Hi folks! Welcome to our weekly recap of Archer’s third season, on the Multiversity Summer TV Binge 2021. This week’s episode is named “Bloody Ferlin” and we travel to South Dakota to meet Ray Gillete’s criminal brother, let’s dive right in!
1. Ray walks again!
Someone invaded ISIS’ headquarters, Archer and Lana go to, preferably, kill the trespasser, they risk it by going into the armory, because the burglars could be prepared with every single gun in the arsenal, but they discover that it’s Ray Gillete who is taking weapons, and he is standing!
Well, Ray explains that he never actually said that he was paralyzed, which is false, but whatever, it doesn’t matter right now because it serves the purposes of the narrative. And he is stealing weapons from his job because he has to go to Ferlin, South Dakota to save his brother from a corrupt sheriff. So, Gillette recruits Archer, explicitly NOT-Lana, and Cheryl to be his fake wife.
2. Every criminal has a moral code
Gillette’s brother is a drug dealer farmer, and he is all you can expect from the stereotype, a racist, homophobic redneck, but as the episode progresses, we learn a lot more about him.
He’s more than the stereotype, he is a highly articulate man, that happens to have a different morality than the rest of his community, but he has one, for example, he considers that he is doing good, as long as he does not harm others people, and he thinks that’s why the sheriff is his enemy and harasses him about his marijuana fields to steal them. For him, there’s nothing wrong with cultivating, as long as he’s not dealing.
3. Genesis 38:8
In fact, one of the weirdest things of Randy Gillet’s character is that he is in an open marriage, he and his wife have no problem at all if the other has sex with someone else, in fact, there seems to be a certain kink in looking for a new sexual partner.
The problem is, Archer is more than ready to have sex with Janelle, but Randy wants to bang Cheryl, but she “is married” to Ray. So, Archer helps him by distracting Ray but he does poorly and sparks a confrontation between both brothers.
4. As usual, hiding the truth to Malory
Meanwhile, Malory wants to know who entered into the building and stole all their weapons, but Lana won’t tell on Archer and Ray, instead she creates an overcomplicated story with Archer going on a manhunt to find “their robbers” and even involves Krieger who doesn’t know what’s happening.
And to buy Krieger’s silence, Lana recruits Pam to fight in his “Bum Shock Fights” that involve, bums, fighting, with shock gloves, which sounds as awful as the real life. But at the end, as usual, Pam tells Malory and the whole cover is blown.
5. After all, Randy is still a criminal
The two brothers fight, not just because Randy was trying to nail his sister-in-law, but also because of all their past conflicts, like Ray going to the Olympics and then to New York, leaving his past behind, but at the end, they make peace just in time to fight for the farm.
Right in the shootout, Ray discovers that the sheriff is indeed a good guy, he doesn’t want to own the farm, instead he is doing what’s right, arresting a criminal, in fact, Randy had a lot of opportunities before but he didn’t want to work on coal mines or something like that, and now he’s going to jail accused of drug dealing, having illegal weapons and the attempted Murder of police officers.
Today I learned: Kenny Rodgers has his own rotisserie chicken company named Kenny Rogers’ Roasters. It’s not colossal, but it’s steadily growing on Asia.
Joke of the week:
Archer: “Count me in.”
Lana: “What? Why?”
Archer: “Well, for one thing, it’s eerily similar to the plot of ‘White Lightning’, and this is Ray’s brother, Lana. What’s more important than family?”
Lana: “Mmm, getting hammered on moonshine and trying to bang skanky trailer chicks?”
Archer: “Uhm, ‘trying?'”
And that’s it for this episode, I loved the subversion of stereotypes, from the –weirdly unexpected– honest cop to the intelligent, somewhat progressive –just a little– criminal redneck. What did you think of this episode? Leave your comments below and join us next week for our take on episode 310, “Crossing Over”.
