Hi folks! Welcome back to our weekly recap of Archer’s fourth season, on the Multiversity Summer TV Binge 2022. This week’s episode is named “Legs” and it’s about exactly that, Ray’s legs…
1. A bitter world
We are shown a piece of Ray’s life, how it has worsened with his disability, he looks at his past glories, where he was a champion of slalom, and what is worse, the past attacks him when he accidentally hits one of his skis and everything falls apart.
This is one of the most significant features of the show is how they like to border between the “politically incorrect,” meaning the line where the characters might be offensive, but it’s justified because they are bad persons, or if the show itself is offensive. And Gillette’s case is special because he is a disabled, gay person, so he receives attacks from everyone.
Although his situation is played for laughs, I try to defend the show and argue that it also has a purpose, it’s not mockery, it tries to show us that Ray’s life is the reality of many people struggling with disabilities, and they often have to deal with bags of shit like Archer and all his coworkers and with spaces that are not designed for their mobility.
Thankfully for Ray…
2. He will walk again
Krieger proposes Ray for a solution for his disgrace, he can fix it. It might be as easy as putting a battery in Ray’s column, but where’s the challenge in that? No, Krieger will replace all his thingies bones with metal pieces, that’s way cooler, according to him.
And it doesn’t matter that he doesn’t know how every part of the body is named, Krieger is not that kind of doctor, what matters is that he is going to be able to use robotics bionics to make Ray walk again, and surely no one has a problem with that, right?
3. Archer’s ability to get distracted
When Archer discovers that Ray is becoming a cyborg, he is decided to stop it, as we have seen before, he fears/hates robots with human faces and doesn’t want to give a chance for Skynet to take over and kill the human race.
The problem is, Archer had a mission, he was supposed to go to Rome and save the day there, and while trying to stop Krieger, he fired some shots and one bullet magically traveled all the way to Brett, whom is bleeding in the stairs; Archer is sure that that has to be a record somehow.
All this illustrates the special ability of Archer to get distracted with everything, he had a mission in Europe, but first he has to deal with Ray, but fist he needs to know I how the bullet hit Brett, but first, he needs a Rocket launcher, maybe he has ADHD…
4. They don’t know how to properly use resources
One of the most telling aspects of the incompetency of the agency, is the fact that they waste resources in excessive ways, these last two episode we were introduced to Ron the “gun librarian” and although his work is to avoid overspending, the team still manages to get what they want, whether is equipment for saving your friend who faked his death, or using a Rocket launcher to stop the mad scientist from giving unnecessary (but cool) metallic legs to another employee.
And the thing is, the human resources are also wasted, Ray suffered for months in a wheelchair until Krieger notices; Brett is a human magnet for bullets and that’s all that he does in the office, Cheryl is a secretary but seems more like the jester of the team because he does nothing really important.
5. Ron’s casual racism
Malory’s husband, Ron, seems to be an overall nice guy, and everyone on the office (except for Archer, obviously) seems to love him, but he is still an old man, one of those people that are racist without even noticing, but sometimes, it is inevitable to notice what he says.
For example, the thought highly of Archer’s El Camino because that way he can drive mor Latino Workers, and later in the episode, he said that Lana seemed capable of solving the crisis in the office, and talked about how she reminded him of an employee, because she is also black, oh and he was impressed that he was able to rise all the way to Head Mechanic, implying you know what.
Continued belowThe cast is fairly diverse, there are characters from the LGBT+ community and Lana represents the black community, so it is shocking for the younger members (and the audience) to see people like Ron, being casually racist and praising Lana just for being black.
Joke of the week:
Malory: Ron this isn’t a car dealership, it’s…
Ron: The same principle! You build it, hire people you trust to manage it, and then you collect the fruits of their labor…
And that’s it for this week, a funny episode in the office, and one wouldn’t think things would be calmed but they always manage to leave a trail of destruction. What did you think of this episode? Leave your comments below and join us next week for our take on episode 4×04, “Midnight Ron.”
