It's Always Sunny's Last Two Episodes Featured Two Of My Favorite Dennis Quotes Of All Time, And I'm Still Shuddering With Amused Disgust

Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn’t yet watched It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 17’s latest episodes on FXX or via Hulu subscription, so be warned!

While “Frank Is in a Coma” may go down as my favorite episode of It’s Always Sunny to hit the 2025 TV schedule, Season 17 has been genuine bliss from top to bottom for so many reasons. Abbott Elementary characters cursing? Yep. Erotic slapfights? You know it. Dennis and Dee each gagging over the smell of dog food on the other’s breath was a truly sublime scene to behold. But it all kind of pales in the glow of the Golden God’s most recent highlights.

Both the sixth episode, “Overage Drinking: A National Concern,” and the seventh, "The Gang Gets Ready for Prime Time," featured Glenn Howerton delivering some of his best-ever Dennis performances that perfectly encapsulate the Five Star Man’s endless void where compassion and sensitivity are meant to bloom. Let’s cringe gleefully through our fingers and take a closer look.

Dennis Gets Blatant About Lack Of Empathy

"Overage Drinking: A National Concern" featured a return guest appearance from Blindspot star Jaimie Alexander, who thanked Howerton for granting the actress her first TV role two decades prior. Even then, she was classic Tammy through and through.

To get too deeply into the plotting here would be counterproductive and just plain icky, but suffice to say, Dennis and Dee’s attempts to coerce their former school chums Trey and Tammy to cheat on each other go awry, leading Dennis to make a sex-pivot to sleep with Trey Jr.’s 19-year-old prom date. Vying to one-up her brother, Dee very nearly demeans herself beyond belief to bang the babyfaced Trey Jr. himself, but instead just rats Dennis out and breaks the kid’s heart.

Near the episode’s conclusion, the duo’s sordid conversation goes even further south when a news broadcast reveals Trey Jr. and his date drove off a bridge in a suicide pact, though they inevitably survived and will likely be forever disfigured. But while Dee shows signs of remorse, Dennis holds strong and fully puts his mental pathology on display with the following admission:

Good gawd, I had to pause the episode so that I didn't miss any potentially more depraved lines just after. Had Dennis made that sentiment a defiant declaration, hollering, " I don't feel anything!" inside the bar, it wouldn't have been nearly as effectively chilling as the subdued self-observation that we got.

The way he drifted off and looked away from Dee before saying it was completely clichéd in the best possible way. Just an all-around A+ moment for Howerton, and Kaitlin Olson looks like she's ready to break out in a smile each time she turns to and from him. There's no way I could keep a straight face.

Dennis Gets Confrontational With Family Dinner Focus Group

To give Dennis a modium of credit, his intentions were overall sound in Season 17's pentulimate episode. Believing that Frank would be bringing The Golden Bachelor's producers and more to Philly, he aims to chisel away the Gang's rudeness and lack of class so that they won't embarrass themselves on national TV. That anyone truly expected Frank to follow through is as much of a forehead-slapper as using a focus group to judge the quartet's scripted family dinner. (The ep parodies The Rehearsal, so it makes sense in that way.)

Of course those best-laid intentions instantly imploded and shat themselves, and the focus group experiment became a popularity contest, or in Dennis' case, a mirror reflecting his biggest insecurities. Upon being labeled "old" and "haggard" and "bossy," he attempted to tape his skin back to make himself look younger, and in true Always Sunny style, it all hits a crescendo when Dennis finally snaps. But instead of calling out his fellow misfits, he delivers this absolutely unhinged monologue pleading with the focus group.

• DENNIS: You’re not getting this. We are not lovers. We’re simply roommates, you see. It’s not so difficult to understand. Not so difficult at all. Two men entwined only by the walls that house us, and the passage of time, that is all. Nothing more. We are all classy men and women alike. Heh-heh. But none more classy than me. Refined and dignified, and not the least bit abnormal in any way. I need you to see this. Yes? All is well and palatable and good. Hmph. You must know this, and you must reflect it on the cards as such as you’ve been given. Do you understand? I need this of you. You must make it so. There was…another show by the name of Family Fight, and I was not properly represented on that show, and I can-no-o-o-ot and will not abide another failure of that magnitude. [Stammers for 6 seconds] I just need you to see me as I, as I am. [Stammers.] I need this. I need this from you. [Stammers.] I need this from you.

This is truly next-level stammering, people.

Seriously, if William H. Macy or Steve Buscemi or Frances McDormand (might as well stick to a theme here) stepped into Dennis' role as a guest star for any other TV show, it would be a shoe-in for an Emmy nomination. I doubt it'll happen, given this show's awards curse, but Glenn Howerton deserves SOMETHING for manufacturing peak awkwardness on so many levels.

If I'm honest, I probably laughed harder at Dennis' vicious reaction to Charlie's attempt to touch Dennis' hair, as well as at the oddball-fuckery of Charlie showing up with and entirely hairless head. But neither of those moments deserves to be put in the Always Sunny Hall of Fame quite like Dennis' lines noted above. Hairless Charlie attempting to play an Easter-European Balki-esque character? HOF-er for sure.

I could realistically spend the rest of my night sitting here and adding Dennis quotes, but for now, I'll just leave things off with these:

More Of My Favorite Dennis Quotes

• I’m not gonna hurt these women!
• The thunder of my vengeance will echo through these corridors like the gust of a thousand winds!
• Because of the implication.
• It's all good. I've got a Steve Winwood CD in my car. I'll go get it.
• I didn’t come here to be criticized by a man stuck in a coil!
• I don't want to sit on a pile of matches!
• You certainly wouldn’t be in any danger…

Only one more episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 17 is on the way, "The Golden Bachelor Live," and it'll hit FXX on Wednesday, August 20, at 9:00 p.m. ET.