I Didn't Expect It's Always Sunny's Finale To Both Make Me Cry AND Have An All-Time Classic TV Reunion For Danny DeVito

Major spoilers below for the Season 17 finale of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, so be warned if you haven’t yet watched via Disney+ subscription or Hulu subscription!

Rather than a close-out episode featuring the core quintet making someone else’s life worse, as per usual, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia wrapped up its TV-centric 17th season with a full-on change in pastiche and theming for "The Golden Bachelor Live.” Somehow, it resulted in one of the debaucherous comedy’s most genuinely perfect installments, thanks to a surprising classic sitcom reunion and the final on-screen appearance of Lynne Marie Stewart’s Bonnie Kelly.

As a huge fan of this show for the past two decades, I thought I knew everything I could expect from any given episode, despite being blown away in the past by Always Sunny’s genre-bending finales. But I was properly schooled, and it didn’t even involve any Abbott Elementary teachers crossing over.

I Adored The Taxi Reunion, And Carol Kane's Performance Was Legitimately Emmy-Worthy

For all that Danny DeVito is widely celebrated around these parts for Batman Returns' Penguin and Twins, among other timeless classics, I'll never get tired of love-hating his Taxi breakout character Louie De Palma. But in all these years, I never really expected It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia to tie into that show at all. I mean, that's New York, and this is Philly, amirite?

Even so, it was extremely heartwarming and life-affirming that one of Frank's two Golden Bachelor hopefuls turned out to be Danny DeVito's former Taxi co-star Carol Kane, who has shown off her talents elsewhere on the 2025 TV schedule for an episode of Poker Face and in the third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. She's a gem of an actress on all fronts, and legitimately blew me away with her minimal time on-screen here.

For all that Frank was focused on taking his blue pills and getting his freak on during his Golden Bachelor journey with Jesse Palmer, Kane's Samantha entered as a legitimate human being opposite Audrey Corsa's cartoonish penis-gnarler "Cock Chewa." She's the only woman of a similar age that Frank advanced, and their dinner scene together was arguably the most convincingly dramatic moment in It's Always Sunny's history.

Kane's story about spending her whole life as a "Sam" instead of a "Samantha" was absolutely effective enough to feasibly earn this show an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Star. Not to mention the dramatic ending, in which Frank vacated the studio to stop Sam from getting on a bus, proposing to her in the rain. Like wha-a-a-at, Frank is suddenly adorable and loving and not a weird vagrant?

Somewhere out there, the late Taxi alum Andy Kaufman's spirit was hopefully nodding in approval. And if this was the first time Kaufman's ghost watched the show, it was probably pretty confusing.

Lynne Marie Stewart's Final On-Screen Role Was Honored With A Tearful Post-Episode Tribute

Going into the Season 17 finale, I wasn't expecting to see a final appearance from Charlie's mother Bonnie, considering co-star Lynne Marie Stewart (also of Pee-Wee's Playhouse fame) passed away in February 2025, not two months after filming had concluded. So when she appeared as Dennis' secret weapon to shake up the competition, I could already feel my emotions flaring.

Unlike Kane, Stewart did not get any such dramatic monologues to roll through, and instead was hilariously called a whore multiple times, with Frank giving her high compliments for always knowing what he likes in the bedroom. (That's perhaps the classier way of wording that.) Not exactly the classiest send-off, and one couldnt' ask for anything more, even if Frank eventually went with Sam.

Expectedly, the episode ended with a tribute to Lynne Marie Stewart, but it wasn't just the single-screen honor seen above that most shows tend to go with when remembering late cast and crew members. Instead, Rob Mac & Co. went the whole nine yards, extending the final scene's needle drop, Conway Twitty's "You Were Always On My Mind," to play over a montage of Bonnie Kelly's highlights over the past 20 years, starting with Season 1's "Charlie Got Molested."

The montage began and ended with Bonnie's "gingerbread boy" line, and even just sitting here writing about it, my eyes are welling up with tears. It's unknown if the show will one day address Bonnie's death within the show itself, but I don't even want to imagine how depressing that would be, so I'll instead just be greatful that Stewart pulled off such a fantastic final episode. R.I.P.

This Was Also One Of The Craziest Endings To Any Of The Gang's Wild Schemes

Just in case anyone thought It's Always Sunny would deliver an emotional season finale without temporarily disfiguring the majority of its main characters, that wasn't on this show's agenda. Following up on the penultimate episode's Rehearsal parody, which featured one of my favorite Dennis Reynolds quotes, the Gang barely makes it through their scripted "Hometown Dates" dinner, which ends with Charlie freaking out and smashing plates down onto the table.

However, it's their impromptu toothpaste-related prank that sets up the jaw-droppingly funny reveal seen above, where it's explained that the prank went awry and left them all with patches of green-stained skin and giant chunks of hair missing, with the latter being the result of Charlie bringing Nair into it without others' knowledge.

It's so goddamned funny to go from the Gang's happy scheming to this horrifying aftermath. Not only were their physical appearances affected, but their voices were, also, making them all sound like they've smoked two packs of cigarettes a day since birth.

• CHARLIE: The situation - [gasp] - under the circumstances - [gasp] - is quite understandable. Our appearance may seem gruesome, but all can be - [gasp] - quite easily explained.
• DENNIS: Indeed, indeed. As you can tell, our voices have also been affected, creating an unintentionally sinister tone.

Such a matter-of-fact way to try and adress such a freakish abomination, and I'm almost in disbelief that Dennis even showed up in the studio, considering how badly he aimed to reverse the negative attention he received from being on Family Fight back in Season 10.

Sadly, such a fantastic finale means It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is once again in hiatus mode for the foreseeable future. I'm not sure how it could possibly top the bonkers moments this season offered up, especially when it came to the dog track, but I'll be eagerly waiting for the results in the meantime.