Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth

"Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth" is the ninth episode of the sixth season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Synopsis
Dee takes a job as a substitute teacher and exposes her students to the culture of Paddy's with a field trip to see the Gang's take on Lethal Weapon 5.

Recap
8:30 AM, On a Monday, Philadelphia, PA

walks through the halls of a high school, talking to the students who are calling him "The Professor". He notices a kid throw an orange into the trash, and he takes it out and begins to eat it. exits a classroom, comments on Charlie's orange, and explains that since Dr. Myers broke his legs she was working as a substitute theater teacher. Over the intercom, she is paged to a phone for an emergency, but it is really just a bored 🇲🇴,, and , calling her to make fat jokes. She curses them out and returns to her room, the expletives shocking the office staff.

In the bathroom, Charlie see three kids picking on Richie, a kid dressed as a Juggalo. Charlie doesn't comprehend the word "jugalo", the band "Insane Clown Posse", or the makeup but he decides to take Richie under his wing because he understands his loneliness.

In the theater class room, Dee tearfully tells the class that Dr. Myers has died, only to reveal that she was performing a dramatic monologue. The kids don't pay any attention to her, so to boost their enthusiasm she tells them they are going on a field trip to New York City.



Back at Paddy's, Mac, Dennis, and Frank are still bored. Dennis suggests reshooting some scenes from Lethal Weapon 5, but Mac insists the movie is perfect. Dennis questions the use of blackface in the film because it is racist (while performing a black voice isn't). Frank voices his opinion that the only important value of blackface is how funny it is.

In Principal MacIntyre's office, Dee asks for funds to take her students to New York and he makes it absolutely clear she is not allowed to take the students on a field trip. Charlie then enters with Richie and asks if he can wear his makeup in school, which MacIntyre doesn't allow. Charlie agrees to go wash the makeup off Richie and suggests that he may bathe his entire body.

Back at Paddy's, Mac and Dennis look at images of famous actors in blackface and continue to argue if it is racist, artful, or hilarious (as Frank continues to believe). Dee calls and asks if she can bring the students to the bar to screen a film so her kids will like her more. Mac suggest Lawrence Oliver's Othello to see if blackface was really racist or not.

At the bar, the students sit and get ready to watch the film. Charlie brings Richie along. As the movie starts, Dee complains it is not Othello, but 's Lethal Weapon 5. Richie tries to bootleg it, but Charlie promises to just give him a copy. Mac and Dennis debate the blackface, while Frank thoroughly enjoys his own acting.

In the movie, Riggs (Mac) congratulates Murtaugh (Dennis) on his retirement. The Chief of Police (Charlie) informs Murtaugh that his wife has just died from tainted tap water. The detectives interrogate an American Indian casino owner (Frank) who owns a large stake in local water supplies. The Indian then has a long sex scene with a woman. Later, Riggs (now played by Dennis) is tortured by a henchman (Charlie) and manages to kill the henchman and escape. Inside the water plant, Murtaugh (now being played by Mac in blackface) is held at gunpoint by the Indian until Riggs arrives and fights another henchman (Charlie). The Indian escapes but Riggs and Murtaugh chase him down. Murtaugh pours water on him while he is backed against a power generator, and he is electrocuted. At the rainy graveyard, Murtaugh and Riggs cry and shoot their guns in the air by the tombstones of their lost loved ones.

Back at Principal MacIntyre's office, Charlie and Dee are fired after MacIntyre watches Lethal Weapon 5. Richie sits with them, in blackface, another attempt by Charlie to make him fit in. MacIntyre then tells them that he'll probably be fired as well for hiring them 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

Special Guest Star

 * Dave Foley as Principal MacIntyre

Guest Starring

 * Paul Walter Hauser as Richie

Co-Starring

 * Ray! Auxais as Tyrone
 * Johnny Pemberton as Craig
 * Lauren Whitney Pennington as Lisa
 * Aneliese Roettger as Beautiful Woman
 * Kenny Lopes as Bully #1
 * Randall Bentley as Bully #2
 * Barnaby Barrilla as Hallway Student #1
 * Henry Monfries as Hallway Student #2

Trivia

 * Lethal Weapon 5 was mentioned in a very end of the same season's episode "Mac Fights Gay Marriage".
 * Richie is a die-hard fan of American hip-hop duo "Insane Clown Posse".
 * In the ending scene with Charlie, Dee and the Juggalo in black face talking to the principal there is an orange that appears out of nowhere on the principal's desk just before Charlie picks it up to begin eating it.
 * Frank thinks that James Earl Jones played Darth Vader - in fact, he provided the voice of this cult character. The actor who was playing Darth Vader in original trilogy is David Prowse, but at the end of "Return of the Jedi" as a face of unmasked Vader was shown the Sebastian Shaw's face (and yes, he's white - in this part Frank's memories is true).
 * There are many continuity errors in their film, which highlight that it's an amateur production:
 * Jumpshot of the candle being blown out.
 * The same sets are used for multiple locations.
 * Dee and Charlie (in Extended cut) appear in the background of one shot each.
 * The "rain" is clearly someone holding a hose.
 * Dennis and Mac switch roles in the middle of the film.
 * One of Dee's students says "I've been to this bar" when Dee tells them not to let anyone know she took them to Paddy's. This might be a callback to the 1st season episode "Underage Drinking: A National Concern", in which The Gang decides to start serving underage drinkers, but it might also mean that Paddy's is probably more than a bit lax on carding people who go there.
 * In the opening scene of Lethal Weapon 5, at 13:17 as Charlie announces tainted tap water, in the background of Charlie, the bar regular who was previously sitting behind the desk walks around the desk to reveal a different person sitting at the desk who looks like Joe Pesci.
 * This episode along with, America's Next Top Paddy's Billboard Model Contest, The Gang Recycles Their Trash, The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 6, and Dee Day were removed from streaming platforms, aside from purchasing the offending season on Google, due to the use of black face.

Quotes
"(as a Police Chief) Turns out someone taint- someone tapped the tainted water supply!.."

- charlie

"Yeah, kids are honest as shit..."

- frank

From extended take:


 * Charlie: All right, kid, today's your lucky day, all right? We're gonna talk to the principal, okay? 'Cause the Professor just took an interest in ya!
 * Richie: Yo!.. Is it true what you eat out of the trash?
 * Charlie: ...Yes. You can eat some stuff from the trash. You can!.. A lot of its in perfectly good shape.