ARCHER 3.06 'The Limited'

Episode Title: “The Limited”

Writer: Adam Reed

This week on “Archer,” the ISIS crew boarded a speeding train towards Canada to turn in Bilco, a radical Nova Scotian separatist to the Royal Canadian Mounties. And what was Bilco’s crime? Blowing up a donut shop, of course. Yeah… that’ll show Canada!

Canada was actually the butt of several jokes in this episode, courtesy of Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin); who mocked the country’s gun laws and its second rate terrorists. And yet Sterling was fairly tame compared to his mother, Mallory Archer (Jessica Walter); who harassed a train porter named George with her casual racism. George’s quiet exasperation with Mallory was pretty amusing and he only showed his displeasure towards her when he revealed what she tipped him with and when he refused to serve her a meal.

Much like the classic “Skytanic” episode, most of the ISIS crew found their way on board the train for this adventure. Other than Mallory and Archer, only Lana Kane (Aisha Tyler) and Cyril Figgis (Chris Parnell) were there officially. Pam Poovey (Amber Nash), Ray Gillette (Adam Reed) and Cheryl Tunt (Judy Greer) had a more roundabout way in: Cheryl had her private cars attached because she co-owns the railroad. And to Archer’s delight, Cheryl brought along her beast of an ocelot, Babou.

There’s something inherently endearing about Archer’s relationship with Babou. Sterling shows that creature more love and affection than he does for his “son,” the wee baby Seamus or any of his ISIS co-workers. And judging from Archer’s child-like delight over seeing a tiger in last week’s episode, he’s clearly a cat man. The funny part is that Babou barely tolerates Archer and quickly slips away from him.

Meanwhile, newly minted field agent, Cyril blows his assignment this week by leaving Bilco unguarded. Apparently “Archer” is going to keep Cyril in that new job this year. I assumed that his promotion would be a one-off after last week’s episode. And even though Cyril seems to have learned his lesson about his physical abilities for the job, he still gets beaten up by Bilco.

But rather than waste his time trying to find an escaped terrorist, Archer searches for Babou and he winds up forcing George at gunpoint to increase the speed of the train to keep Babou (and by extension, Bilco) from jumping off. Bilco sees the exchange and the splattered blood from a steak and he assumes that Archer murdered George… and thus ISIS is made up of nothing but murderous racists.

True to Bilco’s word, his fellow separatists arrive to extract him from the train. Before they get there, Archer successfully guesses that they would arrive dressed as the Mounties; which allows him to convince Lana to fire on the real Mounties when they board the train first. From this point on, Babou randomly appeared and began mauling both the separatists and the Mounties.

Eventually, it all came down to Archer and Bilco on the roof of the speeding train, just as Archer always dreamed about. But instead of allowing Sterling to kick some separatist ass, the rest of the scene hilariously illustrates why battling on top of a train is just a bad idea. By the time the revived Mounties, the disguised separatists and even Babou joined Archer and Bilco on the roof, Lana stopped the train and sent everyone flying. Impressively, Archer saved both himself and Babou, but the ocelot repaid the favor by mauling him as well.

However, nothing could diminish Archer’s affection for the big cat… until he pees on Archer in the cop car. Babou actually looked surprised and taken aback when Archer finally condemned him as a “fox -eared a**hole!” There was also a moment in the episode where it seemed like Archer was going to kill both the separatists and the Mounties just because he couldn’t tell them apart. Sterling played it off to Lana like it was a joke, but it seemed surprisingly cold-blooded, even for Archer.

While “The Limited” wasn’t the equal of “Skytanic,” it still managed to find something for almost every member of the cast to do. Even poor crippled Ray got some awkwardly funny moments as Pam, Malory and Cheryl expected him to offer himself up as Bilco’s hostage despite his wheelchair… and Bilco also rejected him as a hostage because he couldn’t run! Leaving Ray as the only permanently injured character on the show was a little cruel, but it makes for some great comedy.

These were the top “Archer” moments of the week.

Lana: “Is that why you blew up a donut shop?”

Bilco: “Allegedly! If you believe Canada’s illegitimate so-called government.”

Cyril: “Um… I’m pretty sure we do.”

4:

Cheryl: “George said you stiffed him!”

Mallory: “What?! No, I didn’t! I gave him a tip!”

George: “A stick of gum?”

Archer: “Because pretty much my whole life I’ve wanted to fight some guys on the roof of a speeding train.”

Bilco: “If I know my boys, you may just get your wish, big boy.”

Archer: “Oooh… Thanks, Freddy Foreshadowing… Who is this?”

2:

Bilco: “My boys are badass.”

Cyril: “Well so am… Lana. And I’m learning. Oh… and don’t forget about Archer!”

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