It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Season 16 Brings In The Characters We've Been Waiting For
This article contains spoilers for season 16, episode 7 of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."
The gang on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" tend to have a pretty intense effect on anyone they interact with, especially if they were a little strange to begin with. Some of these characters have become as beloved as the gang themselves. The cast of wild characters has grown, but so far in season 16, they've been absent, save for Rickety Cricket (David Hornsby), the former Catholic priest whose interactions with the gang led him down a path of misery and destitution. (There was also a pretty big Uncle Jack appearance, but I'm not sure his character is exactly beloved...)
In the latest episode, "The Gang Goes Bowling," fans are treated to appearances by a whole slew of "Sunny" regulars, including the Waitress (Mary Elizabeth Ellis), Gail the Snail (Mary Lynn Rajskub), Artemis (Artemis Pebdani), and the McPoyles! The episode is a battle of the sexes, pitting the girls' bowling team (the "Frigeit B****es") against the boys' (the "Hanging Monster Dong Lucky Strike Chili Cheese Fryers"), and it gives all of the wacky side characters a chance to go wild.
With so many of the best of "Always Sunny" appearing in the episode, it doesn't really matter who wins the bowling match because we all win.
The Motherlovin' McPoyles
Of all the many incredible supporting characters on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," none are quite like the McPoyles. Led by patriarch Pappy McPoyle (Guillermo Del Toro), they are a massive clan of weirdos who practice incest, drink an obscene amount of milk, and generally act like deviants in every possible way. The two who interact with the gang most often are brothers Liam (Jimmi Simpson) and Ryan (Nate Mooney). The duo are absolutely hilarious, and over the years have done everything from holding the gang hostage with rubber guns to buying and running a movie rental store because they think business will be booming. They're also in love/lust with one another and their sister Margaret (Thesy Surface), and they're just about the weirdest human beings on the planet. If anyone can out-do the gang at being totally unhinged, it's these boys.
The ladies are pretty demented in their own right, though, and with Artemis, Gail, and the Waitress involved, they can create some serious chaos. They did a real number on the airplane in "The Gang Beats Boggs: Ladies Reboot" in season 13 by getting everyone high on ayahuasca and more, so watching them in action against the guys of the gang is a real treat here.
The gang hold it all together
All of these characters and their performers are stellar, but it's the gang that brings them all together and makes the madness work. Everyone is together at the bowling alley because Dee (Kaitlin Olson) is filling in on the ladies' team and the guys couldn't handle being left out. It turns into a battle of the sexes and a whole bunch of mind-games and manipulation, allowing each bowler to show off their strengths (and, of course, their weaknesses). Most of these supporting characters have been around for 10 seasons or more, which means there's a lot of history to mine for comedy, like Frank (Danny DeVito) and Artemis's on-again/off-again romance or the long-standing beef between the gang and the McPoyles that has only compounded with time.
The true stand-out of the episode, however, is Ellis, who shows off not only her comedic chops (and a killer new haircut), but also shows off her kickboxing skills when she tries to beat Dennis at a strength boxing game. Fans who follow the actor on Instagram have seen her martial arts skills before, and it's about time that her character got to be something other than a punching bag for the gang herself. We still may not know her name and her team totally lost, but the MVP of "The Gang Goes Bowling" is the Waitress.
New episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" premiere Wednesdays on FXX and stream the next day on Hulu.