This, the season finale of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” works better if you remember the Season 3 episode “Sweet Dee’s Dating a Retarded Person.” In it, Charlie composes a song about a character called the Night Man who sneaks into people’s bedrooms and “fills them up with his spirit” so that they “become the Night Man.” (Inevitably, the rest of the gang interprets this as rape.) After the song is poorly received, Charlie sits in a dark depression in his room, unable to find inspiration until Dennis throws open his curtains.

All “Sunny” fans know how to sing along:

Day Man
Aaah waaah oooo
Fighter of the Night Man
Aaah waaah oooo
Champion of the sun
You’re a master of karate and friendship for everyone…

“The Nightman Cometh” brings back this wildly popular (by FX standards) songs, in the form of - a musical. Of course. Playing off the gang’s always-reliable vanity, Charlie convinces them all to play a part, keeping it secret all along that he’s only using the musical as a vehicle to his own selfish ends.

Dee gets to play a princess who works in a coffeeshop (much like Charlie’s longtime love interest…hmmm) and Dennis is a man/boy who eventually turns into the Day Man in order to defeat the Night Man (Mac). Frank plays a troll. Of course.

Though disturbed by the undertones of her duet with Dennis (”Sonny boy, little boy, I want to touch you”), Dee is determined not to have any of her stage time cut, so she decides to throw in her own song explaining that she is not interested in children and that she is available to any man who’d like to go out with her after the show. Meanwhile, Frank and Mac continue to misinterpret the Night Man stealing the boy’s soul as a rape scene, driving Charlie insane.

After the newly-transformed Day Man defeats the Night Man (who inspires more laughter in the audience than foreboding), the cast joins together in a rousing chorus of “Day Man.” Then, suddenly, Charlie comes down from the sky.

Earlier, he had convinced his love interest - known only as “the waitress” - to come to the show, promising in return that he would stop stalking her. And so Charlie sings a moving solo in which he describes himself as the Day Man, transformed by his love for her, and asks for her hand in marriage.

(She says no.)

As a season finale, “The Nightman Cometh” works. It’s a nice wrap-up of all the ridiculous things that the gang has done since “Getting Racist.” They didn’t try to cram too much into it; there are no surprise cameos or grand themes. It’s just about a bunch of terrible people making fools of themselves, which is exactly what we’re here to see.

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