It’s Always Sunny Finally Solves The Show’s Biggest Secret
For more than a decade, the long-running comedy-satire FX show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has been sitting on its biggest mystery.
For more than a decade, the long-running comedy-satire FX show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has been sitting on its biggest mystery. Fans want to know: who is Charlie Kelly’s (Charlie Day) real father? The answer has been teased and almost solved throughout the fourteen seasons but never completely resolved. Now, the recently premiered Season 15 of the show has finally taken mercy on its viewers and revealed a shocking answer to its biggest query.
Ardents fans of It’s Always Sunny already know that Frank Reynolds (Danny DeVito) has been teased as Charlie’s biological father after it was revealed in the Season 2 finale that Frank had a one-night-stand with Bonnie, Charlie’s mother, thirty years ago. Then, Season 3’s The Gang Finds A Dumpster Baby confirmed that Bonnie did get pregnant after sleeping with Frank but she got an abortion. The mystery was further complicated when Bonnie revealed that while she tried to have Charlie aborted, he survived. Since then, the question has been left hanging though the viewers and Charlie were sure that Frank is indeed his real father.
The rest of this article contains spoilers for It’s Always Sunny Season 15, which recently premiered on December 1, 2021. The latest episode has turned the mystery on its head and revealed an answer we were so not expecting. Season 15, Episode 6, titled The Gang’s Still in Ireland, sees Charlie and the rest of the gang still enjoying their impromptu vacation. Halfway through the episode, Charlie decides to track down Shelly Kelly (Colm Meaney), with whom he has been corresponding for years. Believing that his pen pal is actually his brother, Charlie arrives at Shelly’s cheese shop with Frank by his side where the latter is busy dispatching a rat with a stick.
Here Charlie discovers that Shelly is too old to be his brother. But then It’s Always Sunny debuts the answers to its decade-long secret–Shelly tells Charlie that he is actually his long-lost father. The duo gets together, has drinks, and sings a song about wanting to give their father-son bond a chance. But this sweet moment soon turns sour when it came to Charlie’s interactions with Frank. As now he knows that his roommate isn’t really his dad, he grows cold towards Frank.
As we know, even though It’s Always Sunny never confirmed whether Charlie is actually his son, Frank cares for him. Even though he is financially stable, he prefers to live with Charlie in a dilapidated apartment, enjoying their shared gross lifestyle, and sleeping with him on a pullout couch. But as Charlie now believes Shelly to be his real father, he has no interest in Frank and doesn’t find his quirky humor funny anymore. He even refuses to sleep in the same bed as him, leaving Frank dejected and alone.
While fans of the show were eager to know the answer to the mystery of Charlie’s dad, it was always hoped that it would be Frank. It does break our hearts to see Charlie forego his bond with Frank just because another man claims to be his father without providing any conclusive proof. Hopefully, whether Shelly is Charlie’s father or not, it will not drive a wedge between the two best friends. The story will continue in the next episode of It’s Always Sunny on December 22, 2021.
