History Recap / ArrestedDevelopmentS1E2TopBanana

* DepartmentofRedundancyDepartment: During Tobias' audition. "Oh, the burning! It burns me!"

* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: Michael finally takes a stand against his father’s controlling nature, only to find that not only has he lost the ability to claim insurance on it, but he’s also destroyed $250,000 worth of the Bluths' money.

* SecretMessageWink: A variation. Michael visits his father in prison and laments that he needs to find a way to inject some money into the Bluth Company. His father tells him "There's always money in the banana stand," and clicks his tongue. Unfortunately, Michael ignores the tongue click and fails to interpret his statement as there's ''literally'' [[LiteralMetaphor money in the banana stand]].

* SecretMessageWink: A variation. Michael visits his father in prison and laments that he needs to find a way to inject some money into the Bluth Company. His father tells him "There's always money in the banana stand," and clicks his tongue. Unfortunately, Michael ignores the tongue click and fails to interpret his statement as there's ''literally'' money in the banana stand.

---> '''George Sr:''' How much clearer can I say... There's always MONEY... IN... THE BANANA STAND!

John Beard reports on the destruction of the Bluth Banana Stand, which has been mysteriously burnt down.

A week earlier, Michael visits his father in prison to find the Bluth Company's flight records, insisting he needs to clear some money in the company for the family’s usage, but George Sr. insists "there's always money in the banana stand". George Sr. introduced Michael to his "flamer" prison roommate T-Bone and pressed Michael to give him a job at the Bluth Company since he is being released that day. Michael refuses.

Meanwhile, George-Michael is struggling with his attraction to his cousin Maeby and asks his father for more hours working at the banana stand, so he can keep some distance from her. Michael promotes him to manager and gives him permission to hire another employee.

Michael notices that Gob, Lindsay, and Tobias spend all the time lazing about in the model home and chastises them for their lack of motivation to find work, but Gob and Tobias defend their failing careers as a magician and actor respectively. Not wanting Maeby to end up like her mother, Michael orders Maeby to join her cousin as an employee at the banana stand, much to George-Michael's chagrin. It also quickly turns out that Maeby is not a very good employee, as she starts eating from the stand's chocolate supply and steals from the cash register, and George-Michael, being far too polite, is powerless to stop her.

Michael visits his mother, but she too denies to provide him with information about the company’s flight records. Lucille teases the fact that they are hidden in George Sr.’s storage unit, but will not tell Michael its location. Lucille also admonishes Michael and claims that she is excluding his brother Gob from the family business.

Devising a plan to locate the storage unit, Michael tells his mother that the IRS will be coming to her apartment to see if she has made any purchases with the company's money. Lucille sends her house keeper Luce to hide the various fur coats she purchased fraudulently. Luce leads Michael to the storage unit, but finds it to be destroyed by the fire of an arsonist or "flamer". Michael connects that the fire is his father's doing.

Michael encounters Gob and remembering what Lucille said, he feigns the importance of a particular letter being mailed. Michael passes the responsibility to Gob. Later, Lucille warns Michael that Gob feels like Michael is patronizing him with meaningless work. At the beach, Gob tosses Michael's letter into the ocean in an act of defiance, though it takes dozens of tries to do so.

Michael visits his father in jail and warns him that he will not tolerate his attempt to run the company from prison. George Sr. expresses concern when Michael informs him George-Michael is the new manager of the banana stand. Now employing the arsonist T-Bone, the banana stand continues to lose money as Maeby attempts to spend funds on personal expenses. When George-Michael realizes the severity of their actions and sees Lindsay and Lucille dining in the same restaurant as them, George-Michael begins panicking, believing that the family is on to him. Meanwhile, Michael sees T-Bone working at the banana stand and feels his father is undermining his authority even more.

At the beach, Gob and Michael argue about Gob's lessened status within the family hierarchy, but he and Michael both agree their father treats both of them disrespectfully.

Michael receives a phone call from Maeby who warns him that George-Michael is attempting to burn down the banana stand. When Michael stops him, George-Michael claims that he is unable to handle the responsibility of being manager and needs direction from his father. However, not wanting to micromanage his son the way his father did to him, Michael and George-Michael rebel and burn down the banana stand together. Michael believes that the burning of the stand won't be a problem as he reveals that the urgent letter that asked Gob to post into the ocean was the banana stand's insurance check. When it becomes clear Gob did not mail the payment, Michael chases him in a rage.

The next day, Michael visits the prison to inform George Sr. of the banana stand's destruction, saying that he better keep it in mind the next time he tries to stage a similar power play. But George Sr. becomes enraged after reiterating that "there's always money in the banana stand": $250,000 in cash lining the walls, now destroyed.

Meanwhile. Tobias attends an audition for an acting role in a commercial, but mistakes the commercial's subject as "a fire" instead of "a fire sale". Lindsay, attending the audition to support her husband, discovers the casting director Roger Danish is her high school counterpart for superlative "Best Hair". Lindsay receives the part in the commercial, leading her to celebrate her new "job" but devastating Tobias. Unfortunately, Lindsay's celebration of getting a job leads her to sleeping through her commercial shoot and even her understudy Tobias misses his call to set.

'''On the next Arrested Development:'''

Gob ends up throwing the frozen dove into the ocean to protest the pet store's frozen-dove exchange policy. Michael, realizing the banana stand is the only profitable part of the Bluth Empire, decides to rebuild it, but Gob refuses to help as he is too busy with acquiring a new rabbit for his show. Unsuprisingly the rabbit also dies, and Gob unceremoniously dumps it in the the ocean shallows.

%%STARTLINKS%%

Interwiki: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Banana_(Arrested_Development) Wikipedia]] -- [[http://arresteddevelopment.wikia.com/wiki/Top_Banana Wikia]] -- [[http://web.archive.org/web/20130126094724/http://the-op.com/episode/102 Balboa Observer-Picayune]] -- [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0515256/ IMDB]]

Watch now: [[http://hulu.com/watch/1786 Hulu]] -- [[http://www.netflix.com/WiPlayer?movieid=70133674 Netflix]]
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%%ENDLINKS%%

* ShowerOfAngst: Tobias after his audition fails and he loses the part. Then he loses the part again ''because'' him taking a shower.

* CargoShip: George Sr seems to really enjoy ice cream sandwiches.

* TheOtherDarrin: T-Bone, in his main appearance, is played by a completely different actor than in the stinger of the previous episode.

Interwiki: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Banana_(Arrested_Development) Wikipedia]] -- [[http://arresteddevelopment.wikia.com/wiki/Top_Banana Wikia]] -- [[http://the-op.com/episode/102 Balboa Observer-Picayune]] -- [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0515256/ IMDB]]

Meanwhile, George-Michael is struggling with his attraction to his cousin Maeby and asks his father for more hours working at the banana stand. Michael promotes him to manager and gives him permission to hire another employee.

Michael chastises Gob, Lindsay, and Tobias for their lack of motivation to find work, but Gob and Tobias defend their failing careers as a magician and actor respectively. Not wanting Maeby to end up like her mother, Michael orders Maeby to join her cousin as an employee at the banana stand, much to George-Michael's chagrin.

Michael devises a plan to locate the storage unit. Michael tells his mother that the IRS will be coming to her apartment to see if she has made any purchases with the company's money. Lucille sends her house keeper Luce to hide the various fur coats she purchased fraudulently. Luce leads Michael to the storage unit, but finds it to be destroyed by the fire of an arsonist or "flamer". Michael connects that the fire is his father's doing.

Michael encounters Gob and feigns the importance of a particular letter being mailed. Michael passes responsibility to Gob. Later, Lucille warns Michael that Gob feels like Michael is patronizing him with meaningless work. At the beach, Gob tosses Michael's letter into the ocean in an act of defiance, though it takes dozens of tries to do so.

Michael visits his father in jail and warns him that he will not tolerate his attempt to run the company from prison. George Sr. expresses concern when Michael informs him George-Michael is the new manager of the banana stand. Now employing the arsonist T-Bone, the banana stand continues to lose money as Maeby attempts to spend funds on personal expenses. When George-Michael realizes the severity of their actions and sees Lindsay and Lucille dining in the same restaurant as them, George-Michael begins panicking. Meanwhile, Michael sees T-Bone working at the banana stand and feels his father is undermining his authority even more.

Michael receives a phone call from Maeby who warns him that George-Michael is attempting to burn down the banana stand. When Michael stops him, George-Michael claims that he is unable to handle the responsibility of being manager and needs direction from his father. However, not wanting to micromanage his son the way his father did to him, Michael and George-Michael rebel and burn down the banana stand together. Michael reveals the urgent letter that Gob threw into the ocean was the banana stand's insurance check. When it becomes clear Gob did not mail the payment, Michael chases him in a rage.

Michael visits the prison to inform George Sr. of the banana stand's destruction and becomes enraged after reiterating that "there's always money in the banana stand": $250,000 in cash lining the walls, now destroyed.

* BluntYes

Michael receives a phone call from Maeby who warns him that George-Michael is attempting to burn down the banana stand. When Michael stops him, George-Michael claims that he is unable to handle the responsibility of being manager and needs direction from his father. However, not wanting to micromanage his son the way his father did to him, Michael and George-Michael rebel and burn down the banana stand together. Michael reveals the urgent letter that Gob threw into the ocean was the banana stand's insurance check. When it becomes clear Gob did not mail the check, Michael chases him in a rage.

** GOB dramatically throwing a letter he was told to mail into the sea. It turns out the letter was an insurance check for the banana stand, which has been burned down.

* ChekhovsGag: GOB dramatically throwing the letter into the sea, when it turns out that the letter is an insurance check for the banana stand, which the Bluth boys burned down.

* InsuranceFraud: Michael attempts this with the banana stand, but it fails when GOB throws the insurance check into the ocean in an act of dramatic defiance.

* BrickJoke: "There's always money in the banana stand."
* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: Michael finally takes a stand against his father’s controlling nature, only to find he’s destroyed a quarter million of the Bluth’s money.

* ChekhovsGag:
** Lindsay winning “Best Hair” in high school.
** T-bone being a “flamer.”
** Gob throwing things dramatically into the sea.
* ChekhovsGunman: Roger Danish

* EntendreFailure: "There's always money in the banana stand."

* InsuranceFraud: [[spoiler:Failed.]]

* LargeHam: Tobias's performance at- well, anything, really, but the Fire Sale audition, here.
-->'''Tobias:''' OH MY GOD, WE'RE HAVING A FIRE!!!! ...sale!
* MisterDescriptor: George-Michael doesn't get it.
-->'''George-Michael:''' Wow! I'm Mr. Manager!
* NonPromotion: Michael promotes George-Michael to manager, but Michael, George Sr., and even Maeby go over his head to make important business decisions.
* PlayingWithFire: ''"He's a flamer."''
* ShowerOfAngst: Tobias after his audition fails and he loses the part. Then he loses the part again ''because'' of the shower.
* TheOtherDarrin: T-Bone's gained some weight!

!The ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' episode "Top Banana" provides examples of:

Michael encounters Gob and feigns the importance of a particular letter being mailed. Michael passes responsibility to Gob. Later, Lucille warns Michael that Gob feels like Michael is patronizing him with meaningless work. At the beach, Gob tosses Michael's letter into the ocean in an act of defiance.