"Waiting for Big Mo" is the 10th and final episode of the fourteenth season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and the 154th episode of the series overall.
Synopsis[]
Dennis and Charlie stand guard at the entrance to their laser tag base waiting to ambush the legendary "Big Mo," but Dennis begins to ponder the reasons they play laser tag and if their pursuit of a victory is worth their effort.
Plot[]
1:45 PM On a Saturday, Philadelphia, PA
The gang is playing laser tag, with Dennis and Charlie guarding their green team's base. Charlie complains of boredom and wants to have fun with the rest of the players, but Dennis insists they must stay vigilant due to the rising score of "Big Mo" on the leaderboard.
As Charlie continues to question why Dennis is insistent on winning the game rather than having fun, Mac and Dee return to the base arguing. Dennis belittles and withholds compliments from Mac while praising Dee, revealing to Charlie that this strategy makes Mac subservient and angry while Dee's low self-esteem causes her to think she is unworthy of compliments and thus makes her angry as well. Dennis uses this to their team's advantage as he sends Mac and Dee back up into the air ducts to unfairly play the game and keep their score high.
Dennis is further irritated when Frank returns to their base, wanting to hang out. When Dennis forbids Frank from leaving in the middle of the game to buy lunch for Charlie, Charlie angrily reveals Frank's vest and gun are not powered on. Dennis has purposefully kept Frank's equipment off to prevent Frank from being an easy target for enemy teams to score on, as well as provide a safe distraction, and Frank has been using his imagination to play the entire time. Dennis relents to letting Frank play normally, but tricks Frank into believing he turned on his equipment by making sounds with his mouth.
Dennis's strategy begins to fall apart when he notices the gang's team score dropping on the leaderboard. Mac and Dee have stopped hiding in the air ducts and reveal they are having fun "for the first time" playing the game normally after listening to Charlie's arguments earlier about having fun instead of winning. Dennis fails to convince them to stick to their old strategy, revealing they have been playing laser tag with the same strategy for many years with Dennis feeling successful earning the Laser Tag Fun Zone currency from winning. Frank has riled up other players to play more intensely when he spread rumors to other players they were attracted to their children. Charlie turns on Frank's equipment for the first time before sending him back out.
As they continue to guard their base, Dennis begins to make headway convincing Charlie that winning stands for their legacy and reputation, and that they will be forgotten if they let "Big Mo" take that away from them. Charlie is quickly defused, however, when Frank returns with food for Charlie. When Dennis yells that losing is not in the spirit of the fictional founder of the laser tag "Rutherford B. Crazy" printed on the Laser Tag Fun Zone currency, Frank reveals he knew the real founder named Larry Takashi. After looking up the founder on his phone, Dennis mentions that despite being a successful businessman, he lived a miserable life, contrasting the image Dennis exalted about Rutherford B. Crazy as a happy character due to being successful and "winning." With this realization, Dennis gives up his pursuit to continue winning, and exits the base with Frank and Charlie to go play the game. "Big Mo" finally arrives at an empty green base as an unassuming kid despite his perceived threat by the gang. The whole gang then surround Big Mo from all sides, having waited for him after all, and shoot him relentlessly.
Cast[]
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
Co-Starring[]
- Conlan Harveson as Big Mo
Trivia[]
- This episode was inspired by the play Waiting for Godot. In addition, it served as an allegory for the show as a whole, with "Big Mo" being the changing tide of the culture, and "Green Base" being Paddy's Pub in the show's world and the show itself in our own.
- The opening theme for this episode is from the 5th movement of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, which uses the Dies Irae motif that has featured heavily in Western music for centuries.
- In "Mac Day," the name of the bodybuilder that Mac is helping grease up is "Big Moe."
- This is a bottle episode, taking place entirely in the Gang's base.
- Here, Charlie is shown to wear barefoot glove-shoes to make Dennis happy, similar to his over the top wetsuit getup in preparation for the waterpark.
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