The Gang Gets a New Member

The Gang Gets a New Member
Information
Season	Six
Episode	Eight
Writer(s)	David Hornsby
Director(s)	Matt Shakman
Air Date	November 4, 2010
Chronology
Preceded by	"Who Got Dee Pregnant?"
Followed by	"Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth"

"The Gang Gets a New Member" is the eighth episode of the sixth season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Synopsis

A blast from the past prompts the guys to expand membership and Dee to re-consider her future.

Plot

11:30 AM On a Monday, Philadelphia, PA

The gang is excited at the prospect of opening a time capsule they buried for themselves ten years ago, as Charlie does a dance to celebrate. When they open the time capsule, Dee finds a letter she wrote to herself and reads it out loud. The gang finds it increasingly embarrassing as she reveals she assumes she would be a famous and rich actress by now, and Dee eventually walks out on the gang under the excuse that she finds opening a time capsule stupid. The rest of the gang then discover photographs, and Frank asks about a previous member of the gang named Schmitty in a photo of them together. While Charlie recounts disliking him and throwing him out of the gang by pushing him out of a moving vehicle, Dennis and Mac admits they actually enjoyed having Schmitty around. They then decide to visit and reconnect with Schmitty, much to Charlie's chagrin.

Dee visits her old high school to find her theater teacher Dr. Larry Meyers, as her letter had attributed him as her inspiration to pursue acting, and she prematurely signed a thank-you check to repay him for her assumed successful acting career she would have by now. As she tries to find motivation to continue pursuing acting from him, Dr. Meyers discourages her from acting and offers her to be a guest teacher and speaker for his class instead. Although Dee has no interest, she caves under Dr. Meyers' pressure tactics and agrees.

The guys find Schmitty at his mother's house and proceeds to apologize and ask him to rejoin the gang. Dennis, Mac, and Frank find Schmitty delightful with his sense of humor and being amiable to the gang. When they go back to the bar, however, Charlie is increasingly frustrated at Schmitty effortlessly upstaging him. When Charlie is unable to take it any longer, he offers an ultimatum to Dennis and Mac to choose between Schmitty or himself. Dennis and Mac easily agree to choose Schmitty, and Charlie leaves the bar.

Dee now enthusiastically speaks for one of Dr. Meyers' class as a "successful" actress, but the students are unruly and unimpressed. Dr. Meyers himself is also unmotivated, explaining that the vigor he had when Dee was a student was largely attributed to his alcoholism, and now mostly lets the students do whatever they want as a sober teacher. Dee is then pulled aside by Charlie, who now wants to be closer friends with Dee after being kicked out of the gang. She advises Charlie to find friends doing a job he is good at elsewhere, namely being a janitor, and Charlie then takes this to mean he should apply to be a janitor at her high school so they can be better friends.

Dennis, Mac, and Frank take Schmitty out to lunch at a restaurant, seeking to initiate Schmitty back into the gang officially. They offer Schmitty to take a silver leaf ring that, when put together with the other rings the other members have, make a four-leaf clover as a sign of being in the gang. Schmitty seems to find the formalities strange, but agree nonetheless. They are then served food without allowing to order, as the gang explains that Dennis orders food ahead of time for everyone since "he has the best palate." Schmitty immediately disagrees, and begins to order food for himself and Mac and Frank, and Mac and Frank are happy at this change. Dennis simply looks on silently and angrily.

Charlie is interviewed by the high school's principal, as he has applied to be the school's "substitute janitor." He offers to do all "degrading" chores, seemingly showing desperation to be accepted in the only way he knows how. The principal accepts to hire him.

Back at the bar, Dennis, Mac, and Frank are anxious about Schmitty being late to an initiation ceremony they intend to hold for Schmitty rejoining the gang. When he arrives, the gang is taken aback by his lackadaisical attitude for being punctual or taking the ceremony seriously. They begin the ceremony with music regardless, and Mac attempts multiple times to ring a bell via a "roundhouse kick" that he fails at. When Schmitty interrupts Mac and kicks the bell in a single try, the gang all look darkly at each other. They then take Schmitty in Dennis's Range Rover, apparently to the next step in the ceremony to go on a hot air balloon ride. However, they attempt to push Schmitty out of the car much like they had apparently done the first time they kicked Schmitty out of the group. They are unsuccessful, as Frank was responsible and could not make Schmitty budge. An unamused Schmitty simply asks for the gang to pull over to let him out of the car.

Dee steps up her efforts to inspire Dr. Meyers' class by offering to reprise her role as Frankenstein's monster, a role that Dr. Meyers was most proud of her for acting in her past, while doing a reading of the play with the class. Dr. Meyers is impressed, and offers to play Dr. Frankenstein himself. When Dr. Meyers runs up to the classroom stage, however, he slips spectacularly and falls to the ground. Crying out in pain, he claims he has shattered his hip due to the stage being overly waxed.

The scene cuts to Charlie waxing the high school halls, implying he is indirectly responsible for Dr. Meyers falling. Dennis, Mac, and Frank catch up to Charlie and begs for Charlie to rejoin the gang. Charlie ultimately rejects them, claiming that he is now officially a janitor.

Starring

• Charlie Day as Charlie Kelly
• Glenn Howerton as Dennis Reynolds
• Rob McElhenney as Mac
• Kaitlin Olson as Dee Reynolds
• Danny DeVito as Frank Reynolds

Special Guest Star

• Rene Auberjonois as Dr. Larry Meyers
• Dave Foley as Principal MacIntyre

Guest Starring

• Jason Sudeikis as Schmitty

Co-Starring

• Ray! Auxais as Tyrone
• Johnny Pemberton as Craig
• Lauren Whitney Pennington as Lisa
• Susan Moses as Schmitty's Mom

Trivia

• Jason Sudeikis co-stars with Charlie Day in the movies Going the Distance, Horrible Bosses and Horrible Bosses 2, as well as an episode of Saturday Night Live which Charlie hosted (s37e05).
• "Sadeness (Part I)" by Enigma plays during Schmitty's initiation ceremony.
• Though this is not officially a two-part episode, storylines begun on this episode are resolved in the next episode, "Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth".
• When Dr. Myers says "A teacher is born", He is not wearing glasses... then they cut to a different angle where he is wearing glasses.
• When Charlie tosses the ring back to Mac, he supposedly catches it and is holding it. However, when Charlie turns and begins to walk away, you can see the ring is on the ground behind Mac's feet.

Quotes

Dee: Where is the teacher that I knew? Where is that inspirational man?

Dr. Larry Meyers: My enthusiasm in those days was fueled entirely by the alcohol.

 

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“(on the job interview) And I'm not a proud man, you know? I'll do the jobs that the other guys don't want to do. I'll degrade myself. I'll make a genuine ass out of myself, yeah... Hey, look, I swallow that eraser whole just to prove it to you!”