Sitting

Template:Episode infobox "Sitting" is the sixth episode of season 6 and the sixty-eighth episode overall of Archer.

Plot

Archer finally gets to spend some time with baby AJ, but the duo's first weekend alone together is interrupted by an intelligence officer from Pakistan.

Synopsis

The episode begins at Archer's apartment where Archer has agreed to babysit Abbiejean for the weekend while Lana goes on a spiritual retreat at a zen center. Lana is less than reassured, what with Archer's less than stellar record of taking important things seriously and with Woodhouse being away on vacation, but Archer promises he has everything under control and sends her on her way. Archer barely has time to make himself a Black Mexican, an ill-conceived, impromptu cocktail of tequila and coffee liqueur, when stuff starts going wrong: an injured Slater and a Pakistani intelligence officer, Farooq Ashkani, burst through the door.

Slater dresses his gunshots wound and explains that Farooq is a cyberspy for Pakistan who wanted to defect to America. A leak led Farooq's colleagues to the CIA safehouse and a shootout ensued. With the safehouse compromised, Slater offers Archer one hundred grand to guard Farooq while he takes care of the leak. Farooq tends to AJ, Slater leaves to take care of business, and Farooq suddenly pulls a gun on Archer. Archer thinks its a joke set up by Lana until Farooq shoots him in the shoulder. He takes AJ hostage and orders Archer to take him to the mainframe at ISIS headquarters. He explains that the CIA leak is a hoax and that the shootout at the safehouse was a ruse so that he'd be brought to Archer.

The three of them get to the office only to find that Cyril, Pam, Cheryl, Ray, and Krieger are having their monthly poker night together in the break room. Archer pretends he's picking up some baby paraphernalia from his office with Farooq posing as a Manny (male nanny), named Manny, for AJ. The group buys it at first, but become suspicious. In the mainframe Farooq shares his plans to install spyware from the office into the CIA network and then kill Archer. When Pam walks in, Archer gains the upper hand, and orders Pam to get AJ to safety, which she does a la King Kong.

Farooq still has his gun and Archer takes cover, along with Cyril, Ray, and Krieger, in the ISIS main office floor. The group is unarmed, so Archer plans to draw Farooq's fire (by insulting him in urdu) and set off the nerve gas in the vents after everyone escapes. He sets the plan in motion, but gets shot again. It looks like Archer is done for, but Lana suddenly appears with Malory and AJ. The whole thing was a set up (Slater was in make up and Farooq is an improv actor) to see if Archer could be trusted to take care of baby AJ alone. Archer is enraged, Lana considers the exercise "a qualified success," and Farooq invites everyone to an improv show.

Callbacks and Running Gags

• Archer once again fails to make a passable cocktail, demonstrated first in the episode "Three to Tango" where he made a erba mate and Caña smoothie with a WD-40 float.

Trivia

• Archer named a drink after Krieger, known as the "Rusty Krieger", a key ingredient in which is breast milk. This is possibly in reference to "Blood Test" when Krieger made his own breast milk.
• This is the first time since Season 5 that Slater is seen in a different colored shirt. However, the shirt has the same logo as his regular black shirt.
• When the CIA shut down ISIS, Rodney, the former armory supervisor, was apparently foresighted enough to take all the ISIS weapons and set himself up as a successful arms dealer.
• When Pam escapes with AJ, Archer mentions that Pam would be taking AJ to the roof to swat at biplanes, which is a reference to King Kong. Ironically, she did indeed go to the roof, but turned back as she reasoned "That's the first place they'll look."
• Apparently, when the CIA shut down ISIS, they missed the canisters of nerve gas Krieger had hidden throughout the ventilation system.
• Contrary to popular belief, Archer did in fact move back into the same penthouse. The decor of the living room/bar is slightly different, but Archer's bedroom/bathroom are identical to the previous seasons, and the opening shot of the building's exterior reveals it to be the same.
• The running gag of Archer counting bullets in a gun returns in this episode.
• As Archer, Cyril, Ray and Krieger are pinned behind a desk by gunfire, Cyril mentions that their situation is reminiscent of how Brett died back in White Elephant.
• Krieger's attire in this episode, namely the white underpants and gas mask, is likely a reference to the pilot episode of AMC's Breaking Bad, in which protagonist Walter White is seen wearing exactly the same clothing.
• Avenue D in Manhattan was notorious in the mid-20th century for being a place to score drugs, which is why Archer mentions it as a possibility for where Woodhouse might be.

Quotes

Lana: "Have you at least baby-proofed this place?"

Archer: "I don't think a baby can hurt anything."

Slater: "And why do you have a baby?

Archer: "Well, Slater, when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much--"

Slater: "IN YOUR APARTMENT!"

Archer: "Yeah, or a motel, or a port-o-john, or..."

Slater: "Why do you keep your first-aid kit in the bar?"

Archer: "Because that's where over eighty percent of all home accidents happen."

Farooq: "Wow, really?"

Slater: "They happen in the bathroom!"

Archer: "Not in my home."

Cyril: "Guys, come on! Can't we have one poker night without a hate crime

Cheryl: "Okay, A) the thing last month wasn't a hate crime..."

(Flashback to Cheryl holding a gun in Pam's mouth as Ray and Cyril look on in horror. Krieger just watches.)

Cheryl: "BECAUSE I WILL STRAIGHT FLUSH YOUR BRAINS OUT THE BACK OF YOUR SKULL!"

(Cut back to present time.)

Cheryl: "...it was just a regular crime."

Ray: "And, obviously now, I put my gun in the time-lock safe until the game's over."

Cyril: "And so basically, the only thing keeping you from murdering each other is a lack of access to firearms."

Pam: "Works for Canada."

Cheryl: "Nothing works for Canada!"

Cyril: "This is exactly how Brett died!"

Archer: "Man, I wish he was still with us (laughs). He could soak up some of these bullets."

Farooq: "Reloading! I should probably stop saying that out loud!"