After seven seasons of taking down almost everyone they’ve known in their past, The Gang from It’s Always Sunny should know that going to their high school reunion isn’t going to go as well as they expect. The four high school friends, with Frank in tow, decide they are going to show all their old classmates how cool they have become, but of course their pasts are destined to come and bite them in the ass.
The Gang decides to defy their high school personas, but before they even enter the gymnasium where the reunion is being held, the past proves that it isn’t done with them. Mac picks up his nametag, which gives us the big reveal seven seasons in the making (and probably a good reason why Rob McElhenney got fat for this season), Mac’s real name: Ronald McDonald. Charlie, who was known as the kid that would huff or eat anything, quickly dissolves into his past as he sniffs a marker just to make the cool guy like him and Dennis is oblivious to the fact that he wasn’t as popular as he believes he was. Surprisingly the only one who comes out on top, at first at least, is Dee, who after making some gay jokes about Charlie and Mac wrestling and getting ringworm, is invited to come to the cool table by the guy who used to insult her for her metal back brace.
“The High School Reunion” becomes an event filled with people from The Gang’s past. Of course we get the Waitress, who has fallen off the wagon again and Rickety Cricket back in his priest garb. There’s also some great callbacks with cameos from Brad Fisher, whose engagement with the Waitress Dee broke up and who Charlie sent a box of hornets, and Maureen, Dennis’ ex-wife with a dead tooth. If throwbacks to past episodes weren’t enough, Kings of Leon even show up as bartenders and Nathan Followill plays the typical high school cool guy.
The Gang quickly reverts to who they were back in high school after a chain of events leaves Mac becoming a snitch like he was in high school, Dennis mad at the guy who slept with his prom date and Charlie mixing chemicals in the bathroom to huff. This leads to him receiving an atomic wedgie that is far too easy as his underwear is so yellow and disgusting, it quickly falls apart, in the episode’s greatest laugh-out-loud moment. Even Dee gets her comeuppance, as it turns out Rickety Cricket used his priest outfit as a ruse to steal from other alumni and that he has ringworm, which quickly leads him to announce that Dee had once told him she loved him, quickly getting her kicked out of the cool group.
“The High School Reunion” is only the first part of a two-part season finale, but it sets up what could occur in the second half quite well. Frank seems determined to enact a “Plan B,” which from the very beginning, seems like the gang will absolutely have to be involved with. I personally can’t wait to see what other show favorites might show up. This season has been unfortunately McPoyle-less. We also haven’t seen a reunion of Charlie and the Waitress since one of this season’s best episodes “The Gang Goes to the Jersey Shore,” and since they both are at low points in their lives, it seems like a great time for them to find each other once again. It’s Always Sunny is great at finding ways to end their seasons in memorable ways (see “Dee Gives Birth,” “The Nightman Cometh,” “The Gang Dances Their Asses Off”), and “The High School Reunion” is certainly the first part of what could end up being one of It’s Always Sunny’s greatest finales, and that’s saying something.