Archer must help Ray save his marijuana-dealing younger brother from a crooked sheriff in the backwoods of West Virginia.
This episode provides examples of:
- Ambiguously Gay: Sheriff E.Z. is apparently this, hitting on Ray despite mentioning that he has a wife.
- Armoured Closet Gay: Ray's brother doesn't know he's gay, so he has Cheryl pose as his "wife" in case there are some implied prejudices involved.
- As the Good Book Says...: Randy uses Genesis 38: verse 8, where Onan is commanded to sleep with his brother's wife, to justify sleeping with Cheryl. His understanding of the passage is... suspect at best.
- The Beard: Ray pretends Cheryl is his new wife when going to his hometown to help out his brother. Not surprisingly, she takes this seriously. Lana offers to be Ray's fake wife, but he rejects her, since a black woman wouldn't be well received in his conservative hometown.
- Big Brother Instinct: Ray was willing to drive to Virginia to help his brother who is supposedly being terrorized by an old bully of Ray’s from high school.
- The Bully: Ray is willing to believe his brother's claims that Sheriff E.Z. Ponder is a Dirty Cop because E.Z. used to bully Ray in school when they were kids.
- Call-Back: Archer wears the Poovey Farms baseball cap he wore in "Drift Problem".
- Deep South: The depiction of Ray's West Virginia hometown, even though it is technically Appalachia.
- Everyone Has Standards: Randy will misappropriate government farm subsidies to grow marijuana while claiming he's growing corn for high-fructose corn syrup...because he will not contribute to America's obesity epidemic.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Ray is the Responsible sibling to Randy's Foolish. Ray has a stable income, completed high school and offers his brother help while Randy makes money by growing and selling drugs, only got to ninth grade, and is willing to lie to his brother instead of trying to find a better job.
- It's the Principle of the Thing: Ray is disgusted when he finds out his brother wants to sleep with Carol, despite her being The Beard. Of course, it makes perfect sense since the implications are that Randy would lust over his supposed sister-in-law/his brother's spouse:Archer: Why do you care? A, you're gay and B, you and Carol aren't really married.Ray: But Randy thinks we are!Archer: Yeah, but... That's actually a really good point.
- I Lied/Motivational Lie: Ponder claims that he can arrange things so that Randy gets off easily, but once Ray surrenders, he admits he was lying to try and get them to go quietly.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: When Ray gets called out for pretending to be handicapped for a bunch of months, he tried to invoke this trope and says that everybody just assumed he was. Though he was in a wheelchair for the past months and never bothered to get up, so this trope is a candidate for subversion.
- On Second Thought: Archer says this word for word when Ray's brother starts shooting at them on sight. Then a third thought when Randy's wife arrives to calm things down and invite them in for some pie.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The Sheriff E.Z. Ponder is presented as a Dirty Cop by Ray's pot "farmer" brother Randy. Actually, he has tried repeatedly to get Randy to shut down his operation before he had to finally come and arrest him.
- Reformed Bully: E.Z. Ponder openly admits that he "was a dick in high school" but has obviously cleaned up his act since then to become a respectable member of his community.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Given the extent of Randy's crimes, which include the attempt murder of several police officers, there was no way Ponder was ever going to be able to get him off.
