Tonight’s episode of Archer was obvious successor to last week’s, both in plot and in tone. As it turns out, Archer still does have cancer (so the show cleared that up right off the bat), and he’s feeling no effect from his chemo, not because he’s a righteous badass, but rather because all of his drugs have been replaced by placebos. This led to perhaps the weirdest, funniest, FCC-testing-est adventure the show has ever had, in what was a rage-and-drug-fueled, surreal flight of revenge.
But regardless of all of the weirdness that the show threw at us tonight, there was also a return of the sweetness we saw last week, and it was even more effective this time around. Sure, there were a few more moments with Mallory again, but she was mostly just playing the “what if my son dies?” beat again, and given how antagonistic this particular mother-son relationship is, it’s a bit hard to take it seriously. But what we can take seriously is Ruth’s, and how her death fuels a large portion of Archer’s RAMPAAAAAAGE. Ruth is the old person version of Archer: she’s crude, she enjoys smoking pot, and she too has her weird, maligned pop culture fascinations. It’s no wonder he felt a connection with this proto-grandmother figure.
Meanwhile, back at the office, we had the reveal that Krieger was a Boy of Brazil, which not only makes it own weird kind of sense, but was also a very funny reveal with an extremely funny lead-up. Despite this lightness of this plot – most of the times the better episodes have a larger focus on the other office drones – it was exactly the right proportion for tonight’s outing. In order for A-plot to have worked as well as it did, it had to make sure that it could deliver both the pathos of the Ruth scene and the humor/surrealism of Archer’s rampage, and the slight Krieger plot allowed for this.
I never thought I’d say this, but Archer managed to imbue an episode with even more emotion, giving perhaps their best episode ever.
What did everybody else think?
Additional Thoughts:
“Maybe it’s just because I’m a badass, but chemo is a breeze.”
“It does that?”
“No, little kids get cancer.” “Yeah, they do….”
“This is just a guess, but….Zima?”
“Candy corn and Zima. Which is probably why I’ve been feeling so good.”
“Whatever farm animal of war, Lana. Shut up.”
“Just film the confession Lana, don’t editorialize.”
“Well excuse me Lana, it’s a rampage.”
“Plus, I can only assume a Brazilian mob would be a bazillion times sexier.”
“Vincent van Gogh fuck yourself.”
“Let me see ‘cock-flavored spit.’”
“It’s so thick my barber charges double.”
I loved the Super8 camera Lana carried around. It was right in the show’s retro wheelhouse.
“I never thought I’d say this, but I really miss the Zima”
“Lana, did you see my scarf.”
“RAMPAAAAAAGE!”
“Or you know, not fine.”
“Thanks Woodsy….The drug owl?”
“First of all, you don’t have to yell, Lana. I don’t have ear cancer.”
“She’s not gay, she just has big hands.”
“Did you know men can also benefit from Klegel exercises?”
“Oh man, what have I been doing?”
“Are you not rampaging? I thought you were rampaging.”
“…And JFK’s father was a bootlegger.” “That’s like comparing apples to…Nazi oranges!”
“Keep your friends close and your Hitler clones closer.”
“I bet it smells like weed, and rampage.”
“Oh, boiyakashah, right in face!”
“Which, obviously is a working title.”
“Seriously, what is cancer?”
“Wait I got it: Casablumpkin.”
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