Review: Archer Vice ‘Smuggler’s Blues’

 

Spoilers Below

There has been a lot of talk about change in the first six episodes of Season 5 of Archer. People (myself included) have commented on how drastically different the major plotlines are, and how the show is going in a new direction, and all that. To the creators’ credit, it has worked, and is clearly capable of being able to continue to work – but that doesn’t mean the show can’t ever go back to its previous style. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t last night’s episode feel closer to the previous four seasons than it did to the current one?

Let’s look at the episode’s plot. Whilst Malory, Cheryl (I refuse to call her Cherlene because she didn’t even sing in this episode), Pam, Lana, and Krieger stayed behind, Sterling, Ray, and Cyril took off for Colombia in a prop plane, intending to meet a female druglord named “La Madrina” and unload their cocaine stockpile (some of which they brought along). After being ratted out to a group of paramilitaries (which are “either heroic vigilantes trying to restore law and order because the cops can’t or won’t, or right-wing terrorists with a boner for kidnapping and murder,”) the trio took off hoping to evade capture. However, Cyril’s stupidity put a wrinkle in their plan, and, just as they we’re about to be caught, La Madrina showed up to save the poor saps. She, of course, was with ample bosom.

But after agreeing to the terms of sale, the Queenpin revealed herself to be an undercover Colombian Police Officer. Incidentally, this also occurred after she repeatedly banged Archer via some heavy BDSM role play. The episode ended after the men’s arrest.

In Case You Missed It:

1) Cheryl, despite existing only in Minor Plotline B, actually had some good lines. First, she insanely suggested that all babies should just be drowned. “Not all babies…” she continued. “Just baby people.”

2) Also, after Malory and Pam each got in a man/tranny jab, Lana pointed out the fact that she was, in fact, pregnant. Cheryl quickly quipped: “…It said, baffling medical science.”

3) Archer is still a dick: “Oh my god, right? Remember that? Ray, remember? You got paralyzed…? How can you not remember that?”

4) Anyone actually look up Len Koenecke? Damn, these jokes are out there.

5) Krieger (in one of his only lines) called the ISIS team the “Gang Who Couldn’t Sell Coke Straight.”

6) Woodhouse generally only gets mini cameos nowadays. This time he was on the “GILF-cam.”

7) This episode may have contained the first instance (in my experience, at least) of a record-skip joke where it turned out just to be an accident.

8) Sterling desperately wants to work phrasing back into the rotation. Though there’s no way you missed that.

9) This episode had – what might possibly be – Sterling’s most elaborate voicemail gag yet. I had to listen to the thing four times in order to understand. And even then, I’m kinda sketchy on it. No, wait, I think I got it now.

10) Did Ray’s closing line, “If you say Tiger, we’re going to beat you to death with your own shoes,” remind anyone else of this:

Not just because the death-by-shoe line is almost exactly the same, but because the line in Wayne’s World 2 also involved a tiger. Bengal, to be precise.

Now let’s be real, this episode was a total blast from the past. Think about it: the “mission” involved a trip to another country; they snuck in while flying themselves in a tiny, inconspicuous aircraft; two of the three so-called dealers were former ISIS field agents; there was some undercover intelligence gathering; a gun-fight; a car chase; and in the end, the gang was taken captive. (Come on, have we even had a cliffhanger episode this season?) This is exactly the type of plotline we saw in the first four seasons, with exception that they are all now drug dealers (“bad guys”), instead of ISIS Agents (“good guys”). Although, as Sterling smartly pointed out, they we’re probably doing less harm now than they previously were, relatively speaking.

“Because selling cocaine to cocaine dealers doesn’t really compare to helping overthrow democratically-elected governments,” Archer said. “Like the US did in Guatemala, Chile, Nicaragua, uh, oh, Iran?! Because – spoiler alert! – those didn’t really work out so great. But that’s okay, because I’m pinning my hopes for the future on the next big shipment of Stinger missiles to that rag-tag bunch of Mujahedin heroes in Afghanistan.”

So yeah, it was that kind of episode. And I, for one, welcome this return to the original form, even if it turns out to be brief & fleeting. I definitely dig the new direction and the fact that the show is continuing to grow in ways few would have imagined, but it’s always good for artists in any medium – be it visual arts, television, film, music, literature – to show that they can still go back to the basics. We all know there’s no shame in returning to your roots. Unless you’re Pantera.

I’m glad those guys never tried it.