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After 14 seasons of bawdy spy hi-jinks, Archer is calling it quits — but the FXX comedy managed to deliver one final twist on the way out.
If you haven’t watched in a while, here’s a quick update: Lana is running the spy agency now after the departure of Malory (voiced by the late Jessica Walter), and the agency has a sassy new British spy, Zara Khan, played by Natalie Dew. Other than that, it’s pretty much business as usual in Thursday’s series finale, with Archer and his pals springing into action when a fleet of killer drones start murdering ex-IIA employees. Yes, that’s the agency they all used to work for, so they’re kind of motivated to find out who’s behind this. And that means they need the help of their slimy ex-boss Fabian, voiced by What We Do in the Shadows’ Kayvan Novak.
Fabian is currently incarcerated in a cushy Swiss prison with squash courts and daily bike rides (must be nice!), and he explains that whenever IIA fired a troublesome employee, they checked a box marked “no-fault severance,” and that sent a drone to murder them. He’s the only one who can disable the drone system, so they have to take him along — but Archer makes sure he stays put by handcuffing himself to him, and handcuffing Pam to him, too, just for good measure. Of course, that does make the ensuing train ride, and any and all bathroom breaks, a bit uncomfortable.
On the train, Fabian is convinced IIA employees will be along shortly to rescue him, and sure enough, henchmen board the train and open fire… but they’re shooting at him, too. Archer, Fabian and Pam all tumble out of a train window and end up lost in the woods, while Zara and Ray are happily oblivious, getting sauced on the free train booze. (Again, must be nice!) The handcuffed trio are pursued by killer drones, but when they fall into a mud pit, they realize the drones can’t detect them through the mud. (All thanks go to Ray for buying the cheapest drones possible.) The henchmen eventually catch up to them, and Fabian is devastated to learn that they are trying to kill him, too. But he was such a good boss!
If that weren’t enough to deal with, Lana also has to testify before a UN hearing on spy agencies, and it gets off to a bad start when a hot mike catches her calling the UN delegates “total idiots.” They quickly learn that this is actually a disciplinary hearing to decide if the agency will be allowed to continue operating — and Cheryl is their star witness. In her defense, they offered her immunity, and as she says: “When someone offers you immunity, you take it!” She dutifully confirms to the UN that their agency was responsible for incalculable chaos and property damage over the years. Yeah, but in a fun way, right?
The good news for Archer, Fabian and Pam: The drone that was following them gunned down all those henchmen for them. The bad news: The waterfall they dove into for safety washed off the mud, so now the drone is back after them. When more henchmen arrive on motorcycles, though, they use their handcuff chain to clothesline one of them — and decapitate him, actually. (Ouch.) They all cram onto the bike and escape with more drones in pursuit, while Fabian insists on bonding with Archer over their past traumas. Archer does share, but he contends: “I wasn’t connecting! I was one-upping!” His gun hand is handcuffed, so he tosses his gun to Fabian to take out one of the drones, and Zara and Ray show up just in time to take out the rest.
They reach the drone system just as drones infiltrate the UN, with Lana doing her best to save the delegates’ lives. Fabian gains access, but Archer went through first, and only one person can go through at a time, and they need Fabian’s handprint to disable the system. So Archer nonchalantly chops off Fabian’s hand and uses it to call off the drones. (“For a good cause! And I gave it back to him!” “After you shot him the bird with it.”) The drones are deactivated, and the UN delegates are safe, so everything’s back to normal — except it’s not, because to the agency’s shock, the UN announces that all private spy agencies are illegal and need to disband in 30 days. “Is that 30 calendar days?” Archer wonders. “Or business days?” (And it turns out that’s not the end after all!)
So it looks like Sterling Archer’s spying days are over — how do we feel about that ending? Give the series finale a grade in our poll, and hit the comments to share your thoughts.
That can’t be the finale. They mentioned some surprise on Friday at comic con. Give how terrible that ending was I’m assuming it’s a wrap up movie/special coming.
The show ending with season 14 felt abrupt, I feel like it’s either being shopped around or as mentioned by the commenter above some streaming movies might be on the horizon. I feel like there’s still life left in this world for sure.
Clearly they weren’t given warning that it was ending but this season was one of the best in many years. I see them coming back in a few years with more episodes. Nothing stays dead anymore.
However I’m really annoyed that a 15th season isn’t happening. It could be about the last 30 days of the spy agency before they are forced to close up shop.
We’re going to get a TV movie out of this just they did with The Venture Bros. That way, Archer’s story ends the right way: his dying a pointless, meaningless death as he does a victory pose.
Good episode, even a good season finale, but absolutely nothing is resolved, with even more threads left dangling in the last 30 seconds. If it is the series finale, then it is an even worse version of Seinfeld’s, whether or not it makes sense for the characters
first 3 seasons were funny as hell. after that it went downhill. still i will never forget cheryl and pam and of course “danger zone”
That is one of the worst series finale I’ve ever seen. Not one part of that episode even remotely gave off the slightest hint of a series ending episode. It barely even said season finale. After 14 seasons I expected some kind of closure, not another cliff hanger. I don’t know if that was some kind of last ditch effort to get picked up for another season due to the overwhelming outcry from fans demanding some kind of wrap up, or ending, some kind of closure for this series, but either way I’m not impressed. There is a very strong likelihood that that was the end for this show and to leave it with only more questions and zero answers is almost cruel. I am very unhappy with the way things ended.
As a loyal viewer, that is tough to do because I have looked back at my passports and since the beginning of Archer I have been to 63 countries, but I have still remained true and kept up with all the episodes. The tragedies within the cast passing away and how that was written into the episodes, but the way this was ended is almost an insult to the cast, the viewers and the characters. Talk about being left out hanging when there could have been a little bit more creativeness in the writing with a far better ending. But too late now the damage is done. An absolute incredible series that I have gotten people in other countries addicted to Archer.
Sad Archer is leaving. We were hoping the big question would be answered. Who is Archer’s father!!! Animation is not given the respect it deserves. Will there be a movie at least?! Peeved.
They could have ended with, I don’t know, an actual ending?
Lotta doors left open. A live action Archer would be great with live action actors but the original voices. Maybe some Jessica Walters if the shots are clever enough.
Hated that ending. totally wuss out. Ticked me off. I really was hoping for a great ending and to see them contacted by either the U.N. Secret Department or the U.S. NSA OR CIA A SPECIAL OPS CONTRACTED AGENCY AS “ADVISORS”.
AND a new series. I really enjoyed ARCHER except for his alcoholism and total rudeness and never being held accountable for all the people who died because of his self-centeredness and refusal to take responsibility for his causing so many deaths and injuries. Fix that a little bit and it would have been a A+++ show. His holding up the finger while he got wasted was so annoying, I was hoping it would have been shot off while he did it. I also got sik and tired of Pam and the rest always sneaking along. That got old real fast.
I miss that show already.
AND NOT ENOUGH NAKE LANA and CHERYL.