Archer, Lana, and Zara travel to England to stop a smuggler from stealing a possibly-cursed artifact. Meanwhile, at the Agency, Pam realizes her main job as HR isn't as glamorous as working on the field.
- Absurd Phobia: Zara happens to have a fear for curses, ghosts, and voodoo. Archer points this out.
- Accidental Truth: Zara tries to make her point about Pam's offensive attempt at an English accent by putting on a stereotypical southern US accent and mentioning stereotypical American foods and her Uncle Cletus. This falls flat because Pam actually does have an Uncle Cletus who does talk exactly like that.
- Cursed Item: Apparently, the Golden Plaque is a cursed item that curses anyone who touches it. Zara truly believes it's cursed. Archer doesn't, until he believes it when he's unable to get erect and have sex with Clarissa.
- Expy: Ibadan Peters is an Adventurer Archaeologist entirely in the vein of Indiana Jones. He has a bola he improbably gets use out of as a grappling hook, a Kid Sidekick of an ethnicity different from him, and an accessory that gets left behind a closing door during his escape that he retrieves at the last second. The main distinction is instead of conflict with Nazis to insure artifacts go to museums, he's stealing from museums to return artifacts to their countries of origin.
- Heartwarming Orphan: The Kid Sidekick is indebted to Ibadan for taking him out of the streets and taught him to be helpful in heists, which only makes the idea of harming the kid even harder to the trio.
- Hero Antagonist: The robbed museums across England happen to own a lot of artifacts that aren't rightfully theirs and have taken them for themselves (under "the law of finders keepers," as Zara puts it). Ibadan is stealing them to return them all to their native places.
- Indy Hat Roll: As part of his Indy-shtick, Ibadan Peters has a scarf that gets left behind a descending door in his first appearance that he retrieves at the last second.
- Kid Sidekick: The smuggler Ibadan Peters has a little kid who assists him in his heists. Archer himself wishes to have his own kid sidekick and brings up AJ, though Lana shoots him down quickly.
- The Loins Sleep Tonight: When Archer cannot get an erection to have sex with Clarissa, he blames it on the curse to cause this. But the moment Archer denies that the curse existed, Lana points out that he had a case of impotence, which horrifies the man.
- Mirror Character:
- Zara continues to display this when compared to Archer, as she finds Clarissa a snob only when she introduced herself in a "posh" friendly manner. She also mocks Lana for not finding the museum keeping secrets about the artifacts strange, and reveals having several an Absurd Phobia like Archer's irrational fear of sharks being anywhere in the sea.
- For her part, Lana continues being another Malory by working personally for the mission just to get something out of it (being a letter of recommendation for AJ to get into a prestigious school).
- N-Word Privileges: Zara is offended at Pam's poor attempt at an English accent, and Archer defends it as not offensive because England is a mostly white country. Lana interjects that he definitely doesn't get to decide that.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: The fact that Pam is head of HR who hasn't done any actual HR work since season one, if not her first appearance, forms the B-plot of the episode. She has to evaluate every new hire for the revitalized agency and she completely balks at the task, completely ignorant of what HR does and bored out of her mind compared to field work.
- Skewed Priorities: The whole reason Lana is even tagging along is because the museum curator also happens to be part of the board of the prestigious Abernathy school that could accept AJ, so she wants to put a good word for her by joining the mission, something Zara points out to her face when she even gave power to Clarissa to boss them around. To make matters worse for her morals, it's implied she wants to do something to the smuggler's Kid Sidekick.
- Thrill Seeker:
- Clarissa becomes very excited with the mission and especially smitten with Archer, until that spark dies down when Archer is unable to get erect for sex, much to her chagrin.
- Pam realizes that being an HR work is not as glamorous as being a field agent.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Archer and Zara find it hard to do anything against Ibadan because his kid sidekick is involved and find the idea of even putting him behind bars too much. Lana is a bit less lenient, apparently.
