The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 6

"The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 6" is the ninth episode of the ninth season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Synopsis
After creative differences over what constitutes tasteful nudity cause Frank to pull his money out of Lethal Weapon 6 during filming, Mac, Dennis, and Charlie screen their rough footage for investors in hopes of raising enough capital to finish the production of their latest masterpiece.

Recap
The opening scene from Lethal Weapon 6 plays. An old shamanic priestess is dancing and chanting during a thunderstorm. Chief Lazarus (Frank) rises from his grave and is welcomed back from the dead by the priestess. Lazarus swears revenge on Murtaugh and Riggs.

After the opening titles, we find Dennis, Mac and Charlie at a bank, attempting to secure financing to complete the film. They explain that the previous financier, Frank, is refusing to continue funding the film unless it includes a full-penetration sex scene with Frank himself as the penetrator. The bank teller explains that they are not in the business of financing films, but the gang decides to show her more of the film in an attempt to sway her.

The next scene from the film involves Murtaugh (Mac in blackface) playing basketball with the "Over 60 Retired Cop Basketball League". Riggs has been watching the game from the stands, and asks Murtaugh why he hasn't RSVP'd to Riggs' upcoming wedding to Murtaugh's daughter, Rianne (Dee in blackface). Riggs challenges Murtaugh, saying that if Murtaugh can score a point against Riggs, he doesn't have to come, which Murtaugh easily does.

At the wedding, Riggs is performing a saxophone solo in lieu of vows. As the priest (Artemis) asks whether anyone has any objections to the wedding, Riggs announces that he does, as he feels he must obtain the blessing of Murtaugh, who has been watching from afar. As Riggs steps away, the wedding cellist (Charlie) is revealed to be one of Lazarus' goons, the brother of the "weird danish twin" killed by Riggs in Lethal Weapon 5. The goon triggers a bomb which blows Rianne up, showering the wedding guests with giblets.

We cut once more to the gang, who are now screening the movie to a woman at a dot-com company, again seeking funding. They urge her to keep playing the movie, though cautions her that the next scene is "pretty weird" as Frank and Charlie had purchased some manner of biting bugs from China and released them in the bar. The scene shows Murtaugh and Riggs meeting with the Chief of Police (Charlie), Murtaugh coming back from retirement to rejoin the force. Having found a feather and an umbrella, they deduce that the only logical conclusion is that Lazarus has come back from the dead and is planning to perform a rain dance to completely flood Los Angeles, making his own indian reservation valuable beachfront property.

In the next scene, Murtaugh and Riggs are playing volleyball topless with a couple of well-trained men, with slow-motion cameras displaying their glistening muscles (this scene being an attempt to appeal to the female demographic). During the shower scene after the game, Mac's blackface is washing off, and so Mac and Dennis switch roles mid-scene. As Mac and Dennis begin wrestling in the showers, we cut once again to the gang, now screening the movie for a hedge fund manager, who is confused and under the impression that the gang wants him to finance a gay porno movie. Promising the manager that the movie gets "way straighter", the next scene shows Riggs and Murtaugh visiting a strip club. Lady Starship, played by Dee, takes the stage, but is swapped out for another woman mid-shot as she is removing her robe.

The gang next visit Frank, attempting to secure funding, with Frank simply reiterating his insistence on the full-penetration sex scene. The climactic scene from the movie plays, showing Murtaugh and Riggs having cornered Lazarus inside his umbrella factory. As Lazarus is about to make his escape, Murtaugh finds and throws a basketball at the release switch for the trap door that Lazarus is standing on, sending Lazarus plummeting into a chemical vat where he dies. They resolve to also go kill the "shaman woman" who brought Lazarus back from the dead so that she can't do it again, but Murtaugh decides to first have her bring Rianne back from the dead, which she does. The movie ends with Riggs being married to a reanimated Rianne.

However, a mid-credits scene shows Lazarus ducking into a side room during the climactic factory scene, the shamanic priestess inside. The priestess transforms herself into a young, beautiful nude woman. The gang, back at the bank, explains to the teller as the full-penetration scene plays on the computer beside them that this is what they tried to avoid by coming to the bank in the first place.

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

 * Artemis Pebdani as Artemis

Co-Starring

 * Leilani Taliaferro as Shaman Woman
 * Diane Sellers as Clerk
 * Janet Hoskins as Old Lady
 * Julia Cho as Dot Com Girl
 * William Duffy as Hedge Fund Guy
 * Bonnie Burroughs as Cop

Trivia

 * "Lethal Weapon 5" was shown in the episode "Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth."
 * Chief Lazarus operating an umbrella factory could very well be a callback to Danny DeVito 's role in "Batman Returns" as the Penguin who uses an umbrella as a weapon.
 * When Mac says that it's impossible to follow what goes on in a movie, both Dennis and Charlie disagree with him and say that that's his problem, not a problem with movies in general.  However, in the episode "Charlie Kelly: King of the Rats", Dee has to abandon her plan to take Charlie to a movie when he is completely unable to follow what is going on in the movie.
 * Dennis first discussed his theory that "full penetration" scenes make for a good movie in the episode "Mac and Charlie Write a Movie"
 * The volleyball scene is a reference to the famous scene from the movie Top Gun, which also used the song "Playin' With The Boys" by Kenny Loggins.  Both the scene and the following shower scene are kind of a double reference, both to the homoeroticism in a lot of those '80s action flicks, and a callback to the recurring theme on the show that Mac is in deep denial about his homosexuality.
 * During the first scene in the mock "Lethal Weapon 6" movie, Charlie's character is wearing a green button-up shirt; later, during the scene where Charlie and Frank are fleeing from Dennis in a poorly done green screen scene, Charlie's shirt is shown to be transparent due to the effect being used; it fluctuates with the trees and sky in the background, as does his handkerchief.
 * This episode along with, America's Next Top Paddy's Billboard Model Contest, Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth, The Gang Recycles Their Trash, and Dee Day were removed from streaming platforms, such as Hulu, due to the use of black face.
 * The episode's removal was referenced in "The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 7" when they mention how Lethal Weapon 5 and 6 were removed from libraries due to that reason.