"Let me guess: ex-wife's getting remarried, you get a little jealous, get your buddies together, you decide to break up that party. So you crash the wedding, get a little tipsy, and things take a violent turn."
— Investigating detective, to Dennis
When Dennis learns that his ex-wife Maureen is marrying Liam McPoyle, he decides to crash the wedding in order to make sure it goes ahead so that he won't have to keep paying her alimony. However, the gang soon find themselves trying to defend their innocence to a grizzled detective after the wedding turns into a bloodbath and Maureen goes missing.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Maureen towards Dennis, not that that stops him from sleeping with her again.
- Affectionate Parody: Of zombie movies, with a little bit of Hillbilly Horrors.
- Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: When Mac and Charlie are surveying the assortment of freaks attending the wedding.Charlie: Dude, are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Mac: Yeah. We could definitely get laid here.
Charlie: What?! - Bait-and-Switch: Dennis insists that "something bad" happened when he tried to get Maureen's signature the last time. No, Dennis didn't kill her, he had sex with her.
- Bat Out of Hell: Frank is bitten by a bat at the beginning of the episode, causing Mac and Charlie to later speculate that the zombie outbreak is caused by "bat rabies".
- Berserk Button: Dee does not respond well to Mac and Charlie crashing another of her cars and starts slashing at them with her nails while screaming in rage.
- Big "NO!": Dennis lets out several at the end of the episode when he realizes that he's ruined his chance to get rid of Maureen once and for all.
- Black Speech: The first thing that comes out of Pappy McPoyle's mouth is cursing in tongues that disturbs Mac, Charlie and Dennis.
- Blatant Lies: Charlie and Mac telling Dee that zombies took her car, when in reality she saw them crash it.
- Blood Is the New Black: The guys spend the entire time they're being interrogated by the police covered in blood.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Maureen has had her breasts enlarged since her last appearance, much to Dennis's approval.Dennis: Why, Maureen, you've... you've enhanced yourself.
Maureen: Yeah, I got my tooth fixed.
Dennis: I'm talking about your tits! Your big, giant new titties, Maureen! - Call-Back
- Charlie is once again freaked out by the woods.
- Mac tells Dee to make herself throw up after she swallows "poison".
- Charlie crashing Dee's car is reminiscent of Mac crashing Dee's car.
- The Cameo: Guillermo del Toro appears as Pappy McPoyle. According to Word of God, Guillermo said he would give Charlie Day a role in Pacific Rim in exchange for Charlie putting del Toro on Always Sunny.
- Character Development: A minor one. In prior episodes Charlie was unable to leave Philadelphia unless he was unconscious. In this episode, he goes with Mac and Dennis to the wedding on a bus, conscious and aware the entire time. He does, however, make clear he's uncomfortable there.
- Continuity Nod:
- Dennis is keen for the wedding to go ahead so that he can stop paying alimony to Maureen.
- Liam addresses Mac by his full name, Ronald McDonald.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Frank accidentally admits that they were there to stop the wedding as he recalls events to the detective.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Dennis ends up getting distracted by Maureen's new breasts every time he goes to speak with her. The eventually culminates in him sleeping with her and derailing any chance of her going ahead with the wedding.
- Don't Go in the Woods: Discussed; the wedding is taking place in a cabin in the woods, which Charlie finds creepy.
- Eat the Camera: Dennis, at the very end.
- Eats Babies: Pappy McPoyle starts raving about how he ate a baby at one point so it wouldn't eat him first, freaking out Mac and Charlie.
- Epic Fail: As Charlie and Mac steal Dee's car, Charlie insists that "[he] remember[s] how [to drive]". Cue it smashing into a lamppost.
- Eye Scream: Liam ends up losing an eye in the carnage.
- Fake American: Combined with What the Hell Is That Accent?. The presumably Irish-American Pappy McPoyle is played by Mexican Guillermo del Toro and speaks like a feral Appalachian mountain man.
- Foreshadowing: Frank encouraging Bill Ponderosa to do drugs at the wedding sets the scene for him to spike the milk with bath salts, resulting in the madness that follows.
- At one point, we see Charlie and Mac (now scarred and bloody) run into Dee outside. They tell her to not go up the same path they did, stressing that "[a] zombie must have stolen [her] car". Cue Dee going feral. Connect the dots.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: One of the opening info cards notes that it's Friday the 13th.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: Charlie and Mac make a point of telling Dee that her car must've been taken by a zombie. She didn't even ask about where her car went.
- In Medias Res: The episode opens with Dennis, Charlie, Mac and Frank stumbling about the woods in a panic after the bloodbath of the wedding. They then get picked up by the police and explain what happened leading up to that point.
- It's All About Me: Dee calls Dennis out on this attitude when he becomes convinced that she and Frank want to derail the wedding so that he has to continue paying alimony. Of course, in this particular instance he happens to be right.
- Karma Houdini: Lampshaded when Dee is ranting about how Mac and Charlie will pay for trashing her car.Charlie: We won't pay.
Mac: We never do! - Locked in a Freezer: Mac and Charlie lock Dee in a freezer after she attacks them.
- Love Triangle: A disturbing and squicky example; Liam's brother Ryan is jealous of his wedding to Maureen due to their ongoing incestuous relationship. However, Liam eventually convinces him that it's for the good of the McPoyle bloodline, as this way they can taint the blood of others and eventually take over the world.
- Mistaken for Murderer: Dennis keeps making vaguely creepy statements about how he "did something bad" to Maureen, causing the detective to become convinced that he murdered her in a jealous rage. Turns out he just had sex with her.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Dennis's reaction after sleeping with Maureen.
- Mister Seahorse: Pappy McPoyle claims his descendants sprang from his loins fully formed.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If Dennis and the gang had just stayed away, the wedding probably would have gone ahead, as the events that derail it (Bill spiking the milk and Dennis sleeping with Maureen) are all tied to their interference either directly or indirectly.
- Not What It Looks Like: Dennis, Frank and the viewer are "treated" to several seconds of what appears to be Ryan performing oral sex on Liam, until it's revealed that he was actually just grovelling for his forgiveness.
- Offing the Offspring: As Pappy mentions in his rant, he ate one of his babies... before it could eat him.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Liam appears out of nowhere behind Dennis at the beginning of the episode.
- Oh, Crap!: The episode ends with the detective starting to call into question Dennis' reveal that he slept with Maureen when another cop comes in to deliver him a message. As it happens, Dennis is free to go. And Dennis immediately realizes why: someone posted his bail...Maureen: (enters the room) Come on, silly head. Let's go home and put this whole adventure behind us.
- Once More, with Clarity: Dee's perspective of the events of the wedding explain two aspects of it: the sudden "zombie" outbreaknote and the scene of Dee attacking Charlie and Macnote .
- Only Sane Woman: Relatively speaking, Dee is the only one who doesn't get caught up in the "zombie wedding" fiasco, as Bill confessed that he spiked the milk that was being served to the wedding guests with bath salts, making them go insane. She only loses her cool when Mac and Charlie stupidly crash her car.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Ryan's "disguise" for sneaking into the wedding is just a fake mustache. Amusingly, Liam doesn't recognize him until he takes it off.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Charlie is unfamiliar with the premise of Batman, to the point that he refuses to believe it's about a man who chooses to dress up like a bat because "these are Academy Award winning movies."
- Punk in the Trunk: Dee and Frank sneak Ryan into the wedding in the trunk of Dee's car.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The "bath salts causing people to act like zombies" plot is taken from the real incident that happened in Florida at around the same time as the episode was written.
- Running Gag
- Yet another of Dee's cars is destroyed.
- Dennis's obsession with getting people to sign creepy documents is brought up again.
- Saying Too Much: Played for laughs as Frank inadvertently admits that he wanted to break up the wedding while trying to deny that very same thing.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Pappy McPoyle is possibly this, although he may just be insane as a result of the generations of incest within the McPoyle clan, being high off his ass on bath salts, or both.Pappy McPoyle: ALL THE MCPOYLES SPRUNG FROM MY LOINS! FULLY FORMED! One of them babies tried to eat me, I ate him first! I ATE HIM FIRST!!!
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Mac, Charlie and Dee all bail on their respective plans as soon as the shit starts to hit the fan.
- Seinfeldian Conversation: Mac and Charlie stop what they're doing in the middle of an apparent zombie attack and discuss the differences between a vampire, a zombie, and Batman; as well as which of the aforementioned are transformations that can result from a bat bite.
- Skewed Priorities: Dennis's main concern is getting Maureen's signature while what appears to be a full-scale zombie outbreak is happening all around him.
- Shout-Out:
- The cold open homages The Blair Witch Project with a Found Footage style sequence of the guys stumbling around the woods covered in blood.
- Charlie recites Quint's USS Indianapolis speech from Jaws, only with rats instead of sharks. This is lampshaded by Dennis, who asks him point-blank if he's "doing the speech from Jaws".
- Special Edition Title: The usual title sequence is replaced with blood red lettering on a black background, with an ominous version of the theme music playing.
- The Sponsor: Frank is Bill Ponderosa's sober sponsor. He's also a terrible one, as he thinks that it means supporting him in whatever he decides to do and encourages him to get high at the wedding.
- Suck Out the Poison: Frank pays Dee two hundred dollars to do this when he's bitten by a bat at the beginning of the episode, despite the fact that bats aren't venomous.
- Suddenly Shouting: Pappy McPoyle at first appears to be catatonic when Mac and Charlie approach him, only to burst out of nowhere with incoherent chanting followed by "All the McPoyles sprung from my loins, fully formed! One of them babies tried to eat me! I ate him first!"
- Take That!: Mac and Charlie's discussion of the Christopher Nolan Batman movies.Mac: Batman didn't get turned into anything. He just likes bats.
Charlie: That can't possibly be what Batman's about. It's about a grown man who dresses up like a bat?
Mac: And goes around solving crimes and mysteries, yes!
Charlie: These are Academy Award winning movies! This is serious stuff.
Mac: Well, you know the Academy, Charlie. I mean, sometimes it's atrocious. - Tampering with Food and Drink: Bill spikes the milk that all the wedding guests are drinking with bath salts, causing them to go crazy.
- 13 Is Unlucky: Charlie can't understand why Maureen would want to get married on Friday the thirteenth.
- Trademark Favorite Food: The McPoyles' favorite beverage, milk, is the only drink being served at the wedding. Unfortunately, Bill spikes it with bath salts, resulting in everyone acting like zombies.
- Unreliable Narrator: Mac and Charlie claim that Dee attacked them because she was infected with whatever is making the rest of the wedding guests act crazy. When she gives her version of events, however, it becomes clear that she was actually just pissed at them for crashing her car.
- The Unsmile: Liam gives a truly disturbing one at the beginning of the episode.
