Live and Let Dine

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"Live and Let Dine" is the seventh episode of the fourth season of Archer.

Plot

Archer, Lana, Cyril, and Ray go undercover in celebrity chef Lance Casteau's hellish kitchen while Malory, Pam and Cheryl/Carol try to get reservations.

Trivia

• Title Explained: The title of this episode is a satirical reference to the James Bond film, "Live and Let Die."
• The name of Casteau's cooking show, "Bastard Chef", is likely a play on words with the show "Master Chef", which is hosted in part by Gordon Ramsey, who is well known for being a bit of a bastard in the kitchen.
• Casteau is a French-speaking village in Belgium, although here it may also be a reference to Jacques Cousteau.
• Casteau calls Lana a "giraffe lady," a callback to Malory's similar insult in "Fugue and Riffs." This is probably in reference to her height, as her size and the size of her hands and other features are frequently ridiculed by characters in the show.
• Cheryl says "I'll have what he's having" after the ambassador dies. This is a reference to When Harry Met Sally.
• Ray Gillette's fake name is a reference to Gilles de Rais.
• The name of the restaurant is "Seize" which is French for 16. The restaurant logo is a 16 surrounded by two concentric circles.
• This episode draws inspiration from various cooking reality shows. In particular, the voice actor for Lance Casteau is Anthony Bourdain, and in addition to his smoking, mannerisms, and language being essentially like Bourdain, his motivation later on is to have a travelling show like Bourdain has. But having untrained staff who are constantly being berated and yelled at, with sensational and often staged cuts for bumpers, is more like the series of Gordon Ramsay, who is, like Casteau, famous for his risotto.
• Bourdain is also known for trying all kinds of odd cuisine from various countries in his travels. In particular, he has eaten eyeballs and the heads of numerous animals.
• Kind of like Lo Scandalo, it seems that Archer has come up with the names and cover stories for the rest of the team. Archer is "Randy Randerson," a sous chef, Cyril, as in Stage Two, is given one of Archer's old aliases "Chet Manley" and designated a "garçon de cuisine," which Archer translates to "kitchen boy." Lana, who also hates her name, is called "Mitzi," and called a failed actress. Ray, as previously mentioned, is "Gilles de Rais," a "child-murderer." Archer delights in the others being forced to do menial tasks with demeaning cover stories while he gets to fulfill a dream of being a chef.
• Archer reveals that he has never had a regular job unless you count his bartending stint in Polynesia in Heart of Archness: Part I. He had attempted (at the age of 10) to sell Grit door to door, but his mother wouldn't let him, telling him he would get raped and murdered and that the X-Ray Specs he wanted were fake.
• Several items of Albanian cuisine are featured in the show including: dolma, rakia, and tavë kosi (the national dish of Albania). Customs such as using yogurt extensively in their food and the eating of the lamb's head and eyeballs get play. The tavë kosi in this case was made from the heads of lambs, from which Archer made Cyril scrape the meat and remove the tongues and eyeballs.
• After his experience with the lambs' heads, Cyril declares himself a vegan. It's unclear yet whether he will stick with that.
• Pam reveals in this episode that she has a Siamese fighting fish named Jermaine; She has racked up $14,000 in debts from betting on fish fights.
• Pam's translator, Chi, in the cutaway to Pam's underground fish fights is apparently speaking Vietnamese. "Tao ca voi may nam ngan con ca Jermaine se giet con ca cua may!" roughly translates to "I bet you five thousand (dong) Jermaine will kill your fish." Pam apparently lost even though Jermaine is alive, which could be explained by the fact Siamese fighting fish actually rarely kill each other.
• Thuy appeared again as a manicurist for the Tuntmore Towers Hotel in "The Honeymooners".
• Casteau at one point calls Ray "Gayvid Niven," an obvious reference to David Niven. He also calls him "Mincent Price" (Vincent Price). This is also a callback to previous episodes where similar jokes are made.
• Ron apparently has a habit of keeping jelly and saltines (and possibly a juice box) in his suit pockets. It is inferred from the packaging that the jelly and saltines were taken from restaurants he's eaten at. The noise he made trying to open the saltines got him and Malory kicked out of the opera.
• When Casteau is throwing food at Archer and Cyril, you can see durian on the counter behind them. Durian, renowned for its smell, is an exotic food enjoyed by Casteau's voice actor, Anthony Bourdain.
• The opera Malory and Ron attend and are subsequently kicked out of is Carmen. The aria in the background is Habanera. This is a callback to Midnight Ron when Malory and Ron have plans to see Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera.
• Malory's remark after not being served wine - "What is this? Spain in the 30's?" - is a reference to the Spanish Civil War, in which many wineries were destroyed. It is also consistent with her tendency to reference conflicts from the twentieth century.
• The use of 934, 934TX, and 934TXS (harken back or will)

- Skytanic, Season 1, Episode 7:  The bomb's model number is 934TXS which is confusing when Archer, who does not know the NATO phonetic alphabet, says to Ray it’s “like INXS.”

-    The Rock, Season 1, Episode 8:  The “code cloner” displays 934TXS when unlocked.

-    Blood Test, Season 2, Episode 3:  The lockbox, which stores a glass bottle of Archer’s blood, has the code of 934TXS when Archer decodes it inside the bank vault.

-    Live and Let Dine, Season 4, Episode 7:  Rodney uses the 934TX Telephonic Isolator Unit to find out 16's exclusive phone number for reservations.  Again, at the very end of the episode for a brief moment, 934-TXS is call number on Barry & Katya’s helicopter.

-    The Papal Chase, Season 4, Episode 11:  The imposter “Swiss Guard's” vehicle plate number is 934TXS.

-    Edie’s Wedding, Season 6, Episode 4:  Pam and Archer board flight number 934.

• When Barry tells Katya that for $6 million, they could've made a whole new bionic man, he is referencing his resurrection as a cyborg in Double Trouble, which was a play on The Six Million Dollar Man.