It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Season 17 Brings Its Most Tragic Character To A New Low

This article contains spoilers for "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" season 17, episode 3, "Mac and Dennis Become EMTs."

Sometimes I worry I'm too sensitive to be a fan of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." I shed a tear when I found out poor Charlie (Charlie Day) can't read, and I always wince when the show implies Charlie totally got molested by his Uncle Jack (Andrew Friedman). But it's not just Charlie whose pain I struggle to find the humor in; I also feel bad for those poor souls who've had their lives ruined by the gang over the years, like Cricket (David Hornsby), the Waitress (Mary Elizabeth Ellis), and especially the unnamed Lawyer.

The Lawyer, played Brian Unger, was first introduced in season 3 as a happy, healthy, successful man. He went to Harvard and had a loving wife, but it all went downhill when he was assigned to be the executor of Barbara Reynolds' (Anne Archer) will — Barbara being Dennis (Glenn Howerton) and Dee's (Kaitlin Olson) mom and Frank's (Danny DeVito) ex-wife. The Lawyer quickly gets a bad first impression of the gang, as they react to Barbara's will by being loud, rude, and incapable of understanding how wills work.

The lawyer's second impression of the gang is even worse: In season 5's "The Gang Exploits a Mortgage Crisis," the Lawyer has to stop Frank from kicking a family out of their home. "It is just so nice to see you again, Mr. Reynolds," the Lawyer says when he reunites with the gang. "I see that you're still just ... horrible."

But although the lawyer hates the gang in these first two appearances, at least he ends up on top. He stops Frank from taking over that family's home, and he outsmarts Charlie by calling his bluff and agreeing to duel him. By season 5 it's long become clear that everyone in the gang is a terrible person, so it's fun to see this straight-man Lawyer beat them while barely breaking a sweat.

For a brief period, it seemed like the Lawyer would be one of those rare recurring "Always Sunny" characters who didn't let the gang drag him down to their level. Tragically, however, the tables have since turned...

Although the Lawyer still wins the battle in his second season 5 appearance ("Paddy's Pub: Home of the Original Kitten Mittens"), there are already hints that he's losing the war. We find out in that episode that his wife has recently left him, so he's begun sleeping in a fleabag motel and crying himself to sleep every night. We later discover he eventually remarried, but his second wife left him too.

Then, in season 8, the Lawyer takes his first official L from the gang. In "Pop-Pop: The Final Solution," he wants Dennis and Dee to pull the plug on their comatose Pop-Pop (Tom Bower). By doing so, they would free the Lawyer from his duties as Barbara Reynolds' executor, and he would never have to deal with the gang ever again. Dennis and Dee are about to pull the plug, too, when Pop-Pop miraculously recovers. This isn't that big of an L for the Lawyer compared to what's coming, but it's notable in how bitter and unhappy the character has become by this point. He no longer has the moral high ground in this interaction; his anger with the gang has led him to treat the Pop-Pop moral dilemma far more callously than he would've in his first few appearances.

It takes another three seasons for the Lawyer to return, but there's a subtle implication that the character's had some more off-screen mishaps in the meantime — because when we catch up with him in season 11, he is consumed by pure hatred of the gang. He tries to destroy the gang in court, only for the gang's reckless antics to once again let them escape the situation unscathed. The lawyer abandons all dignity in this episode, becoming increasingly twisted by his fury. It's a performance reminiscent of Frank Grimes from "The Simpsons," in that it's both funny and depressing to see him brought so low by his hatred, understandable though it may be.

The Lawyer's season 11 appearance then concludes with him getting his eye gouged out by a bird. It's an unexpectedly brutal, mean-spirited moment and one that seems like a major escalation in the Lawyer's feud with the gang. Not only did his revenge plan fall apart here, but he's also left with even more reason to let his hatred of the gang consume his soul.

The bright side of the Lawyer's absence throughout the past six seasons is that we could tell ourselves his eye healed and that perhaps he'd moved on from his need for vengeance. Tragically, season 17 confirms his eye was indeed lost for good, and he's still been reduced to a bitter man. His interactions with Frank in season 17, episode 3, ""Mac and Dennis Become EMTs," really highlight how futile his hate is; for the Lawyer, that season 11 courtroom episode was the worst day of his life, but for Frank, it was another Tuesday. Frank is a terrible person, but he doesn't hate the Lawyer. In fact, he doesn't think of him at all. The Lawyer, in other words, is obsessed with five people who don't remember he exists when he's not in the room. 

This time around, though, the gang doesn't just gouge the Lawyer's eye out: They poison him, throw hot fryer oil on his face, break multiple bones, leave him in a burning vehicle, and frame him for multiple crimes that they themselves committed. "Mac and Dennis Become EMTs" then ends with the Lawyer going to jail, while the entire gang once again gets off scot-free. 

It's funny but depressing. The gang has ruined the Lawyer's existence about as much as they've ruined Cricket's, but at least Cricket has developed a Zen-like attitude with his life of squalor. Cricket barely seems to understand the negative impact the gang's had on him, whereas the Lawyer knows exactly where it all went wrong.

What's also notable about the Lawyer is the clear mid-series shift in how the "Always Sunny" writers approached him. At first, they seemed to prefer him in a voice-of-reason role, but at some point, the show's creatives must've figured it'd be funnier to punish him for his distaste for the gang instead. It's a surprising change in approach — one that highlights how the gang has grown even more depraved and dangerous over the years — but it's not one I hope the writers keep doing. 

By this point, I say the Lawyer's suffered enough. Let him be like Carmen from the early seasons, who let her success be her best revenge. Ruining the Lawyer's life was a fun subversion of expectations, but let's hope the show subverts them yet again and gives him another win. At the very least, let the poor guy move on. 

New episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" premiere Wednesdays at 9pm EST on FXX and drop on Hulu a day later.