Review: Archer ‘Drastic Voyage: Part II’

 

Spoilers Below:

Here we are at the conclusion of our exciting adventure. The second act. Part deux. Archer Two: Electric Boogaloo.

It’s okay. I’ll get to the review. Meanwhile inside some dude’s body…

During the journey from the foot to the head, a lot happened inside the ship, including Ray getting re-crippled and TV’s Michael Gray being discovered as a stowaway. Also, outside the ship, leukocytes attached themselves to the vessel’s outside, and Sterling and Pam were dispatched to dislodge and disperse them.

As the de-miniaturization time ticked away, the ship & its crew raced toward the tear duct to escape the body, and at the very last second…they didn’t make it out and completely blew up Dr. Kovacs. Ousted from the CIA, the crew pondered their next move, before Sterling spoke up and proclaimed, “I actually have some thoughts on that.”

In Case You Missed It:

1) Did Sterling want Tang because he still thought he was in space? (Remember the weightlessness thing last week?)

2) The first transmission from Hawley: “Injection… Botched… Krieger… Asshole…”

3) Malory’s take on every child getting a trophy nowadays: [sarcastically] “Everyone’s Kickstarter has merit.”

4) Should Cheryl have sewing needles? “I shouldn’t even have yarn.”

5) A leukocyte is a white blood cell, as my nurse fiancée informed my silly, ignorant, journalist ass.

6) Sex inside your lover’s body would be the ultimate cuckold.

7) “Flerp!”

8) AJ = Unlucky baby.

9) “Shrinky-dink that! Krieger out!”

I must say, through at least three-quarters of this episode I was doing the viewing equivalent of impatiently tapping my foot. The first half of the finale promised a journey through the body, and the second episode was almost over with the only action involving bickering and immaturity inside the ship, amongst its crewmembers. Sure, the tease of another Sterling-Pam adventure was enticing, but even that came in the second half of last night’s show. However, the last few minutes made up for everything.

It was almost like an episode of an AMC drama. And by that I mean Breaking Bad or Walking Dead. But not Mad Men, because on that show something different presumably happens, or maybe not, because I don’t know, because I’ve never watched it. I’ve watched the two aforementioned shows though, and I can confidently state that many of their episodes drag the plot for almost the entire installment, before shocking and awe-ing the audience with some brutality or plot twist in the last few minutes or few seconds. That’s how I felt with “Drastic Voyage: Part II.” I spent most of the runtime thinking to myself: “This is how they’re going to end the season?” I expected a lot of plot, and instead it was a lot of back-and-forth dialogue, and not even among the usual gang – which could actually be entertaining for an entire episode. Eventually, they blew the whole mission, and blew up the doctor they were trying to save in the process. (And another doctor as well, if I’m not mistaken.)

The complete flubbing/fucking up/Britta-ing of the situation was completely unexpected. I know the CIA (or ex-CIA/ex-ISIS) workers are used to doing that, but not usually when the stakes are so high. A man’s life was directly in their hands, and they destroyed him in literally the most destructive way possible.

On top of that (also in a very Breaking Bad/Walking Dead-esque way) the finale established a clear cliffhanger for next season. Archer’s tease of having a plan for what the group should do next was a perfect way to end, given the confidence he expressed and the amount of time before new episodes premiere. It will do wonders for the next season premiere’s debut, and keep people guessing what’s next. And who knows, maybe they don’t even have it planned out, and this just keeps it open. I don’t know; I’m not Adam Reed, because I’m not a genius.

Although I didn’t speak too highly of the first 75% of the episode, it actually wasn’t that bad. The plot didn’t go anywhere, but there were a lot of laughs, and a few good scenes before the ending, including the airlock purging sequence, which resulted in Pam breaking down for an unexplained reason and Archer forgetting what they were even doing.

In the end, this fantastic showing wasn’t the best episode of the season, but it’s hard to deny that this was the best season of Archer yet. And because of its strong finish, there’s no reason not to believe they can’t match or top it next year.