Charlie Kelly: King of the Rats

Use "Charlie Kelly: King of the Rats" is the tenth episode of the sixth season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Synopsis
Keeping the basement rodent-free drives Charlie to the brink; The Gang throws Charlie a surprise party.

Recap
10:00 AM on a Tuesday, Philadelphia, PA

In the bar, The Gang are talking when Charlie comes in, zoned out from bashing rats in the basement. He proclaims he killed a nest of about 200 rats and wonders if a rat's life is more important than a human's.

Frank reveals that it's Charlie's birthday and the Gang decides to throw him a surprise party. Frank claims that Charlie has been hanging out with Duncan from under the bridge who runs with a rough crowd who are into "Hawaiian underground shit" and gives the Gang a list of what to do for the party which includes weird things like filling the bar with sand and roasting a wild pig. Mac, Dennis and Dee find this is too much work but relent when Frank tells them they are cynical.

In order to distract Charlie, Dee is supposed to take Charlie to the spa with two coupons she got from Frank but Charlie doesn't know what a spa day is and asks if she means spaghetti day so Dee - who had wanted to go to the spa on her owns anyways - takes him to the movies instead. However, Charlie leaves not soon after the movie started as he is uncomfortable and finds it difficult eating the spaghetti with meatballs he brought along.

Meanwhile Frank, Mac and Dennis are decorating the bar. When Charlie comes, they stop him from entering the bar by telling him a keg exploded. Frank and Mac claim a piece flew right into Dennis' dick which is now mangled, but Dennis' is decidedly unamused by this, giving a false laugh and insisting nothing is wrong with his dick. When Frank, Mac and Dennis learn that Dee hasn't taken Charlie to the spa, an enraged Frank takes his coupons back and goes with Charlie to the spa.

When Mac, Dennis and Dee visit Duncan, they are not only disturbed about him but discover that he is actually Frank's friend. They come to the conclusion that Frank's plan is not about what Charlie wants but rather what Frank himself enjoys, so they decide to look into Charlie's dreambook - which consists mostly of drawings and a couple of scribbled words - to see what Charlie is actually interested in.

Meanwhile Charlie is getting very uncomfortable in the sauna, he is sweating heavily as he doesn't take his clothes off in public. He freaks out, screaming about how he is trapped like a rat and that Frank should bash him like a rat.

When Frank and Charlie come back to the bar, the others have prepared the birthday party. Upon seeing that they dismissed his luau theme Frank gets angry and reveals that it is his birthday and that he was planning to make the Gang plan his party. Mac, Dennis and Dee show Charlie what they did for him anyways. They tried to recreate drawings from his dreambook, presenting him "denim chicken", "bird with teeth" and "worm hat". Finally they give him a new rat stick with nails on it so Charlie can kill rats in a more humane way. A very moved Charlie decides to try out his new rat stick.

Starring

 * Charlie Day as Charlie Kelly
 * Glenn Howerton as Dennis Reynolds
 * Rob McElhenney as Mac
 * Kaitlin Olson as Dee Reynolds
 * Danny DeVito as Frank Reynolds

Guest Starring

 * Chad L. Coleman as Z

Co-Starring

 * David Aranovich as Sakky the Ticket Usher
 * David Gueriera as Duncan
 * David Ury as Spa Worker
 * Xuyen Valdivia as Stunt Male
 * Lauren Mary Kim as Stunt Female

Trivia
a little bird with human teeth''" - all are products of Charlie Day's improvisation, which you can see in an extended scene of Mac and Charlie's brainstorming from "Mac and Charlie Write a Movie".
 * The title picture of this page - it's a shot from the deleted ending scene for this episode.
 * Frank had mentioned meeting people "down by the bridge" previously in "Mac and Charlie Die (Part 1)". Also, in "Mac's Mom Burns Her House Down" Frank was going to dump Dee under the bridge.
 * A "little puppy", which Charlie was making outside of the bar, named Scarcoon ("Scary coon"): he is not able to kill the rats anymore, so he needs this raccoon just to scare them away.
 * "''A guy with a wormhat - like, his hat is made out of worms. And, like,


 * David Gueriera ("Duncan") has previously twice appeared in the show as completely different characters: in The Gang Sells Out and The Gang Cracks the Liberty Bell.
 * The opening scene where Charlie talks about killing rats is the scene that convinced Director Guillermo del Toro to cast Day in the role of Dr. Newton Geizler in the movie Pacific Rim.
 * This episode takes place on July 31st, if we are to believe it is really Frank's birthday; his license provides us his birthday in The Gang Gets New Wheels.