It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 5 takes on such hot-button topics as the mortgage crisis, Octomom and Ponzi schemes, and features more reprehensible antics from the drunks at Paddy's Pub.
Glenn Howerton as Dennis, Rob McElhenney as Mac, Charlie Day as Charlie, Kaitlin Olson as Dee and Danny DeVito as Frank all return for the fifth season. Read on for the full It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 5 episode guide.
Episode 1
Title: “The Gang Exploits the Mortgage Crisis”
Original Airdate: September 17, 2009
Frank buys a foreclosed house so he can turn it around and sell it, but there’s still a family living in it with 90 days to vacate. The gang tries to sell the house anyway, but they’re no match for the family’s lawyer, even with Charlie spouting his nonsensical ideas about the law. Dee agrees to become a surrogate mother for a suburban couple and takes advantage of their kindness, but her plan is ruined when the rest of the gang shows up at the couple’s house.
Episode 2
Title: “The Gang Hits the Road”
Original Airdate: September 24, 2009
The gang decides to take a road trip to the Grand Canyon because Frank wants to see it before he dies. Of course, they never make it out of Philadelphia, instead getting sidetracked by stopping at an Italian market so Charlie can try some fruit he’s never eaten, running over a bicyclist and picking up a hitchhiker on his way to Hollywood. Not surprisingly, the hitchhiker ends up stealing Dee’s car and stranding everyone right back at Paddy’s Pub.
Episode 3
Title: “The Great Recession”
Original Airdate: October 1, 2009
Frank loses all his money in a Ponzi scheme, and he can no longer finance the gang’s idiocy. He leaves Dennis and Mac in charge of the bar, and they fire both Dee and Charlie. Charlie ends up homeless, and Dee joins up with Frank to form a new business selling knives and vacuums door to door. Dennis and Mac run the bar into the ground with an ill-advised scheme to print their own money, but when the government reimburses Frank for the money he lost, everything goes back to normal.
Episode 4
Title: “The Gang Gives Frank an Intervention”
Original Airdate: October 8, 2009
After a drunken Frank brings the gang to Dennis and Dee’s uncle’s funeral under the pretense of taking them to a party and hits on their aunt, they decide he needs an intervention. While Frank and Mac both try to sleep with Frank’s former sister-in-law (or barring that, his niece, played by guest star Mary Lynn Rajskub), Dee, Dennis and Charlie engage the help of a professional for the intervention, but quickly disregard her advice. In the end, nothing is solved except that everyone else ends up as drunk as Frank.
Episode 5
Title: “The Waitress Is Getting Married”
Original Airdate: October 15, 2009
Dee discovers that The Waitress is engaged to a guy Dee used to date in high school, who’s now incredibly good-looking after being an acne-riddled teen. Dee attempts to break up the engagement, while Mac and Dennis try to distract Charlie from learning about the waitress by helping him meet women online. Charlie’s only date is predictably a disaster, and in the end it turns out that The Waitress’ fiancé just wanted to break her heart because she, like Dee, dumped him in high school for having acne.
Episode 6
Title: “The World Series Defense”
Original Airdate: October 22, 2009
Dennis has to appear in court to answer for a series of parking tickets, and the gang joins him to explain to the judge why the tickets should be dismissed. They tell the story of trying to get to the Phillies’ World Series game in October 2008, which involves Charlie pushing Dennis in front of a car; Frank, Dee and Mac entering a building that’s being fumigated; and the gang getting stuck in a closet while searching for a secret tunnel to the stadium. The judge is not moved, and makes Dennis pay the full fine.
