A fast-paced bank heist produces the best Archer episode of the season

I’ve been watching Archer for 13 years at this point, and writing about it professionally for six. Over that time, I’ve developed all sorts of pet theories about this show, most of which have made their way into these recaps at some point or other. But there’s a thesis I don’t think I’ve ever actually verbalized here, and one that came into clear focus today as I watched “Bank Run On Mr. Bank’s Bank.” To wit:

The degree to which I’m going to laugh my ass off during an episode of Archer is pretty much entirely based on how much shit Cheryl/Carol Tunt gets to do.

That thought dawned on me as “Bank Run” hit its escalation point—that moment when the really good installments of this show start accruing so much chaotic energy that the jokes, the action, and the character beats all start to blend into one high-energy feed of explosive silliness. Archer almost always plays well at this speed, and there’s nobody better at injecting the required energizing chaos into it than Judy Greer, cackling wildly while playing a mentally unstable billionaire with a night school degree in demolitions, a grudge against the universe, and the most ridiculous “rich lady” voice she can manage. When Carol/Cheryl whispers “And now…we begin,” and proceeds to blow seven kinds of hell out of a bunch of SWAT guys, I knew this was going to be an “A.”

But first, let’s rewind a bit. “Bank Run” kicks off, per usual, with Fabian handing out his mission of the week to The Agency. This time, our intrepid crew of semi-superspies are being tasked with a garden variety, run-of-the-mill bank robbery. Various objections that Archer et al. are spies, not bank robbers, get quickly papered over via a hefty bribe: Fabian’s offering a return of ownership of The Agency, freeing our heroes from the bureaucratic tyranny of IIA at last. Suitably enticed—and with Ray espousing both the easiness, and the peasiness, of the mission—the gang signs on to go a bank robbin’. We then cut immediately to the middle of the robbery, when basically everybody has ended up some deeply imperiled manner of screwed; roll that theme song, friends.

The slow-burn first half of “Bank Run,” then, runs us through each of our characters as they deal with their individual predicaments. Lana and Cyril are locked in the vault itself, blocking both their escape attempts, and Lana’s efforts to get in touch with her lawyer to plan strategies for an upcoming custody hearing for A.J. (Cyril, meanwhile, mostly has to deal with claustrophobia, and being trapped in an enclosed space with an annoyed woman who essentially loathes his guts.) Krieger’s stuck in the vents, where his efforts to contort himself around the security lasers therein serve as a painful running joke throughout the half-hour. Ray’s undercover, and Pam and Archer both have relative freedom, but are stuck in their own heads: Archer because he’s (horror of horrors) not packing enough booze to keep a hangover at bay, and Pam because her commitment issues regarding her “special friend” Alessia (first seen in “Laws Of Attraction”) have gotten to the “Do I call her my girlfriend?” phase.

Let’s tackle that last one first, since it’s the most emotionally resonant portion of the episode. Pam’s insecurities are all played well—and resolved nicely, including a quick call where Alessia bumps her previous primary polyamorous partner down to secondary, in favor of our gal. But the best moment comes about halfway through the episode, when Alison Zeidman’s script reminds us that Pam and Archer are the two people in this entire cast who qualify as actual, no-fooling friends. Archer’s support of Pam, while leavened with his usual assholery, is genuinely warm, and it’s nice to see a reminder that this show still has one relationship it can reliably tap when it needs a quick hit of feelings. (Especially since the Archer-and-Lana dynamic has been ground down basically to dust by now.)

Speaking of: Lana continues to wrestle with the fact that almost nothing she does on a daily basis would actually look good in front of a family court judge; her scenes with Cyril in the vault are mostly about expositing her legal woes, but we do get some good moments when she gets hold of her lawyer—well, friend who is a lawyer—and has to obfuscate the fact that she’s a bank robber now. (Complete with brutalizing Cyril every time he lets some incriminating tidbit slip.)

More profitable, in comedy terms, are Ray’s undercover efforts, which team him up with an aging bank security guard (Bonita Hamilton) with some very complicated stances on capital, aliens, and narcs. (Briefly: Anti-, pro-, anti-.) Bank guard Susan is a very fun addition to the episode’s energy, especially once Archer gets into the mix, masquerading as the titular Mr. Bank. (A poorly improvised name from Ray that, in one of the episode’s quieter jokes, turns out to actually be the name of the bank’s president.) “Bank guard who doesn’t give a shit about guarding the bank” is a very funny character concept, and Hamilton imbues the character with a winning liveliness.

Ultimately, though, the gang realizes they need a little help to successfully execute this heist. And that’s when the call goes out: Get us Tunt!

The central joke of Cheryl/Carol’s appearance tonight—the great river from which so many comedic tributaries flow—is that the only thing Archer and company actually need her to do is show up and be exactly what she is, i.e., an eccentric billionaire with the clout to boss the bank’s employees around and get the damn vault open. But the brilliance of this character has always been her complete, committed willingness to be much more of a problem than a solution, and it’s never been more beautiful than having her go full Joker here, dancing through the bank lobby with a bomb detonator in hand, and blowing SWAT cops all over the terrain. After an absence of two episodes, it’s all the sweeter to have the show’s key engine of destruction not just back in the mix, but front and center in a way she rarely gets to be.

None of which, of course, would work without Judy Greer. I haven’t gone back and looked, but my sense is that I’ve probably given Greer more “Line of the episode” awards during my tenure on this show than anybody else in the cast, possibly combined. The fact is, Cheryl/Carol is actually a bit of a mess on paper, with a lot of capacity to descend into LOL RANDOM nonsense if left in the wrong hands. It’s only when channeled through Greer, who switches her between rage, innocence, seduction, and just pure, unhinged screaming with perfect precision as the scene demands, that she works—imbued with a strange but rock solid internal logic that keeps her functioning as a recognizable person. And, as it turns out, as the patron saint of Archer’s most enjoyable installments—which is what “Bank Run On Mr. Bank’s Bank” ends up qualifying as.

Stray observations

• I glossed over the ending, so here goes: In the end, we coast into what feels like setup for the season’s endgame—these eight-episode seasons, they do fly fast—with Fabian once again screwing The Agency over, giving them their “freedom” so he can set them up as the culprits in an authoritarian coup in Monatina. Whoops!
• Zeidman also wrote last season’s excellent “Colt Express”; she’s two for two on “A” episodes of Archer, at least in my book.
• “How is this not robbing a bank?”
  “Because we won’t use those words.”
• Nice read from H. Jon Benjamin, as Archer shudders his way through saying Cyril was right about something.
• Cyril, scrabbling for any kind of moral high ground: “Hey, maybe it’s for a good cause! Like, maybe there’s a baby monkey trapped in the box. You could tell us that, I’m willing to believe it!”
• “I didn’t invent banks, Ray! So direct your shitty comments to the Assyrians, or possibly the Sumerians. Indus Valley, also in the mix!”
• Archer: “I’m about to be sober for the first time in 10 years. If that hangover hits head-on, my bones will explode.” (Continuity in Archer land is, y’know, loose, but this does imply that Sterling was getting a steady bourbon drip the whole time he was in the coma.)
• Susan lays it all out: “I’ve seen things here. The suits, the architecture, the green paper…It’s all symbolic, like marriage. Or seagulls.”
• Krieger, relieved: “Ah, thank non-existent god in made-up heaven.”
• “Pam, from the bottom of my heart, that does sound dumb. But I’m happy for you.”
• “I can’t even be on time for brunch. She’s Swiss, man! Watches are like gods to them!”
• Okay, it’s a little silly that the entire third act is caused by Archer touching a random button that causes the cops to invade, but if he didn’t, we wouldn’t get Bomb Goddess Carol/Cheryl, so…
• Archer, after Susan pretty much singlehandedly saves the day: “We owe you dinner!”
  “I heard threesome!”
• Line of the episode: Comfort, Cheryl/Carol style: “Relax, you will all die years from now, safe in your beds, never suspecting I am waiting in the shadows.”