Recap / Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia S 08 E 04 Charlie And Dee Find Love

Charlie: We've been putting on airs. I know I come across like super-fancy, but I'm not.
Dee: We're not the blue blood fancy types that you think that we are.

Charlie and Dee each manage to find themselves a new love interest after they get into a collision with Trevor and Ruby Taft, the heirs to a multi-million dollar steel corporation, but Dennis suspects that their rich paramours are planning to humiliate them. Meanwhile, the Waitress can't understand why her life seems to be falling apart after Charlie finally stops stalking her.

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This episode provides examples of the following tropes:

• Batter Up!: Dee grabs a baseball bat with the intent of using it to beat the crap out of somebody after the Tafts crash into her car.
• Be Yourself: Dennis, Mac and Frank tell Charlie and Dee that under absolutely no circumstances should they do this.
  Mac: Be anybody but yourselves! Anybody! Charlie, do not eat any cheese or any cheese-like substances, okay? If you see any cheese, you run from it! Dee, do not be a drunk, punchy whore, okay, you whore?
  • They ultimately last about a minute into their double date before falling back into their old habits. However, Trevor^note only pretending to like Dee and Ruby^note genuinely liking Charlie state that it's okay if they act like themselves.
• Berserk Button: Dee flies into a rage after her new car is damaged for the second time in as many episodes.
  Dee: IF YOU DON'T HAVE CAR INSURANCE YOU BETTER HAVE DENTAL, BECAUSE I AM GONNA SMASH YOUR TEETH INTO DUST!!
• Call-Back: Dee performs a "sexy" version of her inflatable tube man dance for Trevor.
• Caught on Tape: Dennis reveals that Trevor has been caught on tape telling Mac to invest in TaftCo the day before it goes public.
  Dennis: If you're in my room, you're always being filmed.
• Chekhov's Gag: The Running Gag of Dennis' room always being filmed comes in handy when he uses it to bust Trevor Taft for insider trading.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Dee has another new car after the events of the previous episode. She tells Charlie that he's lucky she's even letting him ride in it.
  • Mac offers to show Trevor some wrestling moves he learned from Da'Maniac.
  • Dennis has a camera running in his room at all times.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Mac claims that his uncle drowned in a vat of molten steel while working for the Tafts.
• Double Date: Dee and Charlie go on one with Trevor and Ruby Taft.
• Dumbass Has a Point: One of the things Charlie does for the Waitress is guard her bike, which she doesn't lock up when unattended. Once he stops stalking her, it quickly gets stolen.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": When the Waitress calls Dennis, we only see his side of the conversation as he repeatedly fails to recognize her name.
  Dennis: Hello, who is this? Who? Who is — I don't know that name, who? Who?! ...Oh, Waitress. Why didn't you just say that?
  Waitress: Uh, because my name is not Waitress.
• Female Groin Invincibility: Averted. Dee and Mac are wrestling for Trevor's amusement. Mac throws Dee to the floor, proclaiming his victory, only for Dee to sucker-punch his dick, taking him down, when Dee stands up to gloat Mac retaliates and she falls over in pain.
• Fish out of Water: Charlie, Dee and Mac attempting to mingle with the high society types.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Charlie's notes for "helping" the Waitress include "chek fud fer poizden" and "woch bad stoccer".
• Groin Attack: Dee and Mac punch each other in the groin when they're wrestling for Trevor.
• Ignore the Fanservice: Ruby is unimpressed by Dennis popping his shirt off, commenting that he looks pale.
• Kick the Dog: Charlie, usually the least awful member of the gang, reveals at the end of the episode that he's been using Ruby to make the Waitress jealous and informs her in the cruelest way possible by publicly humiliating her and reducing her to tears. It's harsh enough that even Dennis, Mac and Dee seem to think it's a bit much.
  Dennis: I guess Charlie had the cruelest intentions of all, huh?
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: On the other hand, Trevor turns out to be a repugnant asshole who manipulated Dee and Mac into humiliating themselves for his frat buddies' own entertainment, and it's implied that they weren't the first victims of them either. Thus it becomes very satisfying when Dennis nails him for insider trading and ends up siccing the SEC on TaftCo.
• The Lad-ette: Dee reverts to her usual crude self after Trevor states that he likes her for who she is, belching and showing off her pit stains.
• Manipulative Bastard: Charlie pretends to be interested in Ruby and lays off stalking the Waitress for a few days so that she'll come to appreciate the things he does for her and reduce the restraining order against him.
• Miles Gloriosus: Mac spends much of the episode bragging to Trevor about his non-existent karate and wrestling skills, seemingly unaware that Trevor is laughing at him the entire time. Dennis also claims to be great at tennis, but is shown to be horrible in the ensuing game.
• Nice Girl: Ruby is a kind, sweet-natured person who genuinely likes Charlie, despite all his glaring issues. It only makes the fact that Charlie was using her all along even worse.
• Not What It Looks Like: In the video that Dennis plays at the black tie event, Mac and Trevor are shown to be greased up and shirtless, in a poisition that makes it look like they're having sex. They both insist that they were wrestling, but the rest of the gang have their doubts.
  Mac: This is taken out of context!
  Charlie: What was the context?
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The Waitress is somewhat perturbed when Charlie stops stalking her, especially when her life begins to fall apart for no readily identifiable reason (Frank poisoning her) shortly afterwards.
• Pet the Dog: While it's implied that at least part of the reason Dennis is so invested in "exposing" Ruby is because he doesn't believe that a girl like her could ever actually be interested in Charlie, as well as flirting with Ruby to no avail, he spends the episode concerned that Charlie will get his heart broken and gets the Waitress back in Charlie's life, which was Charlie's intention all along. He more or less saves the day for Mac and Dee (plus some geeks)as well when he humiliates Trevor and the rest of the Taft family by siccing the SEC on Taft Co.
• Politically Incorrect Villain; Both Charlie and Dee go on a short rant about how American Indians deserved extermination. Because they're putting on airs for their dates, it's impossible to tell if they really mean this or if they're echoing what they think the wealthy believe.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Charlie delivers a brutal one to Ruby at the end of the episode.
  Ruby: I wasn't using you like Trevor was, he's a total asshole. I really, really, really like you.
  Charlie: Oh, yeah. I know. Okay? I was using you. That's why I kissed you in front of the Waitress, that's why I banged you a bunch of times just to make the Waitress jealous. Amazing, you slept with me almost instantly! And by the way, a quality woman doesn't do that. She doesn't say yes right away, she says no to a man for years, like ten years! That's what a real woman does, okay? You know what you were acting like? A stupid little rich slut. And that's all that you are.
• Running Gag: Yet another of Dee's cars gets damaged. Also, she immediately starts gagging when she first sees Trevor.
• Shout-Out: Dennis claims that the Tafts are re-enacting the plot of Dangerous Liaisons, Cruel Intentions, She's All That, Can't Buy Me Love and "just about every late-90s movie".
  • Trevor's plan — getting an idiot to bring with him to a dinner, to win a bet against friends who are doing the same thing — is a clear Shout-Out to the French film The Dinner Game
• Slut-Shaming: Charlie's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Ruby hits this hard, though it's somewhat parodied as Charlie clearly has some messed-up ideas about romance, including believing that being told "no" for like ten years is just a sign that the Waitress is a "quality woman."
• Underdressed for the Occasion: Mac and Dee turn up to a black tie event in their usual attire, as Trevor deliberately didn't inform them of the dress code in order to humiliate them.
• Unwanted Assistance:
  • The Waitress tells Charlie in no uncertain terms that she doesn't want him doing any of the weird things he does to "help" her. She changes her mind at the end of the episode, however, when she has a run of bad luck immediately after he stops the stalking, which ends with her being hospitalized after getting hit by a car.
    • Dennis and Frank, in turn, are responsible for said bad luck, with Frank being the one who was poisoning her and hit her with his car, in an attempt to get Charlie to be obsessed with her again.
• Would Hit a Girl: Mac and Dee come to physical blows while trying to impress Trevor, and neither of them hold anything back.

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