"Are you saying that we have to decide whether that old Nazi bitch lives or dies?!"
— Dee
Dennis and Dee are informed that their Nazi grandfather has fallen into a coma, and as his sole living relatives it's up to them to decide whether or not he should continue on life support. Meanwhile, Frank becomes obsessed with finding his "Nazi treasure", causing Charlie and Mac to suspect that a painting from the box of Nazi memorabilia Pop-Pop gave to Charlie was created by none other than Hitler himself.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:Charlie: Hitler's painting? The key to the Holocaust? Ryan Gosling playing you?! Ridiculous!
- Artifact of Doom: Both Frank and Cricket claim that the painting had an "evil" vibe, and later Charlie gives an entire rant about how it was driving everybody crazy.
- Brick Joke: The doctor mentions that there's been a rash of stray dog attacks in the city after Dennis and Dee set a bunch of dogs free from the pound earlier in the episode.
- Butt-Monkey: Cricket is now doing community service in the pound, a job that Mac sums up as "dog janitor".Boss: Just had a Mastiff in here, had explosive diarrhea. I've never seen anything like it. Get your ass in here!
Cricket: Aw, come on... - Call-Back: Mac has a pair of special goggles that he uses for "ocular patdowns".
- Continuity Nod:
- The dog painting can actually be seen hanging on the wall of Charlie's apartment in some of the earlier episodes.
- Mac's obsession with Indiana Jones is brought up again.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: When Mac starts imagining he and Charlie's treasure hunt being turned into a movie with Ryan Gosling playing him, Charlie says he wants to play Hitler, and starts rambling a nonsensical plot about Hitler traveling through time to join them on a road trip buddy comedy, completely divorced from anything they were talking about at the moment.
- Dark Lord on Life Support: Pop-Pop is a former Nazi who is now entirely dependent on a life support machine.
- Death Seeker: Cricket's life has become so miserable that he begs Dennis and Dee to select him for euthanasia instead of a dog.
- Driven to Suicide: As Dennis and Dee go down the line of dog cages at the kennel (trying to pick a dog to put down), Cricket winds up being in the last one.Cricket: Pick me... Put me down, pick me, I deserve it...
- Even Evil Has Standards: Dennis and Dee really don't like Nazis, and finding out that their grandfather had them attend a Hitler Youth camp when they were children ends up being the deciding factor in them taking him off of life support. They also can't bring themselves to kill a dog.
- Eye Scream: Cricket now has a nasty-looking scar running through one eye. For once, the gang aren't to blame for his injury; he blames it on "an incident with a chocolate lab".
- Failed Attempt at Drama: After Charlie A) reveals that he painted the dog painting and B) he's going to burn it so no one can have it, Mac and Frank say that, since it's not an original Hitler painting, they no longer care about it.
- Foreshadowing: Mac tells Charlie that the movie of them finding the dog painting will be a "classic like Citizen Kane". The episode ends by emulating the film's famous final scene, zooming in on the burning dog painting, revealing Hitler's signature.
- Heel–Face Turn: Dennis and Dee initially try to claim that Pop-Pop had one of these after coming to America, but they quickly change their minds when they watch an old home video of him taking them to a Nazi rally.
- Help, I'm Stuck!: Frank is stuck in the window of Pop-Pop's house when he's talking to Mac on the phone. Dennis and Dee later find him stuck headfirst in an empty trunk.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: Cricket asks Dennis and Dee to put him down when they're trying to pick a dog to kill.
- Just Following Orders: Dee invokes this at one point to try and excuse Pop-Pop's Nazi past.Dennis: Let's not try and justify why a man would join the Nazis.
- "L" Is for "Dyslexia": Charlie misreads the sign on the door of the dentist's office.Charlie: "Brett De Lawyer, a denial correlation"... what does that mean?
Mac: Pretty good, that's close. It's "Brett DeLawter, a dental corporation". The guy's a dentist. - Mercy Kill: The doctor considers taking Pop-Pop off life support to be this.
- Nazi Gold: After Frank mentions that Pop-Pop has some Nazi treasure hidden somewhere, Mac and Charlie become convinced that the German Shepherd painting he gave to Charlie is an "orginal Hitler" and spent the rest of the episode trying to track it down. Subverted when Charlie admits that he did the painting and just wanted to get it back, and then Double Subverted right at the end when they burn it and the flames melt away the top layer of paint to reveal what appears to be Hitler's signature.
- Nazi Grandpa: Pop-Pop is the twins' grandfather, and also a devoted Nazi. In a flashback we see him taking a young Dennis and Dee to a rally and getting them to do Nazi saultes.
- Noodle Incident: The scar over Cricket's right eye (one of the few things that happened to him that the Gang had no part in) was the result of a "stray chocolate Lab". And the only other thing we know of the end result of that encounter is that "that dog is very paralyzed now" and Cricket is working at the kennel for "community service".
- No Peripheral Vision: Mac suffers from this when wearing his "ocular patdown" goggles.
- Pet the Dog: Dennis and Dee ultimately free several dogs (and Cricket) from the pound after deciding that they don't have to stomach to go through with watching one of them die. Mac and Charlie also discuss Hitler's apparent love of dogs, lampshading the trope.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Frank greets the Lawyer as "that Jew lawyer" when he enters the bar.
- Putting on the Reich: The first hint that something is amiss with Dennis and Dee's "summer camp" video is when they're made to put on uniforms.
- Real After All: Throughout the episode, Frank, Charlie, and Mac obsess over a painting of a German shepherd, which they believe Hitler himself painted. Charlie later tells them that he painted the dog's image over an already-used canvas. Everyone agrees that since Hitler didn't paint the original, it can be burned...but as the episode ends, the German shepherd burns away, revealing Hitler's signature on the original canvas.
- The Reveal: The dog painting (assumed by Mac and Charlie to be one of Hitler's paintings) wasn't the painting in Pop Pop's box; Charlie painted the dog over the original painting.
- Even more so, the painting Charlie painted over? That was one of Hitler's paintings.
- Sadistic Choice: Dennis and Dee are presented with one: if they let Pop-Pop die, they kill their grandfather; if they let him live, they're leaving a Nazi alive.
- Sequel Episode: To season one's "The Gang Finds a Dead Guy".
- Series Continuity Error In "Mac and Charlie Die: Part 1", Charlie is able to pull his teeth out with just his bare hands, painlessly. In this episode, they are apparently strong enough to withstand getting braces. He could have had off-screen dental work done since then (paid for by Frank, obviously), but in "Frank Shoots Every Member of the Gang" they are once again weak enough for him to painlessly pull out barehanded (unless they managed to degrade again after having work done).
- Shout-Out:
- Mac hopes that he'll get a Da Vinci Code style movie made about him once he recovers Hitler's lost painting.
- The final shot of the episode is one to the final shot of Citizen Kane, revealing Hitler's signature on the painting the same way "Rosebud" was revealed to be Kane's sled.
- Snap Back: Mac has now lost all of the weight that he gained in the previous season. Lampshaded when he enters the bar at the beginning of the episode and comments on his "sudden and unfortunate weight loss".
- Start of Darkness: Discussed by Mac and Charlie, who become convinced that Hitler was inspired to turn to evil after the loss of his childhood pet.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial:Mac: Treasure? What treasure? I don't even know what you're talking about, there probably is no treasure. I'll bet you there's no treasure, so you can just stop looking for the treasure, okay, 'cause there's no treasure.
- The Tooth Hurts: Charlie winds up getting braces after Mac knocks him out with nitrous gas and abandons him at the dentist's office.
- Trouble Entendre: Frank tells Mac that they need to "take Charlie out of the picture".
- Wham Line: Right before we cut to Mac and Charlie burning the painting?Dee: Well, you know what? It's okay, let's go. He had nothing of value to leave us anyway.
Dennis: Yeah, come on.
The Lawyer: Well, actually, he did.
