History WesternAnimation / ArcherDreamland

* SpecialEditionTitle: The season has a 1940's version of the standard intro sequence, and remixes the music to boot.

* RunningGagged:
** Episode 2 onwards, an episode starts with a character saying "So what are we doing, are we just jumping right into this?" When one starts to say it in the last two episodes, they're cut off.

** Kreiger was a Jewish professor forced to make cyborg {{super soldier}}s for the Nazis.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Archer finally learns the truth regarding Woodhouse's murder. Dutch receives his due karma, and Archer is no longer working for Mother at the moment. Unfortunately, Lana and Kreiger's dogs are dead, Cyril is still in debt to Trexler who has lost most of his men to Dutch, Zirk gets coldly rejected by Charlotte who herself hasn't been able to escape her dysfunctional family and Poovey's Chinese sister-wives left. However, Archer is trying to move on with his life, and the Chinese sister-wives are trying to make it on their own. In real world terms, Archer also hasn't woken up, but he isn't dead.]] The only characters who have anything even resembling a happy ending are [[spoiler: Cecil and Trinette thanks to an impulsive last-minute marriage]].

* DidNotThinkThisThrough: Lana. Twice.

* HumanTraffickers: In the first episode of the season Archer saves Chinese images from being sold into [[SexSlave sex slavery]].

* DeliberateValuesDissonance[=/=]PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Invoked, played with, and discussed repeatedly in-universe, much like the more typical seasons.

* FriendOnTheForce: Archer gets along with Poovey pretty well, and he helps him in dealing with Trexler’s men.
* LastMinuteHookup: [[spoiler: Cecil and Trinette get married in the last finale with little fanfare.]]

* OutOfGenreExperience: Somehow manages to apply this trope to an entire season.

* IncestIsRelative: The Vandertunt clan not only has the reputation of being somewhat incestuous (on a scale of 10, "about a four"), but Cecil himself makes some... ''disturbing'' comments about taboos.

** When Dreamland's band is arrested Lana tries to entertain the guests with some stand up. Between her total lack of comedic experience and rushed, poorly written material, she fails miserably.

** Barry, [[spoiler:as he becomes more of a cyborg. Again.]]

* AmbiguousGender: Pam is just called "Poovey" and has a more androgynous look, despite still being voiced by Amber Nash. Characters frequently threaten to kick Poovey in the "genitals" and the {{Flash Forward}} {{Imagine Spot}}s that occur with Poovey imagining life with the Chinese sex slaves depict Poovey as balding with a moustache, with one such spot, explicitly set in 1967 depicting Poovey at a graduation ceremony involving a number of Chinese-American students, which would imply Poovey is their father.

** Barry, as he becomes more of a cyborg.

* SanitySlippage: The lack of sleep ''really'' gets to Archer by the end.

* MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness: The show's usually an 8, but this season is violent enough to be level 9.

** Later when Lana [[spoiler:reveals shes a treasury agent and tries to arrest everyone they just laugh and pull their guns on her. Archer lampshades this by asking if she seriously expected them to just cooperate and let her take them to jail.]]

* DidNotThinkThisThrough: Lana. Twice. See RealityEnsues below.

* RealityEnsues: Happens quite a bit.
** When Dreamland's band is arrested Lana tries to entertain the guests with some stand up. Between her total lack of comedic experience and rushed, poorly written material, she fails miserably.
** Later when Lana [[spoiler:reveals shes a treasury agent and tries to arrest everyone they just laugh and pull their guns on her. Archer lampshades this by asking if she seriously expected them to just cooperate and let her take them to jail.]]

** Any time Charlotte describes her family as "quasi-incestuous", the person she's speaking to replies "How quasi?" to which she always responds, with no further explanation, "About a 4."

* DarkerAndEdgier: In addition to the CerebusSyndrome, the comedy manages to be [[BlackComedy even darker]] than before.

** Every episode starts with a character saying "So what are we doing, are we just jumping right into this?" When one starts to say it in the penultimate episode, they're cut off.

* DeathByAdaptation: [[spoiler: Lana and Barry.]]

* DeathByAdaptation: [[spoiler: Dutch dies from being attacked by Krieger's dogs. Lana is shot by Mother, before shot multiple times to death by Poovey.]]

** When Lana [[spoiler:tries to arrest everyone they just laugh and pull their guns on her. Treasury agent or not shes just one person surrounded by criminals who would rather not be sent to jail.]]