Is It Frank?

On December 24, 2024, Imani Hakim, an actress mostly known around the Sunny-sphere for playing Dana in Mythic Quest, made an Instagram post surprising us with photos from the set of Season 17 of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

The very first photo she posted reveals that she’s directing an episode (and also reveals what we were most likely sure of: Dave & John Chernin are writing an episode):

Unfortunately she’s cropped out both the episode # (though that could always change prior to airing) and the Title of the episode.. so we’ll just have to wait a little longer for that reveal!

If the previous information I received about Dave & John Chernin directing an episode this season is correct, Imani now makes five different directors on this season (that we know of), with 4/5 directing an episode of Sunny for the first time. Five directors in a season isn’t unheard of (in fact, it was just done for Season 14, though it had two more episodes than 17 will), but this is definitely a first for this many freshman directors on one season of Sunny. (Not to mention the fact that we still don’t have confirmation on who’s directing three other episodes, one of which is the Abbott Crossover and many (myself included) are hopeful we’ll see Randall Einhorn back directing on Sunny). 

But moving on from the credits aspect of this reveal, what else can we deduce from Imani’s Instagram post? Quite a lot, it seems!

First, looking a little further at her photo of the script cover, we can also faintly see the top portion of the set list. It looks like, for the permanent sets, her episode will have scenes in Paddy’s, the hallway of Charlie & Frank’s Apartment, Charlie & Frank’s apartment, and another apartment (based on the layout and spacing, my money is on Dee’s). 

With these sets in mind, taking a look at the various other photos and videos Imani shared reveals a bit of what’s happening in her episode:

In a Paddy’s backroom, we see Imani is set up with Sunny’s three camera monitors, following along with a scene that takes place in the bar. The Gang (minus Frank) are gathered in their usual “facing the bar TV” position:

Dee is mid-sentence, perhaps with Dennis’ attention, while Charlie attempts to make sense of the paper (perhaps a flyer or portion of a newspaper?) in her hand as Mac looks on, probably at something on the TV. 

Unfortunately (though probably purposefully), no amount of enhancing is getting us a legible look at that script. However, thanks to our treasure trove of scripts, we do have a lot of familiarly with the formatting of Sunny’s scripts, and based on just the pagination and spacing of the blurry block of text in the top left corner of the script, we can pretty safely deduce that this is the cold open of the episode:

The illegible Chernins & Hakim script side-by-side with the first page of Frank’s Back in Business (another Chernin Brothers episode), which shows similar pagination.

Additionally, the blurry block in the bottom right hand corner of the page indicates a scene transition. This is either a "CUT TO:" MAIN TITLES or a “CUT TO:” another scene in the cold open. A one-page cold-open is pretty short (Celebrity Booze, with a similar set up as we see here, was a page and a half), but considering the way the Gang are poised, this very much could be a hard, fast NEWS! opening scene, connecting whatever Dee’s brought in on print to whatever Mac is looking at.

Imani also shared a few videos from set, and in addition to a 360 of Charlie’s apartment (stripped of any potential spoilers, it seems), we got a look at the camera crew setting up to shoot in an alley, in daylight and at night. While my initial thought was that they’re shooting behind Paddy’s (based on the red brick and green doors), cross referencing these videos with photos of Paddy’s alley (both in Charlie Work and The Janitor Always Mops Twice) the walls and background of the videos Imani shared don’t line up with the Paddy’s alley we’re familiar with… Of course, the Gang are no strangers to alleys, so it’s not unusual that we’re visiting one, but there’s not much to go off of here, as far as I can see. (Let me know if you've got any ideas!)

Though the alley shots certainly weren’t the extent of location sets Imani revealed for this episode. In what seems like a scouting photo, she shared a large, open complex space with wooden beams:

Based on a quick search, I’m fairly certain this space is Office #33 in Culver City. Used for a variety of productions, it remains to be seen as to how it will be used in the episode (if at all), as she provided no context or further photos which match this location.

What she did additionally share, however, is probably the most exciting photo the fandom got their hands on: another photo of the monitors for Sunny’s three cameras, this time in an unfamiliar space:

In the scene, the guys are in tuxes, bowties included. Charlie is on his cell phone, looking and pointing to Mac, while Dennis holds a drink tray in front of a bar (much fancier than the one at Paddy’s) in a room that looks to be a formal function. (Based on the walls, ceiling and chandeliers, and carpet in the room, my best guess is they’re in a ballroom/hotel event space.) We can also see behind the guys on the C Camera monitor that there are a few bartenders, likely event staff, dressed in vests, and on A Camera monitor, to the left, there are a few well dressed extras. There’s not much else we can gather from this photo, but knowing Sunny, if the boys are dressed nicely in a classy place, it’s surely related to some scheme.

Considering the elegance of the ballroom, and the upscale nature of Office #33, it’s probably not a huge reach to believe the two are connected, and therefore assume a portion of the plot takes place at an event of some nature. 

Now, if you went to take a look at Imani’s Instagram post today, it may seem like what I’ve covered is the extent of what she revealed from on-set, but, interestingly enough, she actually shared and then deleted one more behind the scenes look at this episode. In this photo we finally get a look at Frank, where the entire Gang are gathered in Charlie & Frank’s Apartment for a photo:

It’s hard to miss the smiles and Imani in the middle tipping off that this is a behind the scenes photo, but it’s even harder to miss the fact that their plates of cake are clearly cut from the “person” lying in the hospital bed..!? 

Donned in a hospital gown and still strapped up to monitors (that are hopefully monitoring nothing), the cake person lying in the bed, while jawless, seems to bear a striking resemblance to Frank…Considering what we can see of the hair, the fact that it’s Charlie and Frank’s Apartment in which the cake-body lies, and the fact that Danny is posed on his own side next to it, it’s hard to argue that it’s not supposed to be Frank. (The fact that this picture was deleted a few hours after it was shared and after the fandom had started speculating may only be further proof of this.)

Though it’s hard to tell exactly what Kaitlin is wearing in this photo, she’s clearly in black, and the boys are still wearing their tuxedos (though now bowtie-less). But can we assume Cake Frank and these wardrobes are directly connected through a scene and not just two parts that came together for a BTS photo? It may be possible that RCG moved into the room for the photo and don’t actually wear their tuxes in Charlie’s apartment…However we do know, based on a Facetime call that Rob made November 21, 2024, that the three of them were actively shooting in Charlie & Frank’s Hallway while wearing the tuxes (also bowtie-less, from what we can make out), so the likelihood of this behind-the-scenes moment also being an episode moment is higher than not. So…what is happening!?

We’ve got a cold open which features Dee bringing something (news!) to the guys that may or may not be related to what Mac is looking at on TV, but likely ends up connecting, fancy venues and the boys donning tuxes among other well-dressed guests and staff while they seem to be pulled by the other side of Charlie’s phone, that seemingly ends up with them, slightly disheveled, eating a cake version of Frank out of a hospital bed in the middle of his apartment (and, at some point, a random alley). 

There are quite a few angles here, and after a few days to mull this all over, I think it's very likely that this episode has the Gang ordering a realistic, life-sized cake version of Frank in order to fake his illness and/or death. The suits and the fancy venue, then, could be connected to some kind of fundraiser the guys are putting on, or maybe just a corporate event they're crashing in order to raise (or steal) money in an attempt to find a “cure” or to prevent what happened to Frank from happening to any others—the cold open being the four of them becoming aware of both some lucrative illness and the concept of realistic cakes (perhaps Mac is just watching “Is it Cake?”) and jamming the ideas together for a brand new scheme. Alternatively, instead of becoming aware of some illness, perhaps the Gang becomes aware of something going down with one of Frank's businesses and see a dying Frank as a way to get in...

Whatever ends up happening, I really hope the Gang eating Frank's cake face is actually part of the plot (the fact that there are only five plates, despite the fact that there are seven people in the photo, might be a tip off that it indeed is…). Maybe this is one of their few schemes that is successful, and they celebrate by eating Frank…or it’s a failure and they drown their lost profits in his cake head. 

This all sounds right up the Chernins alley, and I’m seated already. Anyone have any episode title guesses? Honestly, my title of this blog could hold strong...

- Seth