Review: Archer “Deadly Velvet: Part II”

Well, this is it. It may seem short lived, but we’ve reached the end of Archer season seven. It was a very fun season with a lot of ups and a couple of downs. We saw the return of a few characters and were introduced to a lot of new ones. After seven seasons a lot of shows would have run out of steam, but here we are. The show is doing as well as ever and they can still present a compelling narrative. So did the Archer finale wrap up season seven on a high note? Or was this another of this season’s duds? Read on to find out!

In “Deadly Velvet: Part II” Things get even deadlier on the set of Deadly Velvet when someone turns up, you guessed it, dead.

This was a very strong finish for Archer (phrasing?). This season saw the team put into a new line of work. The show runners and writers have never feared mixing things up and as a reward, the show has remained as fresh as ever. This season the team became private investigators. It was a season long mystery that unfolded from week to week and while the culprit is ultimately not that surprising, the final few moments of this episode were. This may be one of the most clever bait & switches in recent memory. In order to safely gain evidence on Veronica Deane, Archer gets the help of his android doppelganger to go in his place. The android gets shot and Veronica is confirmed to be the killer. Now there is a warrant out for her arrest and all is well and good. The surprise ending was that it seemed Archer was going to propose to Lana and we would have a happy ending. But who we thought was the real Archer malfunctions and is shot. So the final reveal is the real Archer shot dead in the pool. A surprise that good will make the wait for season eight that much worse!

The rest of the episode was pretty solid as well. I think this was a great episode for a lot of the supporting cast and even the guest stars. There was a lot of fun banter like usual. Ultimately seeing the payoff of the mystery that has been built up this entire season was also great. I’d say the one weakness of the episode was that there may have been too much fun happening. In a season finale I’d like to see more set up for the next season and more pay off with what is happening now. We got both, but it was a just a tiny bit skimp.

Overall, this was a fantastic episode. Probably one of the stronger season finales for the show. In the top three at least. I think Archer and the gang becoming private investigators was a smart way to go this season. I think they should stick to this for at least one more season before mixing it up again.

So with that the season concludes and the long wait for the next season begins. Hopefully you enjoyed the finale just as much as I did! Make sure to keep an eye out for the season review coming soon!