Review: Archer “Caught Napping”

Overview:

Agency gets pushed into their most personal mission ever when Archer and Lana’s daughter, AJ, is kidnapped from her Swiss boarding school. The team struggles with the intense emotions associated with the task at hand. Archer does his best to not get consumed by his feelings, while he also tries to keep the ugly truth hidden from Lana in an effort to fix everything before she even knows that her pride and joy is being held for ransom.

Our Take:

Season 11 of Archer has seen the series return to its spy shenanigans of yesteryear, but this has been a season that’s about growth and progress more than it is about the content of the actual missions. Every episode has shown not just Archer, but the majority of the cast, re-examine who they are and if they’ve changed. A big event that makes a lot of people feel like they’ve truly changed is the act of becoming a parent. Archer’s been a parent for a few seasons now, but in a lot of ways “Caught Napping” is the first episode that really explores that dynamic. It looks at what it means to be a guardian, to both Archer and Lana, in an episode that brings forward a lot of emotion and truth.

A very satisfying element of this season is Archer’s reunion with the people from his life and seeing how unessential he’s become. “Caught Napping” gets into the most interesting spin on that idea with the return of Archer and Lana’s daughter, AJ. With only one episode left in the season I wasn’t sure if Archer would actually touch on this relationship, so it’s very satisfying to see it come forward in a way that’s both motivated by action and emotion. What’s also a creative take on the idea is that it’s Robert that pulls everything together in an effort to keep Lana in the dark over the danger that her daughter is in. Lana’s absence is a tense element that becomes more of a ticking time bomb when it becomes clear that it’s only a matter of time until she learns what’s going on. It allows more of a strange camaraderie to form between Archer and Robert. There’s real energy there and Archer even gets a better handle on Lana and figures out how to respond to her thanks to Robert’s insight. My early assumptions that Robert had grown closer to Malory and left Lana behind may have been premature. He seems to be sticking around, at least for the time being.

“Caught Napping” tells an important story that the series pulls off in an effective way. There are many laughs that are associated with this premise, but it’s actually touching to see the whole Agency squad work together during the finale. That being said, it’s even sweeter to watch Archer have his first conversation with his daughter and for the two to truly meet. It’s a brief scene, but one that really works and speaks to how a version of Archer that revolves around a married Archer and Lana with a child wouldn’t be a broken idea and could still be a viable source for comedy. “Caught Napping” is a powerful and uplifting installment that feels like the right kind of triumph before the season’s final episode. The Agency team feels united in a way that they haven’t since the moments in the season premiere before Archer wakes up, but the finale will dictate whether this stability will hold or if everyone is going to need to prepare for another disaster.