TVSquad

(S03E05) "You're making my chair look like it was dipped in gold." - Frank

For a place that just got taken hostage and destroyed not a week ago by a clan of incestuous bathrobe enthusiasts, Paddy's Bar looked pretty good. Of course, for fans of It's Always Sunny... we all know that means nothing. The idea of a time-line, save for a few ongoing stories, doesn't really exist on this show. You can easily watch the episodes in any order you like and not find yourself even remotely confused.

It does make you wonder though. The bar was trashed. Broken bottles. Sledgehammers taken to the walls. How would they have paid for the renovations? When do you ever see more than one or two people drinking at that bar? Doesn't matter. When you consider the simple brilliance of this show, intelligent questions are a waste of breath.

Hearkening back to the gang's high school days, we were introduced to one of Dee's adolescent rivals, Ingrid Nelson (nice guest spot from Judy Greer). Back in the day, Ingrid had packed on quite a few pounds and went by the delightful nickname of Fatty Magoo. Odd inconsistency there. In the title card at the beginning of the show, it was spelled Magoo, but in all the channel guides and listings, it was spelled as I have it in the title of this post: McGoo. Just something random I noticed.

Anyway, as you may recall, Dee had her own issues in high school. Severe scoliosis. In fact it was so bad, she had to wear an elaborate back-brace earning her the distinction of being called The Aluminum Monster. Years later, both women look great. The only difference is that Dee became a waste of life and Ingrid achieved all the dreams that Dee always spoke of. As you would expect it led to some jealousy on Dee's part and the oneupmanship began... just not how you would have expected.

The last thing I thought I'd see in this episode was a full blown sweat shop complete with chunky Eastern European seamstresses, Nazi war propaganda blasting through a speaker, and a steam whistle. Moral? Never expect anything from this show because you will inevitably be wrong.

The downward spiral in this episode was actually very well done. Ingrid was a fashion designer and owned her own shop. So Dee decided to make some of her own clothes, as did Dennis. Frank (he's got the connections) and Mac then opened up the sweat shop in the basement to make the goods and Charlie perfected his skills with a Singer. Throw in some cross dressing, Charlie... um... "pleasing" himself, and Dee leading a worker's strike and you've got one hell of an episode.

I love when we get to see where these four schmucks came from. Seeing the McPoyles for the first time in season one is a good example. This time around I was actually hoping for some kind of duel between Dee and Ingrid as the title suggests, but as I mentioned, the story just veered off in a completely unpredictable direction.

Overall, another great episode. I loved the part when Mac was spray-painting Frank's chair and he asked why. "Because I'm manipulating you," Frank responded. Mac wants to know how to manipulate people and Frank says he'll tell him if he finishes spray painting the chair. Genius.