The Agency attempts to steal experimental technology from a reclusive inventor, but they forgot one vital item... Sterling Archer.
Tropes:
- Amusing Injuries: Krieger and Pam infiltrate the house just the same way as Lana and Cyril did, except their attempt has them getting injured one way or another to show how incompetent they are for fieldwork (and yet at the end, they both think it's so easy anyway).
- Borrowed Biometric Bypass: They use the retinal scan of one of the guards that Archer killed to open Hands's vault.
- The Bus Came Back: Mitsuko Miyazumi, Krieger's holographic girlfriend, returns after her long absence since Season 6. While she was destroyed at the end of the episode, Krieger states he has backup copies of her back home.
- Call-Back: Archer's Elaborate Voicemal Hoax returns with a vengeance, when Malory tries to call him.
- Speaking of vengeance, Malory gets one over her son for the second time in the series.
- Clothes Make the Superman: The exo-suit not only provides mobility to those with physical conditions that would limit them, it also grants Super-Strength.
- Crazy-Prepared: Hands has a defense mechanism installed in the exo-suit in case someone tries to steal it. She remotely restrains Archer and forces him to give it back when he refuses to at first.
- Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: No matter how many times Lana and Krieger keep saying it, Archer keeps touching stuff in the vault, making the situation worse.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Krieger is full-on Fanboy over Hands, as she is known to be so brilliant that even he regards her with awe.
- History Repeats: As noted below, a member of the Archer family is sent to boarding school at a ludicrously young age.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Archer basically broke into Hands's mansion by shooting every guard that he came across. Pity it didn't occur to him that a Gadgeteer Genius might have technological security measures as well, including those built directly into the exo-suit that they were trying to steal.
- Never My Fault: As usual, Archer refuses to acknowledge how his unwanted presence made the entire mission a mess and insists that the only reason it's going bad is that they didn't let him in on it from the start.
- No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Once he falls through her trap door, Hands proceeds to show Archer her fabulous game room and plays table and video games with him. She even allows him to try on the exo-suit, although this might have been a ploy since she was able to immobilize him while he was wearing it.
- Not So Similar: Hands tries to persuade Archer into abandoning his teammates under fire from an enemy agency with the logic that they ignore and dismiss him for being disabled, just like people do to her. The difference, that Archer naturally doesn't acknowledge, is that he's genuinely a disruptive loose cannon that spoils missions even when fully able-bodied. This is evidenced by him only being there because he felt slighted and repeatedly botching their efforts through further ignorance and impulsiveness.
- Put on a Bus: It's revealed that Lana sent A.J. to Switzerland during the three year coma period to study abroad.
- Room Escape Game: Archer, Lana, and Cyril undergo this after being locked in a vault. Archer manages to solve a puzzle to meet Hands, but the others, unable to do the same, left the way they came thanks to Pam and Krieger.
- Running Gag: Krieger's sick van is once again blown up, followed by him dropping on the floor and saying:
- Krieger: YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP!'
- Schmuck Bait: With Archer as the schmuck. The various collectables in Hands's vault trigger assorted novel, but generally non-lethal, traps. Which of course means that Archer cannot stop picking them up.
- Secret Test of Character: After trying to convince Archer to ditch his allies for ditching him, Hands pretends that it was all a test to avoid getting on the team's bad side.
- Shout-Out:
- Mitsuko resembles Kayako Saeki from The Grudge franchise in this episode.
- Krieger once more reenacts the iconic Downer Ending line from Planet of the Apes (1968) when his van is destroyed.
- Hands' mansion
◊ is close-to-identical to the one used in the Hawkes Bay mission in Hitman 2. You can see a comparison shot here.
- Spanner in the Works: Once again, Archer's presence turns what should have been an easy professional mission into a more difficult one.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Cheryl and Hands both separately state that JUNO are "dicks". In fairness, based on JUNO's tactics (including firing a rocket launcher inside of a house!), this could just be a case of a ditz and a genius both stating the obvious.
- The Rival: Lana reveals that they have a new rival agency called JUNO while Archer was comatose. They hoped to finish the job before JUNO arrived, but it ends in a fight between both agencies.
- Tempting Fate: You really think Lana would know better by now...Lana: It is impressive how you shut down all the countermeasures to the vault without any intel.(alarms ring as laser cannons emerge from the wall)Archer: Um, do what now?
- Also when Pam talks of setting up a perimeter alert when JUNO agents arrive with Cyril quickly correcting her on "you mean, if they arrive."
- With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Hands knows that her exo-suit can be dangerous in the wrong hands, already being a weapon. She wants to modify it to help people like Archer due to his nerve damage.
