Frank: It could be a miracle. It could be bullshit. There's only one thing we know for sure.
Charlie: What's that?
Frank: It's a goddamn gold mine.
Charlie: What's that?
Frank: It's a goddamn gold mine.
When the gang finds a water stain in the office that bears a striking resemblance to The Virgin Mary, Frank begins charging patrons to see the miracle, and Mac and Charlie become dueling preachers. Dee tries to convince Matthew "Rickety Cricket" Mara, a priest and former classmate of the gang who had a crush on her in high school, to bless the stain in order to boost the bar's publicity, while Dennis begins fasting after Dee tells him his face looks fat.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: Charlie's ego grows with the more "followers" he gains.
- As the Good Book Says...: Mac starts reading from the Bible at one point in order to prove that he has more religious credentials that Charlie does.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Dennis is cruel to Dee for no reason saying her face looks blotchy, and she takes revenge saying he looks fat, but he starves himself for three days just to get her approval, and she feeds him nuts when he starts looking like a corpse.
- Confessional: Dee admits her "love" for Rickety Cricket in his church's confessional.
- Corrupt the Cutie: By the end of the episode, Dee manages to tempt Cricket into leaving the priesthood by falsely claiming that she loves him, just to prove to the rest of the gang that she hasn't lost her looks since high school. This ends up only being the beginning of his series-long Humiliation Conga.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The Gang initially has difficulty remembering what they called Matthew Mara in high school and address him as Matty at first. Later episodes depict them as exclusively referring to him as Rickety Cricket or just Cricket, with his real name rarely appearing.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Mac is worried that the gang's scheme is pushing God too far and will land them all in hell, and at one point he walks away while exclaiming that he's "washing his hands of the whole thing". He comes back later on though, when an old woman asks for his blessing and he becomes convinced that it's his calling.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Frank recruits the senile Father O'Grady to bless the stain for profit, but O'Grady ends up urinating on the stain, destroying it and Frank's potential profit in the process.
- Informed Deformity: The guys spend a considerable amount of time pointing out Dee's supposed "ugliness", though it's implied they're trying to manipulate her into talking to Cricket.
- It Kind of Looks Like a Face: The plot is kicked off when Mac insists that a water stain in the office looks like the Virgin Mary. The others are more skeptical, but quickly jump on board when Frank points out the money-making potential.
- Light Is Not Good: Charlie dresses in all white to trick the religious into thinking he's a holy person.
- Love Martyr: Cricket is still in love with Dee even though he acknowledges that she led him on and tormented him in high school.
- Messianic Archetype: Parodied when Charlie becomes convinced that he's the Messiah after he proves to be popular with the religious pilgrims.Charlie: I am familiar with carpentry and I don't know who my father is, so... am I the Messiah? I don't know, I could be. I'm not ruling it out.
- Only Sane Man:
- Cricket repeatedly points out the absurdity of the gang touting an unusually shaped stain as a miracle.
- Mac is initially the only one within the Gang to oppose the exploitation of the stain for profit.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The episode is a satire of a string of Virgin Mary sightings throughout the early to mid 2000s, including the infamous Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich, which sold for $28,000 in 2004.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Father O'Grady, the elderly priest that Frank and Dennis recruit to bless the stain after Cricket refuses. He spends most of his screentime ranting about cats "being brown now", spits in Mac's face when he asks to be blessed, and eventually urinates all over the stain, destroying it.
- She Is All Grown Up: Gender-flipped with Cricket, as Dee remarks on how handsome he's gotten since high school, when he was perpetually bullied by the gang for his leg braces.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Dee tells Cricket that the two of them are an example of this in order to convince him to leave the priesthood.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: After Cricket falls into a funk over leaving the priesthood for nothing, Mac offers to let him teabag Dennis so he'll at least get some revenge for what happened in high school.
- Token Religious Teammate: Mac is the only member of the gang who genuinely believes that the stain could be a sign from on high.
- Weight Woe: Gender-flipped. Dennis starves himself for three days straight after Dee tells him his face looks fat.
- With Friends Like These...: When Dennis eventually passes out from hunger the rest of the gang react with callous indifference, and Mac suggests that Cricket should teabag him as revenge for Dennis doing the same to him in high school.
