A mission across the pond turns into a trip down memory lane for Malory while Cheryl/Carol teaches Pam about British history.
This episode includes examples of:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Sterling and Lana use the London sewers to chase after the IIA agent in order to avoid the crowded London streets.
- Answer Cut: At one point as she and Pam are running around London doing everything except their actual job, Pam asks “What are we supposed to be doing?” Cut to Lana saying “Pick up the phone!” as she calls Pam and receives no answer.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: While looking for the IIA agent, Archer gets distracted by shopping for souvenirs at a nearby cart.
- Big Honking Traffic Jam: Krieger and Cyril get stuck in London traffic, so Krieger takes the van off-roading onto the sidewalk in order to get through.
- Big "WHAT?!": Archer, Lana, and Malory do this after Krieger reveals that he put a tracker on the stolen suitcase.
- Brain Bleach: Throughout the episode, Archer is disgusted with what Malory is doing.
- Archer is disgusted about his mother wearing a Spy Catsuit in the Cold Opening. He rants how that image will burn into his retinas for the rest of his life.
- Archer is disturbed to learn that the breasts of the figurine holding the bug was modelled after his mother's.
- Call-Back:
- Krieger voices his excitement about his part of the mission with a familiar, but slightly different, exclamation to one he previously used.
- Fabian listens in on Archer's conversation via satellite. He is surprised they didn't change frequencies from last time.
- The Caper: Malory remembers an old assignment in London that involves planting a bug in a mansion. Cyril then discovers that the contract relating to it is still open, which requires that the bug's battery be replaced. What gets everyone's attention is that replacing the battery will release a code connecting to the battery's bank account which, thanks to interest, racks up to a million dollars. While the team heads there to get the code, the IIA is not far behind.
- The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right: When Lana wonders how the IIA agent is traveling through London so fast despite the traffic, Cheryl says “Through the secret escape tunnels in the British sewers!” She actually ends up being exactly right.
- Comically Small Bribe: Lana is indignant about Robert sending a bouquet of flowers as an Apology Gift for what he said in the previous episode.
- Contrived Coincidence:
- Stuck in traffic, Cornelius suggests driving through a "chockablock" route to meet up with Archer and Lana, but Malory says they would need a motorcycle. When Cornelius opens the van door, he accidentally knocks out an approaching cyclist, "giving" them the needed motorcycle.
- The Agency accomplishes in getting the briefcase with the bank account code, winning one over the IIA. As an added bonus, the IIA is blamed for the chaos throughout the episode, as Cornelius found an agency employee resembling Cyril. Since Cyril screwed up The Caper initially, this actually lifts a big weight off his shoulders.
- Delicious Distraction: Lana accuses Cyril of falling victim to this and paying more attention to his candy than to being a lookout for her and Archer. However, he wasn’t actually being distracted by his chocolate bars, he was just…being Cyril.
- Disaster Dominoes: Cheryl getting hit by a bus causes that bus to crash into the London Eye, which makes some of the suspension wires snap and allows Archer, who’s fighting the IIA agent on top of the Ferris wheel, to get the upper hand and finally retrieve the stolen suitcase.
- Flashback: Malory has one in the beginning of the episode of her London spy adventure with Cornelius.
- Fruit Cart: While they’re speeding down the sidewalk to get past traffic, Cyril points out a tchotchke cart that’s in their path. Instead of avoiding it like Cyril had intended him to, Krieger rams it head on.
- Historical Longevity Joke: As Malory is reflecting back on her spy work in London, Archer uses it as an opportunity to make a dig about her age.Malory: It was a different time.Archer: 1812?
- Hurricane of Puns:Archer: [making fun of Cyril & his candy bars] Three Musketeers would pay a Bounty of 100 Grand to send you to Mars! Boom! Score! …Is no one gonna Snicker at that?
- Imagined Innuendo:Malory: Sterling and Lana, you’ll be making ingress -Archer: I don’t know if we’ll have time for that…Lana: Ugh. Not what it means.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Lana feels finding the agent will be easy as "it can’t be that hard to spot a black guy in a London crowd". She then finds herself looking at a square packed with black people.Lana: Wow, London is actually pretty diverse.
- Lame Comeback: Archer struggles quite a bit with coming up with good comebacks in this episode.
- The Load: Cyril causes the first plan to get the code from London to fail by failing to warn anyone about a person intentionally tripping the mansion's alarm where Archer and Lana are located.
- Look Both Ways: Cheryl, who spends her entire time in London not looking where she’s going, gets hit by a double-decker bus at the end of the episode.
- Loud Gulp: Cyril audibly gulps when Malory tells him she has a plan for him to help them recover the mission that he screwed up.
- Noodle Incident:
- It is never fully explained about the purpose of Malory's London assignment, but it had something to do with "bringing down the powerful".
- Lana tells Archer about their first time together on a stakeout mission in Bermuda. To prove she wasn't "boring", she claims they "had fun" many times there, but Archer dismisses it because they never tried that "fun" since.
- Old Friend: Malory remembers Cornelius from London as a professional in espionage and, while she joins the gang for the bug she planted years ago, she also looked forward to seeing him again, much to Sterling's disgust.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Cheryl and Pam are supposed to be blending in and not drawing attention to themselves in order to be lookouts for Sterling and Lana. However, they stick out like sore thumbs in their Victorian costumes and cheesy accents.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: Archer is not happy to hear about Malory being intimate with her old friend Cornelius.Malory: He had the physique of a tawny Adonis and the nimblest fingers you’ve ever -Archer: Okay, Mother, we get it!Malory: I’m referring to the way he placed bugs.
- Proper Lady: While in London, Cheryl and Pam dress and act like stereotypical Victorian women.
- Reduced to Dust: Angry at how easily distracted he is, Lana grabs the London souvenir keychain from Archer and crushes it to dust in her fist.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: Frustrated with her backseat driving, Cornelius asks Malory if she’d rather drive the motorcycle through the “chockablock route”. She replies that she thought he’d never ask and pushes herself into the driver’s seat.
- Running Gag: Pam pulling Cheryl back by her dress and saving her from certain death as they’re gallivanting around London.
- Shout-Out: Due to the magnetic nature of Archer's cane, Lana jokingly calls him Max Eisenhardt. Though Archer says to call him by Max's code name, Magneto. The fact that they both know his true name shows a bit of Hidden Depths on their parts.
- A Simple Plan: Malory details the team’s plan for retrieving the bug’s code. Of course, the plan goes off the rails before it can be carried out successfully.
- Spy Catsuit: Malory wears one for the mission, to Sterling's disgust.
- Straight Man: Archer discusses Lana being a "boring" form of this, just because she frequently tries to keep him in line throughout the series.
- Tempting Fate: At one point, Lana says that spotting a black man in London won't be hard, only to see that there are many of them on the street. She acknowledges how diverse the city is.
- Time Out: To punish Cyril for screwing up the mission, Malory, instead of killing him, tells him to go stand in the corner and stare at the floor.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Cheryl and Pam put on horrible fake British accents while undercover in London.
