Review: Archer “Mission Out of Control Room”

Overview:

Lana leads a prolific mission for The Agency that sees them attempt to shut down “Dragon Run,” the international online black market. A mission of this magnitude makes use of the team’s significant technological upgrade and has the potential to change the very nature of underground online operations.To do so, Lana leads six agents across three countries who are united for one mission that will make or break them. 

Our Take:

Archer’s penultimate episode features one of its boldest missions ever and one that wastes no time to take advantage of The Agency’s substantial late-game tech upgrade. Suddenly Sterling and company are a lot more Mission: Impossible than James Bond as the series heads into the twilight. This eye-in-the-sky mission control privilege also finally allows Lana to feel like she’s properly connected to her field mission agents and is part of the process, even if she’s hundreds of miles away and just the proverbial voice in their ear. Agency’s tech boon seemingly gives everyone exactly what they’ve been looking for in order to properly do their jobs, so it’s all the more bittersweet that Archer only has two episodes to take advantage of Agency’s new swank spy setup. Fortunately, “Mission Out of Control Room” completely excels with this computer-driven concept even if not everything in this episode is virus-free.

Archer has always had some restraint to its gadget- and tech-based stories, which have been few and far between. “Mission Out of Control Room” finds a really fun three-pronged mission that pits malware against malware that requires the team to be in three corners of the world rather than this being some gratuitous opportunity to make use of their ideal tech setup. Lana rises to this occasion in this leadership role as she pulls the strings and keeps these three spy balls in the air. What’s supposed to be an empowering exercise becomes a frustrating chore once all of this gets in motion. Lana’s enthusiasm gets undercut with her growing grievances with her deteriorating mission. What’s supposed to be a cutting edge luxury becomes yet another occasion for workplace dysfunction, only this time it’s on a multi-coastal scale.

The natural energy between these two continues to speak towards Zara’s usefulness and how much she adds to the Archer equation. Like many of the fun revelations that have accompanied Zara this season, there’s a bittersweet energy to it all since this is the series’ end and Archer won’t have more time to push these entertaining dynamics even further. Everything that Zara does is a lot of fun, but on a narrative level it feels sloppy to still be introducing new character factors in the series’ penultimate entry. Not enough can be said for how much of a difference it would have made if Zara was introduced last season and that this year was the culmination of her character arc. 

To that point, Archer can sometimes get bogged down in the details of its spy objectives, but “Mission Out of Control Room” creates a compelling mission with a brilliant strategy. This episode has the opportunity to do something very creative by spending the bulk of its time on the equivalent of a Zoom breakout room instead of following each character to the action. This would make for an especially subversive near-final episode of a spy action series, no less. “Mission Out of Control Room” commits to this idea for much of the episode’s first act, but it makes one wonder if this would have been a more successful and memorable installment if it went all-in on this bit. The audio-only complication that occurs in the episode’s final act could have pushed this already-daring premise into even more minimalistic territory. This also could have operated as a tribute to Sealab 2021’s blackout “Fusebox” episode, one of Archer creator Adam Reed’s first avante-garde pieces of animated comedy, that would bring his career full-circle.

“Mission Out of Control Room” lands on a middling lesson about learning how to let go and putting trust in others, but there are otherwise mixed messages across the board in this episode. On a character level, this is a fun episode that gives everyone a lot of good ammunition even if some characters’ involvement is more forced than others. Archer absolutely deserves the right to just get silly in its final episodes and celebrate its entertaining cast. That’s very much the timbre of “Mission Out of Control Room.” It’s not a bad episode, but it’s an entry that could be even better through some minor changes.

And remember, never underestimate the power of a giant party sub.