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"Archer Vice: Baby Shower" is the sixth episode of Season 5 and the fifty-fifth episode overall. It first aired on March 3, 2014.

Note: Netflix is currently streaming this episode out of order. However, the proper order is that of its original airing.

Plot[]

Synopsis[]

Archer and Pam try to get Kenny Loggins to play at Lana's baby shower and wind up in a zone of danger.

Summary[]

An irritated Lana breaks up Cherlene's latest recording session with the group, pointing out that recording at the “golden hour” only applies to film, before bringing up to Malory that their financial situation is weighing on her. Taking the idea to heart, Malory orders the team to find ways to bring in money, for which Krieger claims to have set up a foolproof online method to sell and ship their cocaine store.

Over breakfast, Ray poses that Lana’s recent mood might have something to do with the fact that no one has thrown her a baby shower, something even Malory finds egregious. Archer takes charge, but quickly hands the decorating tasks off to Woodhouse, borrowing Pam for a special mission: recruiting an in-town Kenny Loggins to play Lana’s shower.

Feeling nostalgic for his spy days, Archer takes Pam to Madison Square Garden to con their way in backstage, but the security guard points out that Kenny would most likely be found at the Tuntmore hotel, not at the venue itself. Upon arrival at the Tuntmore, Archer plots to look up Kenny’s room number, until Pam simply points out the singer himself in the lobby. Archer introduces himself, but a disinterested Kenny simply signs Archer’s suit and begins to walk away. When Archer grabs the singer’s arm, Kenny’s bodyguard Ricky quickly puts Archer down with a taser.

While Malory attempts to keep Lana from walking in on Woodhouse setting up the baby shower, Archer and Pam bribe a hotel maid for disguises to get up to Kenny’s room. Once they arrive to the suite, however, Ricky immediately recognizes and attacks Pam, while Archer slips inside to deliver room service. Kenny quickly sees through the ruse, however, taking a defensive stance, and assuming that Archer is a hired gun for a man named “Borgnar,” looking to reclaim a suitcase emanating an eerie purple light.

Pam continues to fight Ricky as Archer chases Kenny to a dangerous balcony pool area, assuring the singer he doesn’t work for anyone else. Pam and Ricky’s fight spills out onto the balcony, knocking Kenny into the pool and accidentally shattering its glass wall. Archer leaps into action to save Kenny from falling, explaining how he’d only wanted the singer to play a baby shower.

Kenny begins a “Danger Zone” duet with Cherlene, as Lana is welcomed into her party and showered with gifts. Malory explains that Krieger’s delivery service freed up their finances for all the gifts, before Krieger accidentally reveals he’d purchased the cocaine himself to give Malory the impression of success. Archer reluctantly gives up his own baby crib as a gift for Lana (who is overjoyed), but draws her attention to the main event, Kenny Loggins singing “Danger Zone.” Only half-aware of the reference, Lana lets slip to an irritated Archer she has no idea who Kenny Loggins actually is, or that Archer’s reference came from a song.

Cast[]

Cultural References[]

  • Danger ZoneLoggins, Kenny (1948-): Kenny Loggins voices a fictionalized version of himself in this episode. In line with the show taking place around the mid-80s, Loggins is depicted as being in his mid-thirties, the age he was at the release of "Danger Zone" in 1986, rather than being in his mid-sixties as he was when the episode aired.
  • Kenny Loggins Roasters - Lana has heard of the restaurant chain, but not its namesake.
  • Pulp Fiction (1994): The mysterious glowing briefcase which Kenny Loggins carries may be a reference to Pulp Fiction, in which much of the plot revolved around a briefcase which emits a golden glow when opened. The exact contents of the briefcase are not shown in the film, with some fans speculating it contains cocaine, or the soul of the crime boss who owned it - the former of which drives the plot of Archer Vice, and the latter Archer referred to when speculating what Kenny's briefcase contained.
  • Messina (Jim) (1947-): Archer berating Pam to not make fun of Messina is a nod to musician Jim Messina, who was a member of the folk-rock group Buffalo Springfield, a founding member of the country rock band Poco (as noted by Archer), and was one-half of the soft-rock duo Loggins and Messina, along with Kenny Loggins.
  • New Jack City (1991): Cyril and Ray packaging the cocaine in their underwear is a reference to the film New Jack City in which workers at the drug processing facility must work in their underwear. In the film, this is required so the workers cannot steal anything. However, Krieger simply tells Cyril and Ray to not worry about why he made them do this.
  • The Shawshank Redemption (1994): After hearing Ray's gross idea for a baby shower game, Cyril threatens to rub cocaine in Ray's eyes until he goes blind, to which Ray replies "God damn, Shawshank!". This is a reference to a scene in The Shawshank Redemption where Tim Robbins' character Andy Dufresne tries to fend off a prison rape by threatening to throw lye in his attackers faces and blinding them.
  • The Addams Family (New Yorker cartoon, 1938; TV, 1964-6; movies): Kenny Loggins' bodyguard Ricky is called "Lurch" by Archer. Lurch is a character from The Addams Family.
  • The Flintstones (TV, 1960-66): "J Alfred Gotrocks" is a dual reference to "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by TS Eliot and J. L. Gotrocks, a character from an episode of The Flintstones. [1] It is also a callback to when Cheryl is referred to as Glenda Gotrocks.
  • Mentos (1948-): Just before cutting to commercial, Pam pops one of her cocaine "mints" and smiles, after which a tiny sparkle appears in the corner of her mouth. This is a clear reference to a series of commercials for Mentos from the 1980's and 90's, where it was marketed as "The Freshmaker". The packaging for Pam's "mints" even resembles the packaging for Mentos from that time period.
  • Silk Road (2011-13) / Bitcoin (2009-): Krieger's scheme to sell the cocaine through an anonymous online black market, utilizing an onion router and digital cryptocurrency, is similar to that of the Silk Road and Bitcoin.
  • Where the Red Fern Grows: Explicit reference by Archer in the opening. It's also a callback to the time Archer and Lana visited the swamp.
  • J. Alfred Gotrocks

Running Gags / Callbacks[]

  • Lana. Lana. LANA: Subverted by Lana’s gigantic hand over Archer’s mouth. And then Archer does a Pam. Pam. — Only to get a WHAT!? as he inhales for the final PAM!
  • Danger Zone: Archer to Pam, and later it reaches its peak with Kenny Loggins singing a duet with Cherlene.
  • Punchy Pam
  • One out of one thing is going to happen
  • Junkie Woodhouse
  • Wet nurse Ruby

Continuity[]

Trivia[]

  • Title Explained: The title is, of course, in reference to the party held for Lana.
  • The voice actor of Ricky, Kenny Loggins' bodyguard, is Clancy Brown, who played the part of Capt. Byron Hadley in The Shawshank Redemption.
  • Lana asks Malory for money or an advance due to "upcoming medical expenses". Malory suggests WIC (a child welfare programme) and quickly leaves, stating "It's like welfare for babies, I don't know, I'm not a Democrat, but I think they give you a birth cheese".
  • Kenny Loggins's bathrobe bears an uncanny resemblance to Doctor Strange's Cloak of Levitation.
  • A continuity error occurs when Archer first enters Kenny Loggins' suite. Kenny Loggins' robe pockets are empty while he's seated and when he first jumps up, but after the camera cuts back to him after Ricky and Pam enter, a hand mirror appears.
  • When the glass pool on the balcony is shot, Sterling says "one of one fairly predictable thing is going to happen." This is a callback to the previous season finale, "Sea Tunt: Part II ," where Captain Murphy says the same thing when the wall of the sea lab is cracked and begins leaking water.
  • Although in the script to Pulp Fiction it's clarified that the briefcase contains diamonds - the same diamonds that were stolen in Reservoir Dogs, another movie by Quentin Tarantino - it is not established what is in K-Logg's briefcase. Loggins does say, "Tell Borgnar I'll see him in hell", with the implication that Borgnar is the devil who has come to reclaim the briefcase. Archer also refers to Loggins a little later as a "Grammy winner and possible Faustain-bargain maker", when explaining to Lana who he is. Faust famously made a deal with the devil. The idea is that Danger Zone was a one-hit wonder as an iconic part of the very successful Top Gun movie, and that Loggins may have sold his soul for such success. The running gag is that Lana neither watched, nor enjoyed Top Gun, which is Archer's favorite movie and of course the source of danger zone!
  • Archer says he'll plant a red fern for his broken jug referring to the book Where the Red Fern Grows which was also referenced in Pipeline Fever.
  • This episode raises a possible continuity issue with respect to Archer's childhood. Malory refers to Archer having a wet nurse who was with them for "almost four years" and describes her. It was previously established that Woodhouse raised Archer by himself for the first five years of his life. Given a wet nurse should have been introduced at birth, Malory should never have even met the woman. One possible way to reconcile this is that, even if she hadn't met her, it's not unreasonable to think that a professional spy could have had a background check run on her son's wet nurse from afar and would know her with sufficient detail to discuss her with Lana in the way Malory did.
  • As Lana leaves the kitchen after grabbing a box of "Branjos", the door closes behind her seemingly by itself.

Locations[]

Quotes[]

Archer: Jug down! Jug down!
Malory: As difficult as that would be.
Archer: I'll plant a red fern for ya jug.

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Archer: "Cyril shut your pout-hole, accept the fact that Lana was so far out of your league that impregnating her would've basically been inter-species breeding, and get on with your life!"

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Kenny Loggins: "Zap Ricky Zap!"
Archer: Hey... Aah!
Kenny Loggins: "Uh hang on. Hit him again." 

Gallery of Images[]

There are 4 screenshots and images from "Archer Vice: Baby Shower" on this Wiki, visit the category page for a complete gallery.

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External links[]

References[]

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