"It's funny, 'cause I feel like you two are two codependent losers who are so wrapped up in each other that it's hard for you to see how pathetic your lives are."
— Dee, to Mac and Dennis
Mac and Dennis decide to spend some time apart after Dee compares them to an old married couple. Meanwhile, Charlie lends his feline expertise to help Dee get her cat out of a wall.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Alone Among the Couples: A platonic variant; Dee is the only member of the gang who doesn't have a "sidekick" to "get her out of jams" and ends up stuck inside the wall of her apartment as a result.
- Ambiguously Gay: Mac is obsessed with the physiques of the actors in Predator, noting that they are much better than Jason Statham's physique.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment:Dennis: Are [apple seeds] poisonous?
Charlie: Are you kidding me, dude?! They're extremely poisonous! - Control Freak: Mac gets extremely anxious if Dennis doesn't check in with him at least every hour, even going so far as to file a missing persons report. Charlie and Frank get sick of his pushiness after only a few hours of him living with them.
- Crazy Cat Lady: Mac and Dennis suggest that Dee is on her way to becoming one after she buys a cat to keep her company. Charlie is a male version, claiming that cats have started following him around.
- Deadpan Snarker: Lampshaded:Dee: Why do you guys both have to come over to get one bowl?
Dennis: It's more fun if we both come over.
Mac: Yeah, I was gonna hold the bowl and Dennis was gonna stand next to me and make snide comments. - Does This Remind You of Anything?: Mac and Dennis deciding to spend some time apart is played like a romantic couple taking a break throughout the episode, and Mac reacts like a jealous spouse when Dennis mentions he's been talking to a video store clerk.
- Feud Episode: The A-plot featuring Mac and Dennis.
- Epic Fail: Dee's new cat manages to somehow enter the wall of her apartment, and everyone's failed efforts to get it out ultimately result in a houseful of stray cats, a large number of them inside a wall, a large hole in said wall and Dee stuck in with the cats inside the wall.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Lampshaded and played for laughs at the end of the episode.Mac: I'm a man of action and you're a man that comes up with good...
Dennis: Words?
Mac: Words, dude!
Dennis: We've really gotta work on your vocabulary though, man. You couldn't think of the word "words"! - Food Slap: Mac and Dennis throw their drinks in each other's faces when Dee tricks them into meeting up at the restaurant, and then start throwing bread rolls at each other.
- Friendship Moment: At the end of the episode, when Mac and Dennis make up and decide that they're better off together after all.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Dennis and Mac seem to be these as individuals as Dee, Charlie, and Frank all get fed up dealing which each one. Once they make up Charlie and Frank are immediately excited to hang out with them.
- Funny Background Event: When Dennis is on the phone to Charlie, Dee can be seen crawling around on her hands and knees behind him looking for her cat.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Dee points out that Mac and Dennis are this to the point of unhealthy codependency, though the "heterosexual" part is somewhat debateable. Also Frank and Charlie, who refer to themselves as the "gruesome twosome".
- Hypocritical Humor:Dennis: You were right, I wasn't spending enough time by myself, I wasn't being an independent individual, I wasn't flourishing! ...So let's watch a movie together, you and me.
- Insane Troll Logic:
- Charlie suggests that Dee's cat could have "flattened itself out and passed through a seam in her wall". When she points out how ludicrous this is, he maintains that cats don't abide by the laws of physics.
- Mac believes that apple skins and seeds are poisonousnote . When Dennis accidentally swallows a seed, he advises him to smoke a cigarette because it will "suffocate the bacteria in his stomach".
- Like an Old Married Couple: Dee describes Mac and Dennis as such.
- Living Emotional Crutch: Dee accuses Mac and Dennis of being this for each other by calling them codependent.
- Neat Freak: Mac is horrified to discover the true extent of the filth that Frank and Charlie live in and sets about cleaning their apartment, even going so far as to cover their futon in plastic.
- Only Sane Man: Between Mac and Dennis acting like children and Charlie and Frank shoving ever more cats into her wall, Dee is the only member of the gang who seems to realize just how insane everyone else is acting.Dee: I am gonna go and Mac and Dennis back together, I'm gonna get a bird, I'm gonna get two cats out of my wall and then I'm gonna go back to being alone!
- Overused Running Gag: Lampshaded when Mac states that calling Dee a bird has gotten kind of old.
- The Pig-Pen: Frank and Charlie are shown to live in absolute squalor. At one point Frank attempts to cut his toenails with a steak knife, and Charlie advises him to plug the wound that results with some of the trash that's just lying around the apartment; Frank treats Mac's marginally better advice (use an old sock lying around as a bandage) as genius. Frank later uses the same toe knife to peel an apple.Frank: I'm not gonna put on airs just because I've got company!
Mac: So you think that not eating cat food is putting on airs? - "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Dee actually has a pretty scathing one for both Mac and Dennis about how they're each others' Living Emotional Crutch and pathetic as a result after they try and demean her being pathetic. Not only does she manage to shut them up for once with her words, it kicks off the episode's plot.
- Replacement Goldfish: Dennis attempts to use Dee and Charlie as substitutes for Mac, and is dismayed when they're both much more interested in Dee's cat situation than they are in watching a movie with him.
- Roofless Renovation: Charlie smashes a massive hole in Dee's wall in an attempt to get her cat out. She then tries to use a bird with a string tied to it to lure her cat and all the other cats Frank and Charlie have stuffed inside the wall, failing the same way when Charlie tried to initially lure the initial cat with a second cat with the string snapping, at which point she goes ballistic, enlarges the hole enough that she can enter the hole herself...and promptly gets stuck herself.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Both Mac and Charlie think that apple seeds are poisonous, and Frank's reaction when Charlie tells him that Dennis swallowed some suggests that he does too.
- Suddenly Shouting: Dennis does this when he's trying to explain to Dee why Mac peels his apples for him.Dee: Oh, Jesus, just eat it with the skin on.
Dennis: I DO NOT LIKE IT WITH THE SKIN, DEE! I'M NOT ALLOWED TO EAT IT WITH THE SKIN!! I'M NOT ALLOWED!!! - The Thing That Would Not Leave: Dennis and Mac become this for Dee and Frank & Charlie respectively after their breakup.
- Worst Aid: Frank wants to use trash to cover up the wound he made with his toe knife.Mac: Do not plug an open wound with trash.
