"I hereby officially retire from Paddy's Pub."
— Frank
Frank abruptly decides to retire as the owner of Paddy's, leading the rest of the gang to fight for the title of his rightful heir in order to determine who should take over as majority shareholder of the bar.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Dee remembers that she was the firstborn of the twins because Barbara always used to say "worst is first".Charlie: Holy shit, that's terrible!
- Affectionate Parody: With the gang constantly backstabbing and sabotaging each other in order to establish who is the rightful heir to Frank's "throne", the entire episode seems to be one long nod to Game of Thrones.
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: A non-fatal variant; at the end of the Cold Opening, the gang can barely contain their glee when Frank announces he's retiring.
- As You Know: Mac and Dennis explaining the "Paddy's succession plan".
- Blood Oath: Mac repeatedly cuts his hand open to try and make a blood oath with various parties. Later, Dee and Charlie make a blood pact of their own.
- Bottomless Pits: The episode opens with the gang finding a mysterious hole in the bar which they claim has no bottom.
- Brick Joke: Charlie mentioned his "blood bucket" in what appeared to be a throwaway gag in the previous episode. In this episode, he actually brings a bucket full of blood to a doctor's office in order to try and determine whether or not Frank is his biological father. It fails because it apparently contains a lot of miscellaneous blood, for some reason.
- Call-Back:
- Mac uses Frank's toe knife to cut his hand, and Charlie gives him a sock to plug the wound.
- Frank eats some of Dee's pyramid scheme berries.
- Charlie once again tries to determine if Frank is his biological father.
- Comedic Sociopathy: The gang keeps slicing Frank open and draining dangerous amounts of blood from him without any regard for his health.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Mac believes Playing Both Sides means openly explaining he is trying to earn favor with either side regardless of who wins.
- Mac enthusiastically agrees to be Dennis's pawn, because "there are lots of them and they move diagonally".
- Continuity Nod:
- Dennis mentions that Charlie gave away most of his shares in the bar for snacks.
- Charlie reminds the twins that they're actually Bruce Mathis's kids.
- Couldn't Find a Pen: Charlie apparently signed the Paddy's succession plan in blood.
- Crazy-Prepared: Dennis reveals that he randomly stumbled across a guy who looked like a younger, Mexican version of Frank seven years ago and bribed him to pretend to be Frank's bastard son, knowing that he would one day be useful.
- Daddy DNA Test: Charlie and Mac try to get one of these to determine once and for all whether Frank is actually Charlie's father. However, it remains inconclusive since their blood sample was contaminated.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Charlie's reaction to Dee's Abusive Parents above.
- Dee, Charlie, and Mac all try to call out Dennis for planning to lie to Frank about "Franquito" and take over the bar, only for Dennis to distract them with the mystery hole.
- Epic Fail: Mac somehow manages to render himself unconscious while trying to prove his worth to Dennis and Dee by removing Charlie from the bar. Charlie's contribution to this situation? Doing absolutely nothing.Charlie: Your Head of Security just choked himself out.
- When signing Paddy's succession agreement Charlie somehow managed to misspell his own name as "Chrundle".
- Generation Xerox: "Franquito" looks exactly like Frank, right down to the hair and glasses. Subverted when it's revealed that he's not Frank's son after all, and their freakish physical similarity is just a coincidence.
- Gilligan Cut: When Dee and Charlie are discussing how much blood to take from Frank.Dee: You just need a couple of drops.Charlie: Alright, just a prick.(Cut to both of them fleeing the apartment, covered in blood and carrying a plastic bag full of it.)
- Insane Troll Logic: Mac apparently threw his flashlight down the hole in the bathroom to prove that its light isn't an object with a speed, but a condition of the flashlight itself.Charlie: It was, like, an anti-science thing.
- "L" Is for "Dyslexia": Charlie misspelled his name as "Chrundle" on the succession agreement.
- Long-Lost Relative: Early on a mysterious Frankrito is said to have shares in the bar, which the gang believe to be a shell corporation of Frank's. He is revealed to be a son Frank had with a hispanic maid who was older than Dennis and Dee, and thus entitled to all of Frank's shares when he retires. This is then revealed to be a ploy by Dennis with a random Mexican guy who resembles Frank, hoping his senility makes it easy to manipulate into thinking he really is his son.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Mac is much bigger and more built than Charlie, yet still fails abysmally at manhandling him out of the bar.
- Obviously Evil: Dee's attempts at an "arch" scheming voice have to be heard to be believed.
- Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: The gang drain ridiculous amounts of blood from Frank over the course of the episode until he's reduced to a shriveled white husk at the end of it.
- Playing Both Sides: Mac does this throughout the episode, constantly switching allegiance between Dennis, Dee and Charlie in order to ensure he always comes out on top. Unfortunately for him, he's too dumb to realize that he's not actually supposed to tell them he's doing that.Mac: I'm gonna play both sides.Charlie: Why would you tell me that?Mac: Should I not have?Charlie: You probably shouldn't, 'cause if you're trying to keep it a secret from me, well, now I know.
- Shout-Out: Dennis states that there could be a Goonies-type situation at the bottom of the hole.
- Status Quo Is God: Frank decides at the end of the episode that he doesn't want to retire after all, and things pretty much go back to the way they were.
- Invoked by Dennis, as he excuses his attempt to take over the bar by claiming he was really "preserving the status quo".
- Wimp Fight: Charlie versus Mac, a fight where Charlie wins just casually bracing against the pillar, and then simply went limp. After exhausting himself, Mac attempts a sleeper hold on Charlie so disastrous it knocked himself out.
- Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: Mac, nominally the pub's bouncer, tries to put Charlie in a sleeper hold and drag him out of the bar, but is so bad at it that he manages to fall over, wedge his own elbow between Charlie's body and his own windpipe, and pass out. Charlie — who literally didn't move a muscle the whole time — gets up, lampshades what the "head of security" just did, and walks away of his own volition.
- Worst Aid:
- Charlie seems to think that duct tape is sufficient to stop a major bleed.
- Charlie gives Mac a dirty sock to plug a wound Mac made with Frank's toe knife. Lampshaded when Charlie admits that'll probably just make it more infected.
