This Fan Idea for the Ending of ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Is Both the Best and Worst Finale Possible

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is coming up on 20 years of terrorizing southeast Pennsylvania, but even a show as enduring as Always Sunny has to end eventually. So why not end it with some shockingly dour emotional trauma?

Back when It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia was just an idea that a bunch of Los Angeles actors spent a total of $100 to turn into a rudimentary pilot, the first-ever storyline centered around Charlie Kelly seemingly facing a serious cancer diagnosis while his friends cope with the grave news by going out and trying to get him laid, possibly for the last time. That rough cut eventually turned into the Season One episode “Charlie Has Cancer,” which ends with the twist that Charlie never had cancer or anything close to it — he just correctly assumed that the gang would respond to the serious news by helping him out in his quest to finally bed The Waitress.

Of course, just as Charlie wasn’t dying of cancer, The Waitress didn’t actually sleep with him in “Charlie Has Cancer,” though the real-life husband and wife eventually consummated their onscreen stalker/stalkee relationship in the Season 12 finale “Dennis Has A Double Life.” Well, when the series itself comes to a close, one It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fan suggests that they bring the other half of that plot line to a full circle:

Rob McElhenney claims that he, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton have long been in agreement on how they want to send off the most important project of their lives, and other It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia writers have confirmed that the show and its stars have been planning the final episode for at least a decade. Fans have long speculated that the series about amoral sociopaths casually destroying lives and disfiguring priests could only end with the entire gang dying as a result of their own stupidity — similar to how the entire gang nearly drowned “The Gang Goes to Hell” — but having just Charlie die while the gang withers away into melancholy would be a more poetic punishment.

The rabid online fandom of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia might not be ready to admit it, but a disorienting tone shift that makes the consequences of the Always Sunny universe and its characters’ decisions feel way too real all at once would drive home the fact that, at its core, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is about the worst people whom society somehow tolerates, and every one of the main characters deserves to suffer some kind of serious punishment.

Or, alternatively, the Always Sunny series finale could have the Philadelphia correctional system finally catch up to the gang and throw them all in prison for their various felonies — maybe Dee could do some stand-up comedy in an orange jumpsuit before the credits roll.