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"Charles, ISIS employs some of the world's foremost intelligence analysts, covert operatives, and scientists."
Sterling Archer[src]

The International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS) was the workplace of the main characters of Archer. It was quite obviously a spy agency, with international offices (Mole Hunt).

ISIS was shut down by the CIA, who disguised themselves as FBI, in the beginning of season 5 (White Elephant). It was then reopened at the end of season 5 after Mallory made a deal with the CIA. But it gets shut down again by Agent Holly in the season 6 finale (Drastic Voyage: Part II). After that ISIS, now called the Agency, is reopened while Archer is in his Coma, sometime between the end of season 7 and the start of season 11. Finally, Lana's Husband Robert sold the Agency to Fabian Kingsworth at the end of season 12. At the end of season 13 he sells it back to them, by season 14 the Agency is run by Lana who has turned it into a competent and respected agency.

General Information[]

ISIS Headquarters is located in New York City and operates above a wash & fold or as urban legend experts say it; laundromat. Washing machines disguise the primary entrance, an elevator.

The security system at ISIS is depicted as weak. When Sterling Archer infiltrates the office during the night, he successfully enters the mainframe by using a registered voice of Cyril Figgis ("Mole Hunt"). The password "Guest" seems to be widely used to access the ISIS computers ("Mole Hunt," "Training Day").

Rebranding
ISIS was officially shut down by the FBI in the Season 5 episode "White Elephant" but is restored since the end of Archer Vice. Sadly, due to the events of "Drastic Voyage: Part II" this restoration was short-lived as the organization had been blacklisted by the CIA, and those employed are unable to continue as spies. As a result, a few former ISIS employees, specifically Malory Archer and those close to her, formed a small detective agency, the Figgis Agency, with Cyril Figgis serving as CEO, due to him being the only one qualified.

Resurgence
Sometime during Archer's coma the agency has a resurgence. Archer awakens to find Malory at the helm of a flourishing "quasi-independent freelance international spy organization" once more with all the members of the former Figgis Agency returning as well. The name ISIS is no longer used and from this point forward the agency has no official name and possibly no name at all.

Merger
In Season 12 Robert buys the agency from Malory to keep it afloat and spend more time with his wife Lana. That is short lived however and the agency is bought yet again during the finale. Malory's (Robert's really) agency shuts down for good this time as Fabian announces the IIA acquired Archer and his colleagues' beloved agency. Malory retires and reunites with Ron Cadillac on a beach.

However, in Bank Run at Mr. Bank's Bank, it’s revealed that IIA had only briefly owned the agency, and Fabian had actually transferred ownership to the agents 6 months prior. Fabian had avoided telling the agents this so they would continue to work under him and inadvertently take the full blame for the illegal missions he had them complete. This leads the agency to become at odds with the FBI. The agency ends up working with Slater once again in order to take down Fabian on behalf of the CIA, only to end up betraying the CIA and handing Fabian over to Interpol.

Restructuring
Following Fabian’s arrest, the agency was cleared of the charges against it and Lana is made the new head at Archer’s suggestion.

ISIS Employees[]

Name Image Position Other
Malory Archer Malory-port CEO

Mother of Sterling Archer
An Alcoholic

Sterling Archer Archer-port Field Agent Son of Malory Archer
Top Agent
An Alcoholic

Father of Abbiejean Kane-Archer

Lana Kane Lana-port Field Agent

Both Sterling Archer and Cyril Figgis's love interest 
Big Handed
Mother of Abbiejean Kane-Archer

Cyril Figgis Cyril-port Comptroller, Field Agent Promoted in Season 3
Pamela "Pam" Poovey Pam-port Head of Human Resources, Field Agent Promoted to field agent in Season 4
Ray Gillette Ray-port Field Agent, Field Analyst Paralyzed in Season 3 and again in Season 4, regained ability to walk through bionic legs.
Cheryl Tunt Cheryl-port Secretary Pyromaniac and masochist
Extremely rich family
Dr. Algernop Krieger Krieger-port Head of ISIS Scientific Research Possible genetic clone of Adolf Hitler
has an affinity for bizarre science experiments
Possibly replaced by an identical clone
Barry Dylan Barry-port Field Agent

Cyborg
Former ODIN agent
Former KGB Head
Joined between seasons 8 & 11.

Former Employees[]

  • Bilbo, computer/technical support, died after Malory slapped him so hard he went into cardiac arrest.
  • Jane, nicknamed Scatterbrain Jane, job unknown, left following the agency's disestablishment.
  • Rodney, the ISIS Armory Requisitions Officer, left following the agency's disestablishment and used the ISIS armory to become a successful arms dealer.
  • Brett Bunsen, an office worker who was frequently shot, killed by the FBI in the raid on the ISIS office.
  • Bryan, a prominent background character and member of the ISIS support staff, homeless following the agency's disestablishment.
  • Chet, an intern who died working in Dr. Krieger's lab
  • Conway Stern, a freelance agent who was actually infiltrating ISIS in order to steal the Whisper Drive and sell it to the Chinese, later revealed to have been working for the CIA since the beginning.
  • Crenshaw, who was actually a mole for the KGB named Kremenski.
  • Danny, an intern who died working in Dr. Krieger's lab.
  • Hector Ruíz, an agent who died due to a call from Sterling Archer.
  • Agent Mgumbe, another agent who died due to a call from Sterling Archer.
  • Agent Pak, a third agent who died due to a call from Sterling Archer.
  • Rip Riley, an who left ISIS to become a freelance manhunter.
  • Lucas Troy, an agent who left ISIS for ODIN. He was later disavowed for stealing uranium to sell on the black market, then killed.
  • Conway Stern, a field agent who worked at ISIS in the episode Diversity Hire, only to be revealed to be working for the Chinese government as he literally stabs Archer in the back.
  • According to Malory in Mole Hunt, there are 50 agents who would kill for Archer's position. None of these agents returned following the agency's re-establishment, assuming they either died or defected to other spy agencies.

Unseen Employees—ISIS Personnel Files[]

In "Mole Hunt," when Malory pulls up Archer's personnel file to investigate his expense account, a list of agents appears on the right side of the screen. Below is a list of ISIS employees who haven't been seen or identified throughout the course of the show, including:

  • Agent Cross
  • Agent Holloway
  • Agent Hyde
  • Agent Mason
  • Agent McGail
  • Agent Royale
  • Agent Shuler
  • Agent Stone
  • Agent Voigt
  • Agent Walker
  • Agent Wolfe
  • Agent Zarich

Unseen Employees—Pam's ISIS Tontine[]

In "The Double Deuce," Pam puts together a tontine for a bunch of ISIS employees. A few of those employees haven't been seen or identified throughout the course of the show, including:

  • Cody 2
  • Eric X
  • Dennis

Unseen Employees—ISIS 401(k) Accounts[]

During "Jeu Monegasque," Cyril pulls up a list of the ISIS 401(k) accounts, at least one of the ISIS employees listed is dead, agent Hector Ruiz. Some of the other listed employees have never been identified or seen throughout the course of the show, including:

  • John Baxtor
  • Samantha Munroe
  • Heather Baker
  • Jeff Chapman

Trivia[]

  • In 2014 Adam Reed announced that the spy agency will be renamed in response to the uprising of the Islamic State of Iraq & Syria (also ISIS), a real life terrorist organization.[1]
  • The carpet of ISIS is often referred as being filthy by both ISIS and ODIN employees. "A Going Concern." This could be attributed to the fact that Malory had the cleaning staff killed after they unionized in "The Rock".
  • GPS Coordinates for ISIS headquarters appear to be 33.806333, -84.344165 which is actually an address in Atlanta, Georgia where Archer was created, the studio has since moved to a building in Downtown Atlanta.
  • ISIS, like ODIN, is the name of an ancient deity. Isis is an ancient Egyptian goddess. ISIS's name may also come from CSIS, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or ISI, the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence.
  • ISIS is also the name of the hotel George Sr. escaped to in the 3rd episode of the second season in Arrested Development.
  • Originally thought of as another US government intelligence agency, it is clear throughout the entire series that ISIS operates more as a private military/intelligence company that does multiple "contracts" for different world governments and multi-billion dollar companies, with the exception of the Soviet Union and its proxy states. It does seem to have strong ties to the U.S. government, though. In the episode "Coyote Lovely" after Archer helps a wanted criminal smuggle a load of illegal aliens into the country and then escape from the U.S. Border Patrol, one of the Border Patrol agents gets a call from his "boss' boss' boss" who informs him that Archer has total legal immunity for the incident. It was later discovered that ISIS was in fact never sanctioned by the US government and had always been in business outside the law, revealing Malory had been lying about the agency's authenticity from the beginning. At the end of Season 5, ISIS is re-established as a legal spy agency, though it is now solely contracted to the CIA.
  • In The Wind Cries Mary, Pam is angry when no one fills out their peer reviews, angrily stating that only "Ten people work in this whole goddamn chicken shit outfit." This is a reference to the fact so few employees are ever depicted as prominent characters. Following the FBI raid at the beginning of season 5 after ISIS was outed as an illegal agency, only the prominent characters of the show were still featured, with only one reported fatality of the raid (Brett). Despite the agency's re-establishment, the main characters are now genuinely the only characters working in the ISIS offices.
  • With the exception of Cyril and Pam, all acting field agents and Malory have their own trademark weapons.
  • One former ISIS employee is sleeping on the bus stop outside the Tunt Manor during Smugglers' Blues.
  • Everyone in ISIS, with the exception of Cheryl/Carol, is fluent in at least one language other than English:
    • Archer - Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Yiddish
    • Malory - Italian, French
    • Lana - Italian, French
    • Pam - Italian, Japanese
    • Cyril - Spanish, German, Portuguese, Mandarin
    • Krieger - Portuguese, German
    • Ray - Latin

References[]

  1. FX Show 'Archer' To Drop ISIS Name, NPR Morning Edition, October 13, 2014
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