Mrs. McDonald is Mac's mom.
About[]
She is very apathetic, an avid television watcher and a smoker. She worked at Jiffy Lube for many years where she worked her way up from the bottom to the tippy top as manager. She often communicates through a series of guttural noises and grunts and she is good with fixing things like fans. According to Mac she thrives in sunlight so she can't be expected to do any work after dark. She can become violent if someone wakes her up.
She was once married to Mac's dad, Luther. They seem ambivalent towards each other, saying they hate one another and watching television in silence together. She seems to not care about Luther's current relationships, being aware that he has slept with both Bonnie Kelly and Eduardo though shocked at the graphic details. Luther went to jail because he sold meth at an unspecified point before the beginning of the series.
She is shown to care very little about her son Mac, which he is in denial about. She has spoken to him in grunts and mumbles since childhood, to the point where he claims to know what each one means (or rather what he convinces himself they mean). She has also point blank said that she does not love Mac, and agreed to lie to him about his heritage for a few loose cigarettes.
Mrs. McDonald moves in with Bonnie after she burns her house down by accident. Initially neither likes the arrangement despite the gang's insistence to make it work. They eventually find common ground with their mutual dislike of foreigners. [6x6] Other things they have in common: Both have slept with Luther and neither finds Dennis sexually attractive. [2x5]
Character History[]
Season Two[]
After Mac sleeps with Barbara Reynolds, Dennis attempts to seduce Mrs. Mac to get back at him. He sees her on her porch, eating chips and watching TV, but doesn't recognize her at first. He soon suggests they "go inside and have a little fun," but Mrs. Mac bluntly tells him that she's not interested and thinks he's "an ugly man." When Dennis retorts that he finds her ugly, she agrees with him. He soon leaves in a huff. [2x5]
Season Three[]
Frank and Charlie go to Mrs. Mac's house to interview her about her son's suspicious behavior, giving her a fresh cigarette beforehand. She ignores most of the interview questions in favor of smoking and watching TV. When Charlie point-blank asks her if she thinks her son is killing people, she simply states "Yeah." [3x10]
Charlie and Mac throw a dinner party for Frank, Bonnie Kelly, Mrs. Mac, and Luther, who is on parole once again. Mac puts a yellow Christmas bow on his mom's head to freshen her up. Mrs. Mac is completely disinterested in the festivities and, when reuniting with her husband, does nothing but silently watch TV with him. She later directly admits she hates Luther. [3x11]
Season Four[]
Mrs. Mac attends Charlie and Mac's "funeral" (which they are watching from the heating ducts), apparently having "watched a whole episode of Mama's Family then fell asleep." She is clearly unaffected in any way by her son's 'death.' [4x6]
Season Five[]
Dee hosts a bachelorette party for The Waitress, which she hopes will drive her away from her fiancé, Brad Fisher, who Dee wants to start dating. She invites Mrs. Mac and plans for her to say The Waitress looks just like she did when she was younger, in exchange for a carton of cigarettes. Mrs. Mac spends the party sitting with Bonnie on the couch, smoking and drinking, near-comatose. When the party devolves, she abruptly blurts out "I used to look like her" and demands her cigarettes, even though it wasn't her turn to go yet. She later claims the party sucks, to which Dee replies "You suck!". Presumably, she and Bonnie leave shortly after. [5x5]
Appearances[]
- Season 2: "Mac Bangs Dennis' Mom"
- Season 3: "Mac Is a Serial Killer", "Dennis Looks Like a Registered Sex Offender"
- Season 4: "Mac and Charlie Die (Part 2)"
- Season 5: "The Waitress Is Getting Married"
- Season 6: "Mac's Mom Burns Her House Down", "A Very Sunny Christmas"
- Season 8: "Charlie's Mom Has Cancer "
- Season 10: "Mac Kills His Dad," "Ass Kickers United: Mac and Charlie Join a Cult"
- Season 12: "Old Lady House: A Situation Comedy"
- Season 13: "The Gang Beats Boggs: The Ladies Reboot"
- Season 15: "The Gang Goes to Ireland"
- Season Sixteen: "Frank Shoots Every Member of the Gang", "The Gang Gets Cursed", "Frank vs. Russia"
- It’s Always Sunny: Gang Goes Mobile
Trivia[]
- Mrs. McDonald has co-starred in all but two of her appearances with Bonnie Kelly. The exceptions being "Mac Is A Serial Killer" and "The Gang Goes To Ireland" in which Bonnie does not appear.
- Mrs. McDonald is the only parent whose first name is unknown.
- Her last name is never actually given in the show, but since Mac's full name is revealed to be "Ronald McDonald", it can be assumed her last name is McDonald as well. [7x12]
- Though her demeanor is dour in almost all of her appearances on the show, in the videotape that Mac plays in "A Very Sunny Christmas", she appears to be happier.
- One of the only times she's smiled was briefly in amusement to Charlie claiming he took a dump in Bonnie's food. [3x11]
- Mrs. McDonald is revealed to be more talkative when she is not constantly smoking (however this is due to her eating 2 weeks worth of nicotine patches), but is abhorrently racist. She is assigned commissioner like her son, and takes the role seriously enough to push Dee out of the way to tally the Waitress, and brings Bonnie to a baseball field in the end. [13x3]
- Mrs. Mac physically abused Mac as a child. She would hold her finger up to signal for him to stop talking, and if he disobeyed, she burned him with a cigarette lighter. [16x2]