"Archer Vice: Palace Intrigue: Part I" is the tenth episode of Season 5 and the fifty-ninth episode overall. It first aired on March 31, 2014.
Plot[]
Synopsis[]
Archer and the rest of the ISIS gang are the guests of Gustavo Calderon and his wife Juliana Calderon. Calderon is a big fan of Cherlene, but Juliana is a bigger fan of Archer.
Summary[]
Ray is flying the airplane that is stocked full of the weapons to San Marcos. Archer, Lana, Cyril, and Krieger are talking about who would be who in the Breakfast Club. Cherlene and Pam have stowaway on the airplane in a crate. When Pam asks if they can come out, Malory says no.
As soon as the gang lands in San Marcos, they are greeted by Calderon, and his soldiers. When Calderon asks who is in charge, Archer points out that Malory is in charge. Malory begins talking, but is interrupted by Calderon when he sees Krieger. Krieger asks why they're all staring at him to which Cyril replies, "Maybe you're their god."
The soldiers of San Marcos are pulling a crate out of the airplane, when they hear voices from inside. Calderon shoots the crate, thinking that it is someone dangerous. Cherlene pops out of the crate, to Calderon's surprise. He tells her that he is her biggest fan, and takes her away to his palace.
The rest of the gang arrives at the palace, and Pam is shocked when she gets there, because it is so extravagant. Malory takes Calderon away to talk about their terms about the weapons. Cyril asks Ray why they always get stuck to share rooms, and Ray mocks him, saying "You've fallen pray to the sinister gay cabal Cyril, the sinister gay cabal."
Archer is in his room talking to himself about how amazing it is to be an international arms dealer, when a maid comes into the room, and offers him towels, and sex. Archer takes the maid's offer on sex.
Krieger is looking for more towels, and Pam wants ice, along with Cyril the three of them go and explore the palace. While walking around the palace, they come upon Cherlene and she asks them if they are still in New York. Cyril tells her that they are in Central America, she exclaims that they are free to outlaw a different country.
The three of them come upon a door marked Restricted Area Authorized Personnel Only. Krieger then says that they wouldn't just leave valuable towels and ice just lying around. Krieger opens the door, only to find himself staring at three clones of himself. He starts to panic and cry, the clones look up from their current experiment, cry, and then run out of the room. Cyril then asks Krieger if he saw a ghost but all Krieger can say is 'meh'. Pam then replies that she hopes it was a ghost.
Meanwhile, Malory, Archer, and Calderon are talking about the payment of the weapons. Calderon says that he doesn't have any money to pay for the weapons. And then he points out a blank canvas that cost forty million dollars. The blank painting's cost stuns both Archer and Malory.
It's then that Juliana, Calderon's wife walks into the room. Archer in a panic realizes that Juliana was actually the maid whom he had sex with. Archer leaves the room very quickly, and runs into Cyril, Krieger, and Pam. They explain to Archer about the clones, but Archer can't be bothered, because he just slept with Juliana. After Cyril, and Pam leave to go find stakes and garlic to kill off the clones (Because the two of them think that the clones are vampires) Krieger gets pulled into a room by the clones.
Archer then runs into Lana and tells her that he has slept with Calderon's wife. Lana asks him why he did that, and he replies that at the time, he didn't know that she was his wife. Lana's advice to Archer is to punch him in the groin.
Cherlene comes upon Archer, and brings him into the dining room. When Calderon pulls out Archer's chair he says,"because I am pulling out!" And Cherlene replies with "Phrasing boom!" to Archer's delight.
Calderon then announces that Cherlene's album has sold one million copies. To the viewer, we see that Calderon bought a million copies of Cherlene's album. A soldier walks into the room, and tells everyone that the rebels have broken through the line, and are now within mortar range.
Cherlene thinking that it's something related to her, shouts out "Oh my god, it's starting, CherleneMania! How frickin' outlaw country is that?"
Cast[]
- Starring :
- H. Jon Benjamin as Sterling Archer
- Judy Greer as Cheryl Tunt / Cherlene
- Amber Nash as Pam Poovey
- Chris Parnell as Cyril Figgis
- Aisha Tyler as Lana Kane
- Lucky Yates as Dr. Krieger
- Jessica Walter as Malory Archer
- Guest Starring :
- Fred Armisen as Gustavo Calderon
- Lauren Cohan as Juliana Calderon
- Co Starring :
- Adam Reed as Ray Gillette
- Gabriel Romero as Soldier
Cultural References[]
- The Breakfast Club (1985) : The gang makes comparisons between themselves and the characters of this John Hughes teen comedy-drama, with Lana comparing herself to Molly Ringwald's character (as she thinks she's the hot one), but the others stating that Ally Sheedy's character is more accurate, since she's the eventual love interest of Emilio Estevez's character (who Archer compares himself to).
- Gilligan's Island (1964-1967) : Lana's snide quip to Archer of "way to go, Gilligan" is a reference to American sitcom in which the character Gilligan would often say "What's the worst that could happen?" with disastrous results.
- The Boys From Brazil (1978): In a callback to Malory's suggestion that Krieger is a Hitler clone in Placebo Effect (s2e9), the possibility of this scenario being true begins to be explored, when Krieger encounters 3 identical clones of himself in the palace.
- Iran-Contra Affair: When Archer is playfully using a banana as a phone, he says "Matt, Joel, hi, shut up. Let's set up lunch with Adnan Khashoggi." This is a continuation in the reference to CIA-arms deals, as Adnan Khashoggi was a key middleman for the deal.
- Mondrian art: Visible in the presidential compound.
- Apache by Sugarhill Gang: The Apache helicopter rap Archer sings is to the tune of a part (near the start) of the song 'Apache' by Sugarhill Gang.
Running Gags / Callbacks[]
- Pam & Cheryl / Cherlene stow away: In crates this time.
- Phrasing: Seriously, that’s not a thing anymore? “Who drilled my box?”
- Just a Moment: Archer juggling for control of a shaker.
- Prolonged clanging: Archer failing to regain control of said shaker.
- Krieger is a clone
Continuity[]
- The plane the gang uses to fly to San Marcos is the same plane Archer, Ray and Cyril stole from drug dealers in Colombia in The Rules of Extraction (s5e8).
- This is the third instance of Cheryl/Cherlene and Pam have stowed away on a trip the rest of the gang is taking. The first time being in Skytanic (s1e7) and the second time in Space Race: Part I (s3e13)
- In Archer Vice: Southbound and Down (s5e5), Cherlene claimed that she doesn't fly. However, she apparently had no qualms about stowing away on the plane in this episode.
Trivia[]
- Throughout the entirety of the episode, Archer, Krieger, Cyril, and Pam can be seen sliding across the floors of Gustavo Calderon's palace. This is a direct reference to the iconic sliding scene in The Breakfast Club, referred to earlier in the episode.
- The $40 Million Dollar Painting that Gustavo Calderon describes to Malory and Sterling Archer is one of Piet Mondrian's (a Dutch painter) paintings completely covered in "layer after layer of white until you can see nothing below." The actual painting can be seen behind Calderon hanging on the wall as he describes the painting in front of him as having "geometric shapes, vogue colors at the bottom and thick black lines." If you follow the direction of his hands and also that of the painting behind him on the wall you can see he's describing an exact replica except it's been completely covered in white.
- When Malory is drinking wine with Calderon she thinks he says "thanks" when he says "tanks." The misinterpretation on both sides continues from there. They both say they are willing to do whatever it takes, Calderon askes Malory if she has gas, he means nerve gas like the missle the doppelkriegers are working on. Malory is insulted because she believes he is asking her if she has flatulence.
- If the rebels are equipped with Soviet 120mm mortars, they are within 3.5 miles of the palace. If they have 82mm mortars, they have closed to 1.9 miles.
- When Pam is looking for ice and catches up with Lana, trying to think of a comeback, she calls her "Princess Lana," due to her being crate-lagged. This foreshadows Lana's dream persona as Princess Lanaluakalani in season nine "Danger Island."
Locations[]
- Republic of San Marcos
- The San Marcos International Airport
- The San Marcos Presidential Palace
First Appearances[]
Characters (in order of appearance)[]
The Dopplekriegers
Quotes[]
- Archer: "It is kind of like a school bus."
- Lana: "When have you ever been on a bus?"
- Archer: "No from the movies. We've got the whole Breakfast Club in here. I'm Emilio Estevez. Cyrils's obviously Anthony Michael Nerd. Mother you're Paul Gleason. Krieger's the loose cannon, Judd Nelson, and Lana, you're... um..."
- Lana: "Wait seriously? Molly Ringwald."
- Archer, Cyril, Kreiger: "Eh..."
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- Malory: "Pam, I know you're in there."
- Pam: "No we're not."
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- Archer: "If Slater even was CIA."
- Malory: "Now he's the one who teabagged you?"
- Pam: "Rawr."
- Archer: "Uh! beanbagged."
- Malory: "Oh whichever."
- Archer: "It's a fairly important distinction."
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- Calderon: "Silencio! Who is in charge here?"
- Soldier: "Senor Presidente, I..."
- Calderon: "Not you, you baboon-faced baboon!"
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- Cherlene: "Goddamn it! Who the hell drilled my box?!"
- Archer: "So we're just done with phrasing right? That's not a thing anymore?"
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- Cyril: "Why do we always have to share a room?"
- Ray: "The sinister gay cabal, Cyril, you have fallen victim to the sinister gay cabal."
- Cyril: Okay you know..."
- Ray: "I don't know why we always get stuck together. But I kind of don't mind it."
- Cyril: "Hmmm, actually I don't mind either, now that I think..."
- Ray: "QUEER!"
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- Pam: "What a frickin' clip joint."
- Krieger: "No towels."
- Pam: "No ice machine."
- Cherlene: "UGH! No towel machine?!"
- Pam: "Yeah right?"
- Cherlene: "What is this-- Escape from... Wait are we still in New York, or..."
- Cyril: "What? No, we're in Central America."
- Cherlene: "Oh my God! We did it! We're free!"
- Pam: "Do..."
- Cherlene: "Outlaw different country woooooo!"
- Pam: "Sometimes I worry about her."
- Cyril: "Eh."
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- Cherlene: "Whooooo-hoo!"
- Calderon: "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, come, come, come, come, come, come, because I am pulling out!"
- Cherlene: "Phrasing boom!"
- Archer: "Thank you."
Gallery of Images[]
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