Recap / Archer S 1 E 1 Mole Hunt

In the series premiere, Archer, the world's most dangerous spy, finds out there are some issues with his expense account. To cover his tracks, he makes a lie about there being a mole in ISIS.

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Tropes

• Accidental Truth: Archer's lie about the supposed KGB mole turns into the truth when Crenshaw is revealed as one.
• Brick Joke: Several, setting the trend for the series:
  • The opening sequence involves Archer in a KGB torture simulation with Crenshaw, who is acting as the torturer. By the end of the episode, it's revealed that Crenshaw actually is a KGB mole within ISIS.
  • Pam has a nasty habit of telling secrets to everyone via gossip, despite being a confidant as head of Human Resources. When Archer spreads a false rumor of a mole in ISIS, Crenshaw isn't very happy about Pam later spreading said rumor around, since he is revealed to be an actual mole for the KGB.
  • Early in the episode, Archer accidentally shoots someone in the ISIS office when the bullets he fires reflect off the mainframe door. The offscreen victim yells out "What is wrong with you?!", to which Archer responds "Me? Nothing. You, on the other hand, have a bullet inside you." He repeats the line after he shoots Kremenski, but is cut off by Malory, who is more than upset that her son had an erection from imagining her killed.
  • Before Archer walks into Malory's room, she is seen masturbating to an unknown voice over the phone. The second half of this conversation is shown at the end of the episode to have been with Nikolai Jackov, the head of the KGB in Moscow.
  • Throughout the episode, Archer complains that people are attracting ants by leaving food scraps on the floor. Come the end of the episode, we see where he got the trait:
    Mallory: Do you want ants?! Because that's how you get ants!
• Chekhov's Gunman/The Mole: Crenshaw/Kremenski.
• Company Credit Card Abuse: Sterling is shown to have a habit of making extravagant purchases on his agency expense account, to the point where Malory admonishes him repeatedly for treating ISIS as a personal ATM. This comes to a head in this episode when she tells him to settle his accounts under threat of being cut off. His attempts to hide his hacking into the system as a mole hunt accidentally reveal that one of his colleagues is indeed a mole, which he blames for the purchases.
• Curse Cut Short: When Lana is complaining to Cyril about Archer:
  Lana: After the lying, and the cheating, and that thing with the mayonnaise...
  Cyril: It's fine.
  Lana: ...not to mention how messed up he is about his mother...
  Cyril: It's fine.
  Lana: Did you know, he once called out her name while we were f-
  Cyril: FIIIIIIIINE!
• Danger Room Cold Open: How the episode starts.
• Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: Kremenski forces Archer to transfer $50,000 to his account to transport him to the Soviet Union. After Archer kills Kremenski, Cyril finds this and assumes Kremenski had been stealing from Archer all along, which Archer goes along with.
• Electric Torture: The episode opens with Archer being trained in how to withstand this technique. He doesn't take it all seriously.
• Establishing Series Moment: Archer is seemingly imprisoned in a Russian cell, near-naked and with a guard threatening to torture him. Archer just snarks at the "guard's" accent and Go-kart (Golf kart) battery, at which point we find out it was all a simulation, which Archer's mother is creepily invested in. This establishes the tone and themes of the entire series; taking every trope you would find in a conventional Spy Fiction setting and ripping the mystique right out of them.
• Even Evil Has Standards: After revealing himself, Kremenski tells everyone they should be nicer to Pam. He also shows disgust when Archer gets an erection about Malory dying.
• Foreshadowing: During the torture simulation, Kremenski asks Archer what would happen if he was really a KGB agent. See Brick Joke above.
• Irony: Archer makes up a Mole Hunt to gain access to the mainframe, only to discover that Crenshaw is a mole named Kremenski, thanks to Pam.
• Karma Houdini: After being scolded for squandering his bank account, Archer breaks into the ISIS mainframe and decides to move Crenshaw's funds to it. After dealing with Crenshaw, or Kremenski, as a mole, Cyril believes that Kremenski stole Archer's funds.
• Mexican Standoff: Archer attempts this unsuccessfully on Kremenski. Kremenski holds Malory at gunpoint, and Archer, in an act of "classic misdirection", grabs Lana and does likewise.
  Archer: Looks like we've got a Mexican standoff, Kremenski!
  Kremenski: Wh—? How is this a Mexican standoff?
  Archer: Um...
  Lana: Dumbass.
  Kremenski: I don't care if you shoot her!
  • Played straight earlier between Lana and Archer.
• Noodle Incident:
  • "The thing with the mayonnaise" while Lana and Archer were dating.
  • Pam has a meeting with Krieger, who apparently had sex with people's lunches.
    Archer: Wait, I had something for this. The Pita Predator! Let's call it what it is: Food Rapist.
• The Password is Always Guest: ISIS security is really not great.
  Archer: That is just...Babytown Frolics.
• Running Gag: Several jokes that will become long-standing Running Gags are introduced here, including:
  • "That's how you get ants"
  • Archer attempting to shoot through an obviously armored door and having the bullets ricochet everywhere.
  • Archer accidentally shooting someone who is off screen (presumably Brett), prompting them to yell "God damn it, Archer!"
  • The password to a supposedly-secure computer system being 'guest'
  • Archer yelling "Lana did that!" for something Lana did, in fact, do.
  • Archer forgetting a one-liner and having to come up with a new one on the spot.
• Sexy Stewardess: After the opening credits, Archer is seen waking up naked next to a stewardess he hooked up with the previous night.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Cyril finds out about Kremenski stealing $50,000 from Archer's account and assumes he was doing it all along. Archer sarcastically "accepts" his "apology" and goes along with it.
• Supermodel Strut: Lana's very first appearance shows her doing a casual saunter with swaying hips. Possibly subverted, since this was from Archer's POV.
• Tempting Fate: "Jesus, what else could go wrong?!" (Cut to Kremenski entering the building with a gun)
• What the Hell, Hero?: Everyone, including Kremenski, finds out from Lana that Archer was having an erection just after Kremenski threatened to kill his mother. It was enough for Kremenski to be an open target and shot dead, but Mallory doesn't let this go.