Dee: What's gotten into [Mac]?
Frank: Serial killin'!
Frank: Serial killin'!
When news gets out that there's an active serial killer in the area, Frank suspects Mac is the guilty party as a result of his recent evasive behavior — which is actually due to the fact that he's secretly dating Carmen again and doesn't want anybody to find out. Dennis and Dee decide to try and find the real culprit by getting inside the killer's mind, while Charlie tries to prove Mac's innocence using his knowledge of legal procedurals such as Law & Order.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Amoral Attorney: Parodied; Charlie thinks Mac is guilty of the killings, but tries to affirm his innocence anyway just to prove his lawyer skills.
- Appeal to Flattery: Carmen is once again able to keep Mac interested in her by complimenting his physique.
- Asshole Victim: It's heavily implied that the gang ends up killing someone at the end of the episode - except said someone is a Serial Killer who targets young blonde women and beheads them.
- Becoming the Mask: Dennis ends up getting a little too into things when he and Dee pretend to be serial killers.
- Body in a Breadbox: Gary uses his freezer to store his collection of severed heads, which the Gang accidentally discovers the hard way.
- Cannibal Larder: Revealed at the end of the episode, when Charlie opens Dee's neighbor Gary's fridge to find "about fifteen severed heads" inside.
- Caught with Your Pants Down: Charlie claims that he woke up to find Frank doing some very enthusiastic "research" the other night.
- Chainsaw Good: Frank spends most of the episode carrying around a chainsaw, which he intends to use to torture a confession out of Mac. The episode ends with him revving it before the Smash Cut to black when the gang find out that Gary is the real serial killer.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Dee introduces Gary as her neighbor who works in the hardware store and has a crush on her. The end of the episode reveals him as the real killer.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Pepper Jack, the wannabe pimp who loves Fraggle Rock.
- Continuity Nod:
- Dee doesn't smoke the crack rock, except for that one time.
- Mac once again states that he doesn't use condoms.
- Did You Just Have Sex?: Dennis is immediately able to tell that Mac has had sex when he enters the bar at the beginning of the episode, as he was out all night and is still wearing the same clothes as the day before.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Mac does this when he's trying to explain to Carmen why he doesn't want to be seen with her in public. It ends with her breaking up with him.Mac: I don't care if people see us together, I just don't want them to think that we're dating.
Carmen: We are dating!
Mac: Look, I don't think it's too much to ask for you to keep this quiet considering your condition. It's not like I'm ashamed of you; I'm ashamed of myself. - Faux Affably Evil: Pepper Jack, the pimp who tries to buy Dee. He comes across as friendly and affable, but pulls a switchblade on Dennis and Dee when they piss him off.
- Glad I Thought of It: Dennis and Dee do this twice in quick succession after deciding that Frank is right and Mac is the killer after all.Dennis: Dee, the real serial killer... is Mac.
Dee: (gasps)
Frank: That's what I just said! [...] I got a plan. We gotta set a trap, we gotta get a confession, but first we gotta lure him in on the phone.
Dennis: Hold that thought, Frank. I just came up with a plan. We need to set a trap and get a confession from him.
Dee: Ooh, but first we gotta lure him in on the phone.
Frank: Are you shittin' me? - Hearing Voices: Charlie thinks that Mac is hearing voices when he mentions that "she" isn't talking to him anymore. He is of course referring to Carmen.
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Mac's incredibly unsubtle exit of the bar at the beginning of the episode:Mac: (talking very fast) I forgot about this thing that I gotta do, that I gotta take care of, I was thinking about it in the bathroom and I figured you know what, maybe I should just deal with it now, okay, so I'm just gonna go deal with it now, alright, I guess I'll see you guys later? Okay, bye.
- Inadvertent Entrance Cue: Dennis and Dee decide that they need to pick a victim they'd genuinely want to kill, and are debating who when the Waitress approaches their table.
- Insanity Defense: Charlie tries to use this to prove Mac's innocence, claiming that he has a Split Personality.
- Kick the Dog: Not only does Dee take advantage of her neighbor's crush on her, she didn't even bother to water his plants when she promised to. And this was before he was discovered to be a Serial Killer.
- Love Martyr: Dee's neighbor Gary, who is completely in love with her and lets her steal from the hardware store he works at despite the fact that she blatantly couldn't give a shit about him.
- Metaphorgotten:Frank: Drawing a confession out of someone is like doing a beautiful dance... a beautiful dance with a chainsaw.
Dennis: (to Dee) He makes less and less sense as the days go by. - Mistaken for Murderer: Frank thinks that Mac is a serial killer due to his strange behavior.
- Mistaken for Prostitute: Dee is mistaken for one by a passing pimp when she dresses up in skimpy clothing in the dead of night to act as bait for the serial killer.
- Monster Clown: Dee dresses up as a "psycho clown" for her serial killer persona.
- No Ending: The episode ends with the serial killer Gary finding the Gang in his apartment and Frank seemingly preparing to attack him with a chainsaw. How the Gang manage to escape the apartment and what happens to Gary remain unresolved.
- No, You: Dee does this when Dennis and Charlie compare her to Larry Bird.Dee: Well, guess what? You're Larry Bird.
Charlie: Well, that's okay, 'cause Larry Bird's an excellent player. - One Dialogue, Two Conversations: The entire conversation between Mac and Charlie, where Mac thinks that Charlie has found out about his relationship with Carmen and Charlie thinks that Mac is confessing to being a serial killer.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Frank states that he doesn't want some "Jew lawyer" snooping around.
- The rest of the Gang react with disgust upon finding out Mac was having sex with "the tranny" Carmen again.
- Secret Relationship: The real reason for Mac's shady behavior is that he's dating Carmen again and doesn't want anybody to know.
- Shirtless Scene: Mac gets one after he and Carmen have sex.
- Shout-Out:
- Charlie makes several references to Law & Order, and he and Mac hum the theme tune at one point.
- When the others ask where he's going, Frank says "To catch a predator!" The trap they later set involving "Sandy" is identical to the To Catch A Predator traps.
- Pepper Jack loves Fraggle Rock.
- Stock Legal Phrases: Charlie seems to think that being able to throw these around is all it takes to become a lawyer.Dee: Oh, you wanna be a lawyer? Don't you think you should know how to read or write?
Charlie: Objection! Hearsay! That's lawyer talk. That's the kind of stuff you have to do. - Third-Person Person: Pepper Jack constantly refers to himself in the third person.
