Sitting" is the sixth episode of season 6 and the sixty-eighth episode overall of Archer.
Plot[]
Synopsis[]
Archer finally gets to spend some time with baby AJ, but the duo's first weekend alone together is interrupted by an intelligence officer from Pakistan.
Summary[]
At Archer's apartment, Archer has agreed to babysit Abbiejean for the weekend while Lana goes on a spiritual retreat at a Zen center. Lana is less than reassured, what with Archer's less than stellar record of taking important things seriously and with Woodhouse being away on vacation. However, Archer promises he has everything under control and Lana leaves, but not before betting that Archer will call her for help before she comes back.
Archer barely has time to make himself a Black Mexican (an ill-conceived, impromptu cocktail of tequila and coffee liqueur) when stuff starts going wrong: an injured Slater and a Pakistani intelligence officer, Farooq Ashkani, burst through the door. Slater dresses his gunshot wound and explains that Farooq is a cyberspy for Pakistan who wants to defect to America. A leak led Farooq's colleagues to the CIA safe house and a shootout ensued. With the safehouse compromised, Slater offers Archer one hundred grand to guard Farooq while he takes care of the leak.
Farooq tends to AJ, Slater leaves to take care of business, and Farooq suddenly pulls a gun on Archer. Archer thinks it's a joke set up by Lana until Farooq shoots him in the shoulder. He takes AJ hostage and orders Archer to take him to the mainframe at ISIS headquarters. He explains that the CIA leak is a hoax and that the shootout at the safe house was a ruse so that he'd be brought to Archer.
The three of them get to the office only to find that Cyril, Pam, Cheryl, Ray, and Krieger are having their monthly poker night together in the break room. Archer pretends he's picking up some baby paraphernalia from his office with Farooq posing as a manny (male nanny), named Manny, for AJ. The group buys it at first, but become suspicious. In the mainframe room], Farooq shares his plans to install spyware from the office into the CIA network and then kill Archer. When Pam walks in, Archer gains the upper hand, and orders Pam to get AJ to safety, which she does a la King Kong.
Farooq still has his gun and Archer takes cover, along with Cyril, Ray and Krieger behind a desk on the ISIS main office floor. The group is unarmed, so Archer plans to draw Farooq's fire by insulting him in Urdu and trigger the nerve gas in the vents after everyone escapes. He sets the plan in motion but gets shot again. It looks like Archer is done for, but Lana suddenly appears with Malory and AJ. The whole thing was a set up (Slater was in makeup and Farooq is an improv actor) to see if Archer could be trusted to take care of baby AJ alone. Archer is enraged, Lana considers the exercise "a qualified success," and Farooq invites everyone to an improv show.
Cast[]
- Starring :
- Guest Starring:
Cultural References[]
- Avenue D: This street in Manhattan was notorious in the mid-20th century for being a place to score drugs, which is why Archer mentions it as a possibility for where Woodhouse might be.
- The Baby-Sitters Club: Archer has read ten of these books and believes he's "totally a Kristy with maybe like a dash of Claudia."
- Breaking Bad: Krieger's attire in this episode, namely the white underpants and gas mask, is likely a reference to the pilot episode of AMC's Breaking Bad, in which protagonist Walter White is seen wearing exactly the same clothing.
- Walter White was portrayed by Bryan Cranston, who voiced Commander Tony Drake in the two-part season three finale, "Space Race".
- Guy Lafleur: Cheryl mentions this famous French-Canadian hockey star.
- Alan Thicke: Cheryl has the hots for this Canadian actor.
- King Kong: When Pam escapes with AJ, Archer mentions that Pam would be taking AJ to the roof to swat at biplanes, which is a reference to this movie. Ironically, she did indeed go to the roof, but turned back as she reasoned "That's the first place they'll look."
- James Lipton: Malory compares Farooq to this host of Inside the Actors Studio.
Running Gags / Callbacks[]
- As Lana leaves AJ with Archer, an ocelot plush can be seen on the couch, next to the diaper bag. It probably is a present from Archer, as he is fond of Cheryl/Carol pet ocelot Babou.
- Archer once again fails to make a passable cocktail, demonstrated first in the episode "Three To Tango" where he made a Yerba Mate and Caรฑa smoothie with a WD-40 float.
- When Archer and Farooq are in the elevator, the word "touchable" is scrawled in blood across the back of the elevator wall from the previous episode, "Vision Quest".
- 934TXS - In the mainframe room, there is a file box with a sticky note attached on which the code is written.
- The running gag of Archer counting bullets in a gun returns.
- As Archer, Cyril, Ray, and Krieger are pinned behind a desk by gunfire, Cyril mentions that their situation is reminiscent of how Brett died back in "White Elephant".
Trivia[]
- Lana will be staying in a Yurt during her stay at the Zen retreat.
- Archer's response to Slater asking him, "Why do you have a baby?" is ironic, since AJ was not conceived through sexual intercourse, but rather Lana chose to be artificially inseminated.
- Archer names a drink after Krieger, known as the "Rusty Krieger", a key ingredient in which is breast milk. This is possibly in reference to "Blood Test" when Krieger made his own breast milk.
- This is the first time since Season 5 that Slater is seen in a different colored shirt. However, the shirt has the same logo as his regular black shirt.
- Farooq says, "What's the deal with that safe house, am I right? They should call it a misnomer house." This is a reference to comedian Jerry Seinfeld making fun of lazy comedians and foreshadowing that Farooq is himself a lazy comedian.
- Contrary to popular belief, Archer did, in fact, move back into the same penthouse. The decor of the living room/bar is slightly different, but Archer's bedroom/bathroom is identical to the previous seasons, and the opening shot of the building's exterior reveals it to be the same. Also, in season 6 episode 10 "Reignition Sequence", Archer's balcony is shown, with the redwood hot tub shown in the background.
- When the CIA shut down ISIS, Rodney, the former armory supervisor, was apparently had enough foresight to take all the ISIS weapons, sets himself up as a successful arms dealer.
- Apparently, when the CIA shut down ISIS, they missed the canisters of nerve gas Krieger had hidden throughout the ventilation system.
- In the mainframe room, a cardboard file box can be seen with the word "FORT" written on it, this is a reference to the events of "Skorpio" where Krieger erects a fort of cardboard boxes and names it "FORT KICKASS".
Locations[]
Quotes[]
- Lana: "Have you at least baby-proofed this place?"
- Archer: "I don't think a baby can hurt anything."
- Slater: "And why do you have a baby?
- Archer: "Well, Slater, when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much--"
- Slater: "IN YOUR APARTMENT!"
- Archer: "Yeah, or a motel, or a port-o-john, or..."
- Slater: "Why do you keep your first-aid kit in the bar?"
- Archer: "Because that's where over eighty percent of all home accidents happen."
- Farooq: "Wow, really?"
- Slater: "They happen in the bathroom!"
- Archer: "Not in my home."
- Cyril: "Guys, come on! Can't we have one poker night without a hate crime
- Cheryl: "Okay, A) the thing last month wasn't a hate crime..."
- (Flashback to Cheryl holding a gun in Pam's mouth as Ray and Cyril look on in horror. Krieger just watches.)
- Cheryl: "BECAUSE I WILL STRAIGHT FLUSH YOUR BRAINS OUT THE BACK OF YOUR SKULL!"
- (Cut back to present time.)
- Cheryl: "...it was just a regular crime."
- Ray: "And, obviously now, I put my gun in the time-lock safe until the game's over."
- Cyril: "And so basically, the only thing keeping you from murdering each other is a lack of access to firearms."
- Pam: "Works for Canada."
- Cheryl: "Nothing works for Canada!"
- Cyril: "This is exactly how Brett died!"
- Archer: "Man, I wish he was still with us (laughs). He could soak up some of these bullets."
- Farooq: "Reloading! I should probably stop saying that out loud!"
Gallery of Images[]
There are 8 screenshots and images from "Sitting" on this Wiki, visit the category page for a complete gallery.