Dennis, Dee, Frank, Mac, and Charlie, better known by their self-appointed shorthand “the Gang," are famous for being the most morally reprehensible, terrible people on television. In every episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the Gang (or, at the very least, one of its members) will do something absolutely abhorrent.
More often than not, the characters will face no consequences for their actions and everything will go back to normal in time for the next episode. But that doesn’t happen every single week. So, here are 10 Times The Always Sunny Gang Actually Faced Consequences For Their Actions.
The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis
In It’s Always Sunny’s first really meta episode, “The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis,” the Gang decides to buy gasoline by the barrel and sell it door-to-door. Meanwhile, Frank and Dee use a spy van to keep an eye on the man they think is Bruce Mathis, Dennis and Dee’s biological father. When these two plots converge, Charlie cuts the van’s brakes. Frank’s spy van is destroyed in the ensuing crash as it rams into not Bruce Mathis’ car, although, he’s a wealthy man, so he can afford to lose a spy van or two—and the Gang did get to just walk away after unwittingly destroying a man’s entire life.
Thunder Gun Express
Told almost in real-time, season 7’s “Thunder Gun Express” chronicles the Gang’s attempts to get across a gridlocked Philly to a movie theater to catch Thunder Gun Express, the highest-grossing action blockbuster of all time, in which the protagonist “hangs dong.” Dennis is the first to be abandoned when his car gets stuck in traffic. Frank is the second to go because he’s not fast enough to hop on the train with everyone else.
In the end, Frank gets arrested for hijacking a tour guide’s boat to see the movie. Then, at the police station, he uses his one phone call to call in a bomb threat to the theater, so the rest of the Gang don’t get to see the movie.
The Gang Buys a Boat
“The Gang Buys a Boat” opens with Dennis, Mac, and Charlie investing their D**kTowel.com royalties in a party boat. Everyone has their own reason for wanting a boat. For example, Charlie wants to haul in a Forrest Gump-sized amount of shrimp, while Dennis wants to scare women into sleeping with him by using “the implication.”
Throughout the episode, as they attempt to renovate the boat, they dump a bunch of trash in the ocean. In the end, the Gang is cosmically punished for all of this wrong when Frank, Charlie, and Dee’s reckless negligence gets the boat burned down.
Wolf Cola: A Public Relations Nightmare
Frank, Dennis, and Dee become victims of the 24-hour news cycle when a terrorist group announces that Wolf Cola—a soft drink produced by one of Frank’s shell corporations, Frank’s Fluids—is their new official drink. So, the trio goes on a morning show to publicly apologize and only end up making things worse.
By the end, they realize they can’t get on top of the scandal or improve public opinion of them, but they can wait for the media to focus on a new scandal. However, when that new scandal breaks as a result of Mac and Charlie pushing Fight Milk on the UFC, one Frank’s Fluids scandal gets replaced by another Frank’s Fluids scandal.
Paddy’s Pub: The Worst Bar in Philadelphia
The Gang may not have been convicted at the end of “Paddy’s Pub: The Worst Bar in Philadelphia,” but they failed to hide the truth about their bar and they also had their shenanigans revealed to the city. In the episode, Paddy’s Pub gets a negative review in a local paper. Charlie is particularly irked by it and kidnaps the critic who wrote it to force him to come up with a new review. In the end, they knock him out and return him to his apartment in the hopes that he’ll forget the whole thing. The next day, he writes a new, incriminating review instead of pressing charges against the Gang.
Mac and Dennis Move to the Suburbs
In “Mac and Dennis Move to the Suburbs,” Mac and Dennis think the answer to their problems could be to get a house in the suburbs. Frank tells them that if they last one month in the suburbs, he’ll pay their rent for a year, but, if they don’t make it, they’ll have to spend that year sharing a bed with an old man. The suburbs drive them against each other, but they almost win the bet.
However, when they realize that the prize is a year’s free rent at this terrible suburban pit, they cave at the last second and end up having to spend a year sleeping with an old man. And, due to a side wager, Dee had to join them.
The Gang Gets Extreme: Home Makeover Edition
Inspired by Ty Pennington, the Gang decides to give the neighboring Mexican family’s house a surprise renovation in “The Gang Gets Extreme: Home Makeover Edition,” in order to bring good things to their lives. Dee believes that this vision-board technique works because she used it to get her mother’s old mansion.
However, the Mexican family isn’t thrilled by the Gang’s efforts to give their home a makeover because, as far as they can tell, they’ve been kidnapped by extremists in the middle of the night. Dee ends up losing the house to settle the suit when Dennis and Charlie burn the house down.
Dennis and Dee Go on Welfare
Dennis and Dee are very optimistic about their careers at the beginning of season 2’s “Dennis and Dee Go on Welfare,” as they quit Paddy’s to receive unemployment benefits and follow their dreams. In a bid to qualify for welfare, Dennis tells the receptionist that he is “a recovering crackhead,” and she asks to see paperwork to prove it.
Naturally, Dennis and Dee decide to try a little bit of crack and get a doctor’s note confirming it. They end up actually getting addicted to crack, which has been the subject of occasional callbacks throughout the series in the years since.
The Gang Recycles Their Trash
In perhaps It’s Always Sunny’s most meta episode, “The Gang Recycles Their Trash” sees the characters redoing a bunch of things they’ve already done in past seasons. As the season 8 premiere, this was a commentary on how TV shows begin to run out of ideas when they’ve been on the air for long enough. In “The Gang Recycles Their Trash,” the guys go door-to-door, collecting trash, while the garbage collectors are on strike. They decide to dump the trash in an urban neighborhood and get promptly ambushed by a bunch of workers at a strike rally down the street.
The Gang Beats Boggs
The season 10 premiere “The Gang Beats Boggs” had a novel premise. The Gang boards a plane and tries to beat the drinking record set by baseball legend Wade Boggs. He reportedly once drank 50 beers on a flight between games (although conflicting reports have the total at 60 or 70, and Boggs himself claims he drank over 100 beers that day), and the Gang wanted to recreate that. Dennis and Frank made a side wager to see who could get laid first, and this led to Dennis getting a woman pregnant. This has since changed Dennis’ life forever, cutting his presence in Philadelphia down by half.