How Mac Got Fat

"How Mac Got Fat" is the tenth episode of the seventh season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Synopsis
Mac tells a befuddled priest why his fatness is the fault of the other members of the Gang.

Recap
12:20PM on a Sunday

Mac meets with a priest to repent for his sins, but ends up blaming the rest of the Gang on how he got fat. To the priest's chagrin, he begins telling a long story of his weight gain:

A few weeks ago, the gang realized that Paddy's Pub had actually become a popular bar and that they were making a lot of money. Charlie attributed the success to his cleanliness. Dee attributed it to her comedy. Dennis, to his looks. They decide to change nothing so their success will continue.

The next night, however, things have changed. Dee has stopped serving drinks so she can tell jokes. Mac has partied too hard and has showed up late. Charlie is working as bartender, a skill he severely lacks. Dennis has dyed his hair jet black. Things aren't grooving as they used to.

The next day, Dee visits Mac and presents a plan for them to be able to do less work and enjoy their newfound money: hire more staff. Mac thinks of the replacements as Avatars from the 2009 movie Avatar.

On another busy night at Paddy's, Charlie is the only person manning the bar. When a distressed Dennis enters, sad about his botched chemical peel, the two go in the back office to get high. Later, Dee and Frank enter an empty bar and get high with them.

Six weeks later, Mac enters the bar and announced that he now weighs 200lbs and can hire his Avatar. The rest of the gang laughs at him because they dropped the Avatar plan six weeks ago. They mock him for being fat and he storms out.

The very upset and aggravated priest offers to absolve Mac's sins and smite his friends if Mac agrees to leave. Mac agrees but promised to return in 6 weeks when God has made him lose his weight.

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

 * W. Morgan Sheppard as Father Cullen

Co-Starring

 * Michael O'Hearn as Luke (Mac's Avatar)
 * Leonora Pitts as Customer #1
 * Scott Pitts as Customer #2
 * Rob Rosell as Man at Bar #1
 * Scott Marder as Man at Bar #2

Trivia

 * The flashback scenes are from an un-aired episode from Season 6, titled "The Gang Gets Successful". The scene at the end where Frank and Dee discover Dennis and Charlie getting high is spliced together from old and new footage; you can partially see Mac's shoulder when the camera is on Dennis and Charlie as he was initially supposed to be present as well.
 * According to ending credits, official production code of this episode is XIP06004 (from previous season), but technically it should be XIP07013.
 * Apparently, Mac is accustomed to hanging out with Frank "under a bridge" (he was playing with a stray dog and drank three bottles of champagne). We see in "Charlie Kelly: King of the Rats" that Mac isn't turned off by the idea of hanging out under a bridge with Frank, as opposed to Dennis who immediately shoots it down.
 * Mac's leather blazer (not to be confused with his duster) makes a triumphant return, seen previously in various episodes such as "Mac's Mom Burns Her House Down", "The Gang Goes Jihad", and the Original Pilot.
 * In Mac's fantasy (though it might be a real event), Frank and Charlie telling Dennis and Dee about how they boil blood they found in the hospital garbage is a reference - or possibly Mac just mixing up his memory - to a very similar conversation about boiled denims in "Frank's Pretty Woman".
 * In Mac's fantasy, Dee saying "Also, I'm pro-abortion" is a reference to "Charlie Wants an Abortion".
 * This episode was first aired on Danny DeVito's birthday.
 * When Charlie is freaked out about something (and he happens to be in his apartment), he just goes into the 'crevice' (this is probably a reference to the "Night Crawlers" game).
 * When the Gang is getting high in the back office, Sweet Dee puts the cap back on the glue twice.
 * This is the second time we see Sweet Dee's "tube man"-dancing (the first time was in "The Gang Buys a Boat").
 * The clothing Rob McElhenney and Kaitlin Olson frequently wear on the show is designed by a clothing company called "Suburban Riot" owned by some of their friends.
 * Charlie Day often wears his real life T-shirts.
 * Rob gained 50 pounds for Season 7. Originally he did it in a healthy manner. Eventually, however, he got tired of multiple meals a day of steamed rice and chicken, and started eating lots of donuts. Glenn Howerton started referring to the character as "Fat Mac". When McElhenney asked if he could be called "Big Mac", Howerton said he would call him "Big, fat Mac".
 * Mac references Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point.
 * Mac is the only member of The Gang to physically appear in this episode in real time, as the rest appear in his flashbacks. A similar thing occurs in The Gang Cracks the Liberty Bell; Frank and Dee are absent but have old timey counterparts. This technically makes Mac the only character to appear in every episode, if flashbacks are not considered.
 * The conversation about Dennis looking/not looking like Superman may be in reference to the fact that Glenn Howerton had previously auditioned to be in the Superman reboot.
 * At just 15 seconds, this episode has the shortest cold open of any episode in the series thus far.

Quotes
"I'm just going to plow ahead, because I'm sensing some resistance. Dennis always tells me "Never let someone's resistance stop you from getting what you want"."

- Mac

"Alright, so look at this now. I put two extra stop signs, now there's four stop signs, so no cars can go!"

- frank

From alternate take (Season 6 BTS-video)

"Are you guys sniffing a hair dye?"

- frank