Review: Archer: 1999 “Space Pirates”

“Is that an ocelot?”

Overview:

The crew is feeling homesick and wants to return to Earth.  However, as Archer tries to stop them, a space pirate ship intersects their journey.  Discovering the bounty for the cargo within the ship, they decide to take on the pirates.  After sneaking their way on board, setting the ship to blow, the crew is discovered and forced to fight their way out.  But, as they narrowly make their escape, they must decide whether or not to save the animal creatures the pirates have been dealing.

Our Take:

It’s about time we saw some good old space pirates.  This season has been jam-packed with intriguing storylines that take on the science fiction genre.  For the first time since early in the season, the focus is on action/adventure.  There may not be the same depth to the plot that we have been seeing, but it is more in line with the Archer roots.  Could you imagine the show without a shootout once in a while?  The lack of conceptual story play also opens the door for the episode to focus more on character development.

A big part of this episode is the undertones involving Lana and Archer.  The pair has been joking about their separation for most of the season- except for one episode where they slept with each other multiple times.  Lana has been dating Cyril; however, there has never been anything serious behind it.  During this episode, there were plenty of subtle sexual and marital innuendos.  Surprisingly, many of the advances are made from Cheryl towards Cyril- which I am suddenly realizing is not okay since their names rhyme.  So, who knows where that’ll turn out this season.

The factor is Lana’s desires to settle down and raise a family.  Obviously, if anyone wouldn’t understand that desire, it would be the carefree Archer.  So, it does shake things up when they come across a group of space ocelots and between the two of them Archer is the natural caretaker.  With all of that said, it is the expectation that a lot of these romances and ongoing storylines may be wrapped up by the end of this season.  With creator Adam Reed announcing his intentions to leave the show at season end, the series future is in question.  It would make sense for Reed to want to place these characters in a resting spot if his goal is to wrap up the overall story.

I think it is safe to say that everyone’s favourite part of this episode is going to be the space ocelots.  Not only are they adorable as they are, but they also have babies!  Watching the characters interactions with precious beings is one thing, but seeing what they are capable of is even cooler.  It turns out, they can shoot lightning out of their faces, like some sort of Pokemon.   Cute and dangerous.  How could you not want one of these things as a pet?  Well, the crew might find out as the episode left off with their ship overrun with them.  We will have to wait and see whether or not they have to deal with that in the future.

This was a fun, simplified episode — quite the opposite of the previous one which dealt with clones and moral dilemmas.  There are positives and negatives to breaking the pace.  For the overall season, it will pay off, especially for those that prefer to binge-watch their shows.  However, there is nothing that will make this specific episode stand out as a unique Archer plot.  It’ll be easily lost behind more exciting storylines.  Sometimes you need to make sacrifices for character development, and that’s not such a bad thing.