Archer, S4E5: Viscous Coupling

You are getting your Archer recap a bit late, even for me, because our Editrix Amelia is the soul of romanticism and gave me the night off for Valentine’s Day. Considering that my wife sincerely loathes V-day and I once wrote a searing set of ‘zine articles about the holiday that referenced both Victorian torture devices meant to “cure” syphilis and an ex-girlfriend who is still trying to get her name scrubbed off… Not sure where I’m going with this. Anyway, thank you Amelia. The wife and I both had a great time watching Immortalized and she loved not watching Archer.

This being the V-day episode, everyone has a date except our boy Sterling, who gets to tour the office striking out. Poovey and Tunt are meeting some lucky firemen, courtesy of someone’s arson habit. (Mallory isn’t falling for that old saw about smelling burning and strokes, clever girl.) And Krieger and his holographic love pillow have plans too. Sweet. And, holy crap, we are referencing the Ukiyo-e antecedents of tentacle hentai. Gentlemen, I salute you.

No luck with Mallory either, and apparently Sterling is too deaf to have an internal monologue. And looks like Cyril’s compulsive womanizing is paying off in the spontaneity department. Damn, son. Even I take off my glasses. (Bonus Bionic Woman gag.)

So, Archer is trying to climb up onto a character arc here, and all I can think of is me taking a surfing lesson that one time. The appeal is obvious, but there’s just no way this can happen. And we get a brutally extended saved by the bell scenario, and Hell Yes Katya.

EL CAMINO FULL OF ROMANCE, Blake Edwards-style penthouse suite entrance, holy shit baby doll nightie, and there will be none of that stuff for Archer here. One could almost feel sorry for him.

And the plan just comes rolling in, with Sterling enlisting the B-team of B-teams: Poovey, Tunt, and Krieger. AND DID I NOT CALL THIS. Barry, Other Barry, and Ray in a cyborg battle royale with cheese. Bring it. Also, I cannot over-recommend watching this with the captioning on. It’s like the alt-txt for a good webcomic.

And is this the most mainstream exposure that tentacle hentai has ever, ever had?

Barry is looking pretty Castaway, Krieger is dropping truth-bombs, and it’s callback time to Fort Kick Ass and Inappropriate Archer-Boners. I do want to know where Mallory had that bottle of bourbon stashed. Style points for drinking out of a paperclip caddy rather that straight from the bottle. Ladylike. And somebody else noticed the nerve gas devices in the ductwork. Go Lana.

TOILET OCTOPUS oh just rock me to sleep tonight, thank you very much.

Fresh kimono for Katya, and damn, do they get the details right in this show. Super-tony Danish modern hi-fi, which I’m glad is just a cartoon because KATYA SMASH.

And our boy Archer can clearly trust no one. Krieger’s got his own agenda, Either Barry’s coming in hot in his Steve Austin track suit, and you know, Katya’s KGB uni trumps everything before it.

I know I’m a fool for anticipating things like plot resolution, but we all want that massive citywide robot fight. I’m hoping that a group of writers willing to drop refs to medieval Japanese woodcut porn are ready to reference the Alan Moore Miracleman series. I feel kind of Krieger about this, in that there’s only so… Uh… SAID YOUR MOM.

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Posted by Will Judy on February 15, 2013. Filed under Headline, Popcorn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.