"Dennis is gone and he is not coming back. We have to accept that."
— Mac
The gang attempts to move on from Dennis’s departure under the leadership of newcomer Cindy, but fall back into their old habits when Mac buys a sex doll in Dennis's likeness that gets inside all of their heads.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
-
Accidental Innuendo: Mac’s explanation for why he bought the sex doll.Mac: I was super sad about my old roommate leaving, and you said I needed something Dennis-shaped to fill my hole. - Ambiguously Bi: Frank and Charlie both participate in an all-male orgy, involving a male sex doll.
- Bait-and-Switch: After Cindy chews out the guys for becoming convinced that the sex doll is alive, we hear Dennis speak up, and the camera pans over to Dennis standing where the sex doll was place, his mouth open in a similar manner. This is actually Dennis; the sex doll fell over, and he snuck in while Cindy was talking.
- Bedroom Adultery Scene: Parodied when Charlie is shocked to come home and find the Waitress in bed with...the Dennis sex doll.
- Blatant Lies: Mac’s repeated insistence that he isn’t having sex with the doll, despite all evidence pointing to the contrary.
- The Bus Came Back: The real Dennis returns at the end of the episode.
- Call-Back:
- Mac serves his famous mac and cheese.
- Mac wears the duster without a shirt.
- "Higher Love" by Steve Winwood plays right after the Waitress bangs the Dennis sex doll.
- Dee stands under a spotlight to “soften her features”.
- The gang goes to a strip club.
- Mac calls Dennis a bastard man.
- The Boys Are Back In Town plays at the end of the episode and over the credits.
- Continuity Nod:
- Mac is back in his and Dennis’s old apartment after having it restored in the previous season finale.
- Charlie likens Mac’s latest physical transformation to the time he got fat.
- When Mac brings a large crate into the apartment, Frank immediately guesses that it contains another rocket launcher.
- Don't Explain the Joke: The rest of the gang is exasperated by Mac over-explaining Cindy's wine/whine pun.Mac: It's called "Conservative Whine", but it's spelled with an "h" because it’s like, "we're whining". It's a pun. It's a play on the word "wine".
Cindy: Yeah! Yeah, Mac, I get it. I came up with it. - Everybody Calls Him "Barkeep": Charlie still doesn’t call the Waitress by name even now that he’s officially dating her and she’s living with him.
- Foil: Cindy is this for Dennis; both are terrible people, but Cindy is actually successful in pulling off schemes and acts supportive towards the rest of the gang, while Dennis has an over-inflated opinion of his own intelligence and puts the others down to make himself feel superior.
- For Doom the Bell Tolls: Used every time there’s a close-up on the doll.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Mac outright asks the others if they like him, and the only response is an awkward silence. Dee also claims that Dennis gave him a fake number when he left. Cindy also calls Dennis Mac's best friend is immediately corrected by everyone else.
- Friendship Moment:
- Frank, Dee, and Mac genuinely console Charlie after the Waitress dumps him.
- At the very end of the episode, the rest of the gang choose to welcome Dennis back over Cindy and they all share a beer together.Dee: Guys, you know what? I think we just made Paddy's great again.
- Gone Horribly Right: Charlie gives the doll to the Waitress to keep her company while he’s working on Cindy’s scheme and stop her from calling him all the time. This goes a little too well, as she sleeps with the doll and breaks up with him.
- Hidden Depths: Frank proves to be surprisingly good at playing the tuba until “Dennis” gets in his head.
- Kick the Dog: Immediately after being accepted back into the gang, Dennis calls Dee a bird and asks Mac if he’s put on weight.
- Living Emotional Crutch: Subverted at first without Dennis the gang are much better off, nicer to each other, more focused, more confident, more successful and thriving under Cindy's leadership. Then Double Subverted when they all begin losing what little sanity they had left and talking to a Sex-Doll replica of Dennis like it's really him.
- Modesty Bedsheet: Both the Waitress and the doll are covered with one when Charlie walks in on them.
- Off the Wagon: The Waitress drinks a bottle of wine after Charlie leaves her alone with the doll.
- Only Sane Man: Cindy is this relative to the rest of the gang, spending most of the episode utterly baffled by their insistence on treating the doll like a living person.
- Parental Incest: Frank participated in the orgy involving a sex doll that bears striking resemblance to his son, along with Charlie whose probably his biological son.
- Pet the Dog: Away from Dennis’s influence, both Mac and Charlie are genuinely complimentary of Dee’s “sexy” outfit.
- Playing Both Sides: Cindy's plan is to incite outrage among both liberals and conservatives in order to get them to buy inflammatory crap to spite the other side.
- Precision F-Strike: The Waitress when Charlie catches her with the doll."Oh, I fucked it."
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Cindy gives one to Dennis when he returns, and then to the rest of the gang when they choose him over her.
- Relationship Upgrade: Charlie and the Waitress are shown to be in a committed relationship since the events of the previous episode, with her seemingly having moved into his apartment. It doesn’t last.
- Replacement Goldfish: Both Cindy and the doll act as this for Dennis.
- Running Gag:
- Cindy states that Frank pulled a gun on her when they first met. Later, his first reaction when Dennis comes back is to whip the gun out again.
- Dennis calls Dee a bird.
- The waitress having a terrible crush on Dennis, as well as being a recovering alcoholic.
- Within this episode, Mac having sex with the Dennis doll, everyone knowing, and Mac stridently insisting he's not.
- Sherlock Scan: Cindy is able to determine just from Charlie playing the doll's asshole that the gang all got wasted the night before and had an orgy with it.
- Shout-Out: The gang becoming convinced they can hear Dennis talk when viewing the sex doll is reminescent of George Costanza hearing his mom when viewing a similarly looking doll
.- Does anything really need to be said about the title? Cindy even pulls out a MAGA-style hat at the beginning of the episode.
- Show Some Leg: Cindy tasks Dee with seducing the bouncer from the rival bar. Dee is somewhat surprised by this, as it would usually be Dennis's area.Cindy: Dee, we need to distract Murphy’s security guard with a pretty blonde.
Dee: Okay, you want me to go find one? - The Smurfette Principle: Dee claims that she likes being the only woman in the group as it makes her feel special.
- Status Quo Is God: The two biggest shake-ups from the previous season finale – Dennis leaving and Charlie getting with the Waitress – are undone by the end of the episode.
- Take That!: To both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, as symbolically personified by Cindy and Dennis.
- Averted with Glenn Howerton. Promotions for the episode went on with the cast
saying his presence wasn't necessary, but for all that Cindy's more competent than Dennis, she's not as funny.
- Averted with Glenn Howerton. Promotions for the episode went on with the cast
- Token Minority: Cindy fills the role during her time with the gang, and unabashedly plays on it to win favor from the liberals she’s scamming.Cindy: [Paddy's] has been so welcoming of this brown-skinned girl and her liberal ideals.
- Toxic Friend Influence: The episode highlights just how much Dennis acts as this towards the rest of the gang. Without him, they’re more successful than they’ve ever been and seemingly thriving under Cindy’s leadership, but as soon as the sex doll comes into play they begin to second guess themselves under his perceived criticism. It’s implied that they’re aware of this at least on some level, but they accept him back regardless.
- Uncanny Valley: In-Universe, everybody but Mac finds the doll to be extremely unnerving.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Cindy mentions that dogs were fighting in the bar the first time she came to Paddy's, yet no one seemed to notice.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Parodied with Mac, who keeps finding the slightest excuse to show off his new ripped physique, despite it having absolutely nothing to do with the events at hand. Not only that, but he acts like it was everyone else's idea.Cindy: Stop trying to shoehorn your shirtlessness into plans that have no need for it!
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: It's not really explained what prompted Dennis to return to Philadelphia, nor is there any mention of Mandy and Brian Jr., the implications of his complete nonchalantness slightly unnerving.
- Zany Scheme: Mac got ripped because he thought the Gang's scheme could utilize it in some way. The Gang points out that it serves no purpose.
