"Sweet Dee is a rock!"
— Dee
After finding out that a male stripper she slept with considers her to be his "rock bottom", Dee sets out to prove that she's the best thing that ever happened to him. Meanwhile, Dennis decides to try his hand at stripping with Charlie as his "boy" and Mac starts suffering from PTSD-like nightmares after he and Frank become obsessed with a virtual reality war game.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- All There in the Script: The script is a lot more explicit than even the aired episode over how much PTSD Dennis has from Ms Klinsky; relating to Charlie's Uncle Jack trauma, not feeling safe around older women and ranting that stripping for them felt like a violation, Charlie pointing out he's doing to girls what Klinsky did to him (although Dennis insists he's not because at least his girls are of age), and him telling Charlie "it's better if you just do what they say".
- Almost Dead Guy: Luther in one of Mac's nightmares. He dies just before he can tell Mac that he loves him.
- Anti-Climax: After Frank tells Mac that he might have PTSD as well (due to having the same kind of nightmare he's been having), Mac tells him that they were really suffering from sleep deprivation.
- Bait-and-Switch: Dee's boyfriend, Mike, comes in at the beginning of the episode to thank her for last night... because it was the most unsatisfied he's ever felt, and it's inspired him to seek more meaning in his life.Mike: It's like, we were having sex, and the whole time, I was like, "What's become of me?"
- Batman Gambit: As it turns out, all of Dee's efforts to convince Mike that he hasn't hit rock bottom was to get him to do a striptease for a group of college girls, one of which was his daughter. This was to give him a new rock bottom, rather than it being sleeping with her.
- Call-Back:
- Frank mentions his Vietnamese sweatshop again.
- Dennis once again pulls away from Mac just as it looks as though they're about to kiss.
- Cricket shows his kidney scar.
- When ordering Dennis's services as an exotic dancer, Dee breaks out her impossibly bad Philadelphia accent. Dennis knows it's her, but doesn't care.
- Catapult Nightmare: Mac does this several times while suffering from video game induced PTSD.
- Central Theme: PTSD. Charlie and Dennis refuse to admit their sexually abusive childhoods gave them any issues; Mac still has Daddy Problems, and Dee doesn't want to talk about why her mind went to incest as punishment. As is their usual method, they drown out any epiphany with alcohol.
- Continuity Nod:
- Charlie mentions that Dennis was raped by his high school librarian.
- Mac, Dennis and Dee are all still sharing a bed with Old Black Man.
- One of Mac's dreams takes place in his and Dennis's old apartment, which burned down at the end of season nine.
- Mac remains out of the closet after the events of the previous episode.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Dee responds to one of her hook-ups rejecting her by manipulating him into a borderline incestuous situation with his estranged daughter, effectively ruining two people's lives.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Dennis continues to insist that he wasn't raped by the school librarian because women can't rape men, though it's clear that Charlie doesn't believe him. Downplayed with Charlie himself, who only focuses on how she was much older than him, making it molestation.
- Dream Within a Dream: Mac dreams about accidentally killing his father and seemingly wakes up in his old apartment. He then walks in on Dennis practising his stripping routine and wakes up in Dee's apartment as Dennis is about to kiss him, revealing that he was still dreaming the entire time.
- Drowning My Sorrows: The entire gang gets together to drown out their trauma with alcohol at the end of the episode.Dennis: Let's just get drunk and not talk about trauma or any of that shit. Let's just get drunk and have a good time.
Frank: Stuff it down with some brown. - Erotic Dream: Mac dreams about Dennis dancing shirtless and kissing him, though Frank calls it an "erotic nightmare" on account of the fact it follows a dream about killing his father.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Mac is upset by Frank's casual killing of women and children in the virtual reality war game they've been playing.
- Everybody is appalled by Dee's revenge on Mike, with Dennis calling it "the darkest thing [she's] ever done" and that it was her rock bottom.
- Family-Friendly Stripper: Played straight with Dennis and Charlie's bizarre "Daddy and the Boy" routine but utterly averted by Mike, who strips down to nothing but a thong, gives Mac a lapdance and thrusts in the face of a young woman sitting on the front row, who turns out to be his own daughter.
- Fan Disservice:
- Rickety Cricket appears shirtless in his role as the announcer of the strip show, grossing out the audience with his many scars. Dennis and Charlie's routine also ends up being this after they fail to do any actual stripping and instead engage in something that seems like a cross between a performance art piece and roleplay therapy.
Mac: This is not sexy!- Dennis's first clients are a little disappointed to find out that the stripper they'd booked is a middle-aged man.
- Mike's striptease becomes this once it's revealed he was grinding on his estranged daughter.
- Foreshadowing: Dee tells Mike that she's going to reunite him with his daughter just before he takes the stage in the strip show. She keeps her promise; about five minutes later it's revealed that the girl he's been enthusiastically grinding is the daughter in question.
- Friendship Moment:
- The episode ends with Dennis pouring shots for everyone, suggesting that everyone get drunk as opposed to talking about the shit that went down in the episode.
- When Dennis asks why Charlie ran into so many issues shaving his back in preparation for their first stripping event (resulting in several cuts), Charlie remarks that he's never had to cut such a muscular back. Dennis is genuinely appreciative of the compliment and Charlie continues by pointing out that his workouts are really paying off.
- When Dennis is clearly terrified about the clients being older women, Charlie brings up the reason why but doesn't push, and tells him they can just leave. They can't in the end, but it's sweet all the same.
- I Am Not Spock: Charlie doesn't actually know who Channing Tatum is. He only knows him as "GI Joe".
- I Need a Freaking Drink: After the stunt Dee pulled with the male stripper and his daughter, Dennis of all people is the one to suggest pouring shots and drink instead of think of what just happened.
- Inadvertent Entrance Cue: Cricket walks into the bar to ask if he can shower in a leaky urinal just as Dee is in the middle of talking about how she makes men's lives better, leading to pointed looks from Dennis and Charlie.Dee: Well, don't count that, that's not a good example!
- Instantly Proven Wrong:
- Dee insists she makes men's lives better, and in walks Cricket, the priest-cum-homeless-junkie.
- Dee claims the sex with Mike was so meaningful they both wept, and instantly denies Dennis's oddly specific claim that she stole his watch so he would follow her around to get it back. Then, in walks Mike, who asks for his watch, and tells her about how meaningless their sex is.
- Insult Backfire: A woman who hires Dennis to be a stripper asks "What are you, 40?"Charlie: Yup.
- Kiss Diss: When Mac walks in on Dennis stripping for real, it plays out almost exactly the same as it does in his dream... except that Dennis slams the door in his face at the last second instead of kissing him.
- "L" Is for "Dyslexia": Charlie winds up demonstrating some auditory dyslexia by mishearing "a Channing Tatum" as "a charming taint man".
- Lack of Empathy: Frank casually mentions that he killed a couple of Vietnamese people who tried to steal shoes from his sweatshop, but "I don't feel nothing about it."
- Obviously Not Fine: Dennis continues to claim that he and Klinsky were consensual and the Gang should stop trying to tell him otherwise, but is traumatised by the "cougars", freudian slipping the word "librarian" instead while trying not to cry.
- Parental Incest: Invoked by Dee. Dee tricks Mike into practically dry-humping his daughter's face, which both are reasonably horrified by when they find out. Dennis also plays with this by calling his stripper persona "Daddy" and assuring Charlie that all women secretly want to have sex with their fathers.
- Running Gag: Dennis wears Mac's duster over a bare chest again.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Everyone leaves after Mike is tricked by Dee into stripping in front of his own daughter.
- Shout-Out:
- Dennis laments that Cricket's emcee role is more Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club than McConaughey in Magic Mike. The stripper that Dee dates is also called Mike, seemingly in a further allusion to the film.
- Possibly unintentional, but stealing a date's clock just to secure a second meeting is a trick straight out of the book of George Costanza.
- Sticky Fingers: Dee swipes Mike's watch after sleeping with him in order to ensure that he calls her.
- The Sociopath: Dee's behavior shows shades of this trope, with her pretending to be helpful and sweet when she's actually coldheartedly manipulating Mike into further destroying his life.
- Surprise Incest: Mike and his reunion with his daughter Jeannie, with Mike unknowingly dry-humping in his own daughter's face. Neither of them knew, they're both mortified, and their lives are ruined thanks to Dee's revenge prank.
- Squick: In-Universe. Everyone's reaction to the father-daughter reunion gone horribly wrong.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Charlie makes a lollipop out of cheese to calm his nerves, even going so far as to paint it to look like a real lollipop.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Frank seems to mainly use the VR game as an excuse to murder women and children without consequence.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Part of Mac's nightmare involves his father dying without ever telling Mac he loves him.
- Wham Line:Jeannie: (to the stripper grinding in her face) DAD?!
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Dennis and Charlie are able to instantly see through Dee's ruse when she calls them while faking a Philadelphia accent. Despite her dreams of being an actress and her constant exposure to this accent whenever she goes outside, she cannot do one herself.
- Woman Scorned: Dee's main motivation for ruining Mike's life is that he rejected her and called her his "rock bottom".
