It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia recap: Charlie’s Home Alone

Always Sunny digs deep into nostalgia with a send up of the 90’s classic Home Alone.

Over the past few seasons, Always Sunny has been great at putting their twisted stamp on beloved pop culture properties. They filmed their very own version of Lethal Weapon 5, and in Season 11, they went all out with 80’s ski movie parody ‘The Gang Hits the Slopes‘. When diving into nostalgic waters, the writers on the show have historically been skilled at hitting the sweet spot between reverence and ribbing.

Unfortunately, that streak somewhat ends with ‘Charlie’s Home Alone’. It’s five minutes of set up, followed by fifteen minutes of excruciating and gross-out torture for our pal Charlie (Charlie Day). Since it ends on a cliffhanger, the story may possibly end up redeeming itself next week, but as a standalone chapter in the Sunny-verse, this might just be one of my least favorite episodes of all time.

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We open on Paddy’s Pub as the gang preps to leave for the Super Bowl. The Eagles are playing, and everyone is psyched. Mac (Rob McElhenney) and Dee (Kaitlin Olson) try to corral Charlie into the party bus, but he’s too distracted looking for his Green Man suit. He can’t go to the game without Green Man! He’s got a strict ritual for watching the game. He wears green, drinks yellow (beer), and eats brown (milk steak). But while he’s looking for the suit, someone else ends up nabbing it, putting it on, and pretending to be Charlie so he (she?) can hitch a ride. Everyone thinks it’s Charlie, and so the group leaves, none the wiser.

(Note: This particular episode never reveals who’s in the Green Man suit, but the description outs Cricket as the Charlie wannabe.)

Despite the fact that he’s an adult man, Charlie goes full Home Alone almost immediately. It never once occurs to him that his friends are at the game. Instead of driving to the stadium, he searches everyone’s apartment and then makes his way back to the bar. Soon, two jamokes who resemble the Wet Bandits come knocking at Paddy’s door, leading Charlie to believe that the bar is going to be robbed. He goes into full protection mode, setting up traps all over the bar that resemble Kevin McAllister’s… but are also very much the work of Charlie Kelly. Is Charlie just a grown up Kevin, brain addled with glue and alcohol? Could be.

There are some fun moments that directly send up the original Home Alone that are promising – the iconic aftershave scene, the cheery holiday soundtrack – but they quickly devolve into a horrorshow once Charlie steps into one of his own traps. Ah, Charlie. You dum dum.

The remainder of the episode is a cringe-worthy obstacle course in which Charlie simultaneously attempts to get to the TV while finding ghetto alternatives for his game day rituals. He eats a live rat (brown), slurping down the tail like some bagged spaghetti. Then, he douses himself in paint (green), and finally chugs a pint glass full of his own urine (yellow). The crass pointlessness of it all turned me off to the entire premise, and when the episode finally reached the big cliffhanger – Charlie must reclamp his foot into the bear trap he’d just released it from in order to sustain his fan luck – I felt an overwhelming relief that it was over.

Next week we’ll no doubt catch up with the rest of the gang, and it’s quite possible that this storyline can – and will – be redeemed. See ya then, ya filthy animals.

Random Thoughts Before I Go:

• If Macaulay Culkin doesn’t make a cameo in Part 2, I will be super bummed.
• The Waitress is still trying to have a baby with Charlie. Someone really needs to call child services. This has gone too far.
• Given the recent party bus tragedy in upstate New York, when that thing rattled up to the Paddy’s curb, I definitely got a little worried. But this is the world of Sunny where everyone survives, just to live another miserable day.

‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on FXX.