Review: Archer ‘Achub y Morfilod’

 

Spoilers Below:

Coming off the high of last week’s fantastic episode (I must have been high for giving it a 9.5) it would be hard for “Achub y Morfilod” to top or match it, especially since it has a name I can’t even pronounce. But it combined a mission plotline while piggybacking from last week’s non-CIA story, and looked to be a nice follow-up.

Lana woke up from the events of the previous episode in the back of a car driven by Sterling through the Welch countryside, having been drugged. She was obviously furious and caused them to crash their car. While inside their quaint cottage, Sterling convinced Lana that he had no part in calling Katya, and she almost forgave him, until he revealed that their current vacation was also a work trip.

The agents were tasked with helping two members of the Free Wales Army flee the country, as well as protect them from being arrested by England’s MI5. When an MI5 agent showed up at their door, they managed to knock him out, and one of the Free Wales guys then pulled a gun on the CIA agents. They, of course, managed to subdue him (and his partner) as well and got away. Sterling ended with promising to try to avoid getting himself in compromising situations.

Meanwhile, “the idiots” attempted to attach a robot hand to Ray’s stump, and got sidetracked during surgery while talking about TV shows. They ended up giving him a black man’s hand.

In Case You Missed It:

1) This episode was rated TV-MA for language, sexual situations, and violence…but no nudity? That’s gotta be a point off the score, right?

2) The name of the town in Wales? Llanflwnyddwndllwnmawr.

3) Pam’s best line of the episode: “Handjob.”

4) Yes, there really was a character named Spearchucker Jones on M*A*S*H.

5) “Closet rampage!”

6) Frodo P. Gryffindor might be the best fake insult name in the show’s history.

7) “Cows are our friends. Maybe even our best friends.”

8) Glengoolie: For the best of times.

9) Lana claimed Sterling’s idea about magnets in car bumpers preventing crashes was nonsensical because cars sitting at red lights would be bounced into the intersection due to said magnets, and t-boned. But if the cars had magnets all the way around instead, wouldn’t they just bounce off each other in the intersection as well?

One thing Archer almost always excels at is balancing their A and B stories. This could be anything from having just a single storyline to varying splits between them. I rarely ever have to comment that one story is played out too much or one should have received more airtime like I sometimes do with the other shows I cover.

However, in this case, I will cry foul. There was very little substance to the mission, a very little background regarding the “freedom fighters,” and very little reason for viewers to care. All we know is that these terrorists were wanted by the British security service for blowing up a dam, and for some reason, the CIA wanted to help smuggle them out of the country. And then when the MI5 agent arrived, it was this hokey little production put on by four supposedly intelligent individuals (okay, maybe three if you don’t count the giant) where they played house in an attempt to deceive him. Of course Sterling blew their cover, but it didn’t even matter because the Welshmen turned on Sterling and Lana (oh, look: phrasing!) in the end anyway.

Not to say this lack of interesting plot necessarily sank the episode, but when stories get too drawn out or one storyline hogs the spotlight, it takes away valuable time from more – potentially funnier – jokes. In this case, I would have wanted to see a lot more from “the idiots.” Not necessarily a longer surgery session, but perhaps they could have elaborated on the set-up to the TV show dialogue, or just added more antics in-between.

Still, even with noticeably fewer funny lines, the jokes that landed were pretty damn hilarious. But like I said, it’s all about balance, and this episode’s lack thereof caused it to tumble down to average town.