With imminent danger on the way and a huge disaster looming over Philadelphia, “The Storm of the Century” seems like it would be the perfect environment for the antics of The Gang from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. But the sixth episode of the season feels like it should be the first episode of a two-part set, yet when the excitement really kicks up, the story ends, leaving what could have been to the imagination.
Mac, Charlie and Dennis start off watching the news, solely for the weatherwoman, who is covering a hurricane heading towards Philadelphia. When they discover their Y2K bunker has been raided, the three go to the All American Home Center where their favorite weather reporter is stationed, and also to get some supplies, leaving Dee and Frank behind to board up the pub.
While at the store, Mac goes for the food, Charlie for the supplies and Dennis for women to bring back to the bunker. Mac soon runs off, while Dennis finds the reporter that throws him off his game. Meanwhile, after hearing noises in the bunker, Dee and Frank shoot at what they believe to be a looter, but is actually Cricket, who is used to getting the worst of what the gang has to offer. With a fresh gunshot wound bleeding out of his hand, Frank and Dee take Cricket to the hospital.
Mac soon abandons the others at the store, Dennis makes a fool of himself with his “love”, while Frank and Dee soon take a detour from the hospital to pick up their marooned friends. The weatherwoman has found out that what was a hurricane will now be a light drizzle and begins to look for a new story. She doesn’t have to wait long though as all hell breaks loose. The credit card machines go down, looters steal from Charlie’s cart and Frank riling up the gang. All it takes is a woozy Cricket crashing Dee’s car into the store to start a full-on looting. The gang takes what they can, led by Charlie with hatchet in hand, we discover that Mac has purchased a 3D TV for the bunker, as he watches the looting take place from the safety of the bunker enjoying his ice cream “supplies”.
And with that, the episode ends, which seems like a big mistake on the part of the writers. It feels like there is a lot of unneeded set up and that the second act break could have been the beginning of the riot. Plenty is set up at the very end of the episode that would be worthy of more story. For example, what happened to Cricket and as Charlie attempts to kidnap the weather reporter for Dennis to take back to the bunker to “repopulate the earth” and what happened to her, would all be interesting story arcs that are much stronger than the stretched out attempt for the gang to get supplies for a storm that never comes.
It seems like this sixth episode sets up some great ideas, but never attempts to follow them up with any worthy plot developments. Which is a shame, because It’s Always Sunny always thrives in chaos. Unfortunately, we only get to see the calm before the storm.