Archer Review: Strange Doings in the Taboo Grooves (Season 9 Episode 5)

On Archer Season 9 Episode 5, “Strange Doings in the Taboo Grooves,” the hunt for the idol begins! Archer and Pam vs Fuchs and the group of German fighter pilots.

Following hot on their trail, Malory and Rey chime in on the hunt as well and somehow end up bringing Charlotte.

That about sums up the episode… unless you count Archer and Pam arguing in quicksand for a very long time.

At this point, I’d rather follow Lana and Rey’s camp because I’m almost sure they’re getting more action than this.

It’s not that I don’t love our new Pam because I do! I also kind of like the new Archer. And, don’t get me wrong, a lot of their jokes are still pretty funny. However, their arguments every episode are growing tiring.

Both characters should spend more time with the other characters in the show in order to separate some of the bickering because crackers’ commentary, alone, doesn’t seem to be the most effective buffer to break up the anger.

A promising aspect of the episode comes right at the end when they both come up against the vicious cannibal natives we’ve been hearing a lot about.

Although Pam and Archer aren’t really on speaking terms right now, here’s to hoping next episode they adhere to the proverb, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

I need some able-bodied fight scenes against other able-bodied men with spears, so there can be footwork, quick and agile movements, and action that doesn’t involve two people yelling at each other the whole time.

Thankfully, it does seem like we’re transitioning to the core narrative of the season, which is stealing that idol.

Additionally, now that everyone seems to be on their way to get said idol, everyone else will get a bit more screentime and we can see whether or not the idol will even be in this mysterious place.

As I said in my review of Archer Season 9 Episode 2, I doubt anyone will end up with the coveted prize because that’s not how the physics of any world Archer belongs to works. I’m still putting all my eggs in the volcanic lava basket.

However, what’s most interesting to me is will be what happens to our favorite OG crew when they inevitably run into one another.

Everyone hates Fuchs, but everyone doesn’t have a team of military men with machine guns.

We also know that somehow Archer, Lana, Rey, Fuchs, Pam, and Crackers end up in the car together sans German fighter pilots, Cheryl, and poor Malory.

So whatever goes down when they finally meet each other does not seem like it bodes well and team machine gun are the ones who take the loss.

We see in the finale of Archer Season 8, Reed has no issues killing anyone off during these Archer reboots because he knows he can simply bring them back the next season.

This gives him a lot of freedom on the creative side and amps the angst for all the characters who’ve seemed immortal at this point.

Ray has had as many close calls as he’s had breakfast, while Archer constantly played with death out of pure boredom.

Anyone is up for grabs on this Danger Island and it wouldn’t take much to turn this story into another chapter of Lord of the Flies.

Stray Observations:

• I wasn’t kidding about the Lana thing. I would actually like to see more Rey and Lana in this season.
• Pam is killing it, and I’m in love. Can we keep her forever?
• If the German fighter pilots die before we get another shootout scene, we should riot.

What did you think of this episode of Archer? Anything you want to see more of this season? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Archer airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on FXX.

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