Reignition Sequence

Reignition Sequence
Series Information
Series	Archer
Season No.	6
Episode Information
Episode No.	10
Original Air Date	March 12, 2015
Written by	Adam Reed
Directed by	Adam Reed
Production Code	XAR06010
U.S. Viewership (Millions)	TBA
Episode Navigation
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"Reignition Sequence" is the tenth episode of Season 6 and the seventy-second episode overall of Archer.

Plot

Synopsis

An office romance is interrupted by the Russians.

Summary

Jealous--as well as nauseated--by Sterling Archer and Lana Kane's rekindled relationship, the office drones decide to come up with a plan to break them up for good. When Cheryl Tunt's elaborate idea of framing a patsy for kidnapping A.J. is a bit much for everyone, the gang decides to settle instead for arranging a woman to be caught with Archer, who they think can't resist the temptation to cheat. After ruling out expensive hookers, they all decide on making a call to the one woman who has a strong psychological hold on Sterling, aside from Malory Archer--Katya Kazanova.

Meanwhile, during the afterglow of sex in the janitor closet, Lana tells Archer that she has noticed that he's matured ever since getting back together with him. He acknowledges all of the times in the past where he has cheated and promises it will never happen again. He also asks that neither of them tells his mother that they are an item, for fear that she'll try to split them up again. Later that day, Archer invites Lana over to his apartment for dinner that he plans to make himself, being that Woodhouse has gone missing for quite some time.

Later that night, the drones are staking out Archer's place in an ice cream van. Algernop Krieger had previously set up hidden cameras in Archer's penthouse to catch everything that happens. As Archer returns home, he discovers Katya coming out of his bathroom, and his bedroom made up for an intimate evening together. As the gang watch Archer turn down Katya's advances, they see Lana pull up outside, who's forced to take the stairs, due to the elevator being broken. When Katya is upset that Archer is turning her down in favor of Lana, he gives a heartfelt talk, explaining how he now has a child, how much he's always loved Lana despite their fighting, and although Katya will have a place in his heart, he doesn't want to risk losing Lana again. The speech touches Katya, as well as the gang--who now feels guilty for what they've done, and they try to stop Lana from going into Archer's apartment.

When Archer realizes Lana will be there any second, he quickly asks Katya to leave before she comes in. She mentions she forgot something in the bathroom, but Archer tells her that he'll mail it to her. Equipped with a grappling hook in her forearm, she leaves from Archer's balcony, telling him she will miss him and kisses him goodbye for good. As Archer scrambles to make dinner, the gang stops Lana, and as a stalling tactic, Cyril Figgis half-heartedly admits he still loves Lana. She laughs and goes inside anyway, closing the door on them. She eventually notices the intimate setup in the bedroom and thinking that Archer set this up, goes in the bathroom to prepare. Archer tells Lana he feels like a new man--which prompts Lana to furiously ask him about the vagina in the sink.

Callbacks

• The elevator repairman (Mr. Ford) from "Legs" makes a re-appearance in this episode.
• Stir-Friday being used in this episode is the same phrase coined by Archer in Mole Hunt.
• Katya's death in "Double Trouble" is referenced.
• Archer brings up several times how Katya had sex with Barry on their 2nd Wedding day and left him at the altar in "Skin Game."
• The humming of the William Tell Overture is a callback to the opening scene of White Elephant.
• Lana is referred to as a "giant negress" by Katya.
• Archer's promiscuity is called back by Lana.
• The fact ISIS was wanted for treason is called back.
• Pam's vagina - Cheryl calls it back
• Slideshow - Archer calls back the slideshow Cheryl referred to in an earlier scene- in much the same way as Wendell call back to the slide show referred to by others in a different scene in Frisky Dingo.

Running Gags

• Earballs!
• Me too!
• Just The Tip
• Lana's Hands While trying to defend Lana, Archer makes several references to her abnormally large hands.
• Kreepy Krieger Krieger's creepy pastimes, van, and sexual practices are once again alluded to when he mentions that he murders his virtual girlfriend every night.
• Fogging A Mirror Archer's tendency to sleep with anyone as long as they are alive.
• Ray's Hand (or lack of) is called back a couple of times making it a running gag.

Cultural References

• Batman: in Cheryl's original Plan, AJ is going to be raised and trained by Rah's al Ghul .
• Action Comics 1: The comic book that Boris is reading in bed next to Katya is titled "Страна Герои" ("Strana Geroi", tr. Hero Country), with a collectivized farming cover that mimics "Action Comics #1", the June 1938 comic book issue in which Superman debuted.
• LL Cool J - 'Jingling Baby' (1990):  the chorus is recited by Katya whilst seducing Archer.
• William Tell Overture (1829):  the tune that various characters hum throughout the episode is the Ranz des Vaches from overture of the opera 'William Tell' by Rossini.
  • Cheryl's flipbook plan to kidnap Abbiejean is basically an allusion to the Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping. Also, she makes reference to Ra's al Ghul, a character from the DC Comics Universe and the sworn enemy of Batman training an older A.J. to seek revenge against those who kidnapped her when she was a baby. Cheryl's flipbook story also borrows a few plot elements from Kill Bill, specifically the backstory of assassin O-Ren Ishii, which was also depicted in the movie via an animation.
• La Retour de Martin Guerre (1982):  During Archer and Lana's janitorial tryst, Lana compares Archer to both Martin Guerre and Sommersby (the title character of the 1993 English-language remake).
  • In this scene, Archer refers to his cordwainer - someone who makes (rather than repairs) shoes. Archer confuses shrinking feet with being correlated with a growing penis...as only Archer could. (And not in that way.)
• Julia Child:  Doubting Archer's culinary abilities, Lana calls him "Julia Childish".
• The Guardians of the Galaxy 2008 team:  Cheryl, in response to Archer's and Katya's description of Lana's largish proportions, refers to her as Groot, a character from the Guardians of the Galaxy.
• Katya's operating system updates:
  • Kama Sutra (400 BCE and 200 CE):  the ancient love-making guide.
  • "Bartender's Guide" Old Mr Boston's Official Bar Tender's Guide (1935): the (not so ancient) cocktail-making guide.
  • Lacrosse: "a deep and hard-wired understanding and appreciation of..." er, phrasing?
• Eubie Blake (1887–1983): Archer describes Lana's hands as "in the dark it's like Eubie Blake's reaching out for you". Blake had famously long fingers. ([Photo Ref)

Frisky Dingo

• Cheryl refers to "Wendell T. Stamps" and the "slideshow' in a reference to the Adam Reed show Frisky Dingo, in which the character Wendell T. Stamps watches a live camera feed in the back of a truck.
  • In the episode in question, "The Grate Escape" (s1e11), it is actually Cody who says "Yeah, he's in the slideshow" (apropos of Taqu'il). Wendell actually asks: "What is this slideshow everyone is doing?" (which is itself a meta-reference to other characters in the show who say it when he is not present). Without going too deep down the trope rabbit hole, Cheryl's utterance is indeed a callback, but it is also either a goof (unlikely) or subverted callback (more likely) because she 'forgets' who said the line. It also hangs a lampshade on the obscure reference ie. Frisky Dingo.

Trivia

• Katya Kazanova reveals that she upgraded herself with new firmware, as well a grappling hook.
• This is the first time in the series that Katya makes an appearance without Barry Dylan. It's revealed that she has no idea that Barry tried to kill Archer again, and that he is badly damaged.
• Ray is still without a hand and reveals that the office insurance policy does not cover prosthetic replacements, indicating all of Krieger's previous cyborg procedures were off-the-record surgeries.
• Krieger reveals that he moonlights as an ice-cream truck driver in this episode. One meaning of moonlighting is to work under moonlight, typically at an extra job - doing so in an ice-cream van is extra creepy, drawing attention to Krieger's perverse nature.
• It is revealed that Woodhouse has been missing for several weeks since his three days off in "Sitting".
• It is also revealed that, because of the ISIS crew's failed mission in the previous episode, the CIA has not contacted them since.
• There is a possible reference to the television show Fringe. In the janitor closet while Lana and Archer are talking, on the wall behind the sink can be seen multiple left handprints with five fingers (and a thumb, for a total of six digits). This handprint is one of the lead-in/lead-out screens shown on Fringe.
• When Katya receives the call, Boris has a magazine with a cover that is very similar to Action Comics #1. The cover title is 'Страна Герой', or 'Country Hero' in Russian.
• Pam exits the toilet stall with a copy of “Holstein” magazine under her arm, showing her continued interest in dairy farming. The cover shows a unusual red and white Holstein, rather than the more common black and white markings.
• The Frisky Dingo reference is either a goof (unlikely) or a subverted callback (more likely).
• Refering to Ray's stump, Pam calls him "Stumplestiltskin."

• Archer is wearing Kilgour, French & Stanbury and Turnbull & Asser menswear when Katya surprises him in his apartment. 

Quotes

Krieger: "You're forgetting what the largest sex organ on the human body is."

Cyril: "The... penis?"

Pam: "Well, I was gonna say vagina."

Cheryl: "I was gonna say Pam's vagina."

Ray: "Me too."

Krieger: "the brain"

All:  eeeeewwww!!!

Krieger: "Not like that!  What is wrong with you people?!"

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Katya: "They're jingling baby."

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Malory: "For all i know we're wanted for treason again!"

Pam: "Well, No news is good news"' 

Malory: "You do realise this is an intelligence agency ?"

Cyril: "...ostensibly" [a sarcastic dig at the fact they aren't very intelligent, and they don't do much gathering of intel]

Malory: "What?!"

Cyril: "Nothing!"

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Cheryl: "Well, in the immortal words of Wendell T. Stamps: that's going in the slideshow"

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Pam: "I mean - how do you not murder her every day?"

Krieger: "I do"

─────────────────────────

Cheryl: We hire somebody to kidnap their fat, gross baby. There’s this huge man-slash-baby hunt. It’s in all the newspapers. On the wireless. America’s going apeshit. Then we double-cross the kidnapper who obviously we paid with easily traceable gold certificates. We plant a shit load of dicey evidence in his garage, tip off the cops, he’s basically convicted of being German, then BZZZZAP! Dirt nap for the Kraut! Compliments of Old Sparky. 

Gallery

Katya in bed with her current lover/assistant Boris

Katya seducing Archer