The brilliant facet of the Lawyer’s absence all through the previous six seasons is that we may inform ourselves his eye healed and that maybe he’d moved on from his want for vengeance. Tragically, season 17 confirms his eye was certainly misplaced for good, and he is nonetheless been lowered to a bitter man. His interactions with Frank in season 17, episode 3, “”Mac and Dennis Grow to be EMTs,” actually spotlight how futile his hate is; for the Lawyer, that season 11 courtroom episode was the worst day of his life, however for Frank, it was one other Tuesday. Frank is a horrible particular person, however he does not hate the Lawyer. In reality, he does not consider him in any respect. The Lawyer, in different phrases, is obsessive about 5 individuals who do not bear in mind he exists when he is not within the room.
This time round, although, the gang does not simply gouge the Lawyer’s eye out: They poison him, throw sizzling fryer oil on his face, break a number of bones, go away him in a burning car, and body him for a number of crimes that they themselves dedicated. “Mac and Dennis Grow to be EMTs” then ends with the Lawyer going to jail, whereas your complete gang as soon as once more will get off scot-free.
It is humorous however miserable. The gang has ruined the Lawyer’s existence about as a lot as they’ve ruined Cricket’s, however at the least Cricket has developed a Zen-like perspective along with his lifetime of squalor. Cricket barely appears to grasp the adverse affect the gang’s had on him, whereas the Lawyer is aware of precisely the place all of it went incorrect.
What’s additionally notable concerning the Lawyer is the clear mid-series shift in how the “At all times Sunny” writers approached him. At first, they appeared to want him in a voice-of-reason function, however sooner or later, the present’s creatives should’ve figured it might be funnier to punish him for his distaste for the gang as a substitute. It is a shocking change in strategy — one which highlights how the gang has grown much more wicked and harmful through the years — nevertheless it’s not one I hope the writers hold doing.
By this level, I say the Lawyer’s suffered sufficient. Let him be like Carmen from the early seasons, who let her success be her greatest revenge. Ruining the Lawyer’s life was a enjoyable subversion of expectations, however let’s hope the present subverts them but once more and offers him one other win. On the very least, let the poor man transfer on.
New episodes of “It is At all times Sunny in Philadelphia” premiere Wednesdays at 9pm EST on FXX and drop on Hulu a day later.