The group breaks into a Hollywood mansion to restore the honor of a Hollywood starlet. Of course, this being Archer, things are hardly as simple as they first appear.
Tropes
- Artistic License – Biology: Given how realistic this show is, Archer shouldn't be standing at all after both tumbles from the mansion, as even one of the incidents should have broken every bone in his body. All he gets from those was a cast around his neck.
- Book Ends: The flashback portion of the episode (everything except the cold open) is structured this way. See Impersonation Gambit below.
- Call-Back: Everyone expected Archer to say "phrasing (boom)" when Krieger suggest they infiltrate the mansion through the rear. As they had initially tried to phase that out last season, he refused to say it, responding that "they all took it for granted".
- How We Got Here: After the Wham Shot in the cold opening, the rest of the episode takes place six months earlier. The rest of the season catches us up to the opening of this episode.
- Identical Stranger: One of the guards in Alan Shapiro's mansion looks exactly like Archer with a mustache.
- Impersonation Gambit: An apparently villainous example. The "Veronica Deane" who hires the agency in the opening proves not to be the real Veronica Deane, who shows up at the close of the episode, apparently to hire the agency to recover the "Longwater" disc they had just stolen. The Onion's A.V. Club is speculating that the imposter is none other than KGB head Katya Kasanova, whose voice actor Ona Grauer is listed in the credits for the episode as playing the imposter.
- Iron Butt Monkey: Archer fell off the mansion and tumbles down a high hill. Twice. He's battered and bruised to say the least, but is still standing thanks to some painkillers.
- Mistaken for Racist: Subverted Trope. Cheryl, who has uncovered a news story about investigative target Alan Shapiro having a shellfish allergy, says, "I think it's safe to say he doesn't eat shellfish". The others, assuming Cheryl is reacting to his Semitic name, react as you'd expect, commenting that Shapiro's being a Hollywood producer doesn't automatically make him Jewish. Cheryl's reaction is, "Ew, he's Jewish?" (Note that Shapiro's shellfish allergy is not revealed until after Cheryl's reaction, so the typical setup of a subversion is played with).
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The agency thought they were stealing a disc to protect Veronica Deane from blackmail. By all indications, the end of the episode suggests that their theft puts Deane's secret, whatever it is, at risk.
- Obfuscating Disability: Ray once again faked his disability for several months for no reason, except no one even questions him when he stands up.
- Red Herring: As seen above in Identical Stranger it has been implied that the body in the Flash Forward won't be Archer.
- Subverted Catchphrase: When Krieger makes a Double Entendre about "go[ing] in from the rear" of Shaprio's mansion, everyone expects Archer to lampshade it with his usual comeback of "Phrasing". His response is instead, "No, you all took it for granted".
- Super-Speed: Ray finally is seen using his bionic legs to run really fast while carrying Lana.
- Wham Shot: The opening scene pans away to what appears to be Sterling Archer lying dead in a pool. The rest of the season appears to be structured as a flashback that explains how we got there, though it's possible (even likely) that the shot will prove to be a Bait-and-Switch (See Identical Stranger).
- Whole-Plot Reference: The episode's setup is eventually revealed to parallel that of Chinatown.
