Once again, I can’t seem to get these posts out on time but I’m still gonna try to do this one. Finally got to watch the newest episode of Archer entitled Legs. Of course it was awesome but let me take a moment to tell you why (hopefully only a minute because I really need to leave).
So this episode takes us through Ray’s new life (at least for the first few scenes) without his legs. Once a moderately competent field agent and world-class skier, Ray is now confined to a wheel chair because of Archer’s ego and subsequent spaceship accident. It seems he is having quite a lot of trouble adjusting. The entire ISIS team is standing around one day talking about an up coming mission which Ray did all the prep work on and it is announced that Ray cannot come with them on the mission. Ray loses it but doesn’t really do anything about it. He accepts his position. This is when Krieger comes to Ray with a proposal which is essentially: let me operate on you, risk death, and I’ll give you new leg thingies. Despite his better judgement Ray goes under the ‘knife’ (actually more of a robot with a saw attached to its arm) an extremely long and intricate procedure ensues (oh and Pam has to fish out all her beer cans which she apparently keeps losing inside Ray. God do we hate Pam!). When Archer finds out about this, he goes ballistic. Literally ballistic. He starts shooting the door of Krieger’s lab and eventually tries to force his way in by shooting an RPG at the door. When this fails, Archer takes to the air ducts with the a plan to infiltrate the lab through the ventilation. Apparently ISIS’s cooling network is quite the labyrinth as Archer never does reach the lab and is eventually ‘flushed out’ of the ducts when they turn up the heat all the way and leave it on for the weekend (much to Malory’s chagrin). When Archer finally shows up again, Ray has a new pair of legs. The end.
A couple of things happened in all of that which I think will bear fruit to the ongoing progression of the series, or are just awesome so I want to write about them. First off:
- Cheryl makes a pretty hilarious cyborg joke referencing the Voight Kampff test from Blade Runner. It seemed pretty subtle but I really liked it. If you watch the episode and don’t get the joke . . . it is probably worth it to read Blade Runner and watch the episode again. But I only say that because I think you should read Blade Runner (also I guess if I really want to get picky, you watch Blade Runner and read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, but eh whatever). It’s a good one.
Next:
- Something about a Luau which seems to be important. Maybe a season 3.5 treat? Only time will tell.
And also:
- We saw a quick clip of Krieger helping Conway Stern with a robotic hand (little bit Star Wars esq to me) which means . . . Conway is coming back in some way or other and wasn’t just a pointless villain from the first season (I’m pretty sure it was the first season).
Seems like a lot of enemies are piling up. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Also, I’ve been noticing this series certainly likes to reference literature for quips and plot points. What is interesting to me is that so far pretty much all of them were things I read in high school. Wondering if there is any significance to that. Perhaps it just signifies me as a target audience but I’ll need to think more on this later. See if I can’t come up with anything. Anyway, bye for now.
alligators and aneurysms! 