Episode 2: Dennis Gets Divorced, is the inevitable consequence of the premiere episode where Dennis marries his high school poop-breath, I mean sweetheart, Maureen Ponderosa and ousts Mac out of their apartment. Dennis, as the episode’s title implies, ends up divorcing Maureen. The chaos then spreads like a cat-littered contagion to disrupt even the seemingly rock-solid domestic partnership between Charlie and Frank. The gag reflex-inducing affair between Dee and Maureen’s brother, Bill, at the end of the premiere, also ends up wrecking the elder Ponderosa’s marriage.

It is nothing new for the Sunny crew’s best laid schemes to backfire like last night’s baked beans, but the grim outlook the events of this episode leave for any of them finding love makes us viewers feel better about our own relationship problems (whether betrothed or not) . Not even an impromptu trip to a strip club (because Dennis demands a bachelor party, post-wedding), can cure the gang’s loveless ills. While arguing over how much money one needs to disperse in order to “make it rain”, finances come between Frank and Charlie, with Charlie perhaps feeling a bit frustrated that Frank is the sole breadwinner/rainmaker of their marriage.

Things do show signs of amicable resolution when Charlie’s creepy uncle shows up to intervene as a lawyer to divide Charlie’s and Frank’s “marital assets”. But, as for Dennis, an old nemesis returns to really screw him in the end. Whereas little else but Charlies’s elephant drawings are exchanged in the former marriage’s settlement, Dennis is forced to take on Maureen’s $90,000 in debt and also has to pay her alimony.

Couldn’t the dude at least get a cat sweater? 

*Quote of the episode: “DIVORCE! I’m totally drunk but my mind is sober.”