“He shushes me because he doesn’t like the volume of my conversation? Next thing he knows, he’s chopped to bits in a basement somewhere, you know? Was it worth it?” – Charlie
Paddy’s Pub needs to get connected, but in case you haven’t noticed, the Gang is entirely impossible to connect with. After finding an exclusive bar through Facebook that doesn’t have a sign and only sells gin, Mac, Dennis, Dee, Charlie, and Frank decide it’s time for them to do the same; they take down their sign and prepare to advertise Paddy’s online. They get derailed, however, trying to find a problem patron who shushed them, leaving Frank in charge of making the pub a new sunny spot for Philly’s in-crowd.
We’re all connected…
Even if we aren’t who we say we are. While Dennis and Charlie try to track down the haughty-husher the old-fashioned way, Dee and Mac are able to recognize the guy’s profile picture online, and add him as a friend. They wait around for “Dylan” to accept their request, then use his status updates to track him down to a nearby shop. When they mistake a slightly androgynous-looking woman for Dylan, a young blonde appears and reveals that she actually created the Facebook page out of spite for her ex, who she actually never met. She gives them the address to his apartment, however, where she’s mailed money, locks of her hair, and nude photos that Mac wants to find online.
A Tale of Two Shushes
Dennis and Charlie are put off the most by their being shushed, and they go through the most work to try and find the culprit. They retrace their steps back to the gin bar, though to no avail other than coming across as ruder than their “shusher.” Dennis has an ingenious plan to file an assault charge against the unknown aggravator, getting the Police Department’s sketch-artist to put together a drawing of the culprit. Unfortunately, shushing doesn’t register as an assault charge, so he and Charlie start digging themselves a hole of shame filled with fake rape stories and false police reports. Their next best option is to get a caricaturist in the park to mock up a quick, but embellished sketch of the man who says “shh,” which they put Dennis’ phone-number on and post across the city in case anyone recognizes him.
Catfish
Mac and Dee think they’ve finally stumbled onto the real Dylan, but instead, they discover that an old lady has been pretending to be Dylan all along – among a host of other make-believe internet personas who Dee may or may not have sent her own hair to. Mac and Dee are beyond fed up with their wild-goose chase, so they head back to the bar where Dennis and Charlie are dealing with a stream of prank “shush” calls.
You’ll get infected
I love that Frank understands the internet like my grandparents do. He blurs the meaning of “viral,” making a video ad that starts off amazingly, but slowly descends into suggesting that Paddy’s Pub is a virus-ridden, infectious plague-zone, and that the video itself is a computer virus. At the very least, we see the return of Dr. Mantis Toboggan, who Frank chooses as his online persona. Even though he sent the video to everyone on Facebook who the Gang is friends with, it doesn’t reach the “shusher,” who finds his way into the sign-less pub all on his own.
Some stats and info about It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “The ANTI-Social Network”
TV SHOW – It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 7, Episode 8
AIRED ON – November 3rd, 2011
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FX, FXX, Hulu
GENRE – Comedy, Office Culture
CREATED BY – Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton
CAST – Charlie Day, Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, Kaitlin Olson, Danny DeVito
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.