlie’s nerves. Charlie had given them an ultimatum, him or Schmitty.
They chose Charlie and ended up pushing Schmitty out of a moving car. They decide to go visit him much to Charlie’s chagrin. They meet Schmitty and he messes with them, which they (except Charlie) absolutely love.
Meanwhile, Dee heads back to her old high school to visit Dr. Meyers. He definitely remembers Deandra. She was in the school’s presentation of Frankenstein. He apologizes if he did anything inappropriate to her back then because he was drinking a lot back then. But no, that’s not it. Dee says he was actually her most inspirational teacher.
He says it is too late for her to make it in acting, but it’s not too late for her to come in and inspire the high school students. He convinces her to be a new teacher.
At Paddy’s, Charlie tries to get the guys to sour on Schmitty, but Schmitty does everything to entertain them, including one-upping Charlie’s butt dance. (It’s actually really lame, but they love it anyway.) Schmitty even dares question Charlie’s Night Crawlers game mechanics.
Dennis, Mac, and Frank then say Schmitty has the “it factor,” the charisma that Charlie doesn’t have. Charlie demands to talk to Dennis and Mac in the office and gives them an ultimatum. But they choose Schmitty over him.
At the high school, Dee introducers herself to the class but they’re a bunch of punks and Dr. Meyers doesn’t give a crap what they do in class anyway. Dee can’t believe the inspirational man is gone. He says it was just fueled by the alcohol.
Suddenly, Charlie shows up at the door wanting to be best friends with Dee. She says she’s busy inspiring students, and Charlie asks for some inspiration too after getting kicked out of the group.
“You are really good at cleaning shit out of toilets and taking trash and throwing it in the dumpsters, so why don’t you get a new job somewhere else doing those kinds of things and make friends there, okay?”
Charlie takes that as meaning he should go to the principal and get a job at the school as the janitor, that way he can get closer with Dee.
He goes to the principal and presents him with his resume a picture of Bruce Jenner, hoping the picture would show the “standard of excellence” he’s hoping to bring to the position of substitute janitor.
“I’m not a proud man, you know. I’ll do the jobs the other guys don’t want to do. I’ll degrade myself. I’ll make a genuine ass out of myself. Hey, I’ll swallow that eraser whole just to prove to ya!”
Principal Dave Foley says it’s okay, he doesn’t need to eat the eraser, but he loves his attitude and give him the job. Charlie thanks him, but still wants to eat the eraser.
The guys invite Schmitty out to lunch. They present him with a ring to make their friendship official, one that each of them will have and when put together, forms a four leaf clover. He thinks that’s odd but what the heck. Then he thinks it is weird that Dennis orders their lunches for them even when neither Mac nor Frank like what Dennis orders. (Dennis has the better palette.)
Schmitty then enlightens Mac and Frank to order whatever they want and to decide things for themselves.
Next day, Schmitty goes to the pub for his final initiation rites. He thinks this is all weird but they say this is all cool.
They start by playing a song while Mac tries to do a roundhouse kick to a bell but he misses it several times. Instead, Schmitty kicks it himself. He’s ruining the ceremony. They take him in the car and plan to push him out again, but Frank can’t do it on his own. Schmitty can’t believe it. He tells them to just pull over. He says nice seeing you guys and gets out.
Back at the high school, Dee plans to have the class act out a scene from Frankenstein, hoping to inspire Dr. Meyers and the students today.
“Rise and shine dickwad!”
They start, two students up on stage with Dr. Meyers playing the piano. Dee then comes out dressed as Frankenstein and gives a rousing performance which excites Dr. Meyers for the first time without alcohol. He rushes up to the stage, but slips and falls on his back.
“I am shattered to pieces!!”
“Are you acting right now?” Dee asks.
“No I’m not acting, you bitch! I think I’ve broke my hip.”
Dr. Meyers wonders why the stage is so slippery. Cut to new substitute janitor Charlie waxing the hallways. The guys come over to him, careful not to slip on the slippery floors. Charlie tells them…
“Dee inspired me. She said ‘You’re an awesome janitor Charlie. You could make this whole school slippery. ’ I said, ‘Sure, I’ll give it my best shot.’ Then she said ‘Let’s be best friends,’ and I was like ‘Sure, I’ll give that my best shot too.’ So we’re best friends now.”
They apologize to him and want to ask him back into the Gang by offering him one of the rings. But Charlie replies…
“That’s pretty classy guys. But I wish you gave me one of these a long time ago. ‘Cuz I’m a janitor now.”
He goes back to waxing the hallways.
Episode Thoughts
This was a very interesting episode. I thought it was okay, one of the more middle of the road episodes of Sunny.
Until the last two minutes which were absolutely gold! They made the episode for me.
Anytime the Gang sings or dances is awesome. And FrankenDee was very very awesome. Plus the Gang crawling back to Charlie was awesome in a different way.
It seems like they’ve smartened up Charlie this season. He isn’t the loveable illiterate goof anymore. He actually knows things and can think for himself. Dare I say he might even be more mature now? Even just a little bit.
I have to say, I like it. I didn’t think I would, but actually seeing it, I do. It is very interesting to see Charlie and even Dee, always the butt of the jokes from the others, standing up for themselves.
Strange to consider on Sunny, but it has worked.
A detailed recap is nice and all, but you know what’s even better? Actually watching the full episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia!
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