Review: Archer “Cold Fusion”

Overview:

Agency has been taken all over the world due to the dangerous nature of their missions, but their latest exploit sees them acting as mediators towards a murder mystery that’s set within the cold recesses of Antarctica. Agency acclimates, both physically and personally, to their new surroundings as the severity of this situation begins to sink in. The number of murder suspects only seems to increase and a wrong move could ignite an international disaster that turns Agency into villains.

Our Take:

Season 11 of Archer has put its characters through the biggest personal and emotional gauntlets that they’ve ever faced. There’s been a newfound level of vulnerability and mortality to the show on an individual level, but “Cold Fusion” takes these small concepts and puts them together with a problem that sees the safety of the entire world at stake. Archer’s finale delivers a good old-fashioned high stakes scenario, but it also doesn’t forget the story that it’s been telling and manages to resolve it in a way that doesn’t feel finished, but feels appropriate.

This finale also devotes some more time to how Agency really built up their reputation over the past three years, only for Archer’s return to derail all of that success. He’s been destructive towards everyone’s emotional states, but also the company’s public image. The majority of “Cold Fusion” has Agency members with strangers and embraces that tension. “Cold Fusion” splits up Agency in an attempt to be as efficient as possible with all of this material, but it’s satisfying to see that the series continues to pair Cheryl and Malory together in entertaining ways. They’re still able to contribute and help save the day in their own way, but this strange Odd Couple-esque dynamic between them has been one of this season’s secret weapons.

The action-heavy conclusion is one of the biggest pieces that Archer has ever done. It easily trumps the other huge moments from the season, including the events of the premiere. There are explosions, constant gunfire, and giant naval ships bursting out of polar ice caps with tons of armed guards. It’s fallout that’s worthy of this finale and it saves some of its strongest material for these final moments rather than limping across the finish line. Nothing is sacrificed in terms of the animation and there are times where finales can unfortunately come across as anemic because they’re left with the least amount of resources from the season. It’s the opposite situation here and it helps this season end on the powerful note that it deserves.

The most talked about moments from this finale are likely going to be the “coma flashes” that Archer sporadically experiences here in an attempt that maybe something is still wrong with Archer and he’s not out of his coma. Perhaps this season has all been an exercise for him to improve himself and get better since he wasn’t able to gain any clarity during the past few coma seasons. It’s a daring development and one that would surely enrage a large percent of the fan base, but it’s an angle that feels plausible in a weird way, especially with the increasingly positive nature of these past few episodes as Archer progressively works out his baggage. This is not the direction that the episode ultimately takes and it’s instead more just a fancy way to illustrate that Archer’s brain still may not be perfect, but he’s at least still alive.

There’s a level of poignancy to be found with how Archer has become so willing to place himself in harm’s way because he’s grown accustomed to how these coma realities just restart anew whenever he’s done something equally impulsive in the past. It’s an incredibly self-destructive way to live, but it does end up saving everyone (this time) and it’s finally able to imbue Archer with the insight that he’s lacked since getting out of his coma. In a rare moment of clarity Archer is able to articulate that as much as he’s been treated like the problem all season, he poses the hypothesis that he’s really just become a convenient scapegoat that allows everyone to misbehave and become their worst selves. It’s a turn that’s a little too neat and gets introduced a touch too late in the episode, but it’s still an idea that makes sense and simultaneously highlights many of these characters’ problems that have been present all season.

“Cold Fusion” is an unconventional episode in terms of its plotting, but it’s gigantic in terms of the payoffs that this season has hinted towards and it’s largely satisfying as far as season finales go. Archer finales sometimes have a way to feel both ordinary and epic at the same time and this installment is no exception. So as Season 11 of Archer comes to a close, Archer doesn’t just remain in reality, but he’s now the most lucid that he’s even been and truly ready to tackle his job, his friends, and his family with more confidence than ever before. That’s a frightening realization on some level, but it’s also exciting to picture a new season of Archer that’s willing to dig even deeper into these characters and why they’ve been able to work for over a decade.

Here’s to more spy missions and more Darla next season.