Hi folks! Welcome the to our weekly recap of Archer’s third season, on the Multiversity Summer TV Binge 2021. This week’s episode is named “Drift Problem,” here, Archer meets a potential new love interest: a Dodge Challenger. Let’s dive right in.
1. It’s Archer’s birthday!
And you can only hope for him to be a good man in his best behavior, pondering about the fact that he is getting older and more mature… I’m kidding, of course he’s going to be a complete jerk to everyone around him.
From the moment he wakes up the scolds Woodhouse for ruining the amazing breakfast he didn’t have to prepare for his entitled patron, later at the office he expected a lot of congratulations and gifts but everything seemed the same, maybe that’s when he got to think about his actions and how people react to them… of course not, Malory has an expensive surprise gift to him.
2. A brand new car
A brand new Dodge Challenger spy edition, overseen by Krieger and including every possible accessory an agent could need, including area denial weapons and its own bar (with juice). Archer is literally excited to hop on his car, after all, his masculinity is directly related with showing off.
This glorified ad wasn’t actually an ad, according to Adam Reed in an interview with Jalopnik they just asked permission to use the car. It reminded me of Subway’s meta presence on Community, where it also works as a commentary on product placement while recognizing that they are doing it. I googled it and this episode actually was aired a month before “Digital Exploration of Interior Design” where Subway appeared as a classmate of the group. It’s interesting that two different shows had a similar idea around the same time.
3. Someone steals the car
Of course, this gift comes with a compromise, Archer has to take good care of it, because if he doesn’t, she won’t trust him with anything, ever. And as expected, when he arrives at his house and asks Woodhouse to clean it, the ride is no longer there.
This infuriates Archer, but he has no other choice but to go and ask Lana for help, in the office, he discovers that Pam is running on drift races and she believes that the Yakuza she works for might be involved.
4. Rampage time
So, the whole team go with Pam for her next competition, she is nervous because she doesn’t want to fail Mr. Moto, but Archer has other priorities, mainly killing whoever that might get him closer to recovering his car.
But Archer is outgunned by all he Yakuza, and they have to flee with Pam at the wheel, she amazes everyone with her driving abilities Tokio Drift-style. At the end, they practically maim the entire Yakuza because of Archer’s temper tantrum, so, for the win, I guess?
5. The bike all over again
In the end, it turned out that it was Malory who stole Archer’s car when she discovered that he had left it “unlocked in an unattended garage,” and decided to punish him for his mistake.
This is exactly the same thing that she had already done at least once when Archer left his bike on the sidewalk and Malory chose to steal it, and when he confessed that he had lost her, she punished him, apparently hitting him with a paddle of ping-pong.
It is funny the irony of seeing a grown man being punished by his mother and hurting his masculinity by stealing what was a symbol of it, and that it was a gift from his own mother, it is inevitable to think about the damage that Malory causes to archer in every interaction they have.
Today I learned: There’s no such thing as “rich Corinthian leather”, it’s just a marketing ploy… think about it, what makes leather “rich”?
Joke of the week:
[Archer drops Gillette]Ray Gillette: Ouch! …I think
And that’s it for this episode, they usually fail in their mission, but in this episode there was no mission and they still defeated the Yakuza, hey, maybe they should try to save the day less. What did you think of this episode? Leave your comments below and join us next week for our take on episode 308, “Lo Scandalo”.
