In this first episode in which the Archer Vice motif is going on full-throttle, two main points can be gleaned. First, despite the core concept shake-up, the series hasn’t taken a drastic turn. Second, Sterling and company are really, really bad at drug-dealing.
The episode opens with a lot of necessary exposition. The gang are now based in Cheryl’s mansion, which Sterling hilariously refers to as “casa de Addams Family.” Sterling’s luxurious penthouse was seized, as it was also owned by ISIS (Malory is incredulous that Sterling never wondered why he never paid any rent; Sterling thinks it was because he “banged the landlord’s wife when she dropped the keys”). Cyril has taken up his old career calling as a lawyer, Cheryl is indeed pursuing her dream to become “the number one country music star in the US and some of Canada” and Ray, still paralyzed as a result of his bionic legs being crushed in last year’s “Seal Tunt” finale, is sticking around as her vocal coach.
Malory then informs Sterling, Lana and Pam that they will be flying to Miami to sell 20 kilos of coke to an unknown buyer. Krieger outfits Pam with a full body cast hiding all of the cocaine, and Pam quickly becomes addicted. Hopped-up-on-drugs Pam isn’t really new, nor is drug addiction (see Woodhouse’s heroin problem), but it appears that coke-addicted Pam will be more than a one-episode joke. To highlight how self-interested everybody is, no one suggests that Pam might need help, especially since her addiction began when she literally ate one pound of cocaine.
Once the trio reaches Miami, they quickly find out who their middle-man for the deal is — it’s Ramon, from season one’s “Honeypot.” And as it turns out, the men buying the drugs are none other than Charles and Rudy, part of the Cuban hit squad that was hired to kill Ramon but who are now “bffs” with him.
As can be predicted, things quickly go south, with Charles and Rudy taking both the drugs and the money. Archer doesn’t want to blame Ramon, for whom he has a bit of a man crush on, for the incident, and teams up with him to try and retrieve the money from Charles and Rudy’s place. A shootout ensues, killing Charles, Rudy and Ramon, but it turns out to be a very elaborate (and unnecessary) setup.
Meanwhile, at the mansion, Cheryl is revealed to have an absolutely horrible singing voice, leading Ray to enough exasperation that he downs an entire bottle of scotch. When no one is watching her, however, Cheryl begins singing beautifully—something Malory, Ray and Cyril only hear because Krieger has the whole house wired. “Bedrooms, bathrooms, bathrooms, other bathrooms, the swimming pool…” Krieger explains, in one of the funniest lines of the episode.
When Sterling and company arrive in Miami, he says that given his team’s espionage, it should be fairly easy to apply those skills to selling the drugs. Clearly this is not the case, as the first drug deal is a total failure, and they’ve basically lost Pam to the drug already.
While the series is now fully in Archer Vice mode, this still feels like the series has always been, which is not to suggest that it’s stale. The numerous double-crosses were expected, but added plenty of hilarity along the way, like when Ramon argues with Charles and Rudy over the price of a missing fondue fork.
In a departure from previous seasons, however, Archer Vice may feature an overarching plot. Ramon, Rudy and Charles mysteriously refer to an unnamed “you-know-who” pulling the strings, and it will likely be some time before his or her identity comes to light.
There will be plenty of left turns to come this season, no doubt, and there’s no clear end in sight, which is what always keeps Archer (oops — Archer Vice) interesting.
Lines that made the episode
“God, how I envy the deaf.”
“Should I take life advice from an unwed mother? With a dirty car?”
“It’s like the A-Team, but we sell drugs.”
“This smells like a kennel, but for dogs that are poor.”
“You’d be amazed at what you people do when you think you’re alone… Cyril.”
