Archer and the ISIS crew battle the clock and each other, when a bomb threatens the maiden voyage of the luxury rigid airship Excelsior.
This episode provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Captain Lammers is very obviously not interested in Malory's advances, not that it stops her from continuing to make them.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Lammers repeats how The Excelsior combines air travel with the luxury of a cruise ship... and takes two days to travel from New York to London, which is its only route. Archer lampshades this how Airplanes have the advantage for speed alone.Archer: Hello. 'Airplanes' ? Yeah, it's 'Blimps'. You win! Bye!
- Big "WHAT?!": Ray gets understandably offended when Archer says "M, as in Mancy", thinking that Archer said "Nancy" as a backhanded reference to his sexual orientation. Justified as Archer actually did say that seconds earlier, but static prevented Ray from hearing it all.
- Call-Back: Lana shoots Archer in the exact same spot of his foot she did from "Skorpio".
- Department of Redundancy Department: The commercial for the Excelsior that opens the episode really hammers home the fact that the rigid airship is filled with helium, not hydrogen, and is therefore safe and non-flammable.
- Did Not Think This Through: Captain Lammers set the bomb up as both revenge for Excelsior convincing him to put his 401k into the companies stocks (which went down) and to also make some money after shorting his own stock. But when Lana immediately points out that this will screw over all the other employees of the company, he's unable to give a response.
- Lana shooting Archer in the foot when he angers her enough turns out to be a bad idea when they need to get the bomb off the blimp, with Cyril's timely intervention being the only thing saving them.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Cheryl threatens Cyril with telling Lana about their tryst from "Skorpio" unless he has sex with her again. Cyril has no say in the matter later.
- Dumbass Has a Point: While Archer's fear of riding in a blimp is completely irrational, he does have a point in that blimps (or airships, in this case) are impractically slow and a poor investment. Captain Lammers reveals at the end of the episode that Archer's criticism was indeed valid, as the airship only had one route to go to.
- Foreshadowing: The fact that Mallory called in a phony bomb threat to get a free airship ride is telegraphed throughout the episode, by her extreme lack of concern about the threat of the bomb, and her genuine surprise when Archer says he has a lead on the actual bomb.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Lieutenant Krauss has a large jagged scar leading up to a missing eye, covered by an eyepatch. Despite Archer suspecting him to be the bomber, it was subverted in that he isn't the bad guy, and he actually got the injuries saving a Jewish girl from a gang of skinheads. Lana apologizes for the assumption, though it was Archer who instigated. The worst part is that Krauss implies he has some skill with defusing bombs before Captain Lammers kills him.
- Hindenburg Incendiary Principle: Subverted by the Skytanic which is filled with non-flammable helium and not hydrogen. Despite having this explained to him multiple times, Archer is still convinced the airship is going to explode from a stray spark. The only real threat is the bomb planted by Captain Lammers which gets pushed overboard by Lana and Cyril. The Excelsior ultimately lands intact.
- Hypocrite: Cyril's poorly timed walk-ins make him believe that Lana is cheating on him with Archer and a possible bomb suspect. However, Lana doesn't know he's cheating on her with Cheryl.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Lana lecturing the captain about her years of experience as a "covert operative", while she is standing in the lounge openly wearing a sidearm in front of all the passengers.
- Archer assumes that Sandu Singh ("Beardsly McTurbanhead") is the bomber. When Malory informs him that Singh is a Sikh, Archer says:Archer: Oh, so just because he's not Muslim he gets a free pass? That's called profiling, Mother, and I don't do it!
- Insistent Terminology: It's not a blimp, it's a rigid airship.
- Irony: Malory fakes the bomb threat so she and her team can get on the airship. Archer says it was "classic her" for doing this, only to point out the irony as he then found an actual bomb.
- Obviously Evil: Subverted with Lt. Krauss. See Good Scars, Evil Scars.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Malory's phony bomb threat turns out to be true - by means of the captain she has been trying to seduce during the episode.
- Archer slaps a man who's about to light his cigarette, under the belief he'll make the airship explode, but the captain points out it's because he was going to smoke in a non-smoking area.
- Rule of Funny: Ray tries to guide Archer and Lana through defusing the bomb via camera phone. It would've been much easier if the camera had just been held up to the critical parts so Ray could see them directly and not have to constantly ask them questions. But it also would've been a lot less funny.
- Rule of Perception: During the bomb-defusing scene, static causes Ray (and the audience) to only hear '-ancy', leading him to conclude that the letter is an N. Lana, however, was next to Archer and should have known that he said 'mancy', rather than being surprised and angry when he repeats it a moment later.
- Running Gag:
- Cyril has just terrible timing.
- Archer being unable to comprehend that the blimp is not filled with flammable hydrogen. By the end, an annoyed Lana asks him why.Lana: And what about that are you still not getting, exactly?
Archer: Well, obviously the "core concept", Lana. Sorry I didn't go to Space Camp. - The repeated references to Lana's "veal-y" vulva.
- Shout-Out: When Lammers reveals himself as the bomber.Lana: Captain Lammers!
Archer: Nice read Velma. - Waistcoat of Style: Ray has a white waistcoat he puts on when acting as Mission Control which he calls his 'crisis vest'.
- Wire Dilemma: Archer and Lana call Ray to walk them through disarming the bomb aboard the Skytanic. The spotty connection and Archer's disdain for protocol cause them to cut the wrong wire and accelerate the countdown. Lana and Cyril end up pushing the bomb overboard before it can explode and kill everyone in the airship.
- Your Mom:Ray: ARCHER!!!
Archer: What?! Jesus! God! What?!
Ray: … That's how annoying you are.
Archer: Your mom is annoying.
Ray: Yeah. Let's go there.
