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Recap / All In The Family S 3 E 20 Everybody Tells The Truth

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While eating dinner, in a restaurant, Archie and Mike both give conflicting (and exaggerated) accounts of the events of earlier that evening, involving a confrontation between Archie and a young black repairman's apprentice (Ron Glass) who had come to help repair the broken refrigerator.

Tropes associated with this episode:

  • Argument of Contradictions: The plot starts with Archie insisting that a repairman's apprentice pulled a switchblade on him, and Mike arguing that the apprentice didn't have any knife. Gloria, who did not witness the scene, claims that their statements are contradictory to each other, so someone is wrong. This sets off Archie and Mike giving their exaggerated accounts recalling the earlier events of the evening.
  • D.I.Y. Disaster: The reason why the refrigerator is broken, possibly for good: Archie tries to fix it himself after the repairman leaves, but he doesn't know what he's doing and not only breaks it worse than it was before, he causes the house to lose electrical power!
  • How We Got Here: The episode begins with the Bunkers eating dinner in a restaurant, which is a rare occurrence for them when it's not a special occasion. As they wait for their food, they recall what happened that led to them not being able to have their meal at home, prompting flashbacks.
  • Malcolm Xerox: Archie's depiction of a blue-collar African American appliance repairman's assistant as a militant activist.
  • Moral Myopia: Archie and Mike have no room calling each other out on their inaccurate tellings of what happened at the house during the repairman's visit.
  • "Rashomon"-Style: The centerpiece of this episode's plot; Mike and Archie tell two contradictory versions of the same story.
    • Mike's version depicts Archie as a primitive caveman growling and screaming at every slightest provocation, and berating the assistant with a medley of racial slurs.
    • Archie's version depicts himself as calm and passive, and everybody else ganging up on him, or telling him off anytime he acts the slightest bit assertive, including the black assistant who becomes irate with him for no apparent reason.
  • Uncle Tomfoolery: Mike's depiction of a blue-collar African American appliance repairman's assistant as a minstrel show stereotype.
  • Will Not Tell a Lie: Once Archie and Mike get done arguing about what happened, Edith reveals the true story: The black apprentice was eating an apple, and was using a penknife to cut it up. Archie told off the black apprentice for possessing a penknife, and for eating on the job. The apprentice scoffed at Archie's concern, and claimed eating on the run was necessary for their busy line of work. A second later he walked past Archie to help the repairman, but accidentally got some apple on Archie's shirt, provoking Archie to call him a "boy". The apprentice took offense to this, and called Archie out on it. Archie, being somewhat intimated by this, told the repairman and his apprentice to stop working and leave. The repairmen claimed the job was almost finished, but Archie was adamant, so he billed Archie and left. Mike then complained that Archie spent money for nothing, but Archie claimed the money went towards finding out what the problem was, with the fridge: a loose wire. Now Archie could fix it himself... only he broke the fridge worse.

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