Archer shows off his date to Lana. Cyril shows Archer's date a top-secret dossier. Archer's date shows Archer his innermost desires.
Episode Tropes:
- All for Nothing: Archer and the others followed a Russian hacker all over town in hopes of capturing him for a hefty bounty. Unfortunately, the woman he was with all night pushed him in front of an incoming train, for reasons unknown.
- Bad Date: For everybody except for Malory and Robert. Archer's beautiful and academically accomplished date Gabrielle quickly realizes that he is just using her to make Lana jealous and leaves (though she offers to hang out with Lana sometime). Meanwhile, Robert showcases both his wandering eye and the fact that he has kept a lot of his past from Lana, which infuriates her. Plus, Robert quickly bonds with Malory, annoying Lana even more.
- Bait-and-Switch: Cheryl says she'll handle Cyril's enormous restaurant tab and it looks like she's going to use her millionaire-level wealth to pay for it, but she instead accuses the waiter of molesting her.
- Bittersweet Ending: Archer's and Lana's dates go terribly awry and both of them leave the restaurant unhappy. However, Malory and Robert had an unexpectedly good time, and the office drones bail Cyril out of a tough spot at the restaurant and take him to Coney Island.
- Blatant Lies: Archer insists that the fact that Gabrielle looks a lot like Lana has nothing to do with why he brought her on a double date with Lana and Robert. Lana is not fooled, and Gabrielle isn't either after just listening to Archer and Lana's bickering. Also, Lana claiming to have a doctorate when Gabrielle reveals that she has two.
- Call-Back: Lana reminded Archer twice that Veronica Deane shot him back in Season 7, which rendered him comatose for three years.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Robert casually mentions that he divorced three times before marrying Lana. It turns out this never came up in the two years they were married, and his third divorce was never official because that ex died. He also says he never asked about Lana's marriages (zero) because of how she would react to personal information, which makes the situation worse, much to Archer's amusement.
- Double Date: As the title suggested: The episode focused on Archer setting up this with Lana and Robert, in an effort to make her jealous of his date Gabrielle. It ultimately backfires in the end.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Lana warns Robert not to finish an "Oreo" joke, which involves a white person (Robert) sitting between two black/brown people (Lana and Gabrielle).
- Everyone Has Standards: Archer is taken aback and visibly uncomfortable with how openly lecherous Robert turns out to be. Which makes him a bit of a Hypocrite as he himself has never been at all restrained when it comes to aggressively hitting on women or bragging about his own sexual conquests - however, Robert shows his lecherous side while with his wife, thus making him even worse than Archer.
- Gender Reveal: The extremely muscular and intimidating bus "boy" that glares menacingly at Cyril while he tries to find somebody to cover the restaurant bill is in fact a woman.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Archer towards Lana and Robert. It takes him until the end of the episode to realize what was obvious to everyone else.
- Groin Attack: Cyril suffers this twice via pitching machine at the batting cages. To be fair, the first one was because he was right in front of it while attacking it during his Rage Breaking Point.
- Hated by All: Cyril's eating while crying is depicted as so pathetic, it bums everyone in the L'Orange restaurant, so when Pam, Cheryl, and Kreiger arrive to help him with the bill:Pam: Are you crying?Cyril: What? Crying? No!Everyone in the Restaurant: YES!
- Humble Pie: Archer, when Gabrielle turns down his (initially crass) statement (followed by outright pleading) that they should go have sex now. She declines and leaves. Lana also leaves after pointing out that he screwed this up himself. Archer is left on the subway nearly in shock that his scheme to make Lana jealous failed and he won't be getting laid.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Lana, upon returning home to discover Malory and Robert watching a movie together, grabs the nearest bottle of alcohol and starts chugging it.
- Jerkass Realization: At the end of the episode, when Archer rides a subway with Lana and Gabrielle, they have a talk that leads Archer to realize how awful he was to Gabrielle just using her to make Lana jealous and have sex with instead of just dating her because she's exceptional.
- Karma Houdini: It's revealed that the group never caught Veronica Deane after shooting Archer in Season 7.
- My Greatest Failure: Robert's biggest regret was something involving a "language barrier", which caused eleven dogs to die.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The promo for this episode had Krieger mentioned that he and Mitsuko are having relationship trouble. But the episode itself never explored that.
- Operation: Jealousy: The whole point of the double date. Considering Robert's lecherous behavior, it probably would have worked if Archer weren't so bad at concealing that he was using Gabrielle to make Lana jealous (although he did still want to have sex with her regardless).
- Post-Stress Overeating: After having his confidence undermined by everyone again and being left at the restaurant table, Cyril breaks his diet and eats everyone's orders when they arrive. He's prepared to double down on the dessert cart before the waiter informs him that his sobbing is drawing complaints from the other guests.
- Rage Breaking Point: Cyril lets loose his anger and hatred towards Archer on a Coney Island pitching machine and suffers a Groin Attack as a result.
- Shockingly Expensive Bill: Cyril got left with this at the restaurant while everyone else took part in his mission, though he did end up eating their food in frustration. He was able to get away with it when Cheyrl faked a sexual harassment call against one of the waiters, prompting the manager to waive the bill as an apology.
- Too Much Information: Robert finished talking about his arousal to jazz, which disturbs Archer.Robert: ...and to this day, I can’t even hear a muted trumpet without getting erect!Archer: What a great story, Robert, I just wish it could have been louder, and grosser.
