The Gang Texts

"The Gang Texts" is the fifth episode of the fourteenth season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Synopsis
During their trip to the Philadelphia Zoo, Mac sets up a text group chain for The Gang, but confusion sets in and The Gang must learn from the meerkats on how to communicate properly in a group.

Plot
10:00 AM, on a Saturday, Philadelphia, PA

The Gang is planning to go to the zoo. While Mac and Charlie are looking forward to see meerkats, even wearing meerkat hats, Dennis is excited about a live lion feeding. Everyone but Frank is already at the zoo and Dennis, anxious not to miss the lion feeding, decides to go in. Dee follows him as she once got lost at the zoo and trampled by goats as kid and is afraid to get ditched again, while Mac and Charlie wait for Frank. Mac announces he has started a group text chain so they can stay in contact.

Waiting for Frank, Mac gets obsessed with keeping in contact, sending updates with no new information all the time. He also has troubles with chatspeak, no able to comprehend Frank's emoji messages and inadvertently sending suggestive emoji messages - in contrast to Charlie who is great at this (since he is used to communicate through symbols due to his illiteracy). Dee tries to be funny, but is always too slow with either Dennis or Frank beating her to the punch.

When Frank finally arrives - after getting sidetracked and buying bananas as he plans to taunt gorillas by eating bananas in front of them - Dennis and Dee have arrived at the lion enclosure and Dennis is eagerly awaiting the feeding. Dennis texts them he went to C lions which Mac, Charlie and Frank interpret as sea lions instead of see lions. Once the miscommunication is cleared up, Dennis has missed the feeding as he went to look where they are and is pissed. Mac, once again, is unable to understand chatspeak, not getting Dennis's sarcasm and anger until Charlie and Frank point it out and sends Dennis a long-winded text Dennis doesn't even bother to read.

Charlie and Frank are fed up with Mac's constant texting, wanting to enjoy the zoo. Frank splits as he wants to taunt the gorillas, telling Charlie he will eat the bananas right in front of a gorilla who'll bang against the glass trying to get the bananas. Charlie wants finally to go the meerkats but Mac is obsessing over Dennis, wanting to make sure he doesn't stay mad at Mac. Charlie angrily rips Mac's meerkat hat from his head, telling him he is not a meerkat as meerkats sick together before pissing on Mac in order to assert his dominance just as meerkats do.

Dennis ditches Dee again, leaving her behind at the flamingo enclosure. Dee is panicking, trying to find the others as she is afraid to be alone. When Mac comes across her, he quickly hides and gets away before she can see him once he realizes she is not with Dennis anymore. Charlie, too, sees her but gets away before she sees him as he doesn't want to hang out with her.

Meanwhile, Mac walks into Dennis at the toilets. He tells Dennis there is another live feeding and that he has heard an employer talking about a goat getting sacrificed. Dennis is visibly getting excited at that. He tells Mac if he wants to come along, he has to follow his commands before, too, pissing on Mac in order to assert his dominance.

Frank has found the gorilla enclosure but doesn't see any of the gorillas. While he is talking to an employee, the gorilla sneaks up and takes the bananas Frank has put down. It is Frank then, who is banging against the glass, yelling, while the gorilla is smugly eating the bananas.

Mac and Dennis arrive at the goat enclosure where the supposed life feeding is going to take place, and Mac sends everyone their location. However, Dennis is taken aback when he sees a lot of children around and asks an employee about the feeding. As it turns out, no goat is sacrificed but the goats can be fed by visitors. Angrily Dennis leaves Mac behind. By the time Dee arrives they are both gone, but she just arrives for the start of the feeding and is once again trampled over by goats.

Mac is walking around, trying to figure out where everyone is, but is either ignored or dismissed, so he decides to go the meerkat enclosure. As he is coming up with his head in one of the bubbles, he sees the rest of the gang is there as well, and they exchange looks.

Afterwards the Gang happily exits the meerkat enclosure, talking about how they knew what they all meant just by the looks on their faces and how they felt truly connected. Just as Charlie is commenting how they weren't communicating despite texting each other all the time, Franks sends them all a emoji message telling them he is pissing on Mac. The Gang then proceeds to send each other silly messages, Dee even getting the others to laugh for once, and Charlie comments how texting is just funny.

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

 * Shaw Jones as Zoo Worker

Co-Starring

 * Anna Garcia as Zoo Employee
 * Garon Michael as Gorilla Suit Performer
 * Bud McGrew as Puppeteer #1
 * Daniel Gilbert as Puppeteer #2
 * Christopher Utudzhyan as Lion Exhibit Kid

Trivia

 * The Gang already covered whether it was okay to call Mac the F word in the episode Hero or Hate Crime
 * Every member of the Gang ends up pissing on Mac in this episode except for Dee, who'd previously done so in The Gang Goes to a Water Park (albeit with less malicious intent).