"Eighteen's legal, bro. This isn't a morality contest."
— Charlie
The gang reinvents their bar as a safe haven for teenage drinkers, and Dee, Dennis, and Charlie regress to their teenage selves when each of them get asked to the prom.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Alpha Bitch: Tammy, the girl who asks Dennis to prom, appears to be one of these.
- Appeal to Flattery: The high school kids convince Mac and Charlie to bring them a keg for their house party by repeatedly claiming they're the coolest guys they've ever met.
- Blackmail: Tammy threatens to tell the police that Paddy's is serving underage kids unless Dennis goes to the prom with her.
- Competition Freak: Mac gets ridiculously hyped up over winning a game of flip cup at a high school party, to a point where the onlookers comment on what an asshole he is.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Dennis is hesitant to sleep with a young-but-of-age girl, when in later seasons he actively seeks them out.
- Dee is still largely presented as the voice of reason, scolding the others for their immoral antics.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Mac is jealous about being the only member of the gang not invited to prom, despite repeatedly insisting that it's lame.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Charlie forms a friendship with the high schooler, Sara, joining in on her gossip about the other students. Even when Sara asked Charlie to prom, unlike Tammy and Trey asking Dennis and Dee, it seemed to be purely platonic, Charlie later gladly letting Sara's ex-boyfriend dance with her during it.
- The Lad-ette: Dee chugs beer throughout the episode and does a keg stand that lasts for over seventy seconds at the house party.
- Liquid Courage: Dee has to get drunk to keep her nerves in check whenever she's around a guy she likes.
- Makeout Point: Trey takes Dee on a date to Lemon Hill, which she describes as the place where all the cool kids used to hang out.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: Several different people throughout the episode tell Dennis that Trey is going to bang Dee, much to his annoyance.
- Never My Fault: Charlie and Mac claim that it's not their job to check IDs when Dennis asks how the hell underage kids started getting into the bar in the first place. Dennis reminds them that this is, in fact, all of their jobs.
- Oh, Crap!: How Mac and Dennis initially react when they realize that all their customers are underage, until they decide to profit off of it.
- Only Sane Woman: Dee is the only one who objects to the Gang's plan to allow underage drinking at Paddy's.
- Operation: Jealousy: The ending of the episode reveals that Tammy and Trey were only using Dennis and Dee in order to make each other jealous. They end up getting back together, leaving the twins humiliated from being dumped on prom night despite being in their late twenties.
- Self-Serving Memory: Dennis accuses the others of viewing high school through rose-tinted glasses when they start reminiscing about how great it was, claiming that the only reason Mac and Charlie got to hang out with him and the popular crowd was because Mac sold everyone weed and Charlie was the class clown, while Dee was a complete social outcast due to wearing a back brace for scoliosis. It's later revealed in the season 7 finale that this is mostly true, but that Dennis was never popular, just deluded, and was just as much of a loser as them.
- Shipper on Deck: When Sara's ex-boyfriend wants to dance with her at the prom, Charlie gives them the go-ahead and smiles as they rekindle their romance.
- Speaking Like Totally Teen: Charlie starts doing this after spending a little too much time with the teenagers, to the annoyance of everybody else.
- Watering Down: Dennis suggests that they do this with the drinks they serve to the kids in order to keep them from getting too drunk - and to make more profit.
- Wild Teen Party: Subverted at first, when Mac and Charlie turn up to the house party only to find everybody sitting around sober and playing board games. Then they bring the booze, and it quickly turns into a straight example.
