Hi folks! Welcome the to our weekly recap of Archer on the Multiversity Summer TV Binge 2020. This week’s episode is named “A Going Concern” and has all the elements of a classic Archer episode, drugs, corruption at work, enemies… and a lot of laughs! Let’s dive right in.
1. What happens when you fall for a Ponzi Scheme?
Well, in real life you may end up bankrupt and your whole life might be permanently ruined, and that’s what it seems that is going to happen with Malory, she even might sell ISIS, but she is/was rich, and she has her means to get rich again or die trying.
But Len Trexler is here to save the day… and maybe marry Malory. The whole team (minus Lana) is in disgust by the fact that they might be working for ODIN soon, so they hatch, let’s say half a plan to stop the sale of ISIS and to make Trexler absolutely hate Malory.
They ultimately succeed, but Malory has a plan B, she is forced to lease the building and sell the Laundromat that doubles as the entrance of ISIS’ offices. So, to answer my question, what happens when you fall for a Ponzi Scheme in the world of Archer is that you still win, I guess.
2. Irie
One of the things this show does best is to take sensitive topics and make them an integral part of the story. The topic for this episode is cultural appropriation, featuring Pam taking elements of the Rasta & Jamaican identities and making them part of her personality.
This makes her an absolutely obnoxious person, smoking weed at work and taking everything with the bare minimum interest; she makes references to basic topics, eats the traditional food Ackee and Saltfish and wears cornrows, and to make everything worse, if you reject her weed, you are racist towards her?
I think this is an especially sensitive topic to talk about this week, after the massive protests against police brutality and racism, we have this show, dialing up the irony to 11, showing us a white person accusing other people of being racist, taking the whole identity of Afro-Carribean communities because, she merely visited the country? Folks, don’t be like Pam, respect other cultures, admiring is not the same as “wearing” them.
3. What is love? (Sex for personal gain)
Another big thematic element was the attitudes of Malory and Lana, wiling to have sex in order to get rich again, the former, and being the boss, the latter, I mean that’s basically prostitution, and it is another example of the team getting very close to the line between offensive and just ironic.
Lana changes her mind and ends up punching Barry, which is slowly becoming Archer’s arch-nemesis, but Malory has no interest of keeping her dignity, she wants to be rich and have her life solved, and she is only stopped by a Ludovico-ed Trexler. We might talk about how different generations of women react to harassment and sexual misconduct, but that’s a topic that I think should be explored by a better informed person.
4. Addictions
Ho boy, everybody in the office has a serious problem with substance abuse, from Krieger’s hallucinogenic adventures, to Pam’s psychological addiction to weed (and future addiction to cocaine), then we have Cyril, whom criticizes them, which is hypocritical coming from him, using (and abusing) prescription pills to “cure” his other addiction.
But of course, the punchline of this joke are both Sterling and Malory Archer, whom are absolutely addicted to the drug with the less perception of being “evil”, I think there’s not a single episode in which neither of them drink alcohol, and that erratic behavior is shown to significantly harm their lives. It’s one of the best ironic running gags of the show, everyone has some addiction, but the ones addicted to alcohol don’t even notice it.
5. Deep, deep jokes
Every week I’m constantly baffled with the level of “deepness” some of the jokes achieve, really obscure references, like Rabbert Klein, referencing the comedian that used to kick his leg, of to give Lennie the rabbit, a reference to “Of Mice and men”, or the last joke of the episode, when Archer was talking to Popeye, the new owner of the Dry Cleaners, talking about two solvents, PCE and D5.
Continued belowMaybe the most significative is the title of the episode, “A Going Concern” refers to (if I understood correctly) a company that is going to close but still has money to pay it’s debts, which is ironic because the ISIS is bankrupt! Man, I love that I learn a lot every time I rewatch an episode, but this is a lot to take in!
Joke of the week: [After breaking in Mallory’s Officine and discovering a bomb in the desk]
Archer: “Where is the trust?”
And that’s it for this episode, overall, a good episode that kickstarts the rivalry between ODIN and ISIS, and more importantly between Archer and Barry. What did you think of this episode? Leave your comments below and join us next week for our take on episode 203, “Blood Test”.
