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"Midnight Ron" is the fourth episode of the fourth season of Archer.

Plot[]

Synopsis[]

The beginning of beautiful hatred between Archer and his new stepfather plays out as the two are chased by gangsters.

Summary[]

While on the phone, Malory gets a phone call from Archer saying that he lost his money and passport (Due to him getting drunk and burning it). Ron hears the conversation on the phone and proceeds to pick up Archer.

After Ron picked up Archer, they meet up with a gang chasing them down the highway, ending with Archer killing the gang, and Ron losing control of the car, and crashing off the road.

It is then revealed that Ron has "dirty money" and the two successfully hitchhike on a Semi to New York.

While on the ride, it is then revealed that Ron's real last name is not Cadillac, and that before he got into the car selling business, he stole them with his gang. Ron soon realized that he could make more money in selling the cars instead of selling them to chop shops. Then one day while buying lunch for the crew, the cops arrest his entire gang. Ron then used the gang stash to buy land and build up his car selling business. It is also then revealed that Fat Mike keeps tipping off gangs to try and kill Ron.

After their conversation, the two end up in a studio with a biker gang (possibly) filming a porno. Archer pulls out a gun, but Ron accidentally gives away that Archer has no bullets and the Gang proceeds to chase them. They then outrun the Gang and get on a freight train heading to New York.

They then find a dealership that Ron owns and drive straight to New York with Ron making it to the Opera with Malory.

Cast[]

Cultural References[]

  • Cheryl is making paper dolls in this episode in the shape of a Human Centipede, albeit with all females.
  • Archer asks a man to shut his "poutine hole". Poutine is a dish “eaten primarily in Canada”.
  • Archer references the cult classic horror movie "C.H.U.D.". The C.H.U.D.s in the film live in the New York City sewers. Ron counters this with the urban legend of alligators in the New York City sewers, which gives Archer horrifying visions of said alligators breaking through the toilet while he is using it and attacking him.
  • Archer's description of the butterfly effect ends with a talking rhinoceros making a phone call. This is a reference to the animated character Lying Rhino in the movie "The Ten," also voiced by H. Jon Benjamin.
  • Stranded on the highway, Archer suggests that no one will trust him and Ron enough to pick them up because they look like "The Ballad of the Flim-Flam Man", a story of an older con man and his younger partner travelling together.
  • When Ron says Archer hates Ron because he wants Malory to himself, he says "Paging Dr. Bates, Dr. Norman Bates". This is a reference to the movie "Psycho", in which a man named Norman Bates falls in love with his mother. Bates kills his mother, her lover, and keeps his mother's corpse in his house.
  • Ron calls one of the bikers who attack them "C. W. McCall-girl." C. W. McCall is an outlaw country singer.
  • The opera Malory and Ron attend is Carmen. The song that Ron, at the opera, and Archer, in his hot tub, hum along to is Habanera.

Running Gags / Callbacks[]

Trivia[]

  • Title Explained: "Midnight Ron" is in reference to the movie Midnight Run, a film in which Robert De Niro plays a bounty hunter who chases and captures an accountant who jumped his bail, played by Charles Grodin. During this movie, the two characters have to escape the mafia and FBI by different means of transportation.
  • Malory says "it's just idiots all the way down". This refers to the philosophical reference of 'turtles all the way down'. In the story, an astronomer is challenged that the world is being supported on a flat plate on the back of a turtle. When the scientist replies "On what does the turtle sit?" the reply is "it's turtles all the way down".
  • Malory says that her third biggest fear is that Archer will show up with a prostitute he has married, then adds that the imaginary prostitute has bangs. This is a reference to Malory's ongoing hatred of Katya.
  • Cheryl relates that Archer repeatedly infected her with chlamydia.
  • Archer repeatedly makes comparisons between Ron and Master P, particularly in exhorting him to "make it rain." As a callback to previous episodes, after Cheryl presumably tells Archer he will "make it rain" and he responds incredulously, Pam references Pac-Man Jones to clarify the prophecy. Archer tells Ron to "make it rain" with the money to distract their pursuers in order to fulfill the prophecy of the gypsy woman (another callback) related to him by Cheryl. The money however flies away without effect, making the validity of the prophecy or Pam's interpretation uncertain.
  • Archer also references Master P when discovering that Ron had stolen a tank, in reference to the video for Master P's "Make 'Em Say Uhh," in which he rolls a tank onto a basketball court.
  • The gypsy woman also described the encounter as "an alternate universe where John Waters directed "The Road Warrior." Waters is known for his odd films featuring freaky, often transgender or gay, characters. "The Road Warrior" was a post-apocalyptic film in which gangs with crazy outfits and improvised weapons, not unlike the bikers in this episode, are the main antagonists.
  • The boxcar on the train has "Tunt" stenciled on the side, a reference to Cheryl's family railroad business.
  • Logos for energy company AmPetCo (from Pipeline Fever) and restaurant Pita Margarita's (from Crossing Over) are seen on two of the train cars.
  • Ron says Fat Mike would be eating his meatball sub through a straw; Malory said the same thing to Bilbo in Heart of Archerness: Part 1. 
  • When Archer is kidnapped by the BDSM club, the background song is "Slow Revolution" by Tugboat. This song also appears in the 2011 video game Saints Row: The Third on the radio station 106.66 The Blood. Saints Row: The Third also had a mission which involved invading a BDSM club.
  • Pam is making a Green Russian (milk and absinthe) when Archer calls her asking for money.
  • The fact that Archer cannot enter the US from Canada without a passport is a further reference to the show's ambiguous time period. A passport was not required for travel between those two North American countries until the twenty-first century.
  • When in Montreal a bunch of people say "tabarnak," which is a French-Canadian swear word derived from early Canadian antipathy to the Catholic church.
  • In "The Limited", the ISIS crew is apparently banned from Canada. Given this, it is unclear how Archer got into Canada; we must assume that he used a fake passport.
  • In another elusive clue to the Archer universe's timeline, at the end of the episode, Malory meets Ron and Archer in front of the distinctive Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, inaugurated in 1966.

Goofs[]

  • After picking up Sterling at the Montreal Casino and heading to New York City, Ron stops on the highway in front of a sign for the American Border and the 49th Parallel. The Province of Quebec's border with New York State runs along the 45th Parallel. The 49th Parallel is the American-Canadian border only for the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.

Frisky Dingo[]

  • Archer's exclamation "Aw, Fat Mike, too?" upon hearing Fat Mike had been arrested, is a line uttered by Xander Crews on hearing he had just killed Fat Mike, an Xtacle in the show "Frisky Dingo". The character of Xander Crews was in many ways a prototype for Archer.

Locations[]

Quotes[]

Archer: I meant stop talking about ass-ripping sewer gators!

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Gallery of Images[]

There are 7 screenshots and images from "Midnight Ron" on this Wiki, visit the category page for a complete gallery.


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