Sad Sack (Arrested Development episode)
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| Arrested Development episode | |
| "Sad Sack" | |
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| Episode No | 2AJD05 |
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| Airdate | December 12, 2004 |
| Writer(s) | Barbara Feldman |
| Director | Peter Lauer |
| On the next: | "Oscar returns to find a now distant Lucille, which was what attracted him to her in the first place; Lindsay reconciles with her daughter; and Tobias, traumatized by the public exposure, returns to an unfortunate quirk." |
| Guest star(s) | Henry Winkler as Barry Zuckerkorn John Michael Higgins as Wayne Jarvis Justin Grant Wade as Steve Holt |
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Arrested Development Season 2 |
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| All Arrested Development episodes | |
"Sad Sack" was the twenty-seventh episode aired of TV comedy series Arrested Development.
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[edit] Synopsis
Michael Bluth is nervous about meeting with the new prosecutor of his father’s criminal case, because he had found his father earlier in the week, and is currently hiding him in the attic. George Michael reports that, despite studying with Ann, he only got a B- on his last math test. He thinks he might be distracted by how pretty she is. Michael decides to set his son up with an eye appointment to hopefully settle this Ann issue once and for all.
Tobias announces to Michael that he’s heading off for the gym, which makes Lindsay paranoid. She isn’t having any success in their open marriage competition and is worried that Tobias is ahead of her. Meanwhile, Maeby, determined to get closer to Steve Holt, begins ordering unnecessary items – such as a Memories of Thanksgiving basket – in order to have Steve deliver them to the house as part of his job. But during this latest delivery, Steve and Lindsay see each other. Maeby is repulsed by her mother’s attraction to the same 19-year-old she’s after.
Michael takes the new gift basket to his father in the attic. He isn’t so sure he’s ready to meet with the new prosecutor now that he knows his father is actually alive. Why did he have to come back anyway? George Sr. says he came back only to see if Lucille is still his. If she’s in love with Oscar, George Sr. will go away for good.
Michael meets with the new prosecutor, Wayne Jarvis, the man who almost represented the Bluths in In God We Trust. Wayne floats the idea that if Michael can hand over his father, he’ll be granted immunity. Buster, meanwhile, is not finding success in his army training, as he can't scale a wall which he needs to climb to pass. Unfortunately, the drill sergeant can't motivate him by yelling at him and calling him "homo," due to a recent lawsuit. Elsewhere, Buster tries to convince G.O.B. to accompany him to boot camp, since G.O.B. had always proven to be a great motivator for Buster. Mainly because he abused him frequently.
Michael sets out to see if his mother and Oscar are really in love, and Lindsay decides to spend more time getting to know her daughter by visiting her at school, and aggressively coming on to Steve Holt. Maeby sabotages that by later telling Steve that Lindsay is actually her transgendered father. Unfortunately, this only interests Steve more in Lindsay. Meanwhile, Buster is still trying to convince G.O.B. to motivate him, but G.O.B. was so embarrassed by his poor interview with Wayne Jarvis earlier that he is completely without confidence.
Later, Michael reports to his father that Oscar is probably on his way out, so he should sit tight in the attic. At work, Michael gets a call from his son that his glasses were making him feel nauseous and disoriented. Michael cuts the call short to meet with Wayne Jarvis again. Wayne reveals that they tapped into the Bluth Company e-mail server and found satellite images of the Iraqi countryside. He believes that Michael’s father was building over WMD bunkers to hide them. Wayne says that George Sr. is guilty, and Michael can’t protect him. The only way out for Michael is if he turns George Sr. over in exchange for immunity.
At home, Michael is going to relay Wayne’s words to his father when Lindsay proudly announces that she’s set up a lunch date with Steve Holt. Also that their mother claims to be finding love in the oddest places in the model home. And earlier, we see that George Sr. watched through the vent as his wife talked about her feelings for Oscar. Michael heads up to the attic and finds his father missing once again.
Michael calls his mother to ask if she’s seen George Sr. She says she hasn’t and that his plan to drive Oscar away backfired because he was back in her penthouse. And they were just about to have sex. Except it was George Sr., wearing a remarkably bad wig, that was in her penthouse. As “Oscar,” George Sr. asks Lucille if she loves him, and when she responds in the affirmative, he takes off.
The photos that Wayne Jarvis obtained finally made their way to the public, and thanks to the Patriot Act, have been seen by several branches of government. Including the Army, which was beginning to ship out without Buster since he wasn’t combat-ready. At the 11th hour, G.O.B., instilling great fear about weapons of mass destruction, inspires Buster to finally scale that wall.
At school, George Michael tells Maeby that he got a C on his latest math test, because he can't see with his new glasses. Maeby wants to know if he’s seen Lindsay, who was coming for lunch with Steve Holt. But upon overhearing Maeby tell George Michael about her own crush on Steve Holt, Lindsay leaves the school ground, abandoning her dreams of Steve Holt.
Later, George Sr. returns to the attic, where his son is waiting for him. George tells Michael that he could turn him in for all he cared because he doesn’t have love in his life anymore. Later that day, Michael has his meeting with Wayne Jarvis. Wayne threatens Michael with the Iraqi photos, but Barry Zuckerkorn, seeing the photos for the first time, realizes that they are actually a close-up of balls. Tobias’s balls to be exact, which he inadvertently photographed and e-mailed to the company while playing around with the cell phone G.O.B. had given him.
The U.S. government realizes it's made a fool of itself as Michael returns home a free man. George Michael complains about his new glasses, and comments on how the photos of Tobias's balls look familiar. Which he had accidentally seen when Tobias was briefly sharing a room with him. Michael accepts that his son's eyesight is fine, even if he does find Ann attractive. Unfortunately, the exposure of Tobias's balls causes him to go back to his cut-offs.
[edit] Episode notes
- The episode's title refers to the old Army comic Sad Sack, as well as George Sr.'s emotional state and Tobias’ balls.
- This episode made the Parents Television Council's Worst Primetime TV Show of the Week list for the week of December 6-12 (though funnily enough, the PTC complained more about Lindsay hitting on Steve Holt rather than Tobias' balls).
- This episode marks the return of popular Season 1 characters Wayne Jarvis and Steve Holt.
[edit] References
- Fox News - The headline of the "WMDs" report on Fox News says "We knew it!", a joke about Fox News' right-wing bias.
- Later, when Fox News admits they were wrong, the headline reads "We blew it!"
- Sad Sack - The comic strip was started in the 1942 by Sergeant Baker, which is also the name of Buster’s sergeant. The title of this episode pays homage to the comic.
[edit] Callbacks/Running Jokes
- Barry is Gay
- Barry Zuckerkorn wants a “hot Ding Dong,” slang for penis.
- Barry tries to get Michael to give him a "little tap on the fanny."
- Barry is the one able to correctly identify that the picture of the Iraqi Countryside is actually a close up of testicles, saying "this close, they always look like landscape."
- Barry's (former) Secretary - Barry's former gay secretary, who sued Barry for calling him a homo, is again referenced here after, presumably, suing the army saying, "It will be a long time before Sgt. Wendell Baker calls someone a homo again." The scene of him in front of the courthouse looks identical to the one in In God We Trust
- Belt - G.O.B. tries to hang himself with his belt. Later, in Season 3's For British Eyes Only, both Michael and G.O.B. talk about people strangling themselves with their belts.
- Breast Feeding - Lucille’s happiness at Rosa breastfeeding was first mentioned in Altar Egos when she said George, Sr.’s nipple tweaking made her unable to breast feed.
- Cut-offs - Tobias returns to the cut-offs he wore through the first half of Season 1.
- "Her words" - Lindsay sounds like Lucille (in In God We Trust) with "her words."
- Light Treason - Wayne Jarvis' comments of George Sr. being guilty of "medium to heavy treason" continues the joke of George Sr. saying he committed "light treason," which he first said in Visiting Ours.
- Marijuana - George, Sr., disguised as Oscar, says he smoked some weed "like a cigarette," like George Michael’s description in Pier Pressure.
- "Patriot act. Read it." - Wayne Jarvis later tells Michael to "read the patiot act" as justification for his actions in Fakin' It.
- Pump - George Sr. asks Michael what an item he finds in the attic is for, and Michael tells him it's a breast pump, to which George Sr. replies "Oh, well, I did not use it for that." Later, in Motherboy XXX, Michael comments that he removed all the pumps from the attic.
- Rape Horn - Lucille uses her "rape horn," first seen in The One Where Michael Leaves.
- The Final Countdown - Tobias’s cellphone, which he got from G.O.B., has a Final Countdown ringtone. The Final Countdown is the song G.O.B. plays during his magic shows, and was first heard in Storming the Castle.
- Yearbook - Ann's yearbook lists her nickname as "Egg," which Michael had called her in The One Where They Build a House and Good Grief. It also says that she's not pictured, something which Maeby mentioned in The One Where Michael Leaves.
- Steve Holt's yearbook activities list football and drama, two subjects which he'd taken in Bringing Up Buster.
[edit] Hidden/Background Jokes
- Blue paint - George Micheal gets his hand dirty of Tobias' blue paint opening the fridge.
- Eggs - Throughout the first scene of the episode, Michael is making eggs for George Sr., only to have other members of the family eat them instead.
- Thanksgiving - The "Memories of Thanksgiving" basket Maeby orders refers to the fact that this episode aired after Thanksgiving, and it is now very close to Christmas in the show (the following episode, Afternoon Delight, is Season 2's Christmas special).
- Yearbook - There are numerous hidden things in the yearbook pictures shown.
- Ann’s yearbook entry reads "Ann Paul Veal (Not Pictured), Nickname: Egg, Activities: Math Club, Quote: Were we supposed to have a quote?’"
- Steve Holt's yearbook entries read: (1) "Nickname: Steve Holt!, Activities: Football, Quote: 'I’m out of here!' (2) Nickname: Steve Holt! Activities: Drama, Quote: ‘See ya, suckers!’ (3) Nickname: Steve Holt! Activities: Food Services, Quote: ‘Study hard, guys — trust me.’ "
- Other yearbook entry jokes include January James ("Nickname: February"), Christine Hanahka ("Nickname: Chris Miss; Activities: Present wrapping; Quote: ‘...more days till...’"), Juliet Odessa ("Nickname: Perky; Activities: Drama Club; Quote: ‘On day i'll be a star’"), and Clive Hummer ("Nickname: The Claw; Activities: Metal Shop; Quote: ‘In the field after school’")
- The picture featured next to Anne's yearbook photo reads, "The day after the Winder Formal students dragged their buttes into school. You can tell by their faces they are not really into it. "Next Year", they say. "I'm not drinking any VodkaBulls"."
[edit] Character Cameos
- John Michael Higgins returns as Wayne Jarvis. This is his first appearance in Season 2 (he was in one episode in Season 1, In God we Trust). He would later return in The Righteous Brothers.
- Steve Holt (Justin Grant Wade) makes his first appearance in Season 2, after appearing in Season 1's Bringing Up Buster and Shock and Aww. Although his only other appearance this season would be in The Immaculate Election, he would later become a frequently recurring character in Season 3.
[edit] Foreshadowing/Future References
- "Do I look like a criminal mastermind to you?" - George Sr. suggests that he couldn't possibly be the one behind his crimes, something which we later learn to be true in Development Arrested.
- G.O.B. is a Father - When encouraging Buster, G.O.B. says "Are you going to allow your children and your children’s children and any children that I might have out there to live in fear for the rest of their lives?!", implying that G.O.B. might have a child, which is later confirmed in The Immaculate Election.
