Dennis, Dee and Frank are enjoying their usual beers at Paddy’s Pub. Charlie and Mac burst into the bar carrying a boom box, which is blaring “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads. They sing along loudly, causing the rest of the gang to join in for the yelling portion.
Mac cuts the boom box off, declaring that he has great news for everybody. In unison, Charlie and Mac exclaim that Psycho Pete is back in town. Psycho Pete was one of Mac and Charlie’s best friends while growing up in Philly. Pete garnered a reputation for acting insane in public, doing things like screaming at infants and supposedly murdering and eating his entire family.
This last incident is what caused Psycho Pete to be sent off to a mental institution. Now that he’s been released, Mac and Charlie are gung-ho for reuniting with their homicidal friend for old times’ sake.
Frank is adamantly against Psycho Pete’s return. He claims he lived with people from “the loony bin” in his younger days. Mac assures Frank that Pete is safe around others now that he’s had his “brain scrambled.”
As the gang is discussing the atrocity of people with mental illness, a tall, lumbering man quietly approaches the bar. He addresses himself as Peter and greets Mac and Charlie. After a beat, the two realize that this gentle giant is Psycho Pete. They begin commenting on Pete’s substantial weight gain and overall hulking demeanor.
Despite these changes, Mac and Charlie are still excited to mix things up with Pete. They suggest going out to the streets of Philly and acting wild like the old days. Pete is against these ideas, saying he’s actually very regretful of his old ways. He would much rather stay at Paddy’s and reconnect with the gang.
Mac pulls Charlie away for a sidebar. They decidedly dislike Pete since his rehabilitation. Instead of coping with this new personality, they decide to bail on Pete and leave Paddy’s. Following an awkward one or two beats, Dennis, Dee and Frank go around apologizing to Pete for their comments about mental illness.
Mac and Charlie are walking behind abandoned buildings carrying a six-pack. Mac proposes Pete is docile due to the separation of church and state. Mac says, patients in mental institutions are talking to a therapist when they should be talking to a priest. As Mac is explaining this to a confused Charlie, they happen upon their old punching bag, Matthew Mara, better known as “Rickety Cricket.” Once a classmate of the gang’s, Cricket was a priest before becoming the go-to victim of the many plans concocted by Mac, Charlie, Dennis and Dee.
Cricket is sitting on a concrete stoop, wearing a dirty brown blanket. When Charlie begins asking if he is going for some sort of “Phantom of the Opera” schtick, Cricket pulls it away to reveal that half of his skull has burn scars. Mac and Charlie are revolted, forgetting the fact that Cricket suffered these burns after being caught in a house fire at Mac’s Thanksgiving dinner.
Mac and Charlie offer Cricket a beer in return for his services. Cricket is confused, expecting that he would have to perform some sort of sodomy, as is often the case in his homeless life. Instead, Mac wants Cricket to use his role as clergy to hear Pete confess his sins. Mac believes this is the only way to get Pete back to “normal.” Cricket agrees to the job, saying if sodomy comes up, he’ll expect more than just one beer as payment.
Meanwhile, Dennis, Dee and Frank have found the institution where Pete was housed. It appears rundown and abandoned. Opening the door to an empty foyer, the trio begins to look for any personnel they can question about Pete’s release. Dee finds on the Internet that the institution was closed down due to cutbacks. Dennis is appalled, demanding to know where all his taxes are going.
This inquiry launches Dennis and Dee into a short bit where Dee explains that either taxes are raised or the institution is closed. Each further explanation renders a boisterous “What!?” from Dennis. The call and response joke is a callback to Dave Chappelle’s Lil Jon impersonation from “Chappelle’s Show” in 2004.
Frank wanders off through the institution’s halls, peeking in dormitory windows. Every few doors, he sees hallucinatory images of a young boy in bizarre situations. In one, the boy is in a straight jacket with a gag in his mouth. Another, he is sitting at table with a cafeteria, eating mashed potatoes ravenously.
In a third room, Frank lifts a corner of the carpeting to find the words “Frank 1955 & Froggy” scratched into the floorboards. This upsets Frank, throwing him into a nostalgic vision of the aforementioned boy and a second child in a green blanket, referred to as “Froggy.” Frank realizes that this very institution is the same “nitwit” school he was placed in as a child. Froggy was actually another child at the school.
The mere fact that Frank is involved in a plotline with a mental institution could be a minor reference to 1975’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” where Danny DeVito played a patient named Martini.
Dennis and Dee are unable to think of a place they can send Pete away. Dennis is still baffled by Dee’s explanation of his taxes. She further explains that his money goes towards things like a new practice field for the Philadelphia Eagles. This makes sense to Dennis and Dee, who go off on a tangent about the importance of sports venues. This bit plays a small commentary on America’s obsession with sports and money.
Back at Paddy’s, Pete goes into the men’s restroom. Sitting in his stall, a small slot opens up with Cricket looking out. He begins talking to Pete as if he’s inside a confessional. Pete questions the validity of the confessional since Cricket is using a glory hole. Cricket says he is there to hear Pete’s sins, but he would be open to use the slot for its intended purpose.
Standing in the stall behind Cricket’s, Mac and Charlie try and keep him on topic and feed him different heinous acts done by Pete in his psycho days. Instead of being outraged, Cricket finds Pete’s actions hilarious and justifiable. When they tell Cricket about Pete’s murder and cannibalism, he panics, realizing he’s been talking to Psycho Pete. Pete leaves the bathroom uncomfortably. Mac declares to Charlie and Cricket that Pete must be possessed and he needs an exorcism.
Frank, Dennis and Dee visit a psychiatrist’s office. They plan to swindle psychological medication from the therapist to treat Pete. Frank is more concerned with finding his long-lost friend Froggy. When the psychiatrists comes in to meet them, Frank asks to see a “donkey brain database” to find Froggy.
Dee launches into various accents, moving from a deep Southern lilt to a refined English articulation. Her plan is to convince the psychiatrist she is suffering from schizophrenia.
Frank yells out the name Dr. Albert Zimmerman. This is the name of the staff psychologist at Frank’s school. He exits the office to find Dr. Zimmerman. Dee asks the therapist about getting drugs. This bothers Dennis, who verbally assaults Dee with threats of skinning her and making a suitcase.
These claims disturb both Dee and the therapist, who fear for their safety around Dennis. This tirade of homicidal threats plays into the series-long gag that Dennis is mostly like a serial rapist and murderer.
Frank tracks down Dr. Zimmerman at an elder care facility. The doctor immediately recognizes Frank, who is demanding to know what happened to his friend Froggy. Zimmerman is confused, claiming that Froggy never actually existed, but was a figment of Frank’s imagination. Frank was a pariah among his classmates, forcing him to create Froggy for companionship.
This revelation does little to faze Frank and he casually accepts his psychosis. Zimmerman then grabs a large butterfly net and attempts to grab Frank, who runs away since the net is reminiscent of the nets used in his “nitwit” school days.
Pete sits at the bar alone in Paddy’s. In a nearby booth, Mac, Charlie and Cricket plan their exorcism. In nearly every contribution, Cricket brings up his penchant for sodomy. Mac refutes his offers, asking that Cricket speak Latin during the exorcism. Cricket has forgotten his Latin skills, but will fake it just like “how you gotta fake on the street with some guys.”
Dennis and Dee return to Paddy’s with a bottle of pills. Dennis explains the dangers to society posed by a man with an unstable mind and tendencies to assault others, referring to Pete. Dee rebutted, saying Dennis was actually diagnosed by the psychiatrist with borderline personality disorder. The two are grossly shocked by Cricket’s wounds when they see him.
Brandishing his pistol, Frank runs up to the gang, wanting to kill Pete and “put him out of his misery.” He is paranoid about falling into his psychosis again and returning to his visions of Froggy. Pete finally chimes in, saying he never murdered any of his family, that it was all rumors. Of course, the gang did little to aid Pete, spreading these rumors and raising community fear. Pete explains that he was sent away to be treated for social anxiety and depression.
The only reason he returned to the gang was to reconnect, saying they always seemed to like him. Rather than actually helping him, the gang buy Pete a train ticket to Los Angeles and dance happily as he boards. Pete is very grateful for the opportunity he thinks he’s been given. The gang waves goodbye as Pete leaves the platform for his seat.
They decide to spend the rest of the day watching an open practice in the new Philadelphia Eagles practice facility. As they leave the station, the camera pans right to another door on the train. A middle-aged couple steps onto the platform with a grungy, bearded old man. They wish him well and send him into Philadelphia with little provisions. The man appears to be muttering gibberish to himself.
Before getting back on the train, the couple breathes a sigh of relief, revealing that the old man is crazy and part of Philly’s problem now.
‘It’s Always Sunny…’ – Season 10 Episode 3 – “Psycho Pete Returns” – Recap
By Gerald Ducote
January 28, 2015
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