On April 1, Rob made the following Instagram post, alleging that he had decided to share an episode script prior to its airing:
The “link in bio” does take you to an upload of a Season 18 script, however, April 1st is April Fools Day, and the script is very heavily redacted, with the first six pages “leaking” the following text,
"Oh! Sun. Eee. fan this You should not read. I leave. joke. Good, Thank you. thank you. you read I’m hot words. They’ll be hidden son. The April fools. joke? for me is right thing! to do! PHILADELPHIA So, do"
very much purposefully mimicking Charlie Kelly's speech for Dennis in The Gang Runs for Office (which is fitting, given Charlie Day is allegedly the writer of this script!).
But the script doesn't stop there, it continues for another 23 pages, and as it goes on, there's no more semblance of a prank. In fact, the redactions feel much more like they're hiding pertinent information to a real plot as opposed to acting to create Charlie Kelly-style nonsense blackout poetry. And if you've been keeping up with what we know about Season 18 so far, the un-redacted sections quickly begin to feel eerily familiar...
When we get to the very end of Page 6, Rob stops redacting the character cues with (a fully-redacted line from) Dennis, and this continues to Page 7, where we see Uncle Jack and Dee are part of a conversation, and the sparse un-redacted lines between the three of them seem to be purposefully left to tease us with (mostly) unrevealing sections of dialogue.
And when we get to the next scene, Ms. Mac and Mac and revealed to be in a scene together, and suddenly this script feels very, very real, because thanks to our very first leak from set, where a chunk of photos were shared by a fan who visited the set for Valentine's Day with her husband, we know Mrs. Mac and Uncle Jack are in at least one Season 18 episode, having seen both of them in the Kelly house:
Uncle Jack is blocked in this shot, however he is seated with the dummy, and Mac's hands are visible in front of Dennis.
This photo is interesting, however, because we can see the slate is clearly marked "108" which indicates Scene 8 of #1801, while the script Rob shared is labelled #1802. Even more perplexing, Scene 8 of the script Rob shared is also a scene with Uncle Jack and Dennis, but Dee is a part of the conversation, not Mac...
Given the reasoning behind Rob sharing the script was an April Fools joke, it might make sense to assume he did more than just redact lines, and also tampered with items that are visible, but a comment from Bryan Swarberg (a producer on Sunny and the VP of More Better) indicates otherwise:
- The writers and director belonging to the script and the episode title are very much real.
- The scenes in the script are real, as are the un-redacted portions (of course, subject to change based on script revisions, improv and ad-libbing).
- We have BTS photos (at least 2) that belong to the scripted episode sequentially right before this one.
Which means we can continue down this heavily-redacted script, reading the pieces of un-redacted character cues, scene headings, and dialogue and action cues to find out quite a bit about one of the first episodes of this Season, and we can use visuals from 1801 to help make even more sense of what we're able to read. (In addition to all of this, @Microclown on Tumblr was able to match the font size and spacing of the script text, filling in most of the redacted character cues and some locations/references! Check out her post on this, which includes a version of the 1802 script that "fills in blanks"!)
Beginning on Page 2, we get three lines over black before a scene location for Scene 1 is revealed, which is the most heavily-redacted portion of the script and therefore near-impossible to follow, but given it leads into the opening titles of "Dennis & Dee Don't Get Rich," it is probably safe to assume that this opening scene is between Dennis and Dee (with the spacing of the redacted character cues working out well to fit Dennis, Dee, and one other character's name, that is 9 characters long, in this scene).
We move to a different location following the titles on Page 3, and up until Page 6 it's another completely redacted section for the sake of the prank, until we get to Page 7 in which we discover Uncle Jack is part of this script (and this scene). It's likely he enters the scene at some point in a redacted action line, since the required spacing for his name (10 characters) doesn't fit with any character cue prior to his un-redacted name showing up (however it seems like there might be a scene change at some point on Page 6 or so, as otherwise the script jumps from Scene 2 to 4... but I'm willing to accept this is an error).
From Page 7 through Page 8, we have Dennis and Dee with Uncle Jack, seemingly seeking advice from him (likely of the legal kind, given his profession and what they did last Season to the only other lawyer they know), and then we enter the previously-mentioned scene between Mac and his mom, in which there's a third redacted speaker (whose name is 6 characters long). The lines we see from Mrs. Mac are typical: "meh"'s and grunts, paired with an indifference toward her son, and then the third character (a man) exits the scene, and we go back to Dennis and Dee, indoors somewhere and once again interacting with a 9-letter named character. It's probably safe to assume that this is the same character Dennis and Dee were with in the first scene, and from what we can read, it looks like Dennis and Dee are trying to shift an accusation or blame off of themselves:
On Page 12, the twins exit, and then have another scene between the two of them in a different (but clearly continuous) location, discussing what had just been said:
Through Page 14, they continue discussing, until we get to the next scene and finally see an [un-redacted] Charlie cue. He and Frank are together and Frank shows him something "interesting" (which seems to involve "swatting" based on Page 16) right before Dennis and Dee enter whatever location the Gruesome Twosome are in. Charlie is interested in pulling the twins into whatever is interesting to him, but they're dismissive, distressed by their plot. Dennis and Dee then go back to Uncle Jack, but they're very obviously not happy with whatever he's telling them and instead come up with their own plan or conclusion:
The next scene takes us back to Mac and his mom, who are once again with a mystery third person who is coming and going from the room they're in. Suddenly, that person is revealed to be Donald, Mac's uncle we met in Season 16 (played by Gregory Scott Cummins, who also plays Mac's dad, Luther):
We can perhaps assume that Donald is the person who was with Mac and Mrs. Mac on Page 9, however this scene also introduces a fourth redacted character, whose character cue also seems to be 6 characters long, and given the extensive redactions, it's all but impossible for us to confidently figure out if Donald or the other 6-lettered character was the third party before and/or what is happening in this scene. What we can see, however, is that one character exits, and then Mac agrees with or agrees to do something after feeling conflicted by something the remaining 6-letter character had just said:
The next scene, on Page 21, shows Dennis and Dee returning to a 9-letter character (possibly the same as the prior two scenes with a mystery third party) at a very short-named location:
And just like how Rob waited until late in Mac's plot to reveal a character (I'd argue rewarding those of us who continued reading past "fun nonsense" and into "meaningless" dialogue nonsense), he does the same here, leaving the character cue "MOR" and then "MORTICIAN" un-redacted for two lines in this scene:
Presumably, this makes the 6-character long location "MORGUE," and reveals that Dennis and Dee have been dealing with a Mortician, and likely a dead body, throughout their plot of this episode.
On Page 22, something to do with (or naming) Frank is revealed, and this dissolves whatever scheme Dennis and Dee were working on:
Seemingly defeated, they ditch the Mortician and head out to the street, where they have some encounter and a mystery character speaks to them. This person seems to show the twins something (something the writers felt the props team could use an example reference of), which results in Dennis and Dee re-sparking their pursuit and running to find Frank:
As Dennis and Dee look for Frank, Mac is out on the street at the same time, all but certainly with Mrs. Mac based on the number of characters in the redacted character cue, and he witnesses her crying:
Off this scene, Dennis and Dee find Charlie in the street, who is preoccupied (perhaps with whatever interesting, swattable thing Frank showed him earlier), and eventually Frank, who doesn't seem to be helpful:
And by Page 28, Mac's scene on the street seems to coincide with the rest of the Gang's scene on the street, but by the final page, it is not clear if he's actually interacted with any of them, and every character cue except for Mac's is redacted, so it is impossible this to know if the two plots actually merge and Mac is speaking with Dennis (the only 6-letter character of the Gang) or if the plots never merge, but simply end in the same scene and Mac is with Donald or another prior scene 6-letter character.
So, while a lot is still unclear, I think a good chunk of things were able to be deduced, and understanding the possibilities of these redactions in conjunction with the definitives of the un-redacted portions makes for a lot of possible theories as to what the A and B (and C?) plots are here...!
Not forgetting the fact that we have a few photos from #1801 which could connect somewhat loosely to #1802, my theory is that #1802 is the second episode of a two-parter premiere (if you've been watching for a few years now, you know FX has been airing two episodes as part of the premiere regardless of whether it makes sense to do so, so it's logical that RCG would decide to write into that reality), which follows the death of Samantha, Frank's pick from The Golden Bachelor. This would give room for #1801 to see her return (and potentially confirm a marriage between her and Frank, explaining those tuxes from #1801), but also wrap up her plot in the way it was originally intended to end in Season 17, and answer the question as to why the cold open of #1802 would take place with a mortician.
✖As I predict the A plot: Following Samantha's death at the end of #1801 (which may or may not result in a fall (one of the only un-redacted words from the first quarter of the script)... as we did see rooftop scenes being filmed for what we believe is #1801), Dennis and Dee seek to get rich off her death, knowing she had her "chicken money" and hoping they were either written into her will (Uncle Jack would make a lot of sense in this context) or that she died with something expensive on her (continuing to visit the mortician would make sense in this context). Of course, whatever Dennis and Dee thought they could get from the mortician, and then later Frank, is either worthless or Frank's property in the end.
✖As to the B Plot, as far as the un-redacted portions can reveal, it seems almost disconnected to Dennis and Dee, but along the same theme as family/inheritance. I'd predict that we not only see the return of Donald, but Luther as well, and Mac is dealing with some family issue between his mom, father, and uncle... Honestly, this part is too heavily redacted for me to figure without any other outside information, however for heart-aches purpose, I am hoping it's Luther convincing Mac to ditch or fuck over Donald.
✖And the C plot seems to be between Charlie and Frank, back to enjoying life as the Gruesome Twosome and playing with some strange object (or maybe a return of hornets!) that's pulling them away from the attention Dennis and Dee keep demanding.
I would love to hear any and all other theories people may have for what this plot is, because there's certainly plenty of possibilities! Please leave them in the comments (or feel free to send them to me anyway you know how), surely one of us will be correct and is due proof for bragging rights!
-From 4 in the morning 2 days later, Seth
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