Review: Archer ‘Southbound and Down’
Spoilers Below
In a continued effort to reinvent itself, Archer is shifting gears once again (hey, look: a pun!) and went from an episode completely taking place in the mansion to one set almost entirely out on the open road. And if we’re looking at the different “types” of episodes being released this season, this one definitely falls under the “adventurous, feel good” category. Not that they aren’t all like this to some extent, but come on, who doesn’t love a good road trip?
When the episode opened, Malory announced that she landed “Cherlene” (Cheryl’s country-singer persona) a spot on Travis County Limits, a public access television show and spoof of Austin City Limits (which Cyril pointed out).
With only 24 hours to drive to Texas to make the show, Archer decided to go all Smokey and the Bandit on the situation (a movie he is obsessed with because Malory once didn’t get him a certain toy truck for his birthday…his 30th birthday) and reluctantly took Pam as the co-pilot in his Pontiac Firebird.
With Cherlene, Cyril, Lana, and Malory following in a tour bus, the team set out to make the show, because, as Malory stated, if they miss the taping she won’t be responsible for her actions.
“Are you ever?” Lana asked.
Malory unwisely quipped back, “…She said, single and pregnant… Oh, wait.”
During the drive, Archer informed Pam that he secretly stored 100 pounds of cocaine inside the tour bus, and intended to sell it in Texas. Pam, in her infinite poor judgment, then tranquilized Sterling (dart and all) and apparently let slip the fact that the gang was moving a busload of blow while she was trying to impress some bikers at one of several highway rest stops. These bikers, by the way, for some reason referred to Pam as “Snowball.” Sterling initially hoped it was a Smokey and the Bandit reference, but it was not. It also wasn’t anything to do with the cocaine cupcakes from which Pam was getting wired. (Methinks it may be the Clerks definition of a “snowball.”)
Of course the bikers then showed up and aggressively pursued the gang looking for the coke, with the folks on the bus mistakenly thinking they wanted to kidnap Pam. At this point I realized that this was the episode Judy Greer was referring to during the New York Comic Con interviews (see BubbleBlabber the Magazine: Issue #1).
Anyway, after eluding their leather-decked foes (twice!) the ISIS crew managed to make it to the gig in time for Cherlene’s set, in which she only chose to play one song.
Prior to this ending, in a moment of slight sincerity, Pam revealed that she was continuing to abuse coke because it made her thin and look hot “as balls.” After some debate, she decided to dump the dope to save her and her “good buddy” Archer.
In case you missed it:
1) When Malory yelled at the beginning, Lana told her, “Seriously, thanks for the deaf baby.”
2) Completely unrelated to the story, Woodhouse randomly fell down the stairs in a very drawn-out way. What the H was that about? (Heroin pun not intended. Or did I just answer my own question?)
3) When Woodhouse is heard hitting the floor, his servant tray made the same noise as the server trays that Archer kept dropping in “Live and Let Dine” (Season 4, Episode 7).
4) Though Archer’s insisted that the gang had 24 hours – not 36 – to both make Cherlene’s show and properly mimic the plot of his favorite film, Bandit actually had 28 hours to make it from Texarkana to the Southern Classic.
5) Krieger and Ray did not participate in the mission because Krieger wanted to stay home and make bionic Ray march around the mansion like a Nazi soldier – and apparently not because it’s funny.
6) Archer actually had a good point about people misusing the term “ironic,” while correctly utilizing the term when saying, “What’s ironic is that every other store we drive by is a gun shop,” when they desperately needed a gun mid-chase.
7) So there’s actually a Cherlene country album being released? Hmmm…
8) At different points in the episode, and not in each other’s presence, both mother and son referred to things as being a “win-win” – Malory in regard to letting the bikers just take Cherlene, and Sterling for agreeing to bang Pam in exchange for her ditching the cocaine (and saving their lives).
This was an interesting little episode. It relied almost entirely on the show’s alternate country music plot line, though obviously still using the drug dealer story as point of conflict toward the end. To be completely honest, I initially wanted to fault this episode for this very reason, because for some reason I just don’t dig the whole “singing sensation” part of the show’s fifth season. Maybe it’s my general disdain for the genre of music in question, or the whole hillbilly/redneck/slut identity Cheryl/Carol/Cherlene currently has, but something just doesn’t totally appeal to me.
However, the brilliant voice work by Judy Greer made me realize that it doesn’t matter what her character is up to, it only matters that she gets screen time. Regardless of the shenanigan at hand – be it glue sniffing, choke sex, singing, or whatever – Cheryl has always delivered laughs, and this episode was no exception.
While we’re on the topic of female characters killing it, Pam was also phenomenal yet again. They toned down her coke consumption a bit (a relative statement, considering she still ingested enough to kill a family of grizzly bears) to make the episode’s little drug plot more about what she will and won’t do for a fix (or what she’ll do whilst under the influence) and not just about how much she can devour. Good call; I’d hate for them to beat a dead, overdosed horse.
Interestingly, this episode achieved very little in regard to plot progression, other than possibly landing Cherlene a record deal at the very end. It’s a 22-minute side story that acted to add a fun little race against the clock (and race to outrun outlaws) to the series’ usual serious, life-or-death missions. I mean, really, if the posse didn’t make it to the gig on time, what would it matter? There would be plenty of other opportunities for Cherlene to play. Even the dangerous drug story line was relatively insignificant, considering three-quarters of the characters didn’t even know there were any narcotics involved in this week’s quest.
It’s still odd not to see anyone participating in spy work, and it’s also odd not to see everyone at each others’ throats all episode long, but it’s working. And since it has been working for all five episodes this season, I say why not continue with what appears to be the show’s current motto: “Even if it ain’t broke, insist on trying different ways to fix it until it actually does break.”
