The banana stand has burned down and flashbacks reveal the events that led to its destruction: Michael tries to get George Sr. to let him run the company himself. Maeby joins George Michael working at the banana stand, where she steals money from the till. George Michael sets it on fire, with Michael's permission. They do not realise that it is not insured due to Gob not mailing a letter to the insurance company and Michael is informed by George Sr. that there was $250,000 within the walls of the stand. Michael builds a new stand out of wood. Tobias auditions for a commercial but the role is given to Lindsay instead.
The Arrested Development episode "Top Banana" provides examples of:
- Blatant Lies: Michael has returned from visiting George Sr. in jail, where he is clearly fond of the ice-cream sandwiches. He arrives at Lucille's apartment to find her screaming "Well why don't you marry an ice cream sandwich?" into the phone. She then tells Michael she was talking to GOB. Michael, naturally, doesn't buy it.
- Blunt "Yes":The Narrator: [Michael] still had some unanswered questions, so he did a little detective work.
Michael: Did you burn down the storage unit?
T-Bone: Oh, most definitely! - Brick Joke:
- George's repetition of "there's always money in the banana stand" is actually him trying to clue Michael in to the fact that there is $250,000 lining the walls of the banana stand.
- GOB dramatically throwing a letter he was told to mail into the sea. It turns out the letter was a payment for insurance on the banana stand, which has already lapsed by the time the banana stand is burned down.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Michael finally takes a stand against his father's controlling nature, only to find that not only has he lost the ability to claim insurance on it, but he's also destroyed $250,000 worth of the Bluths' money.
- Chekhov's Gag: GOB dramatically throwing the letter into the sea, when it turns out that the letter is a payment to their insurance company for coverage on the banana stand, which the Bluth boys burn down.
- Comically Missing the Point: Tobias' audition for a commercial for the West Coast Boutique's fire sale; he completely overlooked the 'sale' part, focusing fully on the 'fire' part.
- Department of Redundancy Department: During Tobias' audition. "Oh, the burning! It burns me!"
- Double-Meaning Title: The episode centers around the Bluth banana stand, and Michael's struggle to assert his position as the head of the Bluth company.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Roger Danish appears as Lindsay's male counterpart to "Best Hair" in her highschool yearbook, but later shows up in the story at Tobias's advertising agency.
- Entendre Failure: "There's always money in the banana stand."
- Foregone Conclusion: We know from the start of the episode that the banana stand burns down, but T-Bone is implied to have done it. In reality, it was Michael and George Michael who burned it down.
- Foreshadowing: Michael needs to get his father's travel records.
- Tobias' cutoffs make their first appearance, during his Shower of Angst.
- How We Got Here: The episode starts by setting up a Foregone Conclusion that the banana stand burns down, then cuts to one week prior.
- Insurance Fraud: Michael attempts this with the banana stand, but it fails when GOB throws the insurance payment check into the ocean in an act of dramatic defiance, so they have no coverage on the stand when Michael burns it down.
- Lampshaded Double Entendre: "There's always money in the banana stand." Unfortunately, Michael does not know what he means.
- Large Ham: Tobias's performances are always this, but his advertising a fire sale takes the cake.Tobias: Oh my God, we're having a fire! ...sale!
- Let the Past Burn: Michael and George Michael burn down the banana stand together in defiance of all the miserable days they had to spend working there.
- Mister Descriptor: Michael calls George Michael "mister manager" after he promotes the latter's position at the banana stand. However, George Michael continues to call himself "mister manager".George Michael: I'm Mr. Manager!
Michael: Manager. We just say "manager".
George Michael: But you just said—
Michael: Doesn't matter who. - Non-Promotion: Michael promotes George-Michael to manager, but Michael, George Sr., and even Maeby go over his head to make important business decisions.
- Partially-Concealed-Label Gag: Tobias is looking for work as an actor, so he goes to a newsstand and grabs what he thinks is an issue of Actor Pull magazine. But part of the cover was obscured by the magazine right next to it—he actually grabbed the latest issue of Tractor Pull, a magazine for farmers.
- Playing with Fire: T-Bone is described as a "flamer" by George and the police at the scene of the storage unit fire.
- Red Herring: T-Bone is set up to be the one who burned down the banana stand, but it's actually Michael and George Michael who burn it down in the end.
- Secret Message Wink: A variation. Michael visits his father in prison and laments that he needs to find a way to inject some money into the Bluth Company. His father tells him, "There's always money in the banana stand," and clicks his tongue. Unfortunately, Michael ignores the tongue click and fails to interpret his statement as there's literally money in the banana stand.
- Shower of Angst: Tobias after his audition fails and he loses the part. Then he loses the part again because he's taking a shower.
- Stealing from the Till: Maeby freely helps herself to the proceeds from the banana stand and thinks that she's covering it up by throwing away a banana for every dollar she takes from the cash register. It takes a while for George Michael to work up the nerve to tell her that there should be more money in the register the fewer bananas are left, so rather than hiding the embezzlement she's making it twice as obvious.
- Even T-Bone (the arsonist) points out the flaw in Maeby's logic.
- Trick-and-Follow Ploy: Michael tells Lucille that auditors are coming to check her apartment for luxury goods bought with company money, hoping that when Lucille sends her housekeeper to hide her fur coats, it will lead him to the same storage unit where George Sr. hid the flight records he's been looking for. The ploy does lead him to the storage unit, but George Sr. already hired T-Bone to burn everything inside.
- Wham Line: The moment when what George Sr. was trying to insinuate became damningly clear.George Sr: How much clearer can I say... There's always MONEY... IN... THE BANANA STAND!
