Review: Archer ‘Three to Tango’

Spoilers Below:

After a strong premiere, FX’s Archer looked to keep up the momentum heading into week two. Considering I had seen the first episode in a sneak peek prior to its airing (as did a lot of people) we now officially wade into uncharted territory, with “Three to Tango.”

Lana and Archer got their next mission from Slater (Christian Slater), which was to extract Conway Stern (Coby Bell) – their arch-nemesis, who formerly double-crossed them – from Buenos Aires. Of course Sterling used the opportunity to exact revenge on Stern, and the two fought. However, it turned out that the mission wasn’t simply an extraction, because Conway needed to obtain a heavily-guarded disc first. Sterling of course blew their cover, and ended up having to fight a group of goons by himself. Conway double-crossed them yet again, intending to sell the disc to the Soviets, and shot Sterling in the back immediately after obtaining it. He almost got away with it, but after a comment about baby weight, Lana severed his disc-holding hand (she severed his other hand in an earlier episode, which was later replaced by a bionic one). Sterling and Lana were then picked up by Slater, who knew all about the disc situation from the get-go, expecting them to find out on their own and steal it from Conway when he inevitably turned on them – just like they actually did.

Meanwhile, baby AJ went missing at the office, and Malory, Cheryl, and Pam turned the office upside-down looking for her. Malory had a special interest in this task, considering she was the one looking after AJ, and was also hoping to become her legal guardian. Turned out Krieger had her, as he was doing research for a project involving a cyborg bear named “Cybernetty Teddly.” Or possibly “Mr. Bear-jangles.”

When Lana and Sterling were in the car with Slater at the end, she revealed that her parents would take custody of AJ in the event of her death, and in the event of theirs, Lana’s sister. Not Malory, much to Archer’s dismay.

In Case You Missed It:

1) It’s just “Slater.” Not Mr. Slater. It’s a mononym.

2) I can only assume “ASAGDMFP” is “as soon as goddamn motherfucking possible.”

3) Sterling: “Are you out of your shitting mind?”

4) Sterling had 20 drinks on a flight? Was he going for Wade Boggs’ record?

5) Revenge can be an adjective, as in “revengey.” Also, Archer can be used as a verb – as in “Archerizing” – according to Sterling

6) Regarding tea, Sterling said, “I could use some with honey and lemon. And bourbon. But actually, without the honey and lemon. And tea.”

7) Does Krieger’s animal project hint that he’s the real Krieger. Or are experiments of that sort just in his DNA? Although Malory dropped another hint that he might be a clone of Adolf Hitler.

8) Last week Archer had a smartphone, this week they’re talking about Soviets and driving old-timey cars. The timefuck (which is the only word I can use to describe how the show continuously fucks with viewers regarding the time period in which it takes place) continues.

9) So Lana apparently has a sister. (Sterling: “Is she younger?”)

Despite the offseason announcements that Archer would be ditching the drug smuggler element and returning to the spy game, last week’s premiere didn’t quite feel like the show was back to normal. It was a simple job obtaining a computer and destroying a plane, and only turned into a lengthy ordeal when Sterling discovered a Japanese WWII soldier who was unaware that the war had ended decades ago. In other words, the actual mission was completed quickly & easily, and the episode kind of went off on a sidebar for the rest of it.

In “Three to Tango” though, the whole episode was spent carrying out the task, albeit in several parts. There were a couple surprises along the way that made it more interesting, and plenty of humor sprinkled liberally throughout. In fact, I actually found the first half of the episode contained a much higher concentration of laughs, and the second developed the plot more. Normally I might lament an unbalanced episode like this, but with both halves being so strong, I really have no complaints. I suppose bringing back a character to make an episode that references some of the major plot points of a previous one is a bit cheap, but at least it was amusing. Hopefully the show doesn’t get too heavily involved in rehashing old storylines in their return to form, and we get plenty of fresh, new ideas. As a one-time thing, it had a fun bit of nostalgia.

I did, however, also think the “losing the baby” B-story was a bit weak, but finding out that Krieger was working on another animal project (“Cybernetty Teddly”) made me miss Piggly (or Pigglies) and his similar previous creations and that saved it in the end. (“It’ll definitely haunt my nightmares, but awww…”)

In the next few weeks, I look forward to an episode that features Cheryl and/or Pam a bit more, as those shows are always extremely entertaining, but other than that, the show it off to a solid start. I would say Archer is cruising along at a fairly steady rate right now.