Placebo Effect
Archer
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 9
Written by	Adam Reed
Production code	XAR02009
Original air date	March 24, 2011
Episode guide
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"Placebo Effect" is the ninth episode of the second season of Archer.

PlotEdit

Archer is going over his breast cancer treatment and ultra-expensive chemotherapy drugs with Doctor Krieger. Krieger, disturbed by the lack of side effects related with chemo, does some test and reveals that Archer's drug are counterfeit - consisting mainly of sucrose and Zima, with the only real thing being his medical marijuana. Angered over being tricked and the thought of other patients given fake drugs (mainly an elderly woman name Ruth), Archer decides to go on a rampage to kill the ones making the fake drugs while having Lana Kane film it. After threatening a pharmacist, Archer and Lana are led to a warehouse used by the Irish Mob where Archer kills several armed guards before capturing three members of the Mob and three Honduras janitors. Archer tortures the mobsters by shooting them in the knee with a sawed-off shotgun for information, and learns that the mastermind behind the fake drug scheme is Franny Delaney. After shooting the mobsters, Archer finds the real chemotherapy drugs and (against Lana's advice) takes them immediately, causing Archer to become ill. The next day Archer (now wearing a red bandana to cover his hair loss, wine bottle coolers on his feet because his toenails are popping off, and is dragging an IV stand around) resumes his rampage, though he is vomiting constantly. In Lana's Car, Archer laments on his hair loss, and is trying to keep from vomiting, leading to him to light a marijuana blunt that causes him to have a flashback to memories of his time with Ruth in the hospital. Lana snaps him out of his flashback as they have reached their destination.

Elsewhere Krieger, feeling bad for Archer, is making Portuguese language flash cards for him. Confused, Cyril asks how Krieger, a German, knows Portuguese. Krieger tries to avoid the subject, only for Cyril to push more, causing Krieger to shout a Nazi saying before quickly leaving the room, which leads Cyril to believe Krieger is a former Nazi scientist. Cyril later finds Krieger locked in the men's bathroom, burning papers in one of the toilets. Cyril tries to question him more on his Nazi connection to which Krieger only denies any connection, causing Cyril to leave to tell Ms. Archer

Archer and Lana barge their way into a back room poker game of more Irish mobsters where Archer handcuffs one of them to the poker table and shoves a grenade in the mobster's rectum and pull the pin, to get information on Delaney's location. After they get their information, Archer and Lana are about to leave when Archer says that the grenade is only a smoke grenade. The grenade then explodes (being a frag grenade) tossing Lana and Sterling out of the room and causing them some hearing loss. An aggravated Lana takes them to the hospital to have their hearing restored where Archer learns of Ruth's death. Archer then reawakens from another marijuana-induced flashback to find that they are at Delaney's compound, and Archer takes him in the woods to kill him while Lana holds the guards at gunpoint, who is also high from the hotboxing, which leaves her car smelling like "weed and rampage."

Back at ISIS, Malory is looking through photo albums of Sterling and realizes that she and Sterling have never taken a photo together. Cyril tries to tell her about Krieger's Nazi roots only for her to brush them off as Nazi scientists led to things such as NASA rockets and microwave ovens. She then reveals that Krieger is one of Boys from Brazil, possibly a genetic clone of Adolf Hitler, and she is responsible for his father's death when Krieger was 15.

Archer is holding Delaney at gunpoint in the woods. Delaney mocks Archer and says that Archer won't kill him as Archer has too much honor to kill an old man in a wheel chair, and further mocks Archer by revealing that he slept with Malory at a single's resort in Thailand at some point. Delaney starts to wheel himself away when Archer stops him (Asking the same question Ruth ask him), turns slowly, and fires his gun and the video pauses is rewound and replayed at this point over and over again.

Everyone is shown in Malory's office watching the video footage which Archer has turned into his own film, Terms of En-Rampagement (working title). Which he has them watch every week and has so for the past 3 months. Archer is overjoyed with his awesome movie and that his cancer is in remission.

TriviaEdit

• Zima, which Krieger guessed was in Archer's IV bag actually stopped US production in 2008–though it is still produced in Japan. Also, the time period the series is actually set in is unclear.
• This episode parodies the third season premiere of Magnum, P.I., wherein Magnum kills Ivan, a ruthless murder given political immunity from his crimes.
• The scene with the Irish Mob and Honduran Janitors is a direct reference to the game show Family Feud, including the team names displaying in all caps, the "Fast Money" round, chance to steal, and Lana being in an "isolation booth". In contrast, a wrong answer on the game show resulted in a "strike", whereas Archer shot them in the kneecap with a shotgun.
• Slattery's Meat Market looks very much like Satriale's Pork Store, as featured in The Sopranos.
• The scarf Archer wears when he loses his hair is a similar to the one worn my Steven Van Zandt, both a cast member on The Soprano's and member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band
• During the flashback of Malory's reference about Kreiger, and he says it was his 15th b-day, the man standing next to the car, Malory in the car, looks a LOT like Gregory Peck who was in the movie Boys from Brazil.

Main Cast Edit

• H. Jon Benjamin as Sterling Archer
• Judy Greer as Cheryl Tunt
• Amber Nash as Pam Poovey
• Chris Parnell as Cyril Figgis
• Adam Reed as Ray Gillette
• Aisha Tyler as Lana Kane
• Jessica Walter as Malory Archer
• Lucky Yates as Dr. Krieger

Gallery of ImagesEdit

There are 17 screenshots and images from "Placebo Effect" on this Wiki, visit the category page for a complete gallery.