Thank You For Laying Out The Ep Like This - Tumblr Posts
u know what really gets me crying??
In “Mac Day”, Dennis is easily the most receptive to Country Mac: He almost instantly idolizes the man after he jumps off that bridge, he’s sitting next to Country Mac at the planetarium, but furthest away from him in the dojo (because the gang is plotting to get Mac’s ass kicked, and thus it’s very understandable that Dennis didn’t want Country Mac to overhear him saying such things about Mac). He laughed first/the loudest at funny/cool remarks Country Mac made, engaged in the most physical contact with him, and was also the most vocal about how much he liked Country Mac (he’s awesome, the way he rides motorbikes is badass, he gave an ocular pat down correctly).
This all seems to heavily contrast his attitude towards Mac throughout the episode. He’s the first one to bring up all the little things he finds annoying about Mac (his karate, Project Badass, his devotion to god), even going so far as to postulate that perhaps he doesn’t hate Mac’s interests, but rather Mac himself. The others are not as vocal while Dennis prattles on about Mac, mostly just nodding and saying yes in agreement. Out of the members of the gang, it is only Dennis who thinks deeply about Country Mac’s good qualities and how those contrast with Mac’s. The others just think that Country Mac’s cool. And despite Dennis’s criticisms of Mac, it is obvious he has thought most widely about this, a hint at the depth of his feelings for Mac, however negatively he shows them.
A fascinating thing to note about this is how most of Dennis’s frustration and anger at Mac is directed specifically at Mac’s cyclical self-denial—especially when it comes to Mac’s homosexuality.
CHARLIE: Seven straight hours of lecturing?
DENNIS: Yeah, and five hours alone dedicated to the evils of homosexuality, from him?
In fact, most of the decisive action Dennis takes in the episode is to break Mac out of this cycle, he wants Mac to admit he’s not as big a badass as he thinks, he wants Mac to admit that he’s gay. This desire seems to increase tenfold when Country Mac comes out to all of them.
COUNTRY MAC: Dudes. I’m into dudes.
DENNIS: Oh… you’re gay!
COUNTRY MAC: Loud and proud, brother! Loud and proud! Yeah, ain’t nothing wrong with that.
DEE: Nothing wrong with that!
CHARLIE: Honestly, it’s like, refreshing to hear. You know what, happy hunting bro, get after it.
DEE: Good luck.
COUNTRY MAC: Cool, cool, cool, I’ll see you all in a little bit.
CHARLIE: Cool, yeah, yeah. See, he doesn’t want us to grease them, y’know?
DEE: God, that’s awesome.
CHARLIE: Because he wants them!
DENNIS: It doe—right.
CHARLIE: He wants them for himself. It’s so much more comfortable when someone’s gay and open about it.
DEE: It’s fantastic.
CHARLIE: And, like, I know we’ve never said this as a group, but—
DENNIS: Mac’s gay.
As you can probably tell, Dennis becomes much less vocal after finding out that Country Mac’s gay, staying mostly silent as his gaze switches between Mac and Country Mac, only to chime right back in to declare that Mac is most certainly gay. Yup. Just the Macs. Definitely not him. He’s also the first to observe that Mac has a boner again, from being around all the beefcakes. Unlike Dennis, Mac is unable to force himself to be flaccid at will.
So the gang moves on to the karate tournament, and Dennis comes up with the idea to sign Mac up for a fight to prove to Mac that he isn’t such an unstoppable badass, to snap him out of his delusions. The gang isn’t very certain about this, but join Dennis as he manipulates Mac into fighting through praise and goading him into wanting to prove himself. Dennis consistently asserts that teaching Mac a lesson is for his own good, and in his own twisted way, Dennis wants Mac to be the best version of himself. After the fight ends with Mac getting knocked down and Country Mac beating up Mac’s opponent in his honor, Mac is still adamant that he was more badass than Country Mac. This frustrates the entire gang, who lash out at him, but Dennis most of all who insists that Mac must admit that he got his ass kicked, and that he is not a badass. Even Dee, who was the most supportive of Dennis’s plan before, begs him to let it go because Mac Day is almost over, upon which Dennis refuses to back down, because in his words “We have a lifetime of this to look forward to!”. Despite everything Dennis has said this whole episode, he has this pre-conceived notion that he (and according to his assumption, the rest of the gang) will be with Mac for life. And that Dennis apparently intends for Mac to be a part of his life, for the rest of their lives.
Which is why he is so shocked at the next thing the gang suggests.
DENNIS: Listen, listen. The guy is in complete denial about absolutely every aspect of his life. And there is nothing we can do about it.
FRANK: I say we switch him out.
DENNIS: Huh?
FRANK: Country Mac for Paddy’s Mac.
DEE: We send Mac to the country, bring Country Mac here.
FRANK: Yeah, to the bar.
CHARLIE: That’s not a bad idea. I mean, look, we’d be safer with an actual badass in the bar.
Although he ends up agreeing with the plan, it is important to note how Dennis expresses the most disbelief when Frank suggests this, and remains in shock for a good moment, being the last one to respond to this idea, which is intriguing given how he’s led the gang in most of their anti-Mac talks all day, dominating most of the conversations. So why is it that he’s so slow to respond to this idea?
It appears that no matter what he says about the man, Dennis is the most attached to Mac, most unwilling to let Mac go. Which is funny, given how he was practically over Country Mac the second he died, and was already denouncing most of Country Mac’s “cool” traits at the funeral.