“I’ll be gone till November, I’ll be gone till November…”
By Matt Fowler
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Given the sheer amount of callbacks in this second episode of Always Sunny’s eleventh season – in addition to last week’s return of Chardee MacDennis – it wouldn’t be crazy to assume this was the final season of the show. It’s not, but given the memory lane-feel, I can see how one might assume. Because this chapter was filled to the brim with old favorites.
Rum Ham, crack addiction, toe knives – the works. A bit too much, in fact, as I firmly insist the funniest part of this episode was the actual title card, “Frank Falls Out the Window.” Hell, I laughed just from reading the title off my press screener disc. So while there were amusing moments throughout, nothing topped the simple joy I got from the title alone.
Getting into it…Frank’s excessive farting exiled him to the windowsill of the apartment, where he proceeded to topple backwards down to the outside concrete, splitting his skull open and erasing his memory from the past ten years. Charlie would insist that the window acted as a time portal the entire time (even trying to hurl the Waitress out of it at one point), but concussion was to blame for Frank’s “reboot” back to a kinder, more-giving Frank. The kind of man who would be willing to invest eight million dollars in his children’s inventiveness. You know, had they actually created the smart phone like they both claimed to have done during an impromptu fit of bickering.
I mentioned “memory lane” above to describe just how soaked in nostalgia this episode was, but at least, in the end, Frank recalling notable moments of debauchery was key to him getting his mind back. Still, this one really pulled from the back-catalogue a lot. And for an episode that wasn’t altogether worth it. As in, this isn’t really how I wanted to see Rum Ham return. All these callbacks were sort of chopped up for Frank’s mental “This Is Your Life” experience.
Notable highlights – ASIDE FROM THE TITLE – were Frank’s cat food answer, Charlie trying to “time portal” the Waitress, Dennis and Dee waking up to a brand new (old) crack addiction, and The Gang singing “Gone Till November” (Dennis and Dee would use this song throughout as a preemptive victory dance) and Charlie not knowing it. So there were funny parts, naturally. It’s just that too much of the past got chewed up for the sake of this episode when they probably should have been spread out more.
“Frank Falls Out the Window” was decent Sunny. Some funny exchanges, arguments, and predicaments – though it never ascended above the pure hilarity of the title/opening.
