#barbara reynolds

[dennisboobs]

ah

[a-a-a-anon]

absolutely fascinated by young dee who is criminally under-discussed so here is my dissertation on what happened in her college years (ft. dr. gainer, setting her roommate on fire, being institutionalized)/my idea for a fic that I will almost certainly never write/my way too serious take on a few throwaway dee lore lines

timeline background: we know that dee majored in psychology ('charlie got molested') and got "three fourths" of the way in (meanwhile dennis finished his psych minor.) assuming this was a four year program, I'm gonna guess that in her third year she got institutionalized and most likely had to drop out ('gun fever too: still hot'.) we also know that she had her back brace until she was twenty ('underage drinking'), so I'm guessing that means she got her back brace off in her third year.

we know that dennis fancied himself a psychologist since he was young, but I think dee did too. in particular I think she was wary and interested in her brother's psychology; she seems very aware of his psychopathy and bpd in 'making dennis reynolds a murderer' and 'psycho pete returns.' in my head she's been interested in dennis' psychology since they were kids and she saw him snapping crows necks. so instead of forcing her way into acting school, she studied psychology to better understand her brother (and also deep down, herself, who is very much the other side of the same fucked up coin.) it also meant she could tell herself she could study her characters even better when she became an actress.

i think she put in (her version of) genuine academic effort to get in, fuelled kind of by spite (remember the way she studied that thick medical book in 'hero or hate crime' or her very quick math in 'boggs: ladies reboot'). she studies books and gets cricket to quiz her and she still fails to get into penn. but frank always pitied her (i think she was his favorite of the twins-remember "let your sister into the gang", "that's my girl!", "i'm sorry the grift didn't work out, sweetie") so he shells out cash to get her in, but also to get her away from home so he has to deal with her even less.

dennis wants to do anything dee does but better and he wants to keep her close by (to watch her crash and burn, and also because he's weirdly possessive-see 'the gang broke dee' "i'm your select!"). and obviously he's barbara's favorite. so barbara gives him money to get in too. she also gets him into a frat and pays for his classes and his rent and everything he needs. dee has to live in a dumpy dorm with a female roommate.

but college presents dee a chance to moult her previous place in life where she was known as a monster (remember how insistent she was that "people can change!" in 'franks pretty woman'. I think dees always wanted to believe she can shed that feeling she's inferior, but she never has). in my head her female roommate is basically normal-has real friends of her own, mentally stable, attractive-which is exactly what dee craves. dee wants to be popular and well liked and she wants to infiltrate her roommates life, imitate her, be in the Cool group. and she places all her hopes on a friendship with the roommate but dee has never navigated real female friendships before, not with someone like her. deep down she also wishes she found what dennis found in mac, whatever it was, because ever since dennis met mac he's never been as close to her. and i do think dee is some flavor of queer. and the roommate is well liked in the way that dee admires and envies. so there is that blurriness between wanting to be her and wanting to be with her. in my head her roommate looks like the woman from dee's fantasy in 'the gang saves the day' (and they both represent that promise of escape from dee's shitty life).

dee is so desperate for the roommates approval and her love and her life that she goes insane, copying and flattering and competing with her. ever the shitty actress, she tries to emulate her, but comes off as manic and creepy. and maybe her roommate is nice enough to not completely shun her, recognizing that she's struggling. maybe in dees mind they actually are becoming friends when her roommate asks things like "are you okay?"

and dee has to talk about her plan with dennis because he's the only person who would Get It. and she makes it sound like it's almost working. dennis feels jealous and worried and threatened that maybe dee might actually be seen as normal, especially when she gets her back brace off in the third year. so dennis fucks her roommate, more of a show that he owns and controls each and every pathetic part of dee’s life than anything else. and so that dee knows she'll never be as good as him, she'll never as easily charm people as dennis does. (or at least he tells her he does).

to prove that To Someone dee is Good Enough, and so desperate for attention, dee (who's been groomed all this time) enters a sexual relationship with her professor dr. gainer. she tells herself she has the power in it, that she seduced him ("he didn't molest me. i had sex with him 'cause i wanted to.") and she has a mental break, because the thing she told herself held her back from being loved (her back brace) is finally gone by now and yet she still feels like a monster, and the only scrap of "love" she can get is from her professor.

and then she can't take the fact that she can steal her roommates clothes, can emulate her sexual prowess (in dee's own fucked up, delusional way), and still neither be well liked like her nor be loved by her. so maybe dee will always be a monster. so dee tried to burn her roommate in her bed, because she represented the promise of change and popularity, and that promise was a lie and dee's effort was for nothing. and she's institutionalized.

and i think there was kind of a falling out between the twins and their parents, because barbara wants to abandon dee but dennis can't help but visit her. and frank doesn't even step foot in a place that reminds him of his traumatic childhood, and avoids dee even more than he used to because she is his childhood mirror image. so the family becomes even more fractured and estranged.

and maybe dee becomes medicated and slowly crawls her way halfway to normal by the first season (her acting classes are so well-adjusted, taking part in healthy hobbies of her!). until her father comes back into her life and everything falls apart <3

side note, even though dee is crushingly lonely-"I just got a cat 'cause I wanted something to hang out with. I don't have, you know, a roommate or anything, and I don't really have anyone to talk to..."-AND she struggles to pay rent whenever frank cuts her off, i hc that she refused to ever get a roommate in particular female roommate again after this because both her internalized misogyny got worse and she was afraid of what would happen (what she would do) again.

[spaghetti-l0v3r]

MEET THE REYNOLDS //

frank and barbara are actually the worst

[r0b1ee]

[gayclubsoap]

[harveydentures]

Something so impossibly ironic and cruel about how Dee always chooses to depict herself as hating moms and motherhood in general, for good reason, but her own fantasy of a perfect future in S9E6 has her starring in a movie where she plays a warrior mother violently protecting a helpless infant from an unexplained force of outside danger, literally with the tagline “they will kill to have it, mommy will kill to save it.” I talk about Dennis’ parent issues so often but Dee’s puss weeping ever-expanding bloody gaping mother wound really is the star of the show huh

[trouticide]

drawing a frame from every episode of it’s alway sunny season 2 episode 2: the gang goes jihad

[cyclops-was-left]

I have been having this debate in my head for a while and am curious to see what everyone thinks

[cauldronofmorning]

the poison drips through erodes everything.

[dennisboobs]

2x02 // 2x05 // 2x10 // 5x13

↳ Barbara Reynolds + pills

[braad--vengolor]

consider that their mother hated dee for being a girl though lol

yea you are right about that , but then again i like to imagine there were other factors that contributed to her hate as well not just that she was a girl. or maybe she liked the ideals of having a daughter but didn't really ever care for Dee, like she wanted a girl until she actually had one?

also i'm unsure if my orignal post even makes sense to anyone other then myself anyway since i wrote it at like 4 am lol

[eemoo1o-sunnyoo]

I’d just like to say, that the scene with Mac and Barbara after having sex is how I can imagine what it would be like if it was Mac and Dennis: one of them not enjoying it, Mac professing his feelings of adoration at the event—saying how wonderful it was—as Dennis briskly gets dressed before Dennis completely shuts him down, asking, “You’re not going to talk about your feelings and shit, are you?” Yeah, this is exactly how it’d go down.

[harveydentures]

Barbara Reynold’s big silicone knockers really bounced so hard through the fabric of time and space that the ripple effects are impacting events decades after her death. She is causing revelations as a SKELETON. The hot milfs in your area are only there because they were running from her intoxicating meow meow stank since it obviously ruined marriages and changed lives. Dennis is going to a hell where his mom is ruling as the queen of the fiery cuntosphere. “The woman whose validation he’s been seeking his entire life” slayed the house boots down Houston I’m deceased

[realbeefman]

Thinking about Barbara, and how early seasons said outright that Dennis looked both like young Bruce and young Pop Pop, and I’ve got this touch of sympathy for her (as I do for everyone, terrible people etc). Like Dee she comes off so much like a stunted teenager, acting like Dee is some kind of rival who she has to constantly put down, liking Frank for his money and dancing skills, and finding both her father and “true love” in her son.

god yeah. i think it’s interesting how much of a divorce from both pop-pop and bruce frank himself is, and i honestly wonder if there ever was some love between them. if it was truly always about his money for her, or if it was also an attempt to escape from the life she had. only to end up perpetuating the same cycle of abuse with her own children 💔

[itsalwayssunnyinrc]

Barbara: I mean, look at your skin, Deandra. Christ, there is a sun in Philadelphia.

- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia "The Gang Goes Jihad"