Review: Archer “The Double Date”

Overview:

Lana and Archer engage on a double date and although the simple night out is supposed to be a relaxing night of sophistication, it turns into an unconventional attempt to extinguish a dangerous Russian threat. Over the course of dinner and conversation there are many truths that come forward and Archer and Lana are forced to reevaluate themselves and each other, whether they like it or not. Cyril also reaches an emotional breaking point when a minor act of negligence triggers an avalanche of venom.

Our Take:

“The Double Date” is an Archer episode that has a highly farcical nature and is perhaps the most purely fun and silly installment of the entire season. It operates with the manic energy of a bottle episode and even though it doesn’t quite qualify, it’s still an entry that remains largely minimalist and gets the majority of its mileage out of character interactions and the pressure cooker of drama that’s created as everyone is forced to be around each other. There is a spy mission buried down somewhere deep in the middle of this episode, but “The Double Date” just wants to kick back and have fun before the season heads into its final installments. In that respect, “The Double Date” is very successful, but it also asks some genuinely provoking questions of its central characters that could have big implications for the end of the season and the future of the series.

I was at first skeptical with the aim of “The Double Date.” On some level it feels like double date territory is low-hanging fruit for the series and that they’ve done enough permutations of this in the past. Furthermore, when the season only has eight episodes to play around with it’s also less likely that Archer will want to devote one of those to a farcical comedy of errors style story, but thank God they do because this episode turns out to be a real delight and it has one of the best and most efficient scripts of the season. Archer has done episodes like this before and even earlier this season there have been examples of bottle episode-like stories.

The pacing and structure of “The Double Date” is arguably the best thing about it. The episode moves between a series of confined situations, whether it’s a fancy restaurant, crammed car, or extended walk-and-talk crowd sequence. The characters need to keep moving as they’re bottlenecked into the next stage of their perfunctory mission, but the situation remains unchanged. It’s the same arguments that ricochet between these characters even if their environments slightly shift. It’s a smart way to really just let these characters talk and dig into each other uninterrupted for an entire episode, even if there’s technically action going on all around it. What’s also really effective about how “The Double Date” moves along is that it slowly introduces more characters, piece by piece, to make this adventure feel increasingly crammed. There’s a building sense of chaos that never slows down once this episode gets moving. It’s impressive to see how a typical Archer episode mission is turned into background material in favor of character drama.

“The Double Date” provides the best understanding of Archer and Lana all season, but it’s also deeply funny and impressively juggles a large cast of characters with a storyline that never gets a chance to slow down. Several epiphanies are reached by Archer, Cyril, and Lana and it feels like as the season heads into its final episodes these characters are finally closer to a place of improvement and inner peace. These characters may even get to end this season on a happy note. The grim sight of death can strangely bring them a little bit closer.