Tear Jerker / It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

"Oh my God...I get it...I get it..."

While It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is largely comedic, some episodes can hit hard.

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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In General

• Although it's almost always Played for Laughs, Mac's relationship with his parents in general can be this as he constantly deludes himself into thinking that they love him, even though they outright tell him that they don't. Whenever they're around, Mac regresses into an even more childlike state, craving their affection.
• In a different vein, Charlie’s relationship with Bonnie. He loves her very much, but clearly resents her for what is heavily implied to be enabling Uncle Jack, as she obsesses over keeping him safe but keeps inviting Jack round for everything.
• As funny as Rickety Cricket's situation is, it's also heartbreaking to see things get worse and worse for him every season.
  Mac: This is Cricket. He has the worst life imaginable.
  Cricket: (proudly) It's true.

Season 1

• The titular man in "The Gang Finds a Dead Guy" is really tragic if you think about it. He was an elderly man who died of a heart attack, alone, in a dive bar, going completely unnoticed until the next day. And he had no other family to mourn him except for his granddaughter, who is saddened and guilty because she knew nothing about him while he was still alive.

Season 2

• Despite how awful Barbara has been to her already, in “The Gang Turns Jihad” Dee runs up to hug her and ask how she is.
• Charlie's devastated, tearful expression at the end of "Mac Bangs Dennis' Mom" while he watches how the Waitress rants about how she slept with Frank to get back at Dennis. It's not a leap to suppose that Charlie is not only upset by the Waitress sleeping with Frank and that his machinations the whole episode ended up going horribly right, but at the pain she was in.

Season 3

• In "The Gang Sells Out" the Waitress is pressured into hiring Dee, Charlie and Dennis. Dee and Dennis are visibly and deliberately negligent in their duties, which stresses out the Waitress until she's on the verge of crying. Then her boss finds out about everything and fires all four of them, which puts the Waitress in serious financial stress. Later episodes would show her life going from bad to worse after that.
• In "The Gang Gets Whacked", Frank pimping out Dennis is played surprisingly straight, and gets Harsher in Hindsight after the statutory rape reveal. It also has an effect that actually stays: Dennis wanting to either thank Frank for increasing the darkness in him or vengefully dominate him in return, pretending it was all just platonic companionship, the call forwards in “Roller Rink”, and turning his enforced stripper music into his soundproofed rape bedroom music. As Glenn Howerton said while talking about the latter episode, the only way a monster like Dennis works is if you make it clear he’s broken on the inside.

Season 4

• "The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis": It’s hard to hear underneath the chaotic music, but Dennis gets upset with Mac and Charlie taking their shirts off because “having sex with a bank lady” was “his job”.
• "Mac and Charlie Die (Part 2)": Frank sobbing when he believed Charlie was dead, hugging the mannequin he dressed up as Charlie while telling it, "I like you too, New Charlie," is equal parts sad, disturbing and hilarious.
• From "The Gang Gets Extreme: Home Makeover Edition," the gang, in a misguided attempt to do good deeds, end up terrorizing a hapless Mexican family, who spend the episode scared out of their minds because they think that they're going to end up getting killed. At one point, they use the father's credit card account to put him into crushing debt and utterly destroy their new home. At the very least, they gain the Reynolds' mansion, but end up losing it due to taxes.

Season 5

• At the end of "The Waitress is Getting Married," Charlie finds out that Brad Fisher, the Waitress' fiance, had dumped her right before their wedding as revenge for her mocking his acne in high school. He mentions that she was devastated by the breakup, and that he's also planning to do the same thing to Dee. Considering how smitten both Dee and the Waitress were with this man, it's easy to feel bad for both of them being used in such a way.
• The Lawyer crying about his divorce in "Paddy's Pub: Home of the Kitten Mittens". Even the Gang seems touched.

Season 6

• Dennis telling Mac that the last time he had fully acknowledged, fully realized feelings, was when he was 14.
• While Schmitty has his own issues, this Reddit post adds an element of sadness to his debut episode ("The Gang Gets a New Member") in hindsight. In short: He was looking forward to a reprieve from his emotionally exhausting caretaker duties, and was met with a surreal cascade of meanness, immaturity, and dysfunction.
• "Charlie Kelly: King of the Rats": Also really sweet, but when the rest of the Gang give Charlie his rat bashing stick, he gets choked up and starts to say nobody has ever done anything like this for him before.
• From "Dee Gives Birth," Ben the soldier breaks down and confesses to Mac and Charlie that Dee has been verbally abusing him in order to sexually manipulate him. The guy is a rape victim and has no idea how to deal with it.
  • Dee mostly fucks around, but when the labor pains start happening, she’s actually scared and begs to not be left alone. Not for nothing that Dennis almost immediately starts holding her hand and reassuring her.
• "A Very Sunny Christmas": The Reynolds Twins might be rotten adults trying to change Frank so he can get them gifts, but finding out what your kids want and buying them for yourself is nasty, and Dee/Dennis as actual children have their chains yanked right on video. Mac and Charlie don’t get off light either, Mac admitting that his parents fucked him up telling him it was a Christmas tradition to steal, and Charlie was left alone huffing glue while his mom “got presents for him”.
  • While also really funny, the Gang’s kid-like joy at getting the presents they’ve always wanted (Dee and Dennis are notably anxious that Frank is faking them out again), only to get a Yank the Dog's Chain. Luckily they get to at least throw rocks at trains.

Season 7

• A real gut-puncher comes from "The Gang Goes To The Jersey Shore" in Charlie's sub-story with the waitress. After meeting her on a beach in New Jersey and her being oddly friendly towards Charlie, Charlie and The Waitress spend the night together on the beach collecting 'sea specimens', finding a "jewel" on the beach and playing with stray dogs. It seems this is Charlie's perfect night however it really hits you in the stomach when it turns out that The Waitress was actually high on ecstasy the entire time and cannot remember the night and instantly returns back to her normal self. Charlie keeps the "jewel" (actually a piece of broken glass bottle) from that night as a reminder of his most happiest night and tells himself 'I guess that's just summer love'. Charlie then proceeds to accidentally drop the jewel at the end of the episode as the gang speed away from the Jersey Shore which is a little bit extra gut punching.
  • Dee and Dennis called Jersey Shore the best memories of their lives, with Charlie Day confirming they kissed there, and it’s hard not to feel bad for them (especially when they’re explicitly being nice to each other, and cling together so hard when kidnapped) when their Nostalgia Filter gets shattered through a Trauma Conga Line.
• Dennis shares a genuinely vulnerable moment in “Sweet Dee Gets Audited”, telling Frank he just wants the illusion of power (and a lot of sex) because he has this giant gaping hole inside of him. Happens some more in “Charlie’s Mom Has Cancer”, where he’s miserable about not feeling anything before having a crying clinging to Dee breakdown at his mom’s corpse.
• In “Chardee Macdennis”, Charlie and Mac admit to going way too far with emotionally battering Dee, seeing as she cried for a month after and took too many pills. She tells everyone that she’s fine because she’s used to it, but even Dennis is looking at her with sympathy.
• "The High School Reunion" two-parter really drives home how pathetic the Gang really are. Mac and Charlie were both bullied in high school—although for Mac, he may have arguably deserved some of it due to ratting out other weed dealers so that he'd be the only one in the school; they were also given demeaning nicknames (Ronnie the Rat for Mac, Dirtgrub for Charlie). Dee had never gotten the chance to go to prom in high school due to her back brace, and she sabotages her newfound popularity at the reunion with her obnoxious behavior. Dennis had deluded himself into believing he was cool in high school, when in reality, he was just as lame as Mac and Charlie; he just didn't realize it due to his god complex. He was also led to believe that Tim Murphy slept with his prom date and finds out it was actually Mac. Even Frank is pulled into the chaos and gets bullied alongside Mac and Charlie. Their attempt at winning back the crowd is a dance number that fails miserably, and in the end, they're humiliated and dejected, and they simply decide to go back to the bar in order to avoid dealing with the pain. Despite being such awful people, one can't help but pity them.
  Charlie: Let's go back to the bar. We can hide from the world in the bar.

Season 8

• "Charlie and Dee Find Love" is full of these moments:
  • The most prominent one is with Ruby Taft, a rich but Spoiled Sweet woman who genuinely loves Charlie. And for a majority of the episode, it looks like Charlie returns the feeling, finally moving on from the Waitress. However, in the end, when the Waitress calls him and tells him she needs him in her life, not only does Charlie immediately start leaving to be by her side, he dumps Ruby in the coldest possible way: telling her he simply used her (and slept with her) to make the Waitress jealous and calls her "a stupid little rich slut" right to her face. Even when she breaks down crying, Charlie cruelly yells at her to go away, and she runs off in tears while he laughs and leaves without remorse. It's really hard not to feel bad for her after that.
  • Along with Ruby Taft is her brother, Trevor Taft, who seems to take an interest in Dee (and Dee is clearly smitten with him). When Mac joins them later on, Trevor seems to take a liking to him too, and he invites them both to a party. When Mac and Dee show up, they learn that Trevor only wants them to get into humiliating scenarios as a form of cheap entertainment amongst his rich buddies. When they find this out, they are devastated.
  • The Waitress also goes through the wringer here. She's terrorized in her apartment by who she perceives to be a burglar (but it's actually Frank), and Frank puts rat poison in her shampoo (instead of vitamins like Charlie does). By the middle of the episode, her hair is falling out, she looks worse for wear, and she's clearly terrified out of her mind. By the end, Frank has hit her with his car (although he won't admit it), and the last we see of her, she's in a hospital bed, and she speaks to Charlie over the phone about how she needs him in her life. Seeing her distress throughout this episode is really painful.
• Frank's mental breakdown in "The Gang Gets Analyzed" where he remembers his traumatic stay at a mental asylum when he was a kid is genuinely sad while also being completely ridiculous.
  • And in "Psycho Pete Returns", Frank again has traumatic flashbacks when revisiting the now abandoned mental asylum he went to as a kid and even though this was a product of his mental disorder, he seemed to show genuine care for "The Frog Kid": his supposed roommate who was half frog. He seemed genuinely panicked when he spent the episode trying to find him.
• From "The Gang Gets Analyzed," Mac reveals that he's acutely aware that the other members of the gang don't like him very much. This fear isn't without merit since the gang has stated on a few occasions that they actually hate him and find him annoying. He then proceeds to deny it, denial being a cornerstone of his personality.

Season 9

• In "The Gang Broke Dee", the episode opens with the rest of the gang making fun of Dee, who appears to be legitimately depressed; miserably downing month-old birthday cake and cheap hooch while dejectedly accepting their insults. It's one of, if not the only time in the series so far where she's ever been a straight-up Woobie.
  Dee: I'm just going to go home.
  Charlie: Good! Go home! I hope you-
  Dee: You hope I get hit by a bus?
  Charlie: Dee, come on-
  Dee: What difference does it make? I can't get any lower than I am already. I might as well throw myself in front of a bus, because I'm so ugly I can't even get a bus to hit on me.
  • As interested as Dee looks in Dennis telling her he’s perfect for her, it’s heavily implied that as soon as he says she needs to take him with her, she thinks it’s all just another manipulation. It’s not. It’s the only genuine and sincere thing in the episode, something that stuns her when she finds out.
• Being inspired by Up, The Waitress' death scene in Charlie's fantasy from "The Gang Saves the Day" can be surprisingly poignant.
  • A few moments also showcases everyone’s abandonment trauma: Mac’s fantasy is to have everyone cry over him when he dies, Dee sobs in fear when the Gang is pushing for her to get raped, and Dennis assumes everyone will leave if he can’t have sex.

Season 10

• The title character of "Psycho Pete Returns". The poor guy is shown to be nothing more than a victim of the gang spreading cruel rumors about him. Far from the crazed actions and unpredictable nature described of him, he's shown to be an unassuming and soft-spoken man, remorseful of his "crazy" actions and sent to a mental institution not because he killed and ate his parents, but because he became depressed and socially stunted when people avoided him because of the gang's rumors. The episode ends with the gang sending him on a train to LA in order to avoid having to offer him any kind of emotional support.
• Bill Ponderosa may be a scummy Jerkass that even the Gang finds sketchy, but him becoming suicidal in "Mac Kills His Dad" is both hysterical and upsetting.
  • In the same episode, Mac is trying to clear his dad's name for a beheading crime that's been pinned on him. Luther adamantly and repeatedly orders Mac not to get involved, but Mac does it anyway. It turns out that another man was the actual assailant, and Luther was innocent. However, Luther tells Mac that everyone in prison is now going to think Luther is a rat and kill him. Mac, horrified and guilty, tells Luther he still loves him, and Luther says, "I don't," right before he leaves. Mac tries to brush it off as Luther simply being upset, but considering Luther had no problem telling his son he still loved him (via letter) back in "Mac and Charlie Die," and knowing what happens in "Mac Finds His Pride" later on, we know that whatever small bit of love he may have had left for Mac is now gone forever.

Season 11

• "Dee Made a Smut Film": While Dee meant well with her Tough Love “Ms Klinsky raped a child” video, ultimately trying to get it through to her brother that he was hurt, Dennis looks like he might actually kill someone when Mac turns it off. His dissociation tendencies start from this episode too.
  • At the end of the episode where Dennis goes from modern art to “I wasn’t raped”, Dee looks frustrated, and everyone else looks at him like they’ve connected the dots.
• A subtle one, but in "The Gang Goes To Hell: Part 1," the Gang are each thrown into the brig by the cruise ship's security guards for enacting one of the Seven Deadly Sins (Wrath for Dee, Gluttony for Charlie and Frank, Lust for Dennis). Mac? He walks into the brig himself, instead of being forced in by security, without actually being guilty of any sin like the rest of the Gang. However, not only does he believe that accepting his own homosexuality is enough to warrant being in the brig, but he completely loses his faith in God because of it.
  Mac: If there was a God, there's no way he would make me queer.
• "The Gang Goes To Hell: Part 2." Mac just collapsing when he finds out Dennis had been keeping his father's letters from him. Especially when Dennis admits that his dad never said that he loved him. He can't even bring up the energy to attack Dennis over it.
  • The Gang in what they believe to be their last moments in the sinking ship. Dennis tells Dee he loves her before going underwater; she rolls her eyes but still holds hands with her brother and father as they wait to drown. Last to dive under are childhood friends Mac and Charlie. "Let's go be with the gang."

Season 12

• In "The Gang Turns Black," the Old Black Man is revealed to be estranged from/lost his wife and he just wants the gang to help him find her.
• In PTSDee, Mac has a vivid nightmare of Luther wanting to have a catch with him, but having screwed it all up (again) by accidentally killing him.
  • Dennis feels violated by a group of older women he felt like he couldn’t say no to, wanting to “take the power back”, and does a Freudian Slip of “perverted librarians” while choking down tears when he means to say “cougars”. He’s so close to getting that he was actually hurt, but like Charlie and Dee, jumps on the opportunity to ignore entirely.
  Charlie and Dennis enter like two lambs being led to the slaughter.
  • Even more tragic in the script, as when they’re told to come in by a woman who looks an awful lot like Barbara Reynolds, Dennis bleakly tells a very anxious Charlie “it’s better if you do what they say.”
  • Even Dee, who does something really terrible with the stripper and his daughter, has PTSD like Dennis and Charlie, and she doesn’t want to talk about where that shit came from, the implication being that all of Frank’s thoughtless sexual demeaning has really messed her up.
• From "The Gang Tends Bar," Dennis gets increasingly frustrated that the gang aren't doing anything to help out with the bar, believing that he's running some sort of scam. They then keep taunting him about not having feelings before he starts tearing up, telling everyone that he does have feelings and that they hurt him every Valentine's Day, which is why he hates it.
  • Knowing what his real problem is, Dennis saying the bar is full of people who nobody loves and who don’t get gifts on Valentine’s Day.
  • In the very same episode before Dee starts to cruelly laugh at Charlie's improvised "heart song" for her (under the threat of releasing an Anthrax attack mind you), it does appear that the song does indeed touch her a little bit before she breaks into laughter.
• "A Cricket's Tale" marks Cricket's point of no return. Cricket's father offers to give him a job so he can get back on his feet, during which Cricket meets an attractive young woman who takes a liking to him. When Cricket kisses her, his father and brother scream at him to stop, stating that his newfound love was actually a dog and he was hallucinating. Cricket then gives up on any chance at rehabilitation and you just know that his decision was fueled by a broken heart.
• Dennis saying goodbye to Brian Jr. in "Dennis' Double Life". He holds him tight before giving him to Mandy, his one-night stand, and Brian waves bye to him. Back in the bar, he stares into space before announcing his need to be Brian's father, because he didn't want to hurt his own son the way Frank did. It’s also sad that he fails, both because he has to and as he projects later, because he was still a severe alcoholic with daddy issues.
  • This moment really can't be overstated. Seeing this terrible, self-confessed Tin Man look completely destroyed when he hugs Brian Jr. is a genuine gut punch. It's easy to tell right then and there that Dennis in legitimately hurt by this turn of events, compounded when he claims that he can't let it end that way.
  Brian Jr.: "Bye, Da-da."
  Dennis: (softly) "Bye..."

Season 13

• The Reveal in “Time’s Up” that Dee raped Charlie offscreen when he decided he didn’t want it anymore makes their sweet friendship building in “The Gang Misses The Boat” feel All for Nothing. Notably at the end of the latter episode, they’re very uncomfortable around each other and he mimes choking her.
• "Charlie's Home Alone" starts off as a parody of the Home Alone movies, with Charlie alone at Paddy's after the rest of the Gang accidentally leaves him behind to go to the Super Bowl. When he believes that burglars are trying to break into the bar, he installs a bunch of Home Alone-style booby traps to defend the place. However, soon enough, he gets caught in his own traps, and it just becomes one long Mutilation Conga throughout the episode, as his injuries get worse and worse. By the end, he's in so much pain, and his suffering can be very difficult to watch.
• "The Gang Wins the Big Game": It’s only briefly, but Mac has this clarity that everything the Gang does turns to shit, and they’re just cruel and angry and awful.
• "Mac Finds His Pride" hits this hard. Mac's struggle to truly accept his sexuality and tell his dad he's gay is clearly extremely hard on him, and when he finally comes out partly via an elaborate dance performance, Luther leaves in disgust. Mac sits on the ground sobbing for a moment before the dance resumes. Making this even worse, it seems like this was a scripted moment In-Universe, as the noise, rain effects, and female dancer all continue undisturbed—meaning Mac was so sure Luther was going to reject him he wrote it into the choreography ahead of time. It helps that the whole thing is scored to Sigur Rós' breathtaking "Varúð" and features easily the most stunning cinematography ever seen on Sunny.
  • Special mention also goes to Frank's beautifully understated reaction:
    Oh my God. I get it. I get it.
    • To clarify, Frank has spent the whole episode making outrageously homophobic comments and saying that he doesn't really "get" Mac or "the whole gay thing" in general. Luther also tells Mac in an earlier scene, "I never really got you, you know?" Frank saying he now gets it isn't just Mac finally being understood, it's Frank being a Parental Substitute to Mac, who's spent his whole life looking for parental love and approval.
  • Frank is extremely emotional after the performance; he is clearly fighting back tears. Frank is probably the least likely of the gang to cry, so this makes the scene even more intense.
  • "God" spends the brief interlude and the end of the performance comforting a sobbing Mac. It's hard to tell how much of this is part of a choreographed performance and how much of this is Mac's dance partner comforting a man who was just came out to his father and was met with bitter rejection.
    • It also works as a surprisingly beautiful callback — in "The Gang Saves the Day", God appears as a half-naked, muscular man that Mac can't admit being attracted to . Here, she's the beautiful woman that he feels he should be attracted to, unsexualised and telling him it's ok.
  • Unfortunately, Frank's revelation is undone in "Frank vs. Russia", with Frank walking back his understanding of Mac and "the whole gay thing" once Mac's excited explanation of his use of remote-controlled vibrating anal beads brings Frank's homophobia roaring back.

Season 14

• Dennis' decrepit-looking form in "Dee Day" after Dee makes him remove his makeup, implants, and hair dye. He looks so dejected, listless, and small, it can make you feel bad for him, especially because it's a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome of his insecurity, eating disorder and alcoholism.
• Charlie not wanting to be left alone with Dee in “The Gang Chokes”, for obvious reasons. She’s more confused than anything else, but doesn’t push.
  • While Mac’s fawning trauma response is Dennis’s own fault (a bit like breaking a toy and not wanting to play with it anymore), Dennis feels like he can’t depend on anyone and nobody would help him if he was dying, especially as later he admits he depended on Barbara for everything.
• In a Freeze-Frame Bonus during “The Gang Texts”, Mac sends Dennis two long texts that can be summed up as him being a Love Martyr, and Dennis blows them off.
• Dee revealing several red flag statistics and facts about suicide which are shrugged off by the rest of the Gang as pathetic in "Paddy's Has a Jumper" makes it apparent that the dark thoughts she has had from "The Gang Broke Dee" and her "PatheticGrrl43" video diaries never really went away.
  • Dennis’s sum up of the jumper is just describing himself: only making it look like he’s having food when he’s not, trying to retain his youth, daddy issues, abuse issues, abandonment issues, a tendency to eat butt, and a woman who introduced him to a new way of life but broke up with him thanks to said dad issues and alcoholism.
• "Waiting for Big Mo" is probably the biggest example of just how abusive Dennis can be to the rest of the Gang. He manipulates Mac and Dee into focusing on their goal during the laser tag match by withholding compliments from Mac and giving those compliments to Dee instead. His reasoning is that by robbing Mac of love and giving Dee the love she believes she doesn't deserve, it makes them angry enough to charge at their rival players and score more points. Their faces once Dennis puts this into action is heartbreaking. It's even more heartbreaking when you remember that Dennis really does love Dee, letting himself drown when he thinks she doesn’t love him back (which she clearly does), but she’s been so abused that even the affection she craves she doesn’t trust or think she deserves.
  • He also manipulates Frank by making him believe he's making meaningful contributions when in reality, his laser pack is off the entire time. Frank eventually finds out the truth and is completely saddened by it, and it's made even worse when Dennis pretends to turn Frank's pack back on, thus deluding Frank once more.
  • It's so toxic that it actually turns into a subtle Moment of Awesome when they eventually overcome his orders. Mac and Dee defy him and choose to just have fun with each other, and Charlie manages to activate Frank's laser pack, enabling him to finally participate.
  • Dennis himself doesn't get off easy either: admitting to Charlie why he’s so hellbent on waiting for Big Mo, as he feels like he has to always be on guard for what “Big Mo” represents; certain people who want to take what Dennis has and want him to passively give it over. As is usual for Charlie and Dennis subplots in later episodes, the sexual abuse trauma subtext is not hard to miss.
  • Dennis’s reaction when he finds out the guy who created laser tag killed himself. He has to sit down, disappearing from the Gang’s framing like he did in “Dee Day”, and he looks so small and sad.

Season 15

• As terrible and creepy as he’s being to younger women, Dennis tells the others in “The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 7”, that he refuses to be doomed to having sex with old people for the rest of his life. His Trauma Button is hitting him (and so, others) in the head with a rock.
• Whether it’s Self-Serving Memory of what they wanted to happen or one of their many attempts at five minutes of trying to be better, “The Gang Buys A Roller Rink” has a lot of melancholy. Dee actually had friends until head trauma, Charlie was doing a good job until the place got sold, Mac was respected for selling drugs until Charlie messed up and Dennis was open about craving approval until watching Frank have sex. When they go see Paddys they have hope that they’re going to turn the dank depressing place around, but Failure Is the Only Option. Kaitlin added to it, saying Dee actually had what she always wanted even for a short while (the guys being nice to her, plus hope for a future) but now she can’t even remember it.
  • During their One Dialogue, Two Conversations (where Dennis is talking about business and Frank is talking about sex), Frank obliviously assumes this would be something Dennis learned about in school. Ms Klinsky sure did teach him… something.
• Poor Kiki is a Horrible Judge of Character and thinks Dee is amazing for giving her a compliment because her parents were never there. Dee decides to emotionally torture her and then abandon her.
  • Towards the end, Dennis is nearly crying when he expresses a wish to just be normal. The fact the self loathing comes after being raped by the monkey probably says something.
  • Charlie bringing up the fact that Dee raped him when he wants to get rid of her. He denies that it’s anything mean or personal, but it’s another instance of someone in the show being genuinely victimised and also using it for The Chain of Harm.
• One that doubles as Unnervingly Heartwarming: In "Dee Sinks in a Bog," Dennis has called Frank out plenty of times on being a terrible father, but when they’re trying the dad/son thing (after the below rejection by Charlie) and Frank praises him for how dark he is instead of being disturbed, Dennis admits he has Frank to thank for the neglect and misdeeds (which includes selling him as a prostitute) killing any sort of conscience in him. He then kisses Frank on the head and rather meekly asks if that was okay to do.
• Possibly one of the most heartbreaking moments in all of the show's history come near the end of Season 15. In "The Gang's Still In Ireland," after discovering his real father, Charlie admits that he doesn't always find Frank's humor to be funny. Frank is clearly heartbroken by this and Charlie not wanting to share a bed. Frank ends the episode with a solemn "Goodnight, Charlie" as a somber instrumental of "Danny Boy" plays. It should be noted that Charlie and Frank's previous separation and temporary falling out caused Frank great distress, making this scene even more poignant.
  • Twisting the knife further, in what's probably one of the most heartwrenching scenes in the entire series, Charlie's father dies of COVID in "The Gang Carries A Corpse Up A Mountain" — most likely passed to him by the Gang. Charlie tries to fulfill his family's tradition by bringing his body up a mountain, but ends up alone after the rest of the Gang either abandon him, or in Frank's case, was left behind by Charlie. Eventually, Charlie breaks down over his father also having abandoned him as a child. Charlie Day's acting and the bagpipe cover of "Amazing Grace" make this scene even more emotional.
  Charlie: (crying) Goddammit, I can't do this! I'm sorry, Dad! I can't do it! This isn't fair... I shouldn't have to carry you up this hill! You never carried me up a hill! You never picked me up from school, you didn't read me bedtime stories, you didn't carry me on your shoulders, you didn't bounce me on... You weren't there! And I needed you! I needed you there. You were supposed to carry me! You were supposed to carry—(breaks down sobbing) Ah, Frank's right, I'm glad you're dead! I'm glad you're dead! Now, I don't have to spend the rest of my life waiting for you to pick me up!

Season 16

• “Frank Shoots Every Member Of The Gang” makes another point of Mac, Dee, Dennis and Charlie being in large part how they are due to terrible parents. Bonnie cries when Charlie is upset with her and he’s bitter about always taking care of her, Mac callously rejects his uncle in favour of being a Love Martyr to his extremely uncaring and physically abusive mother, and while the Reynolds twins are angling for money, they’re scared of Frank’s gun and Dennis has a moment of self aware rage that their legacy is a shit bar with a shit father.
• In "The Gang Gets Cursed," Bonnie is throwing a birthday party for Uncle Jack. This becomes a Tear Jerker when you remember that in the previous episode, Bonnie never realized that Charlie turned forty until he told her, years after it happened. So, the fact that she seems to remember Uncle Jack's birthday but not her son's is heartbreaking.
  • Also in the same episode, Mac finally gets to meet Chase Utley, his hero (and obvious Celebrity Crush). Mac reveals that Chase had actually sent him a video response to the letter he sent back in Season 5. However, one of the things Chase says in that video is, "I'm sorry your dad doesn't like you. Maybe you could become a better son." So, Chase places the blame for Mac's bad relationship with his dad entirely on Mac. This is even worse when you remember that Chase initially thought Mac was a child. Not to mention, Chase actually steals Mac's monkey paw that he uses for good luck and runs off with it. For Mac, this whole episode was a huge, painful case of "never meet your heroes."
• "Frank vs. Russia": A little like how Ms Klinsky added a new layer to Dennis, his heavy handed Mommy Issues (that every man had a dominating mother who both inflated his ego and made him feel powerless, and he craves her validation including sexually) isn’t an excuse for how terrible he is, but it does sadly explain a few things.
• Mac's rant in "Risk E. Rat's Pizza and Amusement Center" is a huge example of just how warped his mindset is due to his horrible upbringing by both his Abusive Parents and religious trauma:
  Mac: It's not your fault. This dog, your parents, the whole... the whole culture is grooming you to be a pussy. You got no freedom, which means you got no balls. And then, even when you actually do get caught doing something bad, you're not held accountable. And if you're not held accountable, you feel no guilt. If you feel no guilt, you feel no shame. If you got no shame... you're never gonna hate yourself enough to stop being bad and grow some balls.
• "The Gang Goes Bowling": Dennis as both an adult and child torturing Dee when it comes to bowling. It’s sad on both sides, because Dee was actually head of the bowling team as a kid and good at something until Dennis fucked her over - going to watch and saying "gutterball" every time she played, destroying her confidence in a talent she had, and for Dennis he’s so insanely clingy and lonely that he can’t accept that Dee loves him (and is just as weird as he is when it comes to their insane incest thing), and her just wanting one thing to herself doesn’t mean she loves him less or is going to leave.
• "Dennis Takes a Mental Health Day": While it turns out quite sweet (Dennis fantasised getting his rage out instead of hurting anyone, and goes to be with the Gang), Dennis's fantasy is consistently about the fear that he can't actually control anything, considers himself a victim of a system too, and nobody will help him.
  Dennis: It’s not your fault. You didn’t create the system. The system is what it is, and we’re both victims so…
  Cashier: What?
  Dennis: …nothing.

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