It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, "Dennis and Dee Don't Get Rich" | Season 18, Episode 2

Hey free subscribers—your regular reminder that our reviews of Always Sunny are heading behind the paywall.

We're not gonna involve ourselves in any of your macabre nonsense any longer, okay?

Well, if you're going to expel a potential interloper from the Gang, you might as well use a cannon.

Concluding the unfortunate love story of Sam and Frank from the Season 18 premiere, "Dennis and Dee Don't Get Rich" doubles down on the seemingly incontrovertible fact that the Gang—and only those scurrilous five—can survive the show's toxic environs. While it seemed that Sam, a no-nonsense, age-appropriate match for Frank Reynolds, could go toe-to-toe with not only her grubby beloved but each and every member of the Paddy's crew in foul-mouthed oddball disreputability, she ultimately had to be violently rejected like the outside organism she was.

And bless Carol Kane, by the way. Not only was she capable of convincing viewers that the formidable Sam might actually fit in with It's Always Sunny's whole vibe going forward. And not only was the Taxi reunion of Kane and Danny DeVito a genuine kick. But Kane was clearly more than game to trace her character's journey from heartbreaking earnestness in last season's finale to being bodily puppeted as a corpse before her head falls off in this season's premiere (in this second episode) lying pale and discolored on a mortuary slab while her two would-be stepkids scheme to steal her thumb (in order to steal her billions in rubber chicken money.) Kane is listed in the end credits of this one, so I am fully convinced she climbed into that morgue drawer herself, Sam's unfortunate head uneasily reconnected to her discolored neck.