Review: Archer ‘Vicious Coupling’ – The Third Dumbest Thing I’ve Ever Said

It’s Valentine’s Day at ISIS – want to guess which character is spending their evening alone? ‘Vicious Coupling’ is a very self-referential episode (even for Archer), but as always, hits home when it puts Archer’s fragile emotional state at the forefront. The only Archer episode I can remember with absolutely no spy plot whatsoever, ‘Vicious Coupling’ is full of character callbacks and terrific Archer material, though it does border on over-reliance of these jokes at times.

The little bit of misdirection at the end of the episode puts a beautiful icing on the cake: all of Archer’s running around in the episode was orchestrated by Katya, who played the honey pot scheme on Archer to have him get Barry home (with the help of Kreiger). It’s quite telling how desperate he is by how far he’s willing to go to try and win her back, orchestrating multiple plans to try and win her back, letting down his guard and not realizing he’s been played the same way he’s played so many marks in the past. As Kreiger so overtly points out, this guy is trying to fill the void of his mother’s love, and it shows with the lengths he goes to in his attempted deceit of Barry.

Even more entertaining is the dynamic in Katya and Barry’s relationship, two cyborgs fighting for control of their country and relationship. It speaks to how well every character on this show is developed: Barry’s insecurity comes out in his attempted dominance of his wife (as we’ve seen, a different approach left him with a whore for a fiancee), and his desire to be loved parallels Archer’s. Like Sterling, Barry (and Other Barry, who is silent in this episode) are part of Katya’s honeypot operation, the ultimate goal of which isn’t quite clear yet.

There are moments when Archer is just pulling tricks out of its bag just to show off: bringing back the time share cutaway is funny and demonstrates the mastery of this universe by Adam Reed, but there are almost too many of these jokes throughout ‘Vicious Coupling’. Everything feels directed to refer to the past, from Ray’s rapey tendencies to Cheryl’s love for lighting fires and being choked (in any order). It’s impressive, but there are times where some fresh jokes – like Archer assaulting the man outside the flower shop and Opposite Day – would’ve been welcome.

Grade: A-

Other thoughts/observations:

– The highlight of ‘Vicious Coupling’ is Archer and Lana’s elevator scene, where Archer tries to convince her that he’s matured, which is true – to a point, of course.

– Poor Woodhouse: he got stuck in the sideways dumbwaiter for two days before Archer realized he was missing.

– wouldn’t it be terrific if Archer did an entire episode from Archer’s perspective – except that he goes completely deaf in the beginning of the episode?

– Kreiger will interrupt Mushi night with his digital wife for the possibility of a robot fight.

– of all the references to past episodes, the Fort Kick Ass boxes in the vault room was my favorite.