The Gang discovers a former Local Hangout is closing, so they reminisce about the last time they were there. Charlie and Mac run a roller rink they fear is on the verge of closing. Dennis tries to get more involved in Frank's business while Dee spends one last night at the rink.
Tropes:
- Call-Back: Mac's drug dealing was mentioned at the Gang's high school reunion and becomes an important plot point.
- Call-Forward:
- The Gang in 1998 avoid insulting Dee, and Charlie notes that he would never "make fun of her physical attributes." Making fun of Dee's physical attributes is basically all they do in the present.
- Mac and Dennis manage to distract Charlie from thinking about how he should own most of Paddy's because he fronted most of the money by offering to buy Charlie a sandwich. Charlie later sells a bunch of his Paddy's shares for half a sandwich.
- Frank watched Dennis strip and get assplayed by a Jane, and here Dennis watches Frank have sex with a hooker.
- Continuity Nod:
- Charlie calls out to Dooley, a former friend of the Gang who has only ever been mentioned.
- Dee asks for a men's size eleven. Dee wears a size thirteen in women's shoes, which is the equivalent of a men's size eleven.
- Everyone's Baby Sister: In a comical flip of her present-day status as their designated Butt-Monkey, back in the 90s the gang were apparently quite affectionate to "Sweet Dee", openly protective of her and being uncharacteristically kind to her. Notably Dennis, Mac, and Charlie are still Vitriolic Best Buds to one-another at this point (albeit not as openly hateful as they'd later become), but are nothing but kind to Dee and apologise when they make a crass joke at her expense.
- Foreshadowing: Charlie mentions that there's a lot of money in the roller-skating business. It's revealed near that he's saved over $50,000 dollars from his paychecks and finding loose change at the rink, which the Gang uses to buy Paddy's.
- Gallows Humor: The nightmare fuel of Dennis witnessing his dad having sex. The fact that the trauama is underplayed is the gallows humor.
- High-Class Call Girl: Frank pays his escort $2000.
- Hilarious in Flashback:
- Much of the humor in this episode comes from the disconnect between the Gang's past behavior and how very different they are now, such as Dee's legitimately sweet demeanor or the Gang's refusal to insult her.
- The Gang excitedly talks about how they're going to gut Paddy's and really make it their own, but it looks exactly the same as it does in the present day.
- Ironic Nickname: Played for laughs. Dee's nickname apparently once had some significance, before she became the awful woman she is today.Charlie: Aw, Sweet Dee! So pure of heart!
Mac: SUCH a good-hearted person. - It Will Never Catch On: A Running Gag in the flashback is that a young Mac doubts that modern technology like the internet and cellphones will not catch on. Ironically, he believes that beepers will be the best things ever in 20 years when actually they end up being outdated by then.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Dennis asks if Charlie and Mac like the name "Paddy's", and they all agree it's "pretty bad" and express a desire to change it. Their respective actors (Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day, and Rob McElhenney - all of whom helped create the show) revealed shortly before this episode debuted that they really don't like the name of the series and consider it the weakest title proposed during development.
- Match Cut: Mac, Dennis, and Charlie walk into Paddy's in 1998, and the scene dissolves to them in 2021, standing in the exact same positions. Charlie's even wearing the same hoodie.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Dennis asks to watch Frank in his business dealings, and Frank misinterprets this to mean that Dennis wants to watch him have sex with an escort. Even moreso, Dennis claims that the "guys were making fun of him" for not knowing anything about "how its done", leading Frank to think Dennis was a virgin who didn't know how to have sex.
- Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: Charlie overhears Smokey saying he's “going to sell the joint." By 'joint', he meant his cigarette. He actually previously owned Patty's before the Gang bought it from him.
- Pink Is Erotic: Dennis is called to bring a briefcase to Frank for business purposes and the two get into a misunderstanding as Dennis wanted to see Frank doing "what he does at work" so they can work together, but Frank was actually using a prostitute and needed Dennis to provide viagra. The scene cuts to a very happy Frank paying the prostitute and a traumatized Dennis sitting in a pink chair next to pink flowers, having watched Frank and the prostitute the entire time because he thought Dennis wanted to watch him "doing what he does at work". Before the scene, there's a painting behind Dennis that contains shades of pink and there are pink napkins in Frank's hotel room.
- Retcon:
- Previous episodes (barring Season 1) have made it very clear that Dennis and Dee have been terrible since at least their teenage years, with them also being fully aware how horrible a person Frank was. Then again, it's unclear if the events of the episode were a case of Self-Serving Memory, or from one of their many ill-fated attempts to better themselves, or that they had simply grown out of their teenaged attitudes into sweet people, only for this night's events to ruin that.
- Again, barring season 1, it was indicated previously that the Gang had always been casually cruel to Dee, with references to them spending their high school years joining in with the school in picking on her. This episode indicates they had previously treated her kindly, but after a head injury destroyed her sweet personality, they began antagonising her. This also works in reverse, as the aforementioned Early Instalment Weirdness showed Dee to be the Token Good Teammate of the gang in the early seasons, but here it implies her present-day horrible attitude is something she's had since this aforementioned head injury.
- Same Clothes, Different Year: The end of the episode shows a fade to the present from the day the guys bought the bar 22 years earlier in 1998. While Dennis and Mac had different outfits and hairstyles, Charlie in the flashback had the same exact outfit (and hairstyle) he is wearing in the present day.
- Shout-Out: The Gang in the flashback reference Seinfeld, with Dee stating that she does not like how the group are jerks to each other.
- Speed Sex: Frank lasts a short amount of time, which he attributes to the attractiveness of his escort.
- Start of Darkness:
- Dennis and Dee have very innocent personalities in 1998. It's implied that Dee got her abrasive personality as a result of a head injury, while Dennis became more cynical after watching his father have sex with a prostitute.note
- This also indicates that the Gang's collective tendency to shit on Dee was born after her attitude change, as they seem to genuinely have a soft spot for the innocent Sweet Dee. After her had injury caused her to become crass and rude, it appears their opinion soured on her and they began dunking on her.
- Time-Shifted Actor: Comically averted, despite flashing back to college-aged versions of themselves, the cast still look exactly as they do now, albeit with different hairstyles in Dee, Dennis, and Mac's case.
- Vocal Dissonance: In the Cold Opening, Charlie delivers the bad news that the Gang's favorite skating rink is about to close down by dancing around in roller skates while listening to music. Lampshaded by Dee.Dee: How could you deliver bad news in such an upbeat fashion?
- Waxing Lyrical: Mac bemoans that everybody wants to "pave paradise and put up a parking lot" when informed of the rink's imminent closure.Charlie: Nice! Nice!
- Whole Episode Flashback: Almost the whole episode is a flashback to 1998 when the Gang worked at or frequented a skating rink.
