Archer's mother Malory assigns her son the task of training ISIS accountant Cyril Figgis to be an agent - purely so Lana will forget Archer. However, Archer easily realizes his mother's intention and sets out to screw it up. Meanwhile, secretary Cheryl and human resources representative Pam take advantage of Malory being temporarily blinded by an allergic reaction.
This episode provides examples of:
- All There in the Manual: In his book, How to Archer..., Archer explains his "Dane Cook of martial arts" comment about karate. It was not meant as a Take That! against Dane Cook, or even karate, just that karate is common and available. He also states he's a fan of Dane Cook and wonders if he should have said Appleby's instead.
- Bulletproof Human Shield: Non-fatal version: During their test scenario, Cyril uses Trinette to block some ice cubes shot by Archer. They leave some welts, and Trinette is annoyed enough to quit right there.
- Carpet-Rolled Corpse: Archer has Woodhouse roll Trinette in a rug after her apparent death. Archer is then upset about losing the rug afterwards.
- Chekhov's Gun: Simultaneously discussed, played straight, and subverted, since it's not the expected gun that fires.Archer: God, I said the cap on the poison pen slips off for no reason, didn't I?Cyril: But I just assumed that if anything bad happened...Archer: No, do not say the Chekhov gun, Cyril. That, sir, is a facile argument.Woodhouse: And also woefully esoteric.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: In the end of the episode, Lana punishes Cyril by forcing him to rent the nastiest interracial adult movie he can find. He's not happy as that requires the store belonging to a sweet old Korean lady.
- Discriminate and Switch: Malory talks about not wanting her son to rekindle his relationship with Lana. If she hadn't finished her sentence, it would have come out of racist reasons.Malory: My God, a black... ops field agent?Pam: Thought she was going in a whole other direction with that.
- Disney Death: Trinette isn't actually dead; she's just unconscious thanks to the "poisocane" being a regular tranquilizer.
- Disposable Sex Worker: Subverted:Archer: Oh my god! You killed a hooker!Cyril: Call-girl!Archer: No, Cyril, when they're dead, they're just hookers!
- Gilligan Cut: When Lana catches them, Archer tells Cyril if he learned anything that day, he'll lie to Lana about the dead hooker in the trunk.Lana: I DON'T CARE IF THERE'S 50 DEAD HOOKERS! YOU LIED TO ME!Archer: Did not learn a thing.
- Ignored Epiphany: Archer at the end of the episode.Archer: You know, I bet there's a lesson to be learned from all this, but I- Oh shit, my rug!
- Lampshaded the Obscure Reference: Woodhouse in the above Chekhov's Gun quote.
- Never My Fault: Trinette suffers a Disney Death all because Archer pushed his deadly pen into Cyril's hands.
- Room Disservice: When Cyril asks why he'd need an underwear gun Archer describes a scenario where three strange men show up at his hotel room while he's high. It's strongly implied this is based on something that actually happened to Archer on a mission.Archer: But since when does it take three huge, surly Jamaican guys to deliver one bottle of champagne?
Cyril: Oh, because they're assassins, too!
Archer: Or, maybe one guy's a new waiter, the second one's training him, and the third is from maintenance finally off his lazy ass to fix the A/C!
Cyril: Oh. Yeah. I guess that could happen.
Archer: Point is, you come out of the john waving this around, nobody's gonna bug you for a tip. - The Scapegoat: Fellow employee "Scatterbrain Jane," whom everyone blames for every piddling annoyance around the office. Cheryl and Pam eventually pin their data breach on her.
- Skewed Priorities: Archer is pissed about losing a rug after Trinette's death.
- The Voiceless: Krieger is silent during his meeting with Archer, which is either a case of Early-Installment Weirdness or Krieger not currently on speaking terms with Archer. Considering his scowl, and Archer's normal relationship with his coworkers, the latter is certainly feasible.
