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"Training Day" is the second episode of the first season of Archer. It was aired January 14, 2010.

Plot[]

Synopsis[]

Lana's residual lust for Archer prompts Malory to promote Cyril to field agent. Archer then trains his new competition as only he can, whilst Malory frets over her own past and her son's future.

Summary[]

Malory begins to suspect that Lana's feelings for her son, Archer, are beginning to resurface. Hoping to readjust Lana's desires so they are geared towards her current boyfriend, Cyril, she promotes Cyril to a field agent and assigns Archer the job of training him. Archer briefs Cyril of his multiple training tactics, including learning Krav Maga and using concealable weapons (such as an underwear gun) which have a tendency to malfunction "for, like, no reason." One of his sessions involves trying to both kill an assassin (portrayed by Archer's butler, Woodhouse) and a damsel, Trinette, a prostitute Archer has befriended. During the session, however, Cyril accidentally poisons the prostitute and both he and Archer pronounce her deceased.

The pair put the prostitute in Archer's trunk and drive off, hoping to dispose of the body in a disclosed location. However, the car begins to be shot at by an unknown pursuer. Archer tries to maneuver away from the gunfire while shooting at the car with his own gun. When Cyril criticizes him for supposedly not performing such tasks coherently, Archer threatens to eject from the car using an escape hatch on the roof, which Cyril frowns upon. The pursuer eventually ceases fire and reveals herself to be Lana, who has discovered Archer's assignment and disapproves, so she punishes Cyril by forcing him to buy interracial pornography from a kind elderly woman at the video store. Archer discovers after their departure that the prostitute in the trunk is, in fact, alive and is forced to not only pay her obscene amounts of money as collateral but also give her his car, leaving him stranded

Meanwhile, Malory becomes temporally blinded after having an allergic reaction to zucchini. Seeing this as an opportunity to help themselves, secretary Cheryl and human resources representative Pam hack into ISIS's computer mainframe from Malory's office and alter their files, allowing them better health care and other desires they could not achieve themselves. The whole time, Malory rants about how disgruntled she is about her life choices.

Cast[]

Cultural References[]

  • Training Day (2001): The name of the episode could be a reference to this movie.
  • James Bond: Cyril dismisses Lana's apparent attraction to Archer at first, claiming she was "shaken up." Malory retorts that Lana was in fact "stirred up in the loins." There is a strong possibility that part of the conversation was a reference to the famous James Bond line: "Shaken, not stirred." Also, Archer is referred to being like the famous fictional Spy. Furthermore, Lana drives an Aston Martin Vantage, which featured in the 1987 Bond film The Living Daylights.
  • Oprah Winfrey: Archer calls Krieger his Oprah in reference to the syndicated tabloid talk show host famous for being a good listener.
  • Karen Carpenter: Pam refers to Cheryl as Karen Carpenter's stunt double. The American singer was partially famous for having Anorexia.
  • Krav Maga: Mentioned as the martial arts practiced by ISIS agents, Krav Maga was developed by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad and is regarded as one of the deadliest forms of martial arts.
  • Dane Cook: Archer states that karate is the Dane Cook of martial arts. The American comedian is often maligned for being boring and bad. In the TV series “American Gods”, Dane Cook’s character discusses Krav Maga, possibly calling back to this episode.
  • Chekhov's Gun: A literary device on which the name of Archer's underwear pistol is a pun. However, the actual "Chekhov's gun" turns out to be the "poison" pen.
  • O. Henry / Alanis Morissette: While fleeing with the "dead" hooker, Archer says "this is like O. Henry and Alanis Morissette had a baby and named it this exact situation." O. Henry was an American author noted for his use of irony and Morissette is a Canadian-American singer who had a major hit with a song titled Ironic in the mid 1990s.
  • 1953 Iranian coup d'état: In a flashback to his childhood, Archer receives a telegram from his mother saying "AJAX a success, Tehran is ours!" revealing she was involved in the overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh which the US codenamed Operation AJAX. Additionally, Uncle Kermit is a reference to Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. the grandson of Theodore Roosevelt and CIA coordinator for the operation.
  • Milton Berle: Archer is incensed when Lana isn't upset at Cyril for his deception and asks, "So he just gets a pass? Like Milton Berle?” Like Cyril, Milton Berle was known to have an extremely large penis.
  • Stasi / Shining Path: Archer references two Communist groups during his argument with Cyril. The Stasi was the former official state security service of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) colloquially known as East Germany. The Shining Path is the Communist party/insurgency movement in Peru.
  • A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965): A flashback with Woodhouse and Archer as a young boy shows a Christmas tree that resembles the tree from A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Running Gags / Callbacks[]

  • Not So Secret Agent - Archer, while being extremely drunk, announces out loud that he is a secret agent.
  • Identity Crisis - Cheryl tells Archer that she has legally changed her name to Carol because that's what he always calls her.
  • Scapegoat Jane - Pam passes the blame onto Jane for her and Cheryl giving Malory zucchini slices, which she is allergic to instead of cucumber slices.
  • Well Endowed - Reference to Cyril's well endowment is made when its discovered that he attempted to get the ISIS health care plan to cover a penis ensmallment.
  • Password: Guest - For the second time an ISIS computer is revealed to have "Guest" as a password. This time it is for the ISIS Health Plan Admin Override.

Trivia[]

  • Archer lists several "spy techniques" in the elevator, one of them a "honeypot" is also the name of a future episode.
  • Archer's favorite spy technique is the honeypot.
  • In Archer's book, How to Archer: The Ultimate Guide to Espionage and Style and Women and Also Cocktails Ever Written, Archer explains that when he called Karate "The Dane Cook of martial arts", he originally meant to call it "The Applebee's of martial arts." He further states that it wasn't meant in any derogatory way, but more a comment on how common it is to the general public. He also happens to like Dane Cook and hopes to work with him someday.
  • This is the second episode to feature an unspoken Krieger.
  • Cheryl and Pam find out that Cyril has a 12 inch-dick and wants a penis ensmallment.
  • One of the paintings in Lord Feltchley's house (on the stairs) is actually a photograph of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, with his uniform color changed and another head replacing his own.
  • Another painting in Feltchley's house (right behind Malory, Lana, and Cyril) is that of a doge of Venice (accurately depicts a doge's ducal hat and robe). Given Feltchley's status as an English Lord, the painting could possibly be that of a relative. The same painting hangs on a different wall in the opening shot of the episode (on the wall across from the waiter).
  • When Cyril and Archer are confronted by Lana in the elevator demanding to know what the two of them are doing together, Cyril starts to explain but then stops. In his head, he hears Malory's voice telling him to keep Lana in the dark. Archer is seen looking up and then saying "Uh, okay?" as if he heard the warning as well. The first instance in Archer of Breaking the Fourth Wall.
  • The number plate on the car Archer gives to Trinette is SPY GUY. (This fits the 'not so secret agent' running gag and 'hidden in plain sight' trope).
  • Archer's rug is a 'brick joke' and/or 'Chekhov's gag'. When Woodhouse says "Fetching a rug, sir", this is a subtle nod to this being an unseen yet presumably recurring pattern (dead hooker = body disposed of in a rug). At the end of the episode, when it is revealed that the dead hooker was a 'ruse', Trinette receives Archer's car as a payoff and Archer suddenly remembers his rug is still in the trunk.

Locations[]

First Appearances[]

Characters[]

Equipment[]

Quotes[]

Archer: "No, I just let mother think that because I know what she's up to, vis-a-vis Cyril and Lana and me, and it's not broadening Cyril's horizons. Trust me, Mother's idea of horizon-broadening is a lot of fights walking home from a lot of jazz-tap lessons. (Observes Krieger, who is completely silent.) I so enjoy our talks."

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Cheryl: "...are you totally just gay for her(Lana)?"
Pam: "I'm... the human resources director, little miss hostile work environment!"
Cheryl: "She is riddled with Herpes"
Pam: "HEY! Inappropriate workplace topic! And also a deal-breaker."

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Malory: (Her eyes swollen)"You tell me, does it look like I'm allergic?"
Pam: "Jesus Jones! Yes!"
Malory: "So, when I asked for cucumber slices, which one of you idiots sent up ZUCCHINI?!
Cheryl: "Uh... well, that --"
Pam: "That would be Jane who did that."
Malory: "'Scatterbrain' Jane?"
Cheryl: "I know, she's just a mess."
Pam: "Because this is obviously zucchini."
Malory: "Oh, like you'd recognize a vegetable that wasn't wrapped in a Monte Cristo sandwich!"
Pam: "What's that supposed to mean?"
Malory: (Squints) "That is Pam, isn't it?"

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Archer: "Lying is, like, 95% of what I do."
Cyril: "In your job?"
Archer: "Sure!"

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Cyril: "Wow, Archer, you were right, a tailored suit hangs so much better."
Archer: "That's because Woodhouse is a genius."
Woodhouse: "Yes, but like so many other geniuses, unappreciated in--"
Archer: "Shut up and hem, you old fruit!"

─────────────────────────

Cyril: "When would you use an underwear gun?"
Archer: "Hopefully never. But, say you're in a Caribbean bungalow and you're kind of high, an exotic woman on the bed. Now, is she just the high-priced whore you asked for? Or is she an ASSASSIN?!"
Cyril: "I don't know."
Archer: "Here's room service. Who ordered champagne?"
Cyril: "How should I know?"
Archer: "Exactly! You're baked, you can't remember. But since when does it take three huge, surly Jamaican guys to deliver one bottle of champagne?"
Cyril: "Oh, because they're assassins, too!"
Archer: "OR maybe one guy's a new waiter, the second one's training him, and the third's from maintenance, finally off his lazy ass to fix the A.C.!"
Cyril: "Yeah, I guess that could happen."
Archer: "Point is, you come out of the john waving this around, nobody's gonna bug you for a tip."

─────────────────────────

Archer: "OH MY GOD! You killed a hooker!"
Cyril: "Call girl! She was a call--"
Archer: "No, Cyril, when they're dead, they're just hookers! God, I said the cap slips off the poison pen for no reason, didn't I?"
Cyril: "I know, but I just assumed that if anything bad happened that it would have been--"
Archer: "No, do not say the Chekhov Gun, Cyril. That, sir, is a facile argument."
Woodhouse: "And also, woefully esoteric."
Archer: "Woodhouse..."
Woodhouse: "Fetching a rug, sir."

─────────────────────────

Cyril: "Hey, so how did you know where I was?"
Lana: "When we first started going out... I may have... injected a tracking device into your body."
Cyril: "In my body?"
Lana: "Baby..."
Cyril: "No, now that is that is a breach of trust Lana."
Lana: "Do you really want to open this can of trust-breachy worms right after I caught you and my ex-boyfriend with a dead hooker in the trunk?"
Cyril: "I do not."
Lana: "You do not."

─────────────────────────

Archer: "You know, I bet there's a lesson to be learned from all this, but I -- Oh, shit! My rug!"

Gallery of Images[]

There are 15 screenshots and images from "Training Day" on this Wiki, visit the category page for a complete gallery.

External links[]

Reference List[]

  1. Archer Season 1 Ratings tvbythenumbers.com

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